# butterproject/butter-desktop

All the free parts of  Popcorn Time

Repository: https://github.com/butterproject/butter-desktop
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/butter-desktop
Homepage: http://butterproject.org/
Language: JavaScript
License: AGPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: torrents, video, streaming
Last push: 2020-11-01T15:53:26+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3971, "days_push": 2131, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4256, forks 1056 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:40.564909+00:00)

## What it is
Butter Desktop is an Electron-based desktop application that lets users stream and watch movies and TV shows via torrent streaming, built with React and Redux. It is the free/open-source continuation of the Popcorn Time project.

## Use cases
- watch movies via torrent streaming on desktop
- stream TV shows without downloading first
- browse a catalog of films and play them instantly
- self-host a Popcorn Time-like media app
- contribute to an open-source torrent streaming client

## When to choose
- you want a free desktop app to stream video content over torrents
- you want to fork or build on Popcorn Time's open-source codebase
- you need a cross-platform Electron media streaming client

## When to avoid
- you need a maintained project with active bug fixes and security updates
- you want legal, licensed streaming services instead of torrent-based sources
- you need a lightweight CLI or server-side media tool

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: abandoned
- function: video-processing, gui, developer-tools
- domain: media, entertainment, desktop-applications
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: torrent-streaming, popcorn-time, video-player, electron-app, movies, unmaintained, desktop, electron, javascript

## Member repositories
- butterproject/butter-desktop (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:40.564909+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:22:07.998360+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/butterproject/butter-desktop (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:40.564909+00:00, sha b02c2755be78)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.