NOTE: this list is in random order. Special thanks to all the readers who contribute their recommendations so that this list stays current.
Submit Your Torrent Site Suggestion: you are welcome to suggest a torrent site for inclusion in this list.
Disclaimer and legal warning for new torrent users: About.com does not condone illegal sharing of copyrighted material. While P2P file sharing technology is completely legal, many of the files traded through P2P are indeed copyrighted. Uploading these copyrighted files puts you at risk of a civil lawsuit in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. While these lawsuits are often class-action suits, filed against groups of users who blatantly copy and distribute copyrighted materials, some lawsuits are harshly targeted at making examples of individual downloaders. These P2P civil lawsuits are very real, and whether or not they are successful, they are extreme financial and emotional burdens on the defendant.
ISP warning: your ISP may choose to release logs of your downloading/uploading activity to potential copyright plaintiffs. The more megabytes you download, the more you risk being sued by copyright protection groups.
Torrent Download: Beginner's Guide to Torrent File Sharing.
- ThePirateBay.se: since being shut down in 2009, The Pirate Bay refuses to stay down. This latest TPB Swedish domain name version claims to have over 1.5 million torrents available. The servers themselves are constantly changing location to stay ahead of the authorities, and this seems to make the website experience inconsistent for speed. If you don't mind repeatedly checking back because The Pirate Bay is sometimes slow to render, definitely support this longtime P2P icon as it tries to rebuild its former glory.
- Torlock: Torlock is special. These folks actually pay their users commission for uncovering fake torrents and reporting it to their community. In a world of phony files, this is a tremendous service. If you are a regular downloader, and are tired of wasted downloads and fraudulent files, give Torlock a try.
- VCDQ.com: VCDQ.com isn't technically a
torrent search site; rather, VCDQ specializes in verifying torrents. VCDQ employs a
committee of serious users to confirm that torrents do indeed exist for thousands of
titles, especially brand new movie releases. Use VCDQ to confirm that a title is
available, then copy the torrent name to paste into a search engine like Isohunt.com.
Definitely give VCDQ.com a try; this is a great resource for avoiding fake torrent
files.
- Kick Ass Torrents: this site is a favorite with a growing community. The interface is a distinctive earth color, and the search results display in a useful format of columns, including torrent health. The best part of Kick Ass Torrents is their comment and feedback system... the user community watches the quality of torrents, and offers their recommendations and warnings. June 2013 News: the original KAT.ph domain name has been seized by authorities. The new URL is http://kickass.to/
Recommended: Protect your file-sharing identity by using a VPN connection. - ExtraTorrent.com: ExtraTorrent.com is very visual and very busy. But the thumbnails and file information at this site are tremendous. This site is definitely worth trying, as it is very browsing-friendly for discovering movies and music artists.
- TAKE.FM: Take is a smaller library than other torrent search sites, but the community here strives to keep the torrent quality high and the fake torrents out. Like most successful torrent sites, TAKE does not store the actual music and movie files on their servers, and instead focuses on helping its members find their sources elsewhere. Try TAKE out and let us know if you like their service.
- RARBG.com: RARBG is a very small torrent site, with less than a half-million torrents in its index. Nevertheless, multiple readers at About.com have recommended that RARBG be a community on your search for a good P2P experience. Perhaps try them and give us feedback on if agree with their opinions of the service.
- FullDLS: at over 2.5 million torrents, FullDLS is one of the larger torrent search sites today. The advertising is a bit cumbersome, and you’ll have difficulty finding what is worth clicking and what is just sponsored banner advertising. But the site is recommended by readers, and the search catalog does have popular files.
- H33T.com: This is a substantial library of torrents, exceeding 4 million indexed files as of November 2012. The black background isn’t for everyone’s tastes, but the volume of movies and music and tv shows make this a worthwhile destination. Beware the popup advertising, though… advertisers definitely believe that H33T is worth advertising at.
- Torrents.to: this site has a Tonga country domain name, but certainly offers plentiful metasearching of movies and music in English and Spanish. There are some popup advertisements that are annoying, but perhaps you might like the framed interface for searching other torrent sites.
- TorrentHound: at over 4.7 million torrents, TorrentHound is one of the largest players in the torrent P2P game. The site does enforce good use of 'white space' in the sidebars, so scanning the pages can be easier for most readers. Unfortunately, the comments counts are not included in the initial search results, so you'll have to click into the individual files to see reader comments.
Related: What It's Like to Be a Torrent P2P Administrator - See About.com's interview with Jack, the co-owner of Torlock.com. - LimeTorrents: LimeTorrents looks like most other torrent sites: tabular lists of torrents, with girly porn advertising in the sidebars. But LimeTorrents does have a growing database of nearly 2 million torrents, and multiple readers speak highly of the quality of seeds and legit files in the Lime catalog.
- Vertor: this torrent service claims to filter out bad torrents, viruses, DRM locks, passwords, and fakes.
- Torrent Funk: Torrent Funk is a very popular torrent search site that now supports commenting. While Torrent Funk also supports 'verified status' tagging, which some people prefer to comments. The interface can be difficult to discern between sponsored ads and the actual torrent links. But the Torrent Funk site layout is pleasing, the cross- movie recommendations are very helpful, and several About.com readers highly recommended Torrent Funk. Give this site a try, and watch if it will grow over time.
- Torrent Crazy: this P2P site is very good for non-English language movies and music. If you're seeking Italian, Russian, French, and files in other European languages, consider trying Torrent Crazy.
The next 15 torrent sites continue here...
Tip: Conceal Your P2P Identity with PeerBlock Software
Tip: How to Spot Fake Torrents
Tip: How to Speed Up Your Torrent Download Speeds
Related: Torrents 101: How Bittorrent Downloading Works.
Related: The Best Torrent Client Software of 2013.
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