Nicotine Alternatives

Nicotine is described as 'SoulSeek client written in Python which uses the PyGTK2 toolkit' and is an app in the file sharing category. There are more than 10 alternatives to Nicotine for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and Android Tablet apps. The best Nicotine alternative is RetroShare, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Nicotine are Soulseek, eMule, Nicotine+ and BitTorrent.

More about Nicotine

Nicotine alternatives page was last updated Nov 6, 2025

RetroShare
163 likes
RetroShare is a open source cross-platform, private and secure decentralized communication system. It lets you to securely chat, share photos, videos, and more, using OpenPGP to authenticate peers and .
136 RetroShare alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application types
Instant Messenger
Group Chat App
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android
BSD
OpenSSL
OpenPGP
+2
Is RetroShare a good alternative to Nicotine?
RetroShare is the most popular Windows, Android, Mac & Linux alternative to Nicotine.
RetroShare is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Nicotine.
RetroShare is Free and Open SourceNicotine is Free and Proprietary
RetroShare is Privacy focusedNicotine is not according to our users
Soulseek
140 likes
Soulseek® is a unique ad-free, spyware free, and just plain free file sharing application. One of the things that makes Soulseek® unique is our community and community-related features. Based on peer-to-peer technology, virtual rooms allow you to meet people with the...
20 Soulseek alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
+2
Is Soulseek a good alternative to Nicotine?
eMule
144 likes
Successor to the classic, iconic eDonkey2000 peer-to-peer file sharing application that helped popularize P2P file sharing.
20 eMule alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Windows
Is eMule a good alternative to Nicotine?
Nicotine+
43 likes
Nicotine+ is a graphical client for the Soulseek peer-to-peer network.
27 Nicotine+ alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Oracle Solaris
+5
Is Nicotine+ a good alternative to Nicotine?
BitTorrent
136 likes
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer program developed by Bram Cohen and BitTorrent, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol.
87 BitTorrent alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium (Pay once)
Proprietary
Application type
Torrent Client
Origin
United States
Alerts
Bundleware
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Online
Android
Android Tablet
Is BitTorrent a good alternative to Nicotine?
BitTorrent is the most popular Web-based & Android Tablet alternative to Nicotine.
BitTorrent is Freemium and ProprietaryNicotine is Free and Proprietary
Shareaza
35 likes
Shareaza is the most luxurious and sophisticated file sharing system you'll find. It can harness the power of up to four separate peer-to-peer networks, including EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Shareaza's native network, Gnutella2.
66 Shareaza alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application types
Torrent Client
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Origin
United States
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Windows
+3
Is Shareaza a good alternative to Nicotine?
MLDonkey
21 likes
MLDonkey is an open source, multi-protocol, peer-to-peer file sharing application that runs as a back-end server application on many platforms. It can be controlled through a user interface provided by one of many separate front-ends, including a Web interface, telnet interface...
22 MLDonkey alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Is MLDonkey a good alternative to Nicotine?
Seeker
2 likes
Seeker is a Soulseek client for Android written in C# (with Xamarin) supporting downloading, searching (including wishlist and filters), sharing, messages, chatrooms, port forwarding, user info, privileges, and more.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Platforms
Android
Is Seeker a good alternative to Nicotine?
Fopnu
18 likes
Fopnu is P2P File Sharing System. 100% Free, Simple and Easy to Use. Contains NO Spyware and NO Ads. Fully decentralized network. All shared files are indexed locally.
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Platforms
Windows
Linux
+1
Is Fopnu a good alternative to Nicotine?
WireShare
6 likes
WireShare is a fork of the original LimeWire open source project.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Is WireShare a good alternative to Nicotine?
mldonkey-next
1 like
mldonkey-next is a modern GUI for the multi-protocol p2p filesharing application mldonkey. mldonkey-next connects to mldonkey using the TCP binary interface.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Platforms
Android
Android Tablet
Linux
Flathub
Flatpak
Self-Hosted
Docker
+5
Is mldonkey-next a good alternative to Nicotine?
mldonkey-next is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Nicotine.
mldonkey-next is Free and Open SourceNicotine is Free and Proprietary
mldonkey-next is Privacy focusedNicotine is not according to our users
Gigatribe
4 likes
Gigatribe allows you to share all your documents, movies, pictures, directly from your hard drive with your friends over the Internet.
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Origin
France
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Is Gigatribe a good alternative to Nicotine?