Top 5 best cryptocurrency mining programs
Having mining hardware such as ASICs, GPUs or CPUs is only half the battle. To start mining cryptocurrency, you also need to install the appropriate software. Let's consider the most popular mining programs and what miners need to pay attention to when choosing them.
What you need to know before setting up mining software
Mining software may differ depending on whether you want to mine solo or join a pool. Pool mining software allows miners to become a part of a cooperative mining network, where thousands of miners can work together and get rewards based on their hash power contribution. In solo mining, the miner competes with everyone alone but gets all the block reward.
Pool mining software is much more common since in most cases joining the pool is a more efficient way than mining alone. Solo mining also mainly involves running a full node of a certain cryptocurrency and requires having significant computing power for competitive mining.
Choosing a mining program also depends on equipment and cryptocurrency. For example, there are programs that are only suitable for Bitcoin or ASICs, while there are those that can be used to mine several cryptocurrencies on different equipment.
Sometimes mining software can replace the entire operating system on a computer such as an ethOS. Others are just applications that can be installed on Windows, Linux, or macOS. Therefore, before running mining software, it is important to check which operating system it is compatible with.
When purchasing an ASIC or pre-built GPU rig, the manufacturer may pre-install its own mining software. Mostly it has a simple graphical interface and basic functionality. However, most of these manufacturer-provided systems are custodial. Some of these programs are prone to certain efficiency limitations or even back doors, so miners abandon them in favor of open-source software.
Now we have a basic understanding of the differences in mining software, so let's take a look at some of the most popular ones.
Nicehash
Nicehash is a pool-mining software that can be used for mining a variety of cryptocurrencies. It runs only on Windows but allows mining on GPUs, CPUs, and ASICs.
In addition, Nicehash is a marketplace where miners can buy and sell hashrate to other miners. The idea is quite similar to crypto exchanges but instead of coins hashing power is a commodity there.
So if you mine a cryptocurrency and want to increase your hashrate, you can buy hashing power from another miner. At the same time, you can get paid for providing your hashing power to other miners.
Easyminer
Easyminer is an open-source mining software that allows mining a decent number of coins, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and others. It can be configured to mine on ASICs, GPUs, and CPUs, and runs on Windows and Linux.
A lot of miners like to use Easyminer because it creates easy visualization of mining adventures and makes mining parameters monitoring much simpler. The dashboard allows miners to configure mining pools, network settings, and check wallet information in the same place.
Another important feature of Easyminer is that it's available for both pool and solo mining.
CGMiner
CGMiner is one of the oldest mining software and considered as most commonly used for Bitcoin mining. It's open-source, can be run on any operating system (Windows, Linux, macOS), and supports multiple mining hardware (ASICs, FPGAs, GPUs, CPUs).
CGMiner uses a command-line interface and allows managing rigs remotely, controls fan speed, and makes it easy to scale hashing power. Also, it offers advanced features for new blocks detection.
Mastering CGMiner can be challenging enough for beginners due to the lack of a graphical user interface but still it provides one of the most flexible settings for managing mining rigs.
Awesome Miner
While some mining software is good enough for providing detailed information about a few mining rigs, there are also programs that are used for large-scale mining operations. And Awesome Miner is known as one of the most widely used for centralized mining management.
Awesome Miner supports more than 50 mining engines, its dashboard allows users to handle more than 200,000 ASICs and 25,000 GPUs, and switch between cryptocurrencies and pools in one operation.
Awesome Miner can be configured on Windows and Linux, displays hardware indicators like fan speed or temperature, and features the ability to be a part of multiple mining pools simultaneously.
Braiins OS
Like the above-mentioned ethOS, Braiins OS replaces the entire operating system and is considered as a good alternative to manufacturer-provided ASIC mining software.
Braiins OS is open-source and specifically designed for managing the most common Bitcoin ASIC rigs. In some situations, Braiins OS may increase hashing power with the same electricity consumption and costs, according to miners. It also has more extensive functionality compared to programs from manufacturers. These are some of the main reasons why Bitcoin miners prefer using Braiins OS.
If you are an experienced Linux-user, then setting up Braiins OS is relatively straightforward. But if you have never left Windows or macOS, then some software features may look complicated at the first glance.

Regardless of mining software, miners must take care of two more important things — the wallet and trading platform. Before starting mining cryptocurrency, the miner has to decide where the block reward will be sent and link the wallet to the mining software. Besides, it is worth searching for the crypto exchange with a Bitcoin calculator, for example CEX.IO, where the miner can calculate mining earnings and convert them to another currency.