Is there life after LimeWire?

In the complicated and legally dubious world of file sharing, news that a service is being forced to close down is nothing new. LimeWire is the latest to come under fire from the music industry – at the last count, the company was being sued by no fewer than 8 different labels! Whether or not they’ll actually manage to take the giant down remains to be seen, but so you can relax, safe in the knowledge that even if it does go under, you’ll still have plenty of options, we’re rounding up the best of the rest.

Alternative P2P clients

Ares is a P2P powerhouse. Incredibly popular in Europe, but a great app anywhere, Ares is even a Softonic Award winner. With a giant preview screen and simple, user-friendly configuration options, this app would definitely be my first choice.

Frostwire is the go-to app for LimeWire fans. Built around LimeWire’s code, but open-source, it manages to be familiar and ad-free at the same time – sounds like a good option to me!

eMule certainly seems like it has been around for forever. That’s pretty much because it has, but that just goes to show that it does a great job. It can be slow for new users, but it’s open-source, solid and secure, so it is easy to see why it remains a hugely popular application.

Vuze is an application that takes a very different approach to the P2P market. Apart from incorporating a filesharing app that was previously known as Azureus, it tries to integrate social media and legal download options. Some purists will laugh at the idea, but the truth is that P2P filesharing is one of the web’s grandmas. Wasn’t about time for a makeover?