When downloading a torrent, maintaining your anonymity is quite essential. You may have seen VPNs being recommended as one of the best ways to do so. But among the hundreds of options for VPNs out there, many of them don’t provide enough security to keep your torrenting sessions private. Also, some of them make your network speeds unusable for torrenting.
There is a lot of confusion regarding the best free VPNs for torrenting, as some of them even block torrenting or P2P, which makes them unsuitable for this purpose. In this article, you will get to know why VPNs are important to use while downloading torrents, and the best free and paid options to use.
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Why is VPN Important for Downloading Torrents?
Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can track your activity while browsing the internet and can detect your torrenting sessions. VPNs form an encrypted tunnel between your ISP and your data so that your activity cannot be tracked, and your location cannot be accessed.
Also, a VPN helps to access and download torrents in countries where torrenting sites are blocked. Some ISPs also throttle internet speed connections while downloading torrents, and using a VPN can bypass these limits.
10 Best Free and Paid VPNs for Torrenting
NordVPN
NordVPN is considered by many to be one of the best VPNs available as of now. It does not collect any form of user data, and provides several security features to make the process of downloading torrents safe. It also uses shared IP addresses, and provides unlimited bandwidth.
With industry-leading features like split tunneling, kill switch, up to 6 simultaneous connections, double encryption, NordVPN also supports dedicated P2P servers, which makes it great for downloading torrents. You can get a free trial of NordVPN for 30 days, and it is compatible with most operating systems out there, including Linux, Windows, iOS, macOS, and Android.
Download: NordVPN
Windscribe Free
This is one of the VPN services that you can get started with completely free. It provides support for P2P, and has 10 different server locations to choose from. Along with these, you also get full AES-256 bit encryption, and a VPN kill switch to end your sessions if you lose connectivity to it.
There is no limit on the devices that you can use a single account on. But, there is a limit of 10 GB of data usage every month. Also, the logs stored by Windscribe are very limited, and contain no personally identifiable information.
Download: Windscribe
Hide.me
Hide.me provides a free version of its VPN services, which is a great option to use for torrenting. The no-logging policies and security features are carried on from the paid packs, and you get a 10 GB data cap that you can use completely for free. Hide.me also offers AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN connection protocol.
You also get free apps on every major operating system, like Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, or even directly on your router. The jurisdiction of this VPN service falls under Malaysia, which is considered to be the safest regarding privacy concerns.
Download: Hide.me
Surfshark
Surfshark brings a well-developed and reliable VPN service with servers in over 60 countries. Its main features include AES-256 encryption, port forwarding secrecy, split tunneling, and no bandwidth limits. You get a kill switch to make sure that your torrenting features are hidden from ISPs in case of a network loss.
The VPN protocol used by this service is ‘Wireshark’, which offers increased speeds and reliability. You also get apps for Android, Windows, iOS, Linux, and also supports manual installation on routers.
Download: Surfshark
ExpressVPN
Being amongst the top VPN services on the current market, ExpressVPN brings some of the best features and security for downloading torrents safely. They provide servers in over 94 countries and don’t store any form of logs of the user. It also supports P2P file sharing on every server.
There is also a kill switch present to prevent your torrenting sessions from leaking to your non-anonymous network connection. With ExpressVPN, you also get their own proprietary VPN protocol, ‘Lightspeed’, which provides better speeds and reliability than other competitors. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee so that you can evaluate the service before committing to it.
Download: ExpressVPN
Hotspot Shield Free
This VPN service provides fast connectivity speeds with enhanced security measures for completely free. It works on the ‘Hydra’ VPN protocol, and offers AES-256 bit encryption. There have been no IP or DNS leaks by this service, and there is also a kill switch available to keep your torrenting sessions private.
This VPN provider has also enabled P2P traffic recently, and provides around 60 GB of data cap per month. But your daily downloads are limited to about 500 MB/day. This is enough if you’re torrenting small files or mediocre files over the span of a few days.
Download: Hotspot Shield Free
Avira Phantom Free VPN
If you’re looking for a fast and free VPN that you can use while torrenting, Avira Phantom is a great choice. The features include minimum logging, very high speeds, AES-256 bit encryption and a few others.
You get a kill switch, but no port forwarding with this service. The raw speeds offered by this VPN overshadows the lack of it. Also, you get 1 GB data cap per month, which can be quite limiting if you want to download large files. But, this is indeed one of the completely free options on this list.
Download: Avira Phantom Free VPN
CyberGhost VPN
With CyberGhost, you get P2P-optimized servers and great privacy features to facilitate the download of torrents. Like with the other options, you get a kill switch to maintain anonymity, which can be customized to cut off connections to specific apps.
The speeds offered by this service are quite reliable, and they don’t store any of the logs generated. The app for this VPN service is available on PC, iOS, macOS, Android, and Linux. You get a 45-day money-back guarantee in case you’re not satisfied with the services offered by CyberGhost.
Download: CyberGhost
VPN Gate
This is an unconventional VPN service that works on public relay servers instead of dedicated servers. It can be used completely free, and this service can bypass even those websites which cannot be accessed by traditional VPNs.
The security features include AES-256 bit encryption and an in-built kill switch. There are no client apps available for this service, and you’ll have to use programs like SoftEther, Tunneblick or others to connect to the VPN servers. This can be a bit intimidating for beginners, but if you want a completely free VPN for torrenting, then this is a great option to look out for.
Visit: VPN Gate
IPVanish VPN
With a huge number of servers in various countries, IPVanish VPN is a great choice to use for torrenting purposes. It stores zero logs and offers L2TP and OpenVPN protocols with AES-256 bit encryption.
The bandwidth is unlimited, and the speeds are quite good. It is also used commonly by Kodi users as it is compatible with a lot of the addons available for the streaming service. The P2P-friendly servers are highlighted for ease of use. You also get apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS.
Download: IPVanish VPN
