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Torrenting in itself isn’t illegal. It’s just a form of technology that facilitates file sharing. However, most torrent websites host pirated content, which makes those sites illegal. This has led to many governments and ISPs to block most torrent websites, with some ISPs even blocking P2P traffic altogether. Thankfully, VPNs are there for us to use. With the best free VPN for torrenting 2018, you can unblock all torrent websites and download any content.
Privacy & Security while Torrenting
The blockage of torrent websites by governments and ISPs isn’t the only reason why you need to look for the best VPN for torrenting. Streaming of pirated content is illegal and can put you on the wrong side of the authorities. Depending on your region, you can end up receiving a DMCA notice. Your ISP can also decide to throttle your internet as they can always see what you are doing on the internet. Thankfully, all these concerns can be averted by the use of a private and secure VPN.
Free VPNs & Torrenting
Ever heard of the phrase, “There’s nothing like a free lunch?” Well, even if you haven’t, it’s good to know that you always get what you pay for. And if you don’t pay anything, then you are the product!
Hosting and running a VPN is quite expensive, and nobody would do it for charity. The so-called ‘free VPNs’ are therefore not entirely free, as they use adverts and various restrictions to continue offering you service. Some even sell your data to third parties for analysis and marketing! If you don’t like restrictions & ads, check out these Paid VPNs. That said, there are still some decent free VPNs that just limit what you can do. Here are some of comprises you’ll have to do with:
Server Locations
Unlike with a Premium VPN, you will always face server restrictions with a free VPN. Most free VPNs restrict users to a few servers in about 4 countries. With such servers, you can expect to be clogged with other users in the same server. This will bring down your speeds, making it hard to download large files.
Bandwidth Limits
To preserve resources, all reputable free VPNs for torrenting impose bandwidth caps. Most free VPNs cap your data at about 2 GB a month. This isn’t enough to download content for the whole month, which is quite inconveniencing. Your speeds will also be limited, regardless of how fast your connection is.
Privacy & Security
With torrents, you need a VPN that is not going to expose your identity by keeping logs. Unfortunately, most free VPNs can’t promise you that, as they need the logs to control your usage. Most of them also use security standards that aren’t secure, in order to remain within the budget.
If you would rather pay for a VPN to be free of restrictions and ads, checkout these premium VPN.
Top 2 Free VPNs for Torrenting
If the above restrictions don’t bother you, here is a list of the best free VPNs for torrenting. These free VPNs allow torrents and are somewhat private and secure.
1. Windscribe VPN
Windscribe is one of the best free VPN for torrenting. The VPN only started in 2016, but it’s now one of the most popular free as well as paid VPNs. Unfortunately, the VPN is based in Canada, which is one of the FVEY countries. Nevertheless, they still promise not to log your activities.
Windscribe free plan is quite fast for a free VPN, and it offers speeds of up to 30 Mbps. Your data transfer is limited to 2 GB, but with a confirmed email address, you get up to 10 GB a month. Your server options are also limited to 10 countries: US, Canada, UK, France, Hong Kong, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania, and Norway.
Free Plan Limitations:
- 10 servers
- 10 GB Data transfer
- Speed: Up to 30Mb/s
2. Hide.me VPN
Hide.me VPN is a pretty decent free and paid VPN based in Malaysia, which is a good location for a VPN. This helps the VPN keep Zero logs, and they also promise this to the free users. The free version of Hide.me VPN allows you to torrent anonymously. However, you are usually limited to only three servers: Netherlands, Canada, and Singapore.
This kind of limitation normally has a negative impact on the speeds you get. Your data transfer will also be limited to only 2GB a month, which means you can’t really download a lot of stuff. You can’t use SoftEther or OpenVPN (the standard VPN protocol) with a free subscription, but the provided IKEv2 is pretty secure.
Free Plan Limitations:
- 3 server locations
- 2 GB Data transfer
- 1 simultaneous connection
Top 2 Premium VPNs for Torrenting (No limitations)
If you are on a budget, you can still enjoy premium VPN without a real cost. This is thanks to a no-questions-asked money back guarantee offered by some top VPNs. You can enjoy up to 30 days of free premium VPN with the top two VPNs for torrenting listed below.
1. ExpressVPN
This is the best VPN for torrenting, as well as the overall best VPN in 2018. The VPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which is not under the jurisdiction of the invasive UK privacy laws. This helps the VPN keep its promise of a strict zero logs policy.
ExpressVPN has an impressive server network of 2000+ servers in 94 countries spread across 148 VPN locations. Its huge number of servers helps you get torrenting servers in most of the countries that don’t have strict data retention policies. With ExpressVPN, you’ll enjoy features like split tunneling, automatic killswitch, multiple protocols, and DNS & IPv6 Leak protection. We’ve managed to get an exclusive 49% of ExpressVPN.
Highlights:
- Super Speeds
- Unlimited Data usage (Bandwidth)
- 2,000+ VPN servers in 94 countries
- P2P / BitTorrent allowed
- 3 simultaneous connections on multiple devices
- No-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee
Best Deal:$12.95$6.67/mo for 15 Months
30-Days Money-Back Guarantee
30-Days Money-Back Guarantee
2. NordVPN
NordVPN is the other top choice for the best VPN for torrenting. The VPN is registered in Panama, a country that is very friendly to the privacy of internet users. NordVPN therefore confidently promises to offer you a zero log service.
NordVPN has the biggest server network among all VPNs. The VPN boasts 5100+ servers spread across 62 countries. This big number of servers ensures that you can always get very high and stable torrenting speeds. With NordVPN, you can choose torrenting servers from a category of special servers. You will also be able to enjoy other features like automatic killswitch, Onion over Tor, double VPN, multiple protocols, and DNS & IPv6 Leak Protection.
Highlights:
- Very high speeds
- Biggest server network
- 24/7 Customer Care
- 6 simultaneous connections
- Hassle-free 30-day money back guarantee
Best Deal:$11.95$2.99/mo for 3 years plan
30-Days Money-Back Guarantee
30-Days Money-Back Guarantee
Wrap Up
With a VPN, you can circumvent all ISP restrictions placed on torrenting, as well as remain private and secure while downloading torrents. However, for the latter, you’ll need a VPN with a Kill switch, a feature that you won’t get for free. Without that, your identity will be exposed in case of a disconnection. While you can torrent to some extent with some of the best free VPNs for torrenting, getting one of the premium VPNs above will prove worth every cent. You can even take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee and torrent free!
There are actually a few VPN providers with 100% free plans that allow torrents. But I’m going to be brutally honest up front. There are some tradeoffs when you choose a Free provider vs a reliable paid one. Because when you use a free product, you generally get what you pay for, and sometimes less.
That’s why many of our readers choose NordVPN, which offers impressive privacy, fast speeds, and torrent-friendly service at a lower price than their competitors. In fact, NordVPN topped our list of the best cheap VPN services. It even includes a torrent-capable SOCKS proxy service.
But I get it. You want a Free VPN for torrents and p2p privacy. Read on, brave soul.
When ‘Free’ VPNs aren’t really free
There’s no such thing as a ‘Free VPN’. Not truly.
Servers cost money. Bandwidthcosts money. Network security experts, advertising, websites, tech support staff and legal fees cost money.
Any VPN provider that gives you free VPN service is paying actual $$$ to provide you with the service, so they must be getting something valuable out of the deal.
Because of this fact, it’s crucial that you know who’s on the other side of this transaction (Who’s providing my VPN service?) and what is their benefit in this trade.
After all, you’re using a VPN for security purposes, and you’re placing alot of trust in that VPN provider. Since they have complete access to 100% of your data stream through their network, you need to be able to trust them completely.
Reasons a VPN might offer free VPN Service
We list a number of reasons someone might offer you free VPN service. While some are more likely than others, none are completely outrageous. Even the scarier ones can (and probably have) happened.
They may offer you Free VPN Service Because…
- They hope you’ll eventually upgrade to a paid plan (most likely option)
- They force you to watch advertising to cover the VPN costs (also common)
- They monitor your internet usage and sell the data to advertisers
- They’re a government agency that wants access to more encrypted data
- They’re a group of hackers, looking to steal your data, passwords & identity
Specific examples of Free VPNs being dangerous or insecure
You don’t just have to take my word for it. In the past 3 years, there have been multiple scandals involving ‘free’ VPN providers. Here are some of the highlights:
HolaVPN: HolaVPN (which is basically an encrypted browser extension masquerading as a VPN) was reported to be selling user’s connections for use in botnet attacks. Yes, really.
Insecure Android VPNs: Researchers did an in-depth analysis of the traffic on many ‘Free’ VPN apps listed in the google play store. They found that a the majority of them had security flaws (some even contained malware). And a significant number didn’t even encrypt your traffic (the entire point of a VPN).
All free VPNs have limitations, risks and performance issues.
Even if you can find a reputable VPN provider that offers free VPN service (and allows torrents) you’re almost certainly going to face some limitations regarding your VPN usage.
The most common limitations of Free VPN’s:
- Speed – Many free VPN’s cap your speed at 1-3mbps
- Bandwidth usage – You may be limited to a few GB of data/month
- Logs – Most free VPN’s keep logs that can be used to identify individual users based on their activity. It’s also quite common to pass that info on to 3rd-parties who request it, or to allow the forwarding of DMCA notices.
- Servers – you will often be limited 1 or a few server locations. These servers will usually be very crowded (and slow).
- No Torrents – Most VPN’s that allow torrents on their paid plans will block still them on their free plans.
The Best VPNs that allow torrenting on their Free plans
So you’re still waiting to see what’s behind door #2? I can’t blame you. ‘Free’ is a powerful word.
These are the best available zero-log providers we’ve found who still offer free plans:
Hide.me VPN
Hide.me VPN offers both Free and Premimum VPN plans. The premium plan includes unlimited bandwidth and comes with Socks5 proxy service as well. Hide.me states that they keep no logs for either the free or premium plans. Users remain anonymous.
Hide.me gives all users (including free plans) their easy-to-use VPN software that makes it quick and easy to connect to the VPN server of your choice.
![Free bittorrent vpn Free bittorrent vpn](/uploads/1/1/8/8/118879313/736366361.jpg)
The free VPN plan comes with the following limitations:
- 2GB of data transfer
- 2 server locations (premium has 23)
- Slower speeds (premium is unlimited speed)
- No OpenVPN protocol (you still get PPTP, SSTP, or L2TP)
Try Hide.me
Windscribe VPN
Windscribe VPN is a Canadian VPN provider that has made a dent in the low-end VPN market. They claim not to keep any logs of activity, and their software is quite good. Windscribe is also one of the last remaining VPNs that works reliably with Netflix without generating the dreaded ‘proxy error’. (Hint: NordVPN is another that works flawlessly with Netflix).
Unfortunately, speeds are mediocre even on the paid tiers, probably because they’ve opted to sell a large number of ‘lifetime VPN plans’ which end up eating a ton of bandwidth over time without generating any extra revenue.
But the good news is: You can try out their service 100% free, no credit card required. Yipee!
Netflix Compatible: Also, it’s worth mentioning that Windscribe has a built-in SmartDNS feature called WindFlix, which is specifically designed to easily access Netflix from anywhere in the world. It works great!
Free Plan Details:
![Vpn Vpn](/uploads/1/1/8/8/118879313/405929264.jpg)
- Limited to 10 server locations (still pretty good)
- ‘Best-effort’ bandwidth (so…slowish).
- Torrents are not specifically forbidden or blocked
- Up to 10GB of bandwidth/month with a valid email address, 2GB without.
Try Windscribe
Cyberghost VPN (torrents now blocked on free plan)
CyberGhost VPN is a NON-LOGGING VPN provider that offers both free and paid VPN plans.
Their Free VPN option is very popular because you still get unlimited monthly data transfer (most free plans are limited) As a result, Cyberghost is an excellent free choice for private, secure torrents.
2018 UPDATE: Torrent ports are now blocked on Cyberghost Free (torrents are allowed on the paid plans)
The free plan has a few limitations:
- Slower speeds (Paid plan is up to 5x faster)
- No mobile VPN app
- 1 connected device at a time (Paid plans offer up to 5)
- Ad supported (you must watch occasional ads)
Free Torrenting Vpn
April 2019 Update: Cyberghost has discontinued their free tier, but introduced a 3-year $2.75/month deal for their paid service. You can also claim a 100% refund within 30 days.
Try Cyberghost
Other FREE methods for torrent privacy
There are a couple free methods besides a VPN that you can use to hide your torrent IP address. The first (i2p) is recommended while the second option (Tor) is not.
i2P
This protocol is alot like the Tor onion Network, except they welcome torrent traffic (encourage it actually) and don’t block magnet links. Even better, it’s built right into the Vuze torrent client, so you can enable it with a single click.
Now for the bad news: speeds of 30-50kbps (yes, that’s 0.3mbps) are typical. It’s slow. (It’s totally Free tho 😉
Installation: The Vuze Wiki shows exactly how to install the i2p helper plugin from inside vuze, then you can simply enable the i2p network in vuze from: Menu > Options > Connection > Networks
More Info: There’s a great article about i2P (and how to use it for torrenting) at The Tin Hat.
Tor onion network
The Tor network is just a series of encrypted SOCKS proxies layered on top of each other, so in theory it would work for obscuring your torrent activity. But there are two caveats:
- There’s no Tor support built into Vuze, uTorrent or any major torrent client
- The Tor network is run by volunteers for the purpose of circumventing government censorship and spying. Not so you can avoid a $4/month VPN subscription fee.
Bottom Line: We don’t recommend using Tor (use i2P instead). However we do have a guide on using Tor for torrents if you’re interested.
5 Reasons to use a Paid VPN for downloading torrents
Reason #1: Unlimited Everything
As you probably noticed, every free VPN limits something, and usually it comes with alot of limitations. Most VPN’s don’t even allow torrents to begin with, and only a very small minority of free VPN’s allow torrenting.
With the right premium VPN service you’ll get:
- Unlimited monthly data transfer
- Unlimited speeds (get the most out of your fast broadband connection)
- No limitations on ports, protocols, or VPN software
- No torrent blocking or throttling
Reason #2: Trust & Accountability
When you pay someone for a product or service, they have a legal obligation to honor their guarantees (privacy, logging policy, security, etc..). You’re contract with a free VPN provider, however, is almost completely one-sided, and the free VPN provider usually has little or no accountability to their users.
A premium VPN service (Such as NordVPN or Private Internet Access) has built its entire reputation on protecting the privacy of their users. If they violate they trust just once it could cost them millions of dollars in lost subscriber fees.
A free VPN has no financial incentive to protect their users privacy, so if facing any sort of legal pressure, they will often either cancel your free account and/or violate your privacy and cough up your IP address to whoever’s asking.
(If the VPN is truly a non-logging free vpn service, they aren’t able to identify your true IP address retroactively, but be aware that there are many VPN’s that claim to be ‘non-logging’ when in fact they do keep connection logs sufficient to identify individual users. This article on VPN logs can explain it even better.
Reason #3: A High quality VPNs subscription is pretty darn cheap
Most VPN providers offer month-to-month service at prices starting under $10/month. Some excellent non-logging VPN’s like PIA and NordVPN, offer VPN service for under $4/month when purchasing a 1-year (or longer) subscription.
Consider these average costs:
- TV + Internet Bill – $100/month
- Mobile Phone Service – $50+/month (mine is over $100)
- Netflix subscription – $12/month
- Starbucks Latte – $5
- Private Internet Access VPN – $3.49/month
- NordVPN 3-year deal – $2.99/month
That’s right, you can buy security, anonymity, and peace of mind for less than the price of a CUP OF COFFEE!
Does it sound like I’m trying to sell you on NordVPN? I am. I really am. Why? Because I believe in their service.
As a professional VPN reviewer, I get VPN accounts for free whenever I want them, but I actually pay for my annual Nord subscription, and I use it almost daily. It’s fast, it’s secure, it’s anonymous, and it Just. Plain. Works.
Convinced?Take advantage of the NordVPN’s $2.75/month offer while it still lasts.
Want more options or information? Check out the articles below. And don’t miss our full NordVPN review (and complete torrent setup guide).
Free Vpn For Bittorrent
In Summary:
There are a few free VPNs that will let you download torrents without banning your account. We had the best results with Windscribe and would recommend them #1. Hide.me is also decent but their 2GB data cap makes it a less viable option.
Just be aware of the trade-offs you make when you choose ‘free’ services, especially when it comes to privacy and performance. And when you’re ready, man-up and upgrade to a real torrent VPN.
Free P2p Vpn Software
If you know of any other free, torrent-friendly VPNs that should be featured in this article, please notify us in the comments below!
Ryan McCarthy
Ryan is the editor and head reviewer. He's been a tech geek and digital privacy enthusiast since the Y2k freakout in '99. When not writing BitTorrent tutorials, he can usually be found sipping a lager or playing pickup football (the real kind).