Last edited: November 30, 2020
Reading time: 18 minutes, 56 seconds
Kickass torrents got taken down a few years ago. And with different governments cracking down on torrenting across the world, more sites are bound to be in trouble. The Pirate Bay itself keeps getting moved to mirrors, so you’d be forgiven to believe that torrents are hard to find.
But they’re not, and we’re going to show you the top 12 sites still active in 2020, as well as how to stay safe while downloading torrents and what risks you may be exposed to if you just go ahead and download the first torrent you see.
Important notice: Your internet service provider might restrict access to some of your favorite torrent sites, or might track your torrenting behavior. A VPN is your best friend to counter these issues. How? A VPN will allow you to unblock every torrent site, and also keeps you safe when torrenting, by encrypting your data traffic and hiding your IP address and identity. This way, you stay private and anonymous. One of our personal favorites is NordVPN. It’s a great VPN, which you can try without risk due to the 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Excellent protection and a large network of servers
- Nice and pleasing application
- No logs
Without further ado, let’s head to our summary of the best 12 torrent sites of this moment.
Best torrent sites
- The Pirate Bay – Best overall torrent site
- RARBG – Great torrent site with an active community
- 1337X – Awesome torrent site for movies, tv series and music
- Torrentz2 – Best choice for music torrents
- YTS – Our recommended torrent website to download HD movies
- EZTV – Torrent site that focuses on TV shows
- Zooqle – A heavenly torrent site for gamers
- LimeTorrents – Superb torrent site for new releases
- Torrents.io – A unique torrent website that combines the best of other sites
- TorrentDownloads – Good torrent site for obscure and forgotten titles
- IPTorrents – Awesome private torrenting site that requires a donation to enter
- Bibliotik – A torrent site for ebook lovers
These are the best torrent sites still on the market, and you can access either one of them to find your favorite files. However, each of them has different strong points, so we’ll take a deep dive into your options to see which site you should use and when.
Before that, let’s look at what we took into account when writing this roundup.
How To Choose The Best Torrent Site
Monthly traffic
was an important aspect to determine how popular that site was,
implicitly tying it to a lot of metrics like library size or
seeders/leechers ratio. While we also considered including some numbers
on seeders and leechers for popular torrents at the time of writing, we
realized that’s very seasonal and probably won’t be relevant in a month
or two, so we focused on other metrics.
Library size will be included for websites whenever possible. While it’s hard to get that exact number in all cases, we did our best to research it and find an answer for you.
Download speed is the average speed for downloading torrents from a certain site, through a client. While that information is reliable only as a ballpark reference, keep in mind that this will vary a lot based on the torrent itself, and your internet connection.
Library type is also important when choosing a torrent site. Sites like The Pirate Bay or RARBG have big libraries, sporting torrents from all categories, while sites like Bibliotik or YTS have a considerable amount of book and movie torrents respectively.
Ad Intrusion is also important when deciding what torrent site to use. Pop-ups that “click themselves” and fake “contests” that you just happened to win without participating in are annoying. If you have to go through 8 ads just to browse for a file, it might be time to find a new torrent site. In our research, there were about 3-4 popular torrent sites that we decided not to include due to the ad intrusion level.
With that being said, let’s get into our roundup in more detail.
1. The Pirate Bay – Best Overall Torrent Site
Website: https://thepiratebay10.org/
Attention: The Pirate Bay is blocked in many countries, so you might need a VPN to change your virtual location and unblock the Pirate Bay.
The Pirate Bay has been a crowd favorite for many years. It managed to deflect attempts at blocking it or shutting it down, and it’s going really strong with over 6.3 million monthly users on the main site. However, considering the number of mirrors and blocking attempts, that number may be skewed, and 20-60 million visits a month is perhaps a bit more accurate.
We couldn’t get an exact number on its library size, but it’s in the millions of files, and you can expect a download speed of 5-6 MB/s, all other things being equal.
The Pirate Bay is popular for its large community, which ensures at least one seeder on almost any torrent on the site, no matter the age. We tried downloading obscure titles from even over a decade ago, and we found that there were still happy seeders to help out.
On top, it’s got a clean interface, and helpful tags that let you know which torrent comes from a trusted source, and which torrent could pose a security risk to your PC.
Without a doubt, Pirate Bay is the king of all torrent sites, and with almost no ad intrusion and an active community, it’s basically got no downsides.
Mirrors: thepiratebay.vip, thepirate-bay.org, thepiratebay.rocks.
PS: If those mirrors don’t work, do a Google search for “the pirate bay mirrors” and you may find other options, especially in the 2nd page of results. You can also look at our list of Pirate Bay alternatives for more options.
2. RARBG – Great Torrent Site with an Active Community
Website: https://rarbg.to/index70.php
RARBG is a large directory of torrents, famous for a very active community of seeders and high-quality torrents. It’s been around since 2008 and it amasses about 40 million visitors each month.
It competes with The Pirate Bay by offering a more “personalized” experience, complete with top tens in different categories and news displayed on the home page. Its library size is decent, and it gets updated often, meaning that you have a high chance of finding new torrents on the site.
RARBG also comes with a very similar download speed as The Pirate Bay. The only difference is that ad intrusion is a bit bigger on RARBG, so take that into account when choosing one of the two.
Oh and, if you’re from Denmark, Portugal, or the UK, you’ll need a VPN to enter, because it’s blocked there.
Mirrors: rarbg.is, rarbgunlock.com, rarbgmirror.com.
PS: If none of the mirrors work, don’t try to find another one on your own unless you take some safety precautions. There are a lot of phishing scams going around with RARBG-looking sites, so make sure you learn about secure browsing.
3. 1337X – Awesome Torrent Site for Movies, Television Series and Music
Website: https://1337x.to/
1337X is good for movies, shows and music. Some people use it to browse for game torrents as well, but from our research it does look like both RARBG and The Pirate Bay have more torrents in that category, especially for older titles.
A few years ago, 1337X was a bad choice for any torrenting, since it was clunky to navigate and it posed a lot of security risks. Since then, it went through an entire site revamp, making it seamless to browse and safer. For shows and movies, you also have improved browsing functionalities, like searching by award nomination.
This round of changes got it up to 53 million visits a month, and it makes sense – it’s got an average download speed of 3-4 MB/s and virtually no ad intrusion, the creators only make money through bitcoin donations from what we can see.
Mirrors: 1337x.st (Active since Oct. 2017), x1337x.ws (Active since Dec. 2017), x1337x.eu (Active since Mar. 2018), x1337x.se (Active since May. 2018), 1337x.is (Active since Jan. 2019), 1337x.gd (Active since Oct. 2019).
We included the “active since” date so you can check domain age to make sure you don’t fall for a phishing campaign.
4. Torrentz2 – Best Choice for Music Torrents
Website: https://torrentz2.eu/
At the time of writing, the main torrentz2 site was down, but we accessed it through one of the mirrors you’ll find below.
While this is not that big of a site – only amassing 10-20 million users a month, and unable to sport much of a library for general torrents – Torrentz2 is very good for finding music. And by very good we mean it’s got the largest music library of public torrent sites. Other than that, Torrentz2 doesn’t have much going for it. The download speed isn’t that great (we got anywhere in between 1 MB/s and 3 MB/s, with an average under 2) and ad intrusion is pretty annoying.
Not to mention – any type of browsing options, like searching by album, artist or song would be greatly appreciated. So just keep it in mind for when you can’t find the music you’re looking for anywhere else.
Mirrors: torrentz2eu.org (the one we used), torrentz.eu
5. YTS – Our Recommended Torrent Website to Download HD Movies
Website: https://yts.mx/
If you’re looking for a movie, just head on over to YTS.
While the average metrics don’t look so great: not a big library when compared to The Pirate Bay, and an average download speed of 3-4 MB/s, YTS has over 75 million visits a month, and that’s due to its positioning.
First, it’s only focused on movies, and it does its best to track torrents with HD quality and small size, optimizing for any device or bandwidth. Second, ad intrusion is minimal and the interface is beautiful.
Lastly, classics are readily available on the platform. In fact, it’s the only torrent site where we could find movies like 12 Angry Men in 1080p.
Mirrors: yts.am, yts.pm, yts.gm (but so far the site was never taken down)
6. EZTV -Torrent Site That Focuses on TV Shows
Website: https://eztv.re/
If you want high-definition episodes of your favorite shows, EZTV is the place to go. It doesn’t have a huge library when compared to behemoths like RARBG, but it’s focused on TV shows, and it’s the place to find any new releases in HD.
Seeder/leecher ratio is pretty decent, because it has an active community, clocking in at around 20 million visitors per month. We searched for older titles like Two and a Half Men, and it had a decent library of options.
We even tried going for more obscure titles, like the British show Midsomer Murders. EZTV has a large variety of torrents for the new releases in that show, and packages of older episodes. While ad intrusion is a bit annoying at times, the library size and the decent download speed of 2-3 MB/s is enough to keep your binging needs in check.
Mirrors: eztv.unblocked.llc, eztv1.unblocked.is, eztv1.unblocked.si
7. Zooqle – A Heavenly Torrent Site for Gamers
Website: https://zooqle.com/
Zooqle gets a good rep for being the best library of video game torrents, and that’s warranted. We tried browsing for older titles, and it has a good library, both for PC and consoles. We even found some torrents that we weren’t able to find anywhere else, like a functional version of Uncharted 2 for the ps3.
With a bit over 5 million visitors a month, an active community and a download speed of about 1-2 MB/s second, it’s a good choice for when you just can’t find a working video game torrent.
It’s even a user-friendly platform. You can subscribe to different categories or titles and get a feed of new torrents for them. The interface is not bad, and while Ad intrusion can become annoying at times, it’s bearable in most cases.
Mirrors: zooqle.g2g.casa, zooqle.nocensor.club, zooqle.u4m.pw
8. LimeTorrents – Superb Torrent Site for New Releases
Website: https://www.limetorrents.info/
LimeTorrents is very good for new releases. With a seamless interface and a very good seeder/leecher ratio on new torrents, it can be a good choice.
The average download speed is 3-4 MB/s, it has a bit under 20 million users a month across all mirrors and a lot of search options.
However, it’s lower on our best torrent sites list because you won’t find plenty of seeders for older torrents, and ad intrusion can get annoying at times.
Mirrors: limetorrents.asia, limetorrents.zone, limetorrents.co, limetor.com, limetor.pro.
9. Torrents.io – A Unique Torrent Website That Combines the Best of Other Sites
Website: https://torrents.io/
Attention: Recently, this website seems to be down quite often.
Not a torrent site per se, Torrents.io just tracks all torrents from popular sites like The Pirate Bay and RARBG.
However, considering the amount of data crunching this entails, you’re bound to find a much larger library of what you’re looking for, all in one place.
The download speed and all other relevant metrics are the same as you’d find on the specific site Torrents.io pulls data from, but we do want to praise its seamless design and minimal ad intrusion. With a bit under 5 million hits a month and quirky data sets to show what’s trending, using Torrents.io could be a good choice if you’re looking for obscure titles and want all of your results in one place.
Mirrors: None since it’s not been targeted by any shutdown efforts so far.
10. TorrentDownloads – Good Torrent Site for Obscure and Forgotten Titles
Website: https://torrentdownloads.info/
TorrentDownloads is one of the classics in the scene, but their traffic has slowly decreased over time (now it’s around 5 million users a month), due to Pirate Bay’s and RARBG’s considerably larger libraries. Moreover, since it’s been targeted by government investigations, it’s not available in a lot of regions, it only features an average download speed of 2-3 MB/s and the ad intrusion can get bothersome at times.
However, it is a good option for more obscure titles in all categories, so if you’ve been looking for an old video game or rare book, you can try a quick search on TorrentDownloads. Asian titles specifically seem to take a big part of their servers.
Mirrors: torrentdownloads.unblockproject.uno, torrentdownloads.123unblock.cyou, torrentdownloads.mrunblock.cyou, torrentdownloads.nocensor.club
11. IPTorrents – Awesome Private Torrenting Site that Requires a Donation to Enter
Website: https://iptorrents.com/
Now for the private sites: IPTorrents is one of the biggest private torrenting sites (meaning that you’ll need an invitation to get in) boasting a big library, an active community, and virtually no ad intrusion.
Moreover, it’s accepting new members based on a donation, which is way more than can be said about regular private torrenting sites. Sitting at around 5 million hits a month, it’s a good alternative if you can afford to get in.
12. Bibliotik – A Torrent Site for Ebook Lovers
Website: https://bibliotik.me/
Last but not least, Bibliotik is the largest private torrenting site for downloading ebooks. Whether you’re an undergraduate, or just looking for an obscure franchise like the Nick Stone series, Bibliotik is bound to have what you need.
With a library size and traffic count clocking in the hundreds of thousands, it’s a decent choice, but it’s unfortunately not accepting new members, at least officially.
Speaking of…
How To Access Private Torrent Sites
A lot of countries have their own regional private torrent site, and they all seem impossible to get in. We took a deep dive into the world of private torrent sites, and we were able to obtain invitations for some of them.
For example, we got in on filelist, which is Romania’s largest private torrent site:
How can you do that too?
Reddit, 8chan, and specifically anonymity-focused forums have threads on torrenting. Rarely, invitations will be just thrown there for a limited time, but what we did is we got in touch with someone that implied having an account in one of their threads.
The rest is up to how persuasive you are.
This is the worst-case scenario when you just don’t know anyone on the inside. Ideally, you already know someone who has an account there and you can ask for an invitation.
Torrent Sites To Avoid
There are a few popular torrenting sites that still get a lot of traffic, and you’ll find some roundups recommending them.
While you don’t risk anything per se when using those sites, you should stray away from the following platforms.
TorrentGalaxy
TorrentGalaxy is like a downgraded version of 1337X. While it does have almost 8 million visitors each month, and the library it boasts is decent, the ad intrusion level is too much to warrant praise, especially when compared to all the alternatives you have.
KickAss Torrents
Yes, a version of this website is still available online. Unfortunately, this is the KickAss Torrents you’re used to only in name and appearance because the service has changed a lot since the original site was taken down.
If you want to download anything using the current version of the site, you’ll have to install an obscure browser extension first. We don’t know what it may contain, but we do not recommend installing it in any circumstance, as it may pose serious privacy and security risks. It’s better to use one of the many KickAss Torrents alternatives.
TorrentFunk
While TorrentFunk has the trappings of a decent torrent site, it’s riddled with all the possible types of ads you can imagine. Moreover, it’s got a smaller library than The Pirate Bay or RARBG, so there’s no real reason to choose it.
TorLock
While it’s pretty popular, Torlock takes ad intrusion to the extreme. There are a lot of ads popping in your face, and the “price” isn’t warranted. As you’ll notice when you ever visit TorLock, most of their torrents (even the popular ones) have no seeders.
How to Use Torrent Sites
If you’re a beginner in the world of torrenting, let’s start with what torrents are.
A torrent is a small file that has meta-data about the files you’re trying to get. Special software called clients read that meta-data and pair your computer with other users that already have the file, so you basically “download” the file from them.
It’s a form of sharing data with other computers.
So naturally, you’ll first need a client. We recommend Utorrent, but Bittorrent will work just as fine.
Once you have that, download the torrent from one of the best torrent sites in the list above, and open it using the client. If you already installed the client, the torrent file will automatically open in this screen:
However, two words of caution here.
First, always download torrents and browse torrent sites using a VPN.
Internet service providers and governments can track your internet activity if you don’t use a VPN, and in some cases, you are liable for a lawsuit for downloading specific files. Read our roundup of the best VPNs and use one of those before doing any torrenting.
Second, beware of fake download links.
In an attempt to make money from your clicks, torrent sites will display a more predominant button which won’t download the torrent file, but rather a different, unrelated software.
Avoid big buttons and only click on the URL that will actually download your desired torrent file.
In addition to these words of caution, let’s talk a bit more about safety.
How To Torrent Safely
The risks of browsing torrent sites aren’t just about privacy. You risk downloading malware, viruses, and even losing your information to phishing campaigns, which are very common for torrent sites.
The first thing you’ll want to do is install a VPN. Again, check our best VPN section for the best options out there, safety tips, and news. It’s important to install a VPN because it will route your connection through a secure server, it will allow you to access blocked torrent sites, and it will help you remain anonymous.
After that, tick all the VPN safety settings you can. Make sure you enable connection encryption, leak protection, and a kill switch for when your network is at risk of getting infected. Most VPNs will feature these options (maybe under different names).
The kill switch is important, as it will prevent your identity from being exposed when your VPN connection suddenly drops.
Third, install an ad blocker and other safety-enhancing extensions. You can read all about them in our article detailing the best browser extensions for safety and privacy, as well as our guide with 8 steps to stay safe online.
What Torrent Sites Are Safe?
The Pirate Bay, RARBG, and especially private torrent sites are as safe as you can get when downloading torrents. That being said, you shouldn’t have a problem downloading anything through the sites in our roundup, as long as you employ the safety best practices explored earlier.
We advise against downloading torrents from any random site that pops up after a Google search, and we definitely recommend you stay up to date with your safety-enhancing software. If you do that, your computer should be safe from harm when downloading torrents.
Is Torrenting Legal?
Torrenting itself is legal since it’s just sharing data between one or more people. That being said, downloading and sharing copyrighted material without the approval of its creator is illegal, and in some countries, it may lead to legal repercussions. A lot of jurisdictions don’t have up to date means to track people that use torrents, but don’t count on that. Stay safe on the web with the right VPN and by taking the right security measures. And of course, check the jurisdiction of the country you are in and steer clear from illegal activities when using torrent sites.
In Conclusion
Don’t just go ahead and download the first torrent you see. Use a trusted platform from our best torrent sites list, and always do this only after taking the right security measures.