Best free VPN for torrenting: Can I use it in 2018?

Posted on: 14 January 2018
By: cooltech

P2P and Bittorrent, peers and seeders… If you’ve heard of these terms, there is no need to explain to you what torrenting is for you.

Every internet user is aware of the fact that the issue of torrenting is quite controversial:

on the one hand, it is not illegal, but…

on the other hand, there are lot of restrictions related to such sites.

A VPN service has become a number one tool used for torrenting, and it is hardly to imagine that one downloads torrent files without it. Or it’s you who torrents without a VPN?

If you are a kind of those people who haven’t protected yourself with a VPN while torrenting, you are on the right page, because…

You will find definite answers to 3 questions you might wonder about torrents and VPNs:

#1 Is torrenting illegal? Is it safe?

#2 Why should I torrent with a VPN?

And finally…

#3 Can I use a free VPN for torrenting?

Brief guide to legal issues of torrenting: everything you need to know

Once being created for easy and fast file-sharing, now torrenting is associated with such words as copyright infringement and piracy.

Still, I must say that after some research, I found out that technology itself is not banned, while one may share (intentionally or accidentally) content which is not legal to distribute it for free because of copyright abuse.

If you are an active visitor of such torrent trackers as The Pirate Bay or took use KickassTorrents which is longer ‘’alive’’, you should be aware of copyright trolls or ISPs tracking.

Copyright trolls: who are they?

According to Wikipedia, Copyright troll is

‘’… a party (person or company) that enforces copyrights it owns for purposes of making money through litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic, generally without producing or licensing the works it owns for paid distribution.’’

Why and how do ISPs track torrent users’ activity?

As the issue of torrenting is ambiguous and copyright infringement takes place on the torrent websites, Internet Service Providers may track or even block access to torrent trackers for users in some countries. Various techniques are applied to perform this, among them is DPI which is quite powerful to technology to ‘’look through’’ the torrent traffic.

Both copyright trolls and ISPs may pass the collected information to copyright owners or officers. Bad news for it is that in some countries you may get a warning letter or fine. Want to pay for anything that you probably didn’t do?

Take a look at the chart with legal issues in some countries:

Country	Can I torrent freely in this country?
The USA	Torrenting is not banned, but… Torrenting of copyrighted material is illegal! And… Torrent websites are strictly monitored by the authorities. ISPs are to keep data about torrent trackers’ users for 6, 12 or even 18 months (depends on the provider).
The UK	Many of torrent trackers are blocked, for example, Kickass Torrents, The PirateBay, Demonoid, ISOHunt. ISPs have the right to throttle bandwidth for torrent users or disconnect them from the network. Copyright trolls can follow those who are supposed to abuse copyright trolls.
Australia	Copyright infringement is considered to be a crime there. ISPs have a legal right to inform torrent users of piracy (if they committed it). Most of popular torrent trackers are not accessible.
Germany	Those who download copyrighted files on torrent trackers commit illegal actions. Copyright trolls sue and send warning letters to torrent users downloading copyrighted files.
The Netherlands	Since 2014 it is forbidden by law to download pirating files. These illegal actions can lead to fines.
Canada	According to the Act of 2014, Canadian ISPs are to send warning letters to copyright abusers. The data about such torrent users are kept for half a year. Though warning letters are more for educational purposes, ISPs can turn to throttling as the means of restricting.

Thus, the obvious reasons why to use a VPN for torrenting are:

#1 ISPs, copyright trolls and authorities observe torrent users’ activities.

#2 Torrent users may be accused of piracy and receive warning letters or fines.

#3 A lot of mainstream torrent websites are blocked. You need a VPN simply to access them.

Can you use a free VPN for torrenting?

Using a free VPN for torrenting is as ambiguous as the issue of torrenting itself. Why?

Firstly, users often don’t trust free VPNs

Secondly, they are believed to apply weak encryption.

Thirdly, they are suspected of selling users’ data to third parties.

But…

If you can’t afford to buy a VPN, you can try a free one, but the best free VPN for torrenting. The following criteria will be the tips to choose the best free VPN for torrenting:

No-logging policy
Security (256-bit encryption and OpenVPN are preferred).
Internet speed performing (the faster, the better for downloading files).
No bandwidth limit

I suggest you several free VPN services for torrenting which are selected due to the criteria mentioned above.

Note: as internet speeds via VPN depend on the speed of network connections, we don’t pay attention to this factor in the chart. You need to choose the most secure free VPN or a few of them and only then to take into consideration how fast it is! (We’ll be happy to know your experience!)


No logs (they promise it)
Encryption (256-bit)
OpenVPN is available
Unlimited bandwith

Learn more from my reviews: Betternet, FreeVPN, VPN Gate.

Why I don’t recommend such free VPN services for torrenting as FreeLan and VPNBook

It is better not to use these free VPN apps as online privacy is suspicious with them. FreeLan doesn’t have any information about it. VPNBook’s providers keep logs, but they are deleted weekly.