NEW: submit your own favorite torrent site here
As of July 1, 2009, the most popular torrent search engine sites are listed below. This list is assembled from hundreds of reader email suggestions, and is updated weekly. You are welcome to submit your suggestions for inclusion into this list.
This list is in random order. Special thanks to the many About.com readers who help keep this list current via their email submissions.
Related: How to speed up your Bit Torrent download speeds
Related: Anonymity software - conceal your identity from prying eyes with Peer Guardian
Reader suggestion: flixflux.co.uk (Recommended at user favorite torrent sites)
Reader suggestion: torrentengine.co.cc (Recommended at user favorite torrent sites)
Special mention: Torrents.to (An improved and relaunched torrent search engine worth visiting. Special thanks to Pok for this submission.)
Special mention: Gpirate.com (A newer torrent search engine that several readers are very fond of.)
Special mention: ipTorrents.com (Recommended by several About.com readers)
Special mention: TuxDistro.com (For legal linux torrents and virtual machines.)
- Isohunt.com In a shocking turn of the tables this September, the Isohunt webmaster is counter-suing the Canadian music industry. He is claiming that previous copyright violation suits against him were unfounded, and that he is entitled to have his legal expenses recovered. Read the entire story at www.isohunt.com.
- Demonoid.com is back online! After legal conflicts in April of 2008, they have reestablished themselves outside of the USA. Demonoid is still a private community, and members are held liable for any leeching that their invited friends do in this community. If you are lucky enough to get a Demonoid membership, invite your friends carefully, lest you lose your own membership.
- Torrentz.com (special thanks to reader, Jonathan R., for this link)
- The Pirate Bay
News Flash, April 18, 2009: the Stockholm district court has sentenced the four Pirate Bay founders to a year in prison, and over $USD 3.5 million in fines. This is as punishment for violating their country's copyright laws. More on this shocking court ruling here... - Bitsoup Bitsoup is a growing favorite amongst P2P downloaders.
- BiteNova (formerly known as “Bi-Torrents”, BiteNova is a free Torrent site with a spartan look and fast searching format.)
- Torrentmatrix.com
- Torrentscan.com (a "meta-search" engine, which is a search engine that searches other search engines)
- Torrentportal.com
- Torrents.to
- Mininova.org Mininova is the successor to Suprnova, one of the original big torrent databases of the Web.
- YouTorrent.com Still in beta testing format, this new torrent site claims to be the largest legal torrent search engine today. Accordingly, the result sets are much smaller than the "pirate" counterparts, but definitely try this site for yourself.
- Torrentbox.com FYI: like Isohunt, Torrentbox is being sued by the MPAA as of February 28, 2006. The days for this fine search engine may be numbered.
- FileMP3.org
- BTjunkie
- Torrentreactor.to (Torrentreactor has made a comeback from a hijacking and an uncooperative hosting service. They have moved to a different server setup and a Tonga country domain outside the USA. Read the details on their home page.)
- TorrentTyphoon.com (this database is up for sale, if anyone is interested in running a torrent service)
- Yotoshi.com
- Torrentspy.com March 24, 2008: Torrentspy has voluntarily closed its doors. Instead of conforming to the American court mandates to change their privacy policies, the Torrentspy team has opted instead to cease operations. A sad day for downloaders everywhere.
- Snarf It! (currently offline finding a new home)
The next 15 torrent sites are continued here...
Special mention: NowTorrents.com (A clean and fast user interface, and some great cross-reference linking helps you browse books and other media related to your movies.)
Special mention: ShareTV.org (ShareTV is dedicated to sharing television episodes and entire TV series. Find "24", "Heroes", and "Lost" episodes here. Special thanks to Chris R. for telling us about his web site.)
Special mention: Torrent-Finder.com (This site has been submitted recently by three readers as their personal favorite torrent search engine. It "meta-searches" 159 torrent sites as of this writing. Special thanks to Dina, Suresh, and ChaOSthEory for this submission.)
Other Related BitTorrent articles:
-
Editor's Choice: 5 Best Torrent Search Engines
- Torrents 101: How BitTorrent Downloading Works.
- The Best BitTorrent Client Software of 2008.
- Meet Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent open source code.
- Overview of P2P copyright legalities.
- Tip: How to speed up your BitTorrent client download speed
Legal warning for new torrent users: while P2P file sharing technology is completely legal, many of the files traded through P2P are copyrighted. Uploading P2P files may put you at serious risk of a civil lawsuit in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. These lawsuits are usually class-action suits, filed against groups of users who blatantly copy and distribute copyrighted materials. Recently, the MPAA, the RIAA, and the governments of England and Australia took several thousand users to court, demanding that they pay thousands of dollars in copyright infringement penalties. These P2P lawsuits are very real, and whether or not they are successful, they are extreme financial and emotional burdens on the defendant.
ISP warning: your Internet service provider may choose to release logs of your downloading/uploading activity to potential copyright plaintiffs. The more megabytes you download/upload, the more you risk being sued by copyright protection groups. Please know these risks before you use any of the above torrent search engines.
