QBittorrent is a lightweight 100 percent free and open source (FOSS) BitTorrent client. We awarded it our Editor’s Choice award thanks to its combination of having a small install size yet featuring most tools any BitTorrent user might ever need. Arguably, the best of these is the ability to bind.

When you think of BitTorrent, you probably think about piracy. And yeah, it’s used that way a lot—but that’s not all it’s good for. BitTorrent is just a decentralized peer-to-peer transfer protocol, and how you use it is up to you. Here are our favorite free BitTorrent clients.

Are BitTorrents Legal?

BitTorrent, the company that created the BitTorrent protocol, designed it with the aim of making it easy to distribute large amounts of data effectively. The peer-to-peer (P2P) technology enables each person downloading the data also to serve that data to others (a process called “seeding”). This drastically reduces the load on a single server and has many uses aside from downloading pirated material.

So really, BitTorrent is merely a protocol—a tool that, in and of itself, is not at all illegal. It’s what you do with it that matters, just like owning a hammer isn’t illegal, but hitting someone over the head with it is. If you’re considering downloading copyrighted content, that’s illegal.

But there are also great legal uses for BitTorrent, too. A lot of software distributors—particular those that distribute the various versions of Linux—use BitTorrent to do so. You can even use BitTorrent yourself to more easily share large files with friends and family around the world.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the few of the best free BitTorrent clients around.

RELATED:How Does BitTorrent Work?

Qbittorrent: The Best Overall BitTorrent Client

Back in the day, we had a wonderful BitTorrent client named uTorrent that was super lightweight and packed with features. Somewhere along the way, BitTorrent, Inc. bought uTorrent and loaded it up with crapware and advertisements.

In the wake of that, qBittorrent came on the scene. It was designed to be a free, open-source alternative to uTorrent and it pretty much fits that bill. qBittorrent isn’t the most powerful BitTorrent client out there, but it’s still one of our favorites.

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That’s because it’s a simple product that does its job well. It doesn’t have loads of extra features or available plugins like some other clients, but it does have essential features like a web-based remote control, prioritization of torrents, IP filtering, selective file download, and even creating torrents.

qBittorrent is lightweight, fast, ad-free, and open source. It’s also cross-platform, and you’ll find versions available for Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and more.

If you’re looking for a simple torrent client with essential features, qBitTorrent is an excellent choice.

Vuze: A Great BitTorrent Client for Beginners

What Is The Best Bittorrent Client

Vuze is a simple and feature-packed BitTorrent client. Its main advantage is its interface. Unlike other BitTorrent clients that cram all their settings together, the Vuze interface is surprisingly simple to understand, even the text in the application seems written for beginners. It also includes a built-in search feature and supports numerous plug-ins for additional functionality.

Vuze comes in a free or paid version. The free version (simply named Vuze) is ad-supported, but the ads are not intrusive.

The paid version (Vuze Plus, $29.99 per year) removes those ads and offers a few additional features. The is DVD burning. If you still use DVDs, that might be important to you.

The second additional feature in Vuze Plus is built-in antivirus protection powered by Bitdefender. If you download content from unknown sources, this might be useful. You can also decline to install this antivirus during setup if you’d rather not use it.

The third additional feature and the most important one in our opinion is built-in video streaming. You can start playing or streaming videos right from Vuze, even while they’re still downloading in some cases.

Vuze is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Deluge: A Customizable BitTorrent Client for Power Users

Deluge looks like most other BitTorrent clients when you first install it but don’t let its simple looks fool you. It’s a powerful BitTorrent client with some fantastic features.

Deluge is designed to be a minimal BitTorrent client out of the gate, but hugely extensible through the use of plugins. The company behind it offers some official plugins, and there is also a broad ecosystem of third-party plugins available as well. The idea here is that instead of a feature-packed BitTorrent client, you get a client that you can pack with the features you want.

Deluge is free and ad-free, and it’s the perfect client if you like to tinker around and experiment with new features.

Deluge is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD Unix.

So, those are our favorite free BitTorrent clients. Have any you want to recommend?

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Whether you side with the anti-piracy brigade or the “free movies for everyone” brigade is irrelevant. Yes, torrent sites do facilitate illegal file sharing, but they also provide a way to obtain legitimate copyright-free content.

The Pirate Bay used to the be world’s top torrent site, but a string of legal battles means the site is now a shadow of its former self.

If you want some of the best alternatives to The Pirate Bay for free torrents, keep reading.

Downloading Torrents: A Warning

MakeUseOf does not condone using torrents to obtain content illegally. Using the following sites for illegal purposes is done entirely at your own risk. MakeUseOf takes no responsibility for any legal problems you encounter.

In almost every country in the world, it is illegal to download torrents of copyright-protected movies, games, TV shows, and music if you do not already legitimately own the content. Doing so is intellectual property theft. Using torrents for illegal downloads can put you at risk of losing your internet connection, receiving a fine, or even getting a custodial sentence.

1. RARBG

RARBG has become one of the most well-established names in the torrenting world. The site focuses on high-quality video releases and has a vast amount of content available.

RARBG also offers a rudimentary but effective way to find new files thanks to its “Top 10” lists across a variety of categories.

The site’s popularity has led to it become one of the most-visited domains on the web. It consistently ranks in the top 350 on Alexa.

2. 1337x.to

1337x is one of the most well-designed alternatives to The Pirate Bay; you can easily filter the different types of torrent files using the button at the bottom of the screen.

The site has endured various legal battles. It’s not been available in Google Search results since a 2015 request from Feelgood Entertainment. It is, however, still searchable through privacy-focused search enginesAvoid Google and Bing: 7 Alternative Search Engines That Value PrivacyAvoid Google and Bing: 7 Alternative Search Engines That Value PrivacyIs search engine privacy important to you? If so, forget about Google and Bing and consider using one of these privacy-focused search engines instead.Read More like DuckDuckGo.

1337x.to has developed a reputation for providing access to obscure and hard-to-find torrents.

3. YTS.AM

The YIFY group (also known as YTS), was a group dedicated to releasing torrents of popular movies. The videos were renowned for being high-quality with small file sizes.

Perhaps predictably, legal action from Motion Picture Association of America saw the group get shut down in 2015. YTS.AM is the rebirth of the YIFY group and is commonly regarded as its natural successor.

4. TorLock

Torlock is another great Pirate Bay alternative.

The site offers some of the most reliable torrent downloads. Much of its index was created during a period when users were paid $1 for every fake link they reported—though we can’t see any information that suggests the offer is still in place.

Torlock also claims to offer a strict privacy policy. The developers do not log any of your actions and don’t track you around the web. The same cannot necessarily be said for other torrent download sites.

Lastly, it appears like Torlock is one of the few free torrent sites that care about legality. It promises to respond to all DCMA takedown notices within three days.

5. KickassTorrents

KickassTorrents isn’t the site it once was. It’s a far cry from the time when The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents were duking it out to be the number one torrent site on the web. Indeed, in 2014, KickassTorrents was the most popular torrent site in the world.

The site’s demise began in 2016 after US authorities seized the domain, but it’s since risen from the ashes.

Although the library of torrent files in the site’s index has shrunk from its peak, KickassTorrents remains a reliable site that’s easy to navigate and download the files that you need.

6. LimeTorrents

Another site that’s grown in popularity over the last couple of years, LimeTorrents is definitely worth checking out if you’re struggling to find a particular torrent that you want.

Navigation is straightforward—there are filters for Movies, Music, TV shows, Games, Apps, and Anime, as well as specialist tools such as top torrent lists, a cloud search, and torrent health trackers.

7. Zooqle

Zooqle is a relative newcomer on the list of best torrent sites, but it’s become instantly popular thanks to its 4.2 million verified torrents, 6.9 PB of data, and a solid mix of software and video content.

Perhaps uniquely, the Zooqle community of users has played a significant role in the way the site looks and behaves. The result is an easy-to-navigate home page and—for anyone who creates an account—live RSS feeds and subscriptions.

8. Torrentz2

Music lovers should check out the content available on Torrentz2.eu. The metasearch engine combines results from dozens of search engines to offer you an extensive list of files.

Of course, the Torrentz brand name has been around for more than a decade. It was the second most popular torrent site on the web in both 2012 and 2015 before being shut down.

Today, this Pirate Bay alternative keep a low profile and specializes in audio files.

If you want added security, Torrentz2 is also available as an onion site through the Tor router.

9. EZTV

Like the YIFY group, EZTV was a group that created torrent files and made them available on other popular torrent sites.

When KickassTorrents ran into legal difficulties, EZTV decided to take the operation in-house and launched its own alternative to The Pirate Bay.

From a design standpoint, the site is not as easy to use as some of its rivals; it is the quality and variety of the torrents that keeps people coming back.

10. Torrents.io

Formerly known as Torrents.me, the site acts as an aggregator for many of the other best torrent sites on the web. It includes results from The Pirate Bay, 1337x, RARBG, and more.

Uniquely, Torrents.io offers search trends for various torrents on charts of the homepage. The data gives you some fresh insight into the most popular torrents in the world at any given moment.

Foreign Language Torrents

If English isn’t your primary language, don’t worry. Here are three non-English torrent sites:

• Mejor Torrent (Spanish): The user interface isn’t great, but with 25 million users it’s comfortably the most popular Spanish torrent site in the world.
• LostFilmTV (Russian): Despite the English-sounding name, LostFilmTV is the most popular torrent site for Russian content after the closure of Rutracker.
• Torrent9 (French): Torrent9 boasts more than two million French torrents. It’s popular in France, Belgium, and Canada.

The Best Pirate Bay Alternative

The 10 sites in our list should be enough to find the torrent that you want. But which is the best Pirate Bay alternative? It’s not an easy choice—torrent sites are continually changing and evolving. If we had to pick, we’d say the design and number of torrents on 1337x give it the edge.

You should always use a VPN when downloading torrents. We recommend ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

To learn more, check out our articles on the best underground torrent sites you didn’t know aboutTop 6 Underground Torrent Search Engines You Never Knew AboutTop 6 Underground Torrent Search Engines You Never Knew AboutYou need specialized search engines to find legal torrents, foreclosed houses, public records, and even UFOs. Enter the dark web.Read More and the best torrent clients to replace uTorrentThe Best Torrent Clients to Replace uTorrentThe Best Torrent Clients to Replace uTorrentAre you still using uTorrent? It's time to switch to a cleaner and more trustworthy BitTorrent client. Here are the best uTorrent alternatives for Windows, Mac, and Linux.Read More.

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1. Quite a few of these are either blocked via court order or blocked via hijacked DNS here in Australia.

2. There are a lot of The Pirate Bay proxy mirrors there - piratebay-proxy-list.com, for example. TPB is still the best tracker out there!

3. Who told you that rutracker is closed? It is up and running - rutracker.org

4. KickassTorrents has become kind of subdued. Some of the torrents are expired. Some torrents have lost their peers (both sides).

5. TPB is working just fine.

6. How you came across the ranking perhaps if from alexa or content/quality/rare torrents or so rankings, it is sad to see you have left the best.