The 30 Best Torrent Download Sites of 2013

Where Users Go to Find Music and Movie Files.

By Paul Gil, About.com Guide

 

NOTE: this list is in random order. Special thanks to all the readers who contribute their recommendations so that this list stays current.


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.

 

1.     Monova.org: this service is another example of clean and simple interface style. Additionally, Monova goes beyond torrents to also index newsgroup sites (e.g. alt.binaries.highspeed), which can sometimes be faster than torrent swarm downloads. Advertising is as unobtrusive as possible on the Monova pages themselves. Popup adult advertising will be a turn off for some users, but if you can work around that, this search service has a strong catalog of modern torrents.
 

 

2.     SeedPeer.me: SeedPeer is a very large database of over 3 million torrent files. The search interface is simple, and the keyword cloud map helps as a discovery means to find interesting movies, tv shows, and music artists. Fans speak very highly of SeedPeer, so do consider trying it out.
 

 

3.     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.
 

4.     TorrentDownloads.Net: with over 6 million torrent files in its catalog, this site is considered the second-largest torrent index on the Web today. To help you navigate the sheer magnitude of its database, TorrentDownloads also  publishes a filter to see only those torrents that have passed verification testing.
 

Recommended: Protect your file-sharing identity by using a VPN connection.

 

5.     Kick Ass Torrents (KAT.ph): 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.
 

 

6.     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.
 

 

7.     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.
 

 

8.     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.
 

Related: What It's Like to Be a Torrent P2P Administrator - See About.com's interview with Jack, the co-owner of Torlock.com.

9.     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.
 

 

10.  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.
 

11.  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.

12.  Vertor: this torrent service claims to filter out bad torrents, viruses, DRM locks, passwords, and fakes.

13.  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.

14.  RARBG.com: RARBG is a very small torrent site, with less than a half-million torrents in its index. Nevertheless, 4 users at About.com have recommended that RARBG be a community on your search for good P2P experiences. Perhaps try them and give us feedback on if agree with their opinions of the service.

 

15.  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.

 

16.  Thunderbytes: this private site is a smaller community, which is good for reducing the     number of false torrents.  You can join Thunderbytes by either getting sponsored by an existing member, or by becoming a donating sponsor yourself.

 

17.  Toorgle.com: Toorgle is a torrent metasearch engine based on Google technology. Like any metasearch service, your searches result from multiple other search engines on the Web. Toorgle retrieves the location of these files for you as a kind of matchmaking service. It's quick to use and can help you find rare or obscure torrents. Just make sure you are careful in which torrent you choose at Toorgle; because Toorgle will show results from dodgy torrent sites, take the time to check that a torrent has positive comments and is verified by users before you download. Careful and experienced users comment that Toorgle can be very helpful, if you know how to pick the good torrents from the bad.

 

18.  btscene.com: btscene is a longtime player in the file sharing game. This website does have annoying popups and adult advertising, but it does offer a solid library of torrents. It does a good job of featuring very recent torrents (good for people who follow television shows), and presenting many browsing choices at a glance.

 

19.  1337X.org: This is a very clean-looking site, with a nice presentation of the comment count for each of your search results. The database is less than a million torrents as of November 2012, but several readers have recommended 1337X.

 

20.  Isohunt.com: Isohunt is a longtime site that has earned both the respect of P2P users everywhere...and the negative attention of the recording industry. While being sued by the CRIA, the Isohunt team fights to continue its solid service. The Isohunt community helps by monitoring itself for fake files. When choosing your torrents, definitely read the user comments, and only trust those files that have earned multiple green positive replies at Isohunt. Avoid any torrents that have red font numbers and negative comments, and you should be have good experiences at Isohunt. NOTE: adult advertising has become very prevalent at Isohunt, but if you can put up with the skimpily-clad girls, this site continues to be one of the true standout torrent services.

 

21.  BitSnoop.com: is the largest known database of torrents today.  With over 18 million indexed files, one could argue that this is the only site you'd need to search at.  Try BitSnoop for yourself and see how it presents its results with its comments and ratings... you might like this site as much as other readers do.

 

22.  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.

 

23.  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.

 

24.  Fenopy.eu: has some compelling features. Fenopy has a Spartan and clean interface, and a portion of its library is dedicated to verified torrents. Easy sorting of the tabular results and a catalog of the most popular torrents will please most users. Advertising does pop up and distract, but no more than other torrent sites. Definitely give Fenopy.eu a try.

 

25.  TorrentZap: at ~2 million torrents indexed, TorrentZap is not as large of a catalog as other torrent search engines (e.g. Fenopy.eu has over 5 million torrents). And, as with all sites, you need to endure advertising at TorrentZap to keep it a no-cost service. But the interface is clean, bright, and easy to navigate. Try this site out, skip past the 'external search results' to find the real torrents at TorrentZap, and let us know what you think.

 

26.  Nowtorrents.com: Now Torrents (allegedly) offers a special service: it filters out fake/dead torrents. It also offers date-range searching, so you can search for specific years of content (e.g. Flight of the Conchords, 2008).

 

27.  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.

 

28.  Torrentz.com: this metasearch engine may look a bit amateurish, but it works well. It conveniently scours other torrent search sites for you, arguably saving you 20 minutes of search time when you are seeking that one particular song or movie.

 

29.  Torrentcafe.com: this site needs to grow its user base some more. But Torrentcafe comes highly recommended by several About.com readers, so please give it a try and let us know how you like it.

 

30.  YourBitTorrent.com: this site has gone through changes over the years. The sponsored download links are annoying, especially for beginners who are not used to visually filtering out the paid advertising links. But readers at About.com have spoken highly of this site. If you are an intermediate or advanced downloader, visit YouBitTorrent and decide for yourself if you like the interface.