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We’ve all been tempted to download a torrent file at some point in our lives. Even though torrenting seems like a pretty straight forward task, it can have serious repercussions unless you’re using a VPN for torrenting.

Note: Users can face legal Users can face legal penalties of up to $150,000 and even jail time in some situations. These concerns are the reason why more and more people are moving towards the use of torrent VPNs to keep their identities hidden from law enforcement agencies, ISPs, and copyright owners.

Keeping this in mind, I have reviewed over 160+ VPNs and shortlisted 5 best VPN for torrenting which can obscure your identity from law enforcement agencies, ISPs, and copyright owners.

Feeling lazy? Here are the 6 best VPNs for torrenting anonymously.

NordVPN – Best VPN for torrenting activities. Offers lots of optimized P2P servers. PureVPN – Optimized servers for torrents and P2P. Does not leak DNS or WebRTC. ExpressVPN – Perfect to hide your torrenting from ISPs. Does not log users’ P2P activities. Surfshark – Cheapest VPN with P2P Servers. Best pricing packages for torrent users. CyberGhost – P2P and Torrent friendly VPN. Offers a 45-day refund policy. Ivacy VPN – Powerful torrent unblocking capability. Offers fast speeds.

If I had to recommend one VPN that I would personally use for torrenting, then it has to be NordVPN. It’s probably the best VPN for torrents because of its fast speeds, impressive privacy and security features for torrenting / P2P sharing. It’s one of the best for torrenting with VPN.

Best VPN Services For Torrenting 2020

1. NordVPN – Best Torrenting VPN

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NordVPN is fast, secure, and rich with amazing features for a streamlined and safe torrenting experience. The provider has many dedicated servers reserved for P2P networking in its network for 5000+ servers in 59+ countries.

Is NordVPN safe for Torrenting?

NordVPN is perfectly safe for torrenting. It’s easy to see why. The provider is based in Panama, a country that does not impose any mandatory data retention requirements on ISPs and VPN providers. The laws in Panama protect user privacy from surveillance and other intrusive activities.

Furthermore, NordVPN has a privacy-affirming logging policy as it stores no personally identifiable information of its users in the logs:

The combination of a safe jurisdiction and the commitment of NordVPN to protecting user privacy with no logs is what makes this service a great choice as a bittorrent VPN.

P2P Performance & Speed

NordVPN is free from any IP/DNS leaks and has excellent controls in place to ensure that user identity remains completely hidden:

In terms of speed, NordVPN managed to reach 28.45 Mbps on a 30 Mbps connection.

Best VPN for Torrenting Anonymously

NordVPN offers a lot of valuable features in addition to its outstanding core capabilities. Some of these extra features include Double VPN, which is basically the name given to the technique of VPN chaining – the process of moving user traffic through 2 distinct VPN servers – for added privacy and encryption.

Other than that, it has a built-in ad blocker (CyberSec) and Onion over VPN to layer your traffic through a maze of nodes and networks for greatly enhanced web anonymity and privacy. It also has some servers primed for obfuscation that enable access to heavily restricted websites or services.

When you sum all these benefits together, it is hard to find a better deal for users seeking a strong privacy solution for their torrenting needs. It’s also one of the best Android VPN for torrenting. You can try it yourself with its 30-day money-back guarantee. You can learn more about this VPN in this NordVPN review.

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2. PureVPN – Optimized P2P Servers

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If we shortlist top VPN for torrents, the list wouldn’t be complete without PureVPN. In fact, PureVPN service has made enough improvements over the years to make it into this list of best torrenting VPN. It is so far the cheapest VPN service as well and provides 24/7 support to its customers.

Is PureVPN Safe For Torrenting?

Well, considering that PureVPN supports P2P filesharing on a wide range of servers, it is perfect for securely downloading torrents.

Even more impressively, PureVPN is based out of Hong Kong, which exempts this provider from any obligations to retain user information of any kind which further adds to its eligibility for being a VPN for torrent. PureVPN’s updated privacy policy statement clearly states that they do not keep any logs.

PureVPN is also free from VPN leaks, making it a perfect torrent VPN.

P2P Performance & Speed

Moving on to performance, PureVPN is an absolute pleasure to use. For instance, the Windows app has a built-in Internet Kill Switch to prevent your IP address from leaking.

Taking a look at speeds, PureVPN managed to deliver exceptional download speeds with slightly compromised upload speeds.

Best Optimized Servers For P2P Sharing!

PureVPN made it to our top 5 VPNs list because of its stable P2P compatible servers. Moreover, it doesn’t leave much to complain about, especially on Windows platforms which include features like a kill switch and built-in ad-blocker that helps you keep your torrent client ad-free whether you’re using windows or mac. It also provides a port forwarding feature in addition to the enhanced security features.

Moreover, it gives users 10 the ability to make 10 simultaneous connections with one single account. It also has a 31 day money back guarantee.

You can avail of this VPN to protect yourself while torrenting at only $2.91/mo for a whole year. Its affordable price makes it one of the best cheap VPN providers among its alternatives. More well-rounded coverage of this VPN is available in our PureVPN review.

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3. ExpressVPN – Best for Anonymous Torrenting

ExpressVPN is perhaps the best VPN for downloading torrents in the market right now. It covers all the bases that you should expect from a top-rated premium VPN and supports torrenting on all of their 3,000+ servers.

To keep it short and simple, ExpressVPN is completely P2P compatible and works with uTorrent, BitTorrent and other clients. It’s one of the best BitTorrent VPN you can find in the market. The provider supports torrenting on all its servers and is compatible with all popular P2P (peer-to-peer) clients.

Is ExpressVPN Safe for Torrenting?

Yes! ExpressVPN is totally safe for torrenting. In terms of jurisdiction, ExpressVPN lies the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which is a state favored by privacy advocates for their lack of mandatory data retention laws.

ExpressVPN even has an excellent logging policy which is famous for keeping no logs. To be exact, the provider keeps no records whatsoever of the highlighted data below:

Not only that, ExpressVPN’s zero-knowledge DNS feature, strong encryption and ultimate leak protection is unlike any other VPN service in the industry and perfectly hides your torrenting from your ISPs.

ExpressVPN also uses forward secrecy, which wipes your session data right after it ends. With perfect forward secrecy, you’re assigned a new dynamic encryption key every 60 minutes (session end) so no one can identify your previous session activities even it your device is compromised.

P2P Performance & Speed

As far as raw performance is concerned, ExpressVPN is equipped with powerful features to deliver blazing fast speeds and security every time.

Their robust server park managed to deliver consistent 25 Mbps speeds on my 30 Mbps connection. These speeds are on an international server of ExpressVPN far away from my home. It still managed to provide blazing fast speeds.

Due to its great speed, it’s also one of the best vpn for streaming on Kodi, Firestick and more.

Best VPN Provider for Torrenting!

ExpressVPN is my ultimate recommendation to torrent with because of its sophisticated online privacy tool and blazing fast speed. The excellent combination of a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, great logging policy, IP leak protection, advanced security, and fast speeds establishes this VPN as the best there is for the purpose of torrenting. It’s also the best VPN for P2P.

Not only that, powerful features like (which is basically ExpressVPN’s built-in kill switch ) is perfect for dealing with legal risks associated with P2P file sharing. For a complete feature list including pros and cons, checkout out ExpressVPN review for all the details.

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4. Surfshark – Affordable VPN for Torrenting

Surfshark is an excellent choice for secure and private torrenting on a budget. If you’re the kind of person who’s looking for an ultra-affordable and strongly encrypted best VPN to torrent with, Surfshark has you covered.

Is Surfshark Safe for Torrenting?

Yes! Since most Surfshark VPN servers support P2P sharing/torrenting, you have nothing to worry about.

Not only that, since Surfshark is headquartered in the BVI, they’re free from any law mandating them to keep user data logs. Similar to ExpressVPN, Surfshark does not collect logs of any data that can be used to compromise your privacy.

In addition, Surfshark leak protection is quite capable of consolidating your privacy further by preventing IP leaks.

P2P Performance & Speed

The Windows, Mac, and iOS apps of Surfshark have a kill switch that can prevent your data from falling through the digital cracks.

In terms of speeds, Surfshark manages to deliver decent download speeds. Considering affordability, Surfshark is probably the best VPN service for torrenting.

Fastest VPN For Torrenting!

Surfshark is the fastest VPN service that has all the important security, privacy, and speed factors that any reliable torrent VPN should have because it offers the best download speeds and has 1700+ fastest VPN servers.

Ad-blocker (CleanWeb), split-tunneling (WhiteLister), and VPN chaining (MultiHop), powerful encryption, kill switch, and tons of other features are all available in Surfshark by default.

What’s more, it is currently available at an affordable price of $2.49/mo . Find out what makes this VPN service for torrenting so good in our detailed Surfshark review.

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5. CyberGhost – Dedicated P2P VPN Servers

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CyberGhost has been around for almost a decade and is among the very few reputed services out there to perform P2P activities.

Is CyberGhost Safe For Torrenting?

As I said, CyberGhost is among the very few safe torrenting VPNs out there. In fact, calling it the best VPN for torrents wouldn’t be an overstatement. If you’re do a lot of torrent downloading, go and grab yourself a subscription plan of CyberGhost today.

Not only is CyberGhost fully BitTorrent compatible, but it also offers dedicated P2P server. Even more impressively, CyberGhost has an entire mode selection feature to help you torrent anonymously ensuring maximum security. It also has a kill-switch feature named app-protection which adds to the already advanced security features it holds.

However, it blocks P2P file-sharing in US and Russia by blocking popular ports of BiTtorrent clients, but since it has a torrent anonymously feature, it can bypass blockages in most of the countries. Moving on to jurisdiction and CyberGhost is located in Romanian which is a country free from the clutches of data retention law.

If you still have any doubts about CyberGhost, or wondering if CyberGhost is safe for torrenting, you can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to their zero logs policy.

Aside from that, CyberGhost boasts strong IPv4, IPv6, and DNS leak protection built into its apps which is always nice to have.

P2P Performance & Speed

The speeds usually delivered by CyberGhost are noticeably slower than its competitors, but it’s still not too bad. In fact, the speeds are sufficient for performing tasks like streaming and torrent activities.

P2P Friendly VPN With A 45-day Refund Policy!

CyberGhost is a capable VPN service that has earned a slot in the top 5 VPNs for torrenting courtesy of its ideal jurisdiction, no logs policy, protective features, and robust 45-day money-back gaurantee.

Read our in-depth CyberGhost review.

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6. Ivacy – Powerful Torrent VPN

Ivacy is our top recommendation when it comes to downloading torrents and P2P file sharing. Ivacy uses highly optimized VPN servers that use 256-bit strong encryption with fast uploading speed and the most affordable price of $2.25/mo.

Among its 2000 servers, not all of these are P2P optimized for VPN torrenting. Whenever you open the Ivacy app for downloading torrents, you need to choose the following servers…

PPTP Protocol servers for Torrenting: Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, etc

OpenVPN servers for Torrenting: Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Luxembourg, UK (Maidenhead), USA (NewYork), and Canada (Quebec).

Is Ivacy Safe for Torrenting?

Yes! Ivacy is perfectly safe for torrent downloading because it has a safe jurisdiction i.e. Singapore. This country does not fall under 14-eyes member nations.

Also, Ivacy does not store any kind of user logs, i.e. nor usage logs or connection logs. If you download torrents from the servers I have recommended, you will have no problems with your online security.

P2P Performance and Speed

Ivacy speed is exceptional when it comes to torrenting. Its kill switch feature is amazing. Even if this VPN service unexpectedly closes, it will disconnect your internet so your ISP wouldn’t know that you’re accessing torrent websites.

When I performed the leak test, I did not find any leaks which confirm my assertion for Ivacy as the best VPN for torrenting in 2020.

I also tested for speed to know if Ivacy really claims to offer fast downloading speed. On my 30 Mbps internet connection, I found their servers to be FAST with 26.76 Mbps speed.

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Overall Best Performer When Downloading Torrents

As I said earlier, Ivacy is my top choice because it brings fast speed, p2p optimized servers, industry-standard encryption, Kill Switch, and other important features into the table for maximum online security which make it the top torrent VPN & one of the best VPN for P2P.

Most importantly, it has the super-affordable price that not many VPN providers in the industry is currently offering. The 30-day money-back guarantee means that you can virtually use it for free for the initial 30 days. This makes it the best free VPN for torrenting as well. It also provides 10 simultaneous connections to users with one single account.

To know more about this service, you can look at our Ivacy review guide. And if you’re looking to save money on VPNs, check out our amazing VPN deals and select the good VPN apps.

Video Review of The Best VPN for Torrenting

If you don’t want to go through the whole blog, here’s a video review of the best VPNs for torrenting safely and anonymously.

How to choose a good Torrenting VPN?

Below is a list of my 5 step testing criteria for choosing a torrenting VPN:

Torrenting policy – Whether torrenting is allowed by a VPN provider on their servers?

– Whether torrenting is allowed by a VPN provider on their servers? Jurisdiction – Is the VPN provider located in safe and data retention free jurisdiction?

– Is the VPN provider located in safe and data retention free jurisdiction? Logging Policy – What types of data are logged by the VPN?

– What types of data are logged by the VPN? IP leaks – Does it leak a user’s real IP address?

Does it leak a user’s real IP address? Speed – Is it the fastest VPN torrenting.

Note: The above-mentioned VPNs for torrenting are tested much more rigorously on a wider range of parameters in our dedicated guide on the best VPN for 2020.

Do You Need A VPN For Torrenting?

Yes, you definitely need a VPN for your torrenting activities. Getting caught downloading torrents red-handed can have repercussions far worse than simply receiving legal notices. Some individuals have been penalized with hefty fines in the USA as well as other countries for downloading torrents without the use of a torrent VPN. Thus, it’s very dangerous to torrent without VPN.

Opting for the best VPN software for torrenting routes all your traffic to a remote server and hides your torrenting traffic from third-parties looking to hack or track your activities and helps you secure your activities.

Here are a few powerful features that torrenting VPNs offer:

DNS, IPv6 & WebRTC leak protection

Even though VPNs are supposed to mask your IP address, some VPNs are known to suffer from leaks. If your DNS, IP address or WebRTC gets leaked, your identity will be exposed to your ISP. This is why premium VPNs offer built-in leak protection that prevents such eventualities.

Port forwarding

Port forwarding is a powerful feature that is used for bypassing firewalls. This feature is also helpful in improving the count of peers on a P2P network. With more peers, it basically means that your downloads will be faster and more efficient.

Note: We strictly discourage any activity involving copyright infringement and urge readers to ONLY download legal torrents.

Best Free VPN for torrenting – A Myth?

Free VPNs are not recommended for torrenting activities. Since free VPNs for torrents only offer limited bandwidth and generally prohibit P2P activities on its servers, you’re not going to able to download torrents freely. Not only that but free VPNs are also infamous for logging and selling user data.

This is exactly why I always recommend avoiding free Torrenting VPN and opting only top VPN for torrenting apps to truly secure your P2P experience with unlimited bandwidth and live chat support.

Nonetheless, there are some reputable free p2p VPNs that work transparently on the “freemium” business model. We have covered a few free uTorrent VPNs in our free VPN for torrenting guide.

Here are a few known free VPNs that you should avoid at all cost if you’re going to download torrents:

Legal issues with torrenting around the world?

Now I know what you’re thinking, can you go to jail for torrenting? Well, no! Considering that downloading torrents cannot be counted as a criminal offense, you can’t be jailed for it.

That said, there are legal penalties for copyright infringement. These penalties vary from country to country. For instance, countries like Switzerland is considered one of the best VPN location for torrenting, whereas the US is not.

Let’s see some recent legal cases relating to torrenting and the laws that apply to some of the countries that are the worst places to be download torrents in without a torrent VPN.

United States

Is torrenting illegal in the US?

Well in the United States, copyright infringement is penalized by law. Anyone found guilty of downloading copyrighted material without the permission of the authors can be jailed for up to five years and/or fined a maximum sum of $150,000 per file [Source].

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom enacted the Digital Economy Act which increased the maximum prison sentence for copyright infringement from two years to 10 years.

Canada

According to Copyright Modernization Act in Canada (aka “Bill C-11”), copyright infringement for non-commercial purposes (which is the case for most people downloading torrents), a copyright owner can press for charges between $100 to $5,000s.

Australia

Online pirates in Australia can face fines up to AUD 117,000 as well as five years imprisonment. The government is now passing even stricter anti-piracy law to protect copyright holders.

Germany

Online piracy is prohibited in Germany, with first-time offenders legally required to pay $200 in fines, with the maximum penalty being $1,300 for an individual, non-commercially motivated pirates.

Which VPNs Support Torrenting?

Aside from the VPN Providers discussed above, I have listed a few other VPN services with p2p support.

To make it easier for you, I have compiled a simple chart below to help you decide for yourself if the VPN you’re using deserves to be labeled as the best torrent VPN:

For a much more detailed view of these services, you can see this detailed VPN comparison table for 2020.

Best VPN server locations for Torrenting

As a general rule of thumb, servers from Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, and Mexico are considered the best locations for torrenting. Because as I said earlier, not every country allows torrenting. In fact, the US, UK, and Canada are among the few countries that penalize torrenting to prevent digital piracy.

That said, as long as you’re using a best torrent VPN that uses powerful encryption and security protocols to mask your identity, you shouldn’t have to worry about which VPN servers you use.

Popcorn time and Torrenting

Popcorn time might be one of the most popular free media streaming platforms, it is quite sketchy in terms of content legalities. Since popcorn time sources its contents through torrent, most of the content you’re going to stream will violate copyright laws.

Even though you’re not downloading copyrighted content directly from sources like the pirate bay, you’re still streaming the same content through Popcorn time. This is why most Popcorn time users opt for torrent VPNs. In fact, even the official Popcorn time website recommends torrenting through VPN.

Check out some of the best VPNs for popcorn time here.

Do VPNs Slow Down Torrenting Speeds?

To be honest, yes! Since VPNs use overhead encryption, your torrenting speeds are going to suffer.

Even though VPN and BitTorrent go hand in hand, these technologies can sometimes impact each other in negative ways. Slow speeds while torrenting can occur because of many different factors.

However, before delving down into the reasons, it is important that you first check your promised bandwidth to make sure you are getting what you paid for.

Online tools like speedtest.net should help you conduct a thorough evaluation.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, it is time to discuss the reasons.

Limitations Of A Wi-Fi Connection

Plugin LAN connections are always going to be faster than Wi-Fi connections even though they might be using the same network connection. This is because direct connections do not require any sort of routing, which can substantially enhance the performance of your internet connection.

Another reason why your internet speeds suffer over the Wi-Fi connection is due to many physical obstructions for example distance from the router will also cause speeds to fluctuate drastically. Besides that, physical hindrances like walls and other furniture can also impose a negative impact not to mention interference from radio waves emitted by so many electronic devices in your vicinity.

Poor Seed Ratio

Torrent speeds heavily rely on the number of seeds, the higher the number of seeds a torrent file has the faster it is going to download. Since seeding refers to the number of people sharing the file for other torrenters. If a torrent file has a low ratio of seeders then your downloading speed is definitely going to suffer regardless of how fast your internet connection is.

Bandwidth Throttling

Have you ever encountered bandwidth fluctuations of more than half of your allocated speeds? Surprise surprise welcomes to the world of bandwidth throttling. ISPs around the world have ridden their hands in this nasty business all in the name of providing good service.

Bandwidth throttling occurs when ISPs detect you of consuming too much of your allocated bandwidth. Torrenting, streaming or downloading large files can set off red flags for ISPs.

Whether you like it or not bandwidth, throttling is a reality, and torrenting has to suffer because of it.

Fortunately, opting a good VPN for torrenting can be a major lifesaver, as it encrypts your entire network connection making it impossible for ISPs to throttle your bandwidth.

Unadjusted Upload Speeds

Downloading torrents involve peers since it is different from traditional file downloading. Whenever you are downloading a torrent file through the BitTorrent protocol you are also uploading (seeding) the same amount for other peers.

When you leave your upload speed unadjusted, you are essentially negatively affecting your downloading speeds. This issue can be easily negated by first identifying your allocated upload speed and then adjusting the upload speed of your torrent client. Generally, you should limit your upload speed to about 80% of your actual bandwidth.

Finally, it also helps to understand how a VPN basically works because the very action of VPN tunneling and encryption leads to an unavoidable loss in speed.

But a good VPN will usually be fast enough to work comfortably for your torrenting needs.

Best VPNs For Torrenting Reddit

As I said earlier, torrenting without a VPN can be seriously risky. In fact, here’s one torrent user who has received a “cease and desist or else letter” for downloading torrents:

Even though I’ve suggested NordVPN as the number one VPN for torrenting, Surprisingly enough, most Reddit users have suggested ExpressVPN as the top torrenting VPN without compromising security.

If we talk about the best free VPN for torrenting on Reddit, most torrent users have suggested not to gamble with free VPNs, and only purchasing premium P2P compatible VPNs to ensure maximum security for online activities.

It is commonly known that that free VPN providers are incapable of delivering unlimited bandwidth. Not only that, if you choose the free P2P VPNs, you can’t expect uninterrupted speeds or anonymous connections.

Therefore, I highly suggest you choose one of the best VPN for torrenting suggested earlier in this blog post.

Torrent VPN Alternatives

FAQs

Is Kill Switch important for a Torrent VPN? Yes. A kill switch is a very important feature to have for a torrents VPN because torrenting activities take very long time to complete, thus its necessary for a VPN to have a kill switch feature so in-case of disconnection your identity stays hidden. Is Torrenting With a VPN Safe? Torrenting is totally safe with a VPN as long as you mask your IP address with a high-quality VPN. Let me explain why… You see, to protect the ownership right of content creators, the US enacted the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in 1998. Under this law, if you’re the owner of an IP that is being distributed on the web through torrents or any other filesharing method, then you can send a DMCA notice to the concerned parties and ask for a cessation of the activity and removal of the content. But if you use a VPN to mask your IP, you can potentially avoid DMCA notices and enjoy safe torrenting. Again, I don’t encourage pirating copyrighted material. Can my ISP see what I download if I use a VPN? The simple answer is, no. As long as you’re using a reliable torrent VPN, your IP will be masked and all of your network traffic will be encrypted. This will prevent your ISP and even law enforcement agencies from knowing what you download.

Wrapping Up!

The penalties and enforcement against online piracy have gradually gotten stricter over the past two decades.

Although, every copyrights owner has the right to sue an individual who accesses their material for free without their permission, the aggressiveness of certain countries towards anyone who downloads torrents can often spill over to those cases where the downloaded file may actually NOT be illegal.

With the best VPN for torrenting, you enable yourself to keep such eventualities at bay and download legal torrents with the assurance that you are beyond the vigilant eyes of authorities.

I hope you found this blog informative. Do let me know if I should add more best VPN for torrent downloads to my list.