The Best Torrent Sites That Still Work in January 2022

 

1. The Pirate Bay — The Most Well-Established Torrent Site

• Year founded: 2003
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: thepiratebay.org, tpbpirateproxy.org, proxybay.xyz, thepirate-bay.org, thepiratebay10.org, thepiratebay.rocks, thepiratebay.vip, pirateproxy.id, ThePirateBay.red, Tbp.tw, TPBMirror.org
• Alexa ranking: 224
• Banned locations: United Kingdom, Spain, Singapore, Argentina, Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden, China, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Kuwait, Russia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Belgium
• Instant download support: Yes

The Pirate Bay is one of the best-known torrent sites globally, with up to 60 million visitors a month. It is available in 35 different languages, and has held the title for the world’s best torrent site since 2018. Even though it was temporarily shut down in early 2020, it’s still thriving and has avoided numerous takedown attempts over the years. The exact number of torrenting files on the site is estimated to be in the millions.

What I liked most about The Pirate Bay was the site’s focus on safety. It verifies uploaders and indicates whether torrents are trustworthy or not. While you can’t guarantee protection from malware and spyware, this verification reduces the likelihood of infection. I also liked its filtering system, too, where I could specify torrents by file format, quality, and console. This saved me a lot of time when searching for Sita Sings the Blues.

Another benefit is that most torrents have at least a few seeders for faster downloads due to the large community (including even old and obscure torrents). In addition, The Pirate Bay has a simple, easy-to-navigate interface. When I searched for a torrent, I could filter my searches by file format, quality, and gaming console (for games), which meant that I didn’t need to assess each torrent individually to find the right one.

A minor con of The Pirate Bay is that it displays a few ads on the site. But you can always use a trusted ad blocker, or even better, protect yourself while downloading torrents with a VPN that comes with an ad blocker built in.

Check out The Pirate Bay

2. RARBG — Verifies All Torrents to Ensure High Quality

• Year founded: 2008
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: 185.37.100.122, rarbg.is, rarbgprx.org/index70.php, rarbgunlock.com, rarbgunlock.com/index70.php, rarbgmirror.com, rarbgmirror.com/index70.php, rarbgmirror.xyz/index70.php, rarbgmirror.org/index70.php, rarbgaccess.org/index70.php
• Alexa ranking: 7,542
• Banned locations: The UK, Bulgaria, Portugal, Denmark, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Ireland
• Instant download support: Yes

RARBG is known for high-quality torrents, thanks to its group of moderators and active community. The site verifies each torrent that gets uploaded to weed out all the bad ones effectively. But this also means that its library is smaller than other sites, even though it gets updated regularly.

Thanks to its personalized user experience, I found it easy to find and assess torrents. Once I found a torrent, I could hover over the file to see some screenshots, album art, and posters that popped up. I could also filter torrents by size, date added, or the number of seeders and leechers by clicking on the respective icons in each category. Although it does have an unnecessary amount of pop-up ads, so it's a good idea to use an ad blocker. The easiest solution is to use a VPN with ad blockers built-in to protect your downloads and block all the ads at once.

The site also displays the top ten rankings for each category, and users can add reviews to torrents, too — so you know the files are legitimate. It also lets you use the site as a guest or as a registered member, which makes it a hybrid between a private and a public torrent site.

But since the site verifies all torrents, it has caught the attention of many authorities, which have tried to shut it down. Luckily, no attempts have succeeded.

Check out RARBG

3. 1337x — Huge Torrent Library With Great Variety

• Year founded: 2007
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: 1337x.st, x1337x.se, 1337x.gd, 1337x.is, x1337x.ws, x1337x.eu.
• Alexa ranking: 257
• Banned locations: Australia, the UK, Austria, and Ireland
• Instant download support: Yes

1337x is a well-known torrent website with over 53 million monthly visitors and a vast selection of high-quality torrents. Most of its torrents are movies, TV shows, and music, although it has several games as well. It has been around for a long time and its community is very active, meaning that its torrents are regularly updated every few hours.

I found its user interface is simple and informative, as it includes the technical details of each torrent and other useful information. For example, it’ll display whether a show or movie has been nominated for an award or not, and the number of times it’s been downloaded (this can tell you whether it’s a good quality torrent or not). This is a massive improvement compared to a few years ago when the user interface was slow and clunky.

1337x has very few ads and it shows some dedication to protecting your privacy — it only makes money through Bitcoin donations, for example.

That being said, it can only do so much to protect you — you’re still at risk of third parties spying on your online activity when browsing any torrenting site. A VPN will add another layer of security by hiding your IP address and encrypting your traffic, so your online movements remain anonymous.

Check out 1337x

4. YTS — Best Torrent Site for High-Quality Movies

• Year founded: 2011
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: yts.am, yts.gd, yts.pm, yts.gm, yts.unblocked.mx, yts.unblockit.app, ww.yts.vc, yts.lt
• Alexa ranking: 696
• Banned locations: Ireland
• Instant download support: Yes

YTS (sometimes known as YIFY) is arguably the best torrent website for high-quality movies, with over 75 million users worldwide. The site contains almost 30,000 titles, many of which come with subtitles and are available in 1080p. Its files are small and don’t compromise quality, so it’s excellent for all bandwidth levels.

It also has a clear and simple interface that reminds me of Netflix. When I searched for the film Carnival of Souls, it provided the tech specs, synopsis, and IMBD ratings of the film, along with a list of similar films and film pictures. But the site has been the target of several copyright infringement lawsuits recently, which raises concerns.

Since YTS specializes in movies, it lacks other types of content, so you’ll need to go elsewhere for music, games, or software. Also, it has annoying pop-up ads, which can jeopardize your privacy. However, the amount of ads has reduced over the years. If you would like to avoid ads altogether, I suggest using a reliable ad blocker. I use a VPN that comes with a built-in ad and malware blocker (CyberGhost). That way I don't have to endure the ads and I'm anonymous while downloading torrents at the same time.

Check out YTS/YIFY

5. Torrentz2 — Optimized Torrent Search Engine With a Focus on Music

• Year founded: 2016
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: torrentz2.is, torrentz2.me, torrentz2eu.org, torrentz.eu, torrentzeu.org, torrenteu.org, torrentz2.cc, Torrentzwealmisr.onion
• Alexa ranking: 21,682
• Banned locations: None
• Instant download support: No

Torrentz2 (formerly known as Torrentz) is a torrent search engine that uses your search query to index torrents from over 90 torrent download sites. From your search results, you can go to one of the sites to download your torrent by clicking on the magnet link. If your favorite torrent site doesn’t have the file that you’re looking for, then Torrentz2 is a great alternative.

Even though you can download all kinds of torrents on Torrentz2, it’s mainly used for music. It gives you access to an extensive music library with an impressive choice of genres but isn’t great for other media types. When I tested it, I had to spend a few minutes looking for the file I was after because the site lacks filtering options. However, you can filter torrents to see if they’re verified or not, which is convenient.

Torrentz2 used to have a lot of pop-ups with fake and misleading links but, its most recent update has fixed a lot of bugs to make the site safer.

This offers a degree of protection, but your torrenting activity can still be exposed to prying eyes. However, a VPN will enhance your safety by encrypting and rerouting your traffic through a different IP address.

Check out Torrentz2

6. EZTV — Great Torrent Site for TV Shows

• Year founded: 2015
• Mirror sites/Alternate URLs: eztv.unblocked.krd, eztv.tf, eztv.unblockall.org, eztv.yt, eztv.ag, eztv.red, eztv.unblocked.mx, eztv.unblocked.bet, eztv.unblocked.llc, eztv1.unblocked.is, eztv1.unblocked.si
• Alexa ranking: 3,163
• Banned locations: The UK, Ireland, and Australia
• Instant download support: Yes

EZTV is known for its selection of TV shows, which are in HD or 1080p. It may not have an extensive library like The Pirate Bay or 1337x, but that’s what happens when you specialize in a particular type of content. It has a convenient “live countdown” list for new releases and a large collection of TV shows, with more old shows than new ones.

Just be aware that new releases tend to be under copyright, so downloading them is illegal and can land you in serious trouble. I strongly advise against it. EZTV also copies content from other torrent sites, which could get you in trouble unknowingly.

That being said, EZTV has a handy drop-down search box — no matter what I searched, I always got results. However, its interface is pretty old and unappealing, and the large number of ads were intrusive.

Also, I found it pretty annoying that you can’t download full seasons in one go. You need to download episodes separately, which is very time-consuming. And if you're using a VPN for added security while you torrent, it might slow your downloads down even more. Luckily, I could download episodes at top speeds with ExpressVPN. It's lightning-fast, so I didn't notice any effect when I tested it with EZTV.

Check out EZTV

7. Limetorrents — Huge Torrent Library With Tons of Variety

• Year founded: 2009
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: limetorrents.co, limetorrents.asia, limetorrents.zone, limetor.com, limetorrents.in, Limetorrents.info, limetor.club, limetor.pro
• Alexa ranking: 3,001
• Banned locations: France, Australia, and the UK
• Instant download support: Yes

Limetorrents boasts a massive torrent library with over 10 million torrents across all media types, and attracts more than 20 million users every month. Searches on the site always yield plenty of results so you won’t be disappointed. Its library is even larger than The Pirate Bay’s library, which is very impressive.

You can download torrents of movies, games, music, apps, and TV shows, and the site shows the top 100 torrents available for each category. This top 100 list focuses on newer releases — which means most of them are under copyright and illegal to download — so be careful when using this list to make sure you're not breaking any laws.

Otherwise, Limetorrents has tons of other files which are in the public domain that you can download safely. I also found its interface to be sleek and visually pleasing and liked being able to filter torrents by their health or verification status.

But having millions of torrents has its drawbacks, as quite a lot of them are fake. Also, irritating ads are pretty common on the site.

Check out Limetorrents

8. Torlock — Good Site for Safe Torrent Downloads

• Year founded: 2010
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: torlock.unblocked.krd, torlock.unblocked.mx
• Alexa ranking: 21,900
• Banned locations: The UK, India, and Australia
• Instant download support: Yes

If you’re concerned about downloading unsafe torrents, then consider using Torlock. The site pays its users $1 for every fake torrent reported, which shows its commitment to your safety. It’s also one of the few torrent sites that still uses its.com domain name, which means it’s well established. In particular, it has a lot of music, eBooks, and anime series in its library.

Its homepage displays the most recent and popular torrents for each category. However, new releases are usually under copyright, which means downloading them is illegal — so beware. I liked that the site also displays all the file specifications for each torrent, including the file size, upload date, seeders, and health. When you search for a torrent, the site will also display torrents containing all of your search terms.

Check out Torlock

9. Zooqle — User-Friendly Interface and an Extensive Torrent Library

• Year founded: 2013
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: zooqle.bypassed.org, zooqle.unblocked.mx, zooqle.unblocked.krd, zooqle.nocensor.club, zooqle.g2g.casa, zooqle.u4m.pw
• Alexa ranking: 2,086
• Banned locations: None
• Instant download support: Yes

Zooqle is a new torrent website that’s becoming popular. It has an extensive library that’s particularly good for games, as well as movies, software, TV shows, and eBooks. To diversify its torrent library, it uses links from other torrent sites like Torrenthound and Katcr.

Keep in mind that because games are a relatively new media, most of them are under copyright protection and therefore are illegal to download. My team and I don’t condone illegal torrenting, so be sure to check the rules and regulations in your country.

I found its interface simple and visually pleasing, and its search bar pretty useful. Simply search for any torrent you’re after, and you’ll be given a comprehensive list of related torrents. You can also filter by seeder to leecher ratio and by the quality of each torrent. All torrents contain file specifications as well as comments and reviews from other users. This made it easier to select a good quality version of Kansas City Confidential when I searched for it.

Check out Zooqle

10. IPTorrents — Private Torrent Site That’s Safe

• Year founded: Unknown
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: iptorrents.eu, iptorrents.me, iptorrents.ru, iptorrents.us
• Alexa ranking: 4,731
• Banned locations: Not available
• Instant download support: Yes

Unlike the other sites on this list, IPTorrents is a private torrent download site with over 7 million monthly visits. This means you can only use it if you get invited and make a donation. But once you’re in, you’ll get access to a big library and an active community — without any pop-up ads. It’s also safer because it’s much harder for people to spread spyware or malware since not just anyone can use it.

Another benefit of IPTorrents is that its download speeds tend to be faster because members need to comply with seeding quotas. Its only downside is that you’ll need to pay a donation of $20 to get in, which is quite high. Without this donation, you won’t be accepted.

Check out IPTorrents

11. Demonoid — Well-Established Torrent Site With Many Media Types

• Year founded: 2003
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: Dnoid.me, Demonoid.unblocked.bet
• Alexa ranking: 160,289
• Banned locations: Not available
• Instant download support: Yes

Demonoid is one of the original torrent sites that’s still active today. The site once struggled due to increased political pressure to get it taken down but now has over 10 million users and 1 million torrents. You can find a great variety of media types on Demonoid, including movies, TV shows, music, games, and more. Movies and TV shows are especially popular on the site.

In the past, you needed to create an account to use the site, and registration was only open to those who received the invite. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I was able to download Night of the Living Dead without signing up.

Check out Demonoid

12. NYAA.si — Specialized Site for Asian Content

• Year founded: 2005
• Mirror sites/alternate URLs: nyaa.net, nyaatorrent.com
• Alexa ranking: 895
• Banned locations: The UK, US, Japan, South Korea, and Australia
• Instant download support: Yes

NYAA.si is a specialist site for Asian content, particularly from Japan, China, and South Korea. Its main focus is on anime series, but I also found music and software. The site is a resurrection of the anime torrent site NYAA.

What I liked about NYAA.si is its simplistic interface, which makes it easy to access the files you’re after. Just keep in mind that it’s quite intrusive with its pop-up ads, so you might want to use an ad blocker, or a VPN that comes with an ad blocker built-in.

Check out NYAA.si

Tips on How to Choose the Best Torrenting Sites

Torrent sites can be dangerous places: a lot of the sites aren’t regulated, so they can contain fake links with viruses, tracking software, or malware.

Therefore, choosing a trusted torrent site is crucial in minimizing the risks involved. But to be fully protected, I recommend that you use a trusted VPN (my favorite is ExpressVPN) while browsing any torrent site. It will keep your data safe and can protect you from malicious links.

When choosing a torrent website, I strongly suggest making sure the site you use has some (if not all) the following:

• Security features — Choose a site that has been around for at least 5 years, doesn’t have many ads, and verifies its torrent files. But keep in mind that no torrent site is 100% safe because they can leave your data and activity exposed to third parties. To increase your safety when torrenting, I recommend using a VPN.
• Lots of variety — Make sure your site’s library has a wide mix of different content types. If you’re after a particular type of content, such as movies, then consider specialist sites too.
• Well established — The established year of the torrent site indicates its reliability. If the site has been around for 5-10 years or more and has never been shut down, then that’s a good sign.
• High popularity — Choose a website that has a high number of engaged users. Specifically, look for a site with a lot of comments. Comments from past users on torrent files are very useful because they can help you find out whether a file is fake or not.
• High seeder/leecher ratio — A high ratio of seeders to leechers indicates a high level of sharing and results in faster downloads.
• As few ads as possible — Intrusive pop-up ads are an inevitable feature of many torrent sites. Avoid sites that bombard you with ads or use a VPN with an ad blocker instead.
• High Alexa ranking — The Alexa ranking shows how popular the site is in relation to internet users worldwide. A high ranking indicates an active community.
• Availability in your region — Some regions block torrent sites more than others, so make sure you can access the site in your area.

How to Stay Safe and Avoid Fake Torrent Sites

Staying safe while torrenting goes beyond choosing a reputable site. Anytime you use P2P file-sharing software, your personal data is exposed to anyone else seeding or leeching the same file. To prevent your info from being exposed, I recommend using a highly secure VPN like ExpressVPN.

When you use a VPN, it encrypts your torrenting traffic and hides your IP address from prying eyes. As a bonus, some VPNs offer built-in ad and malware blockers to protect you in case you encounter a malicious file.

These additional steps will also help you stay safe:

• Inspect every torrent — Unverified torrents are often filled with malware. Make sure any torrent you download has been verified, and check its seeder to leecher ratio, user comments, and the uploader’s history.
• Use a private search engine — Mainstream search engines like Google hide the URLs of many torrent sites due to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and display dangerous fork sites instead. A private search engine like DuckDuckGo won’t hide URLs and will keep your searches private.
• Use a safe torrent client — A good torrent website on its own isn’t enough to stay safe and protected. Using a reliable torrent client like uTorrent or qBittorrent will add further protection against viruses, malware, and spyware.
• Check files for malware — Check files like RAR, TAR, and ZIP for malware. Pay close attention to EXE files and stay away from WMA, WMV, and password-protected files because they’re outdated and can be dangerous.
• Look out for copycat sites — Strange-looking URLs, numerous pop-up windows, and registration demands are all signs of dangerous copycat sites that can expose you to malware and hackers.

Beware of These Fake Torrenting Sites

Some torrenting sites might be popular but could expose your activity and infect you with malware. Here are a few torrent sites that I recommend avoiding:

• KickAssTorrents — KickAssTorrents (KAT) was once the most popular torrent site globally, only to be taken down for good. Its founder, Artem Vaulin, has been on the run from US authorities due to numerous charges of copyright infringement. Several copycat sites look similar but require you to install browser extensions to use them, which is a huge red flag.
• SUMOtorrent — This site always asks you to download its torrent client to access its library. It’s usually best to stay away from sites that request this because it’s not common and therefore suspicious.
• PassThePopcorn — This site is an invite-only site that requires a login and password to use. There’s nothing wrong with invite-only sites, but since you can’t register properly, it’s best to avoid it.
• Torrent Galaxy — Torrent Galaxy is a fake version of 1337x and attracts over 8 million users each month. However, it bombards you with ads to no end, so it warrants a mention.
• TorrentFunk — A site that was once decent is now full of unwanted ads that are highly intrusive. Its library is pretty small too.

Quick Guide: How to Use Torrent Sites Safely in 3 Easy Steps

1. Get a VPN. I recommend ExpressVPN because its strong security features keep you safe while torrenting.
2. Install a safe torrent client. You’ll need to use a torrent client like uTorrent to extract your downloaded torrent files.
3. Start torrenting safely! Go to a reliable torrent site, find the torrent you want, and click the magnet link to begin downloading.

Why Do I Need a VPN for Accessing Torrent Sites?

Most torrent websites explicitly warn you to use a VPN before downloading anything – and there’s a good reason for that. Even the most reputable torrent sites and clients come with inherent dangers. It’s easy for cybercriminals to steal your IP address, monitor your connection, and even upload malware-infected torrents.

It's very easy for other people to see your torrenting activity

A reliable VPN keeps you safe while you’re browsing a torrent website. It masks your original IP address, which means no one will be able to see what you’re downloading, or where you’re downloading it from. This means no one will be able to see what you’re downloading, or where you’re downloading it from. VPN encryption makes your traffic and data unreadable, even to hackers.

Another benefit of using a VPN is that it prevents your ISP from throttling your connection, which it might do if it notices excessive downloading activity on your end. When you use a VPN, your ISP can’t see what you’re doing online, which means you could get faster torrenting speeds.

Source: https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/10-best-torrent-websites/#RARBG