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Top 3 VPNs for Torrenting in 2020

Today’s article is about how to choose the best VPN for torrenting, and if you’re wondering why you would need such a service, well, keep reading. Torrenting, also known as P2P (peer to peer) file sharing, is one of the main reasons for which the internet has become so popular in its early days, and I am talking about the paleo-internet era of the late 90’s-early 2000’s, i.e. prior to the introduction of live-streaming services, such as YouTube, Netflix and the like (video on demand that is). And, even if we’re (still) living in the golden-age of information, with broadband/lightning-fast internet becoming increasingly cheaper, better and readily available almost everywhere in the world, there are some serious issues to be addressed with regard to P2P sharing.

The main problem with torrenting in legalese is that you are not allowed to share copyrighted digital media with others, even if you paid for the respective stuff initially. Basically, if you want to share a movie you bought on DVD with your friend in South Africa using a P2P client, that’s called copyright infringement, and lately, Big Brother and their corporate friends (read political donors) have started to hit hard on internet felons, even if the entertainment industry is booming, as their profits are getting bigger and bigger year over year, internet piracy be damned.

The point being, if you don’t want to receive an unpleasant notice from your internet service provider (they may throttle your bandwidth as punishment), or even worse, to be served with a subpoena for copyright infringement (a serious offense in the US or the UK), first, it would be a good idea not to engage in illegal activities in the first place, as our website does not encourage readers to break copyright law in any way, shape or form. However, if you don’t want to share your internet activity with your ISP or with the “Feral Gummint” (they’re the same thing basically), it would be a good idea to consider using a high-quality VPN service while surfing the interwebz.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST VPN FOR TORRENTING

There’s an old saying about the best things in life and free stuff. Unfortunately, that old philosophy does not apply to this particular case. Don’t get me wrong, there are some decent free VPN services out there, but they all come with caveats in regard to speed and privacy. Even if you’re using the best torrent clients, a free VPN service used for torrenting will dramatically diminish your download speed, and you can take that to the bank. The same principle stands true if you’re looking for a VPN for gaming: the free ones will certainly disappoint you when it comes to lag/ping and things of that nature. So, here are the basics when it comes to choosing the best VPN for torrenting:

SPEED

First, there’s the aforementioned speed issue. Depending on your monthly usage, some VPN providers may throttle your bandwidth, so look for services that explicitly mention there’s no speed/bandwidth cap in their terms of service.

P2P OPTIMIZED SERVERS

Second, look for a VPN service provider that offers P2P optimized servers, preferably located in “foreign” countries (as in other than your own). The point being, it is extremely difficult to monitor one’s internet activity by following the respective individual through different jurisdictions. Consider that an extra layer of security, on top of the VPN’s encryption.

SECURITY

Moreover, not all countries are torrent friendly, as in some are constantly spying on their citizens (especially the US and the UK), while others like Mexico, Spain, Hong Kong, Switzerland or the Netherlands, are more privacy oriented. The idea is, choose a VPN service with servers all over the world, and pay extra attention to their security protocols; for example, the L2TP/IPsec tunneling protocol with 256-bit encryption is one of the best out there, offering bank-grade encryption. Also, be extra careful when it comes to their data logging policy. The best policy is a no-log policy.

With all these things considered, here are our top picks in regards to the best VPNs for torrenting out there, to suit anyone’s needs and budget, in no particular order: