Torrenting isn’t always illegal but has gotten a bad reputation. This is because people use it to share pirated material. After all, they either can’t afford to pay or have no chance to see a demo or a preview before paying. The process is based on P2P (Peer-to-Peer) transfer in which everyone in possession of or downloading a file “seeds” pieces of it to others. When pirated, this doesn’t sit well with copyright owners, and rightfully so. However, what isn’t right is the exorbitant bill your ISP sends you, threatening a suit. So, to keep your identity and location a secret from anyone on the P2P network, you should use a VPN. To find which one, here are the best VPN for torrenting.
Reasons to use a VPN while Torrenting
Why should you use a VPN while torrenting after all? Well… The reasons are many –
- Masking Your Identity: Just as a cloak of invisibility, a VPN conceals your identity and location from prying eyes on the P2P network. This is crucial in maintaining anonymity, shielding you not only from your ISP but also from copyright owners and potential cybercriminals who might want to follow your digital footprint.
- Dodging Legal Bullets: Like that, downloading copyrighted content can land you in hot water legally. Though we’re not cheering on piracy, there’s always a chance of downloading protected content unknowingly. In such cases, a VPN serves as a bulletproof vest, protecting you from accidental legal crossfire.
- Evading ISP Speed Bumps: ISPs are notorious for slowing down your internet speed when they see torrenting activities – a practice commonly known as throttling. A VPN can help you avoid these speed bumps by making your torrenting activity invisible to your ISP, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted downloads.
- Jumping Over Geographical Fences: Certain torrents might be off-limits in your region due to strict copyright rules or censorship policies. Using a VPN, you can vault over these geographical fences by changing your IP address, giving you access to blocked content.
- Preserving Your Privacy: Even if you’re not dabbling in pirated content, it’s fair to desire some privacy. A VPN adds an extra padlock to your activities, ensuring no one gets a peek at what you’re up to online.
- Shrugging Off Unjust Penalties: Sometimes, irrespective of the legality of your content, ISPs might charge you an arm and a leg or even threaten legal action if they detect torrenting activity. A VPN acts as a shield against these overblown threats and unjust penalties.
List of the Best VPN Services for Torrenting
There are a lot of VPN services you can use to access torrent websites to download torrents. Using a good VPN while torrenting will help you to prevent any potential harm. So, these are the best VPN Services for your torrenting needs.
1. NordVPN
NordVPN is the best VPN to download torrents because the entire server base of 5500+ servers in 59 countries provides anonymity while torrenting. The servers are also renowned for low latency, top speeds, and unlimited bandwidth. Furthermore, NordVPN offers AES-256-GCM military-grade encryption of your traffic. Because its headquarters, Panama, has no mandatory data retention and NordVPN store no logs of your activity, neither the government nor your ISP can track you down.
The VPN provider also allows up to 6 simultaneous connections on one user account and paying with cryptocurrency. NordVPN has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, and supports all well-known torrenting clients.
2. ExpressVPN
The VPN provider is more expensive than NordVPN which is why it landed in 2nd place. However, ExpressVPN is the top VPN for P2P sharing for millions and has made all 3000+ servers in 94+ countries torrenting-friendly. They all operate on RAM, so the data is wiped as soon as the power goes off. Furthermore, the provider uses perfect forward secrecy to ensure anonymity and provides top-notch speed while connected. ExpressVPN has a strict no-log policy, encrypts your traffic with an AES-256 encryption algorithm, and allows you to torrent on up to 5 devices at once. Even better, the VPN provider supports all major operating systems and popular torrenting clients.
3. Surfshark
Surfshark doubled its server base in 2020 to 3200+ servers in 65 countries while keeping the price low. All of them are P2P-friendly and provide low latency, high-speed connection, making it feel almost indistinguishable from the ISP one. And, as if a strict no-log policy and AES 256-bit encryption weren’t enough, Surfshark also offers MultiHop. The feature allows you to bounce your Internet traffic between 2 VPN servers, masking your torrenting activities further.
Did we mention an unlimited number of concurrent VPN connections and a free ad, tracker, and malware blocker named CleanWeb? Also, whenever you need to boost your download speed, use one of their SOCKS5 proxies.
4. CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost VPN is among the top VPN to torrent files and has a server base of 6800+ servers in 111 locations. Unfortunately, not all of the servers are P2P friendly, and P2P support only works on desktop apps, not mobile. Luckily, the app will automatically connect you to a P2P-friendly server with the lowest latency and minimal speed loss. You’ll find the standard features here as well, 256-bit AES encryption, ad and tracker blocker, DNS/IP leak protection. Also, CyberGhost VPN supports all well-known clients for torrenting, and VPN protocols such as IKEv2, WireGuard, and OpenVPN. There’s no support for SOCKS5 proxy, however.
5. Private Internet Access
We were stunned by the number of servers Private Internet Access has – 24300+ in 77+ countries. Granted, not all of them support P2P transfer, but 3300+ servers do. Best of all, the VPN provider has all the features needed to use a VPN to torrent safely. We’re talking about 256-bit AES encryption, IP/DNS leak protection, no-logging policy, custom port forwarding, ad/malware blocker, and support for SOCKS5 proxy.
Private Internet Access has apps for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android, and supports popular torrenting clients. It shines elsewhere too with its support for up to 10 simultaneous connections on one subscription.
6. PrivateVPN
PrivateVPN is a small Sweden-based VPN provider that’s surprisingly good. They only offer 150 servers in 60 countries, all of which have torrenting support. The benefit of this is the ability to talk to the in-house developers when contacting 24/7 Customer Support.
Also, PrivateVPN supports port forwarding, high-grade AES-256 encryption using 2048-bit keys, and IPv4/IPv6/DNS leak protection. PrivateVPN doesn’t keep tabs on you and gives you a large choice of VPN protocols – OpenVPN, L2TP, IKEv2, PPTP, and IPSec. We particularly liked how simple, yet powerful the apps for Android, macOS, Linux, Windows, and iOS are and how big the torrenting software support list is.
7. IPVanish
What if you were told you can trust a VPN provider based in the United States? IPVanish owns every chain in the infrastructure, thus preventing third-parties from leaking data and invading your privacy. In fact, there’s nothing to leak. The VPN provider has a zero-logging policy, uses military-grade AES-256-bit encryption, and supports torrenting on all 1600+ servers in 75 locations across the globe.
Other things of interest are SOCKs5 servers and support for connecting 10 devices at once. While not ideal because of download/upload speed loss, you can also utilize the Tor over VPN feature. It combines the benefits of a VPN and TOR (The Onion Router) by bouncing traffic through multiple nodes.
8. VyprVPN
Golden Frog, which is behind VyprVPN, is among the oldest privacy-oriented companies and owns the entire network infrastructure they use. Golden Frog even went so far as to create a security protocol named Chameleon, which is usable on 700+ servers that support sharing via P2P. Actually, the protocol is what’s responsible for maintaining high privacy standards and a low reduction in VPN speed. Amazingly, a portion of 2+ million users also reports they use VyprVPN for torrenting in China daily when even connecting to a VPN there is hard. We won’t mention industry-standard VPN features again. Instead, here are 3 unique features that might pique your interest – NAT Firewall, VyprDNS, and VyprVPN Cloud.
9. StrongVPN
StrongVPN justifies its name with a strict no-log policy, AES-256-CBC military-grade encryption, perfect forward secrecy, IP/DNS leak protection, and a Scramble feature that masks a VPN connection using OpenVPN to look like a regular one. The provider also supports WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP, and L2TP, if you prefer those instead. The fact that it works in China and offers a standalone DNS proxy service named StrongDNS further solidifies a reputation worthy of the name. The VPN provider has 950+ servers in 40+ countries and has apps for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows.
10. Windscribe
Windscribe is widely known for its free VPN service providing 10 GB of data monthly. However, their paid plans are just as appealing if you need a VPN for reliable torrenting. Not only do they have P2P-friendly servers in 60 out of 63 countries worldwide, but also support all important features – SOCKS5 proxy, port forwarding, OpenVPN security protocol, no data logging, and AES-256 encryption with 4096-bit RSA keys, etc. Three features that stand out are Double Hop, which routes your traffic through 2 VPN servers, static IP, and R.O.B.E.R.T., their name for an ad and malware blocker.