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Torrenting is the one VPN use where a single failure has a cost: your address in a public swarm, logged by a monitoring firm, turned into a settlement demand. So this page ranks on the things that fail — the kill switch, the logging policy, the jurisdiction — before it ranks on speed, and it links the torrent IP tool that shows what your client is actually announcing.
Private Internet Access64 Port forwarding, unlimited devices, a kill switch with a firewall-level 'always' mode, and a no-logs claim that has been tested in US court twice with nothing to produce.
Proton VPN81 Port forwarding on P2P servers, a permanent kill switch, open-source audited apps, and a Swiss non-profit owner in a jurisdiction that does not participate in copyright disclosure orders.
Mullvad69 No account email, cash or Monero payment, Swedish jurisdiction with a court record of having nothing to hand over, and a kill switch that is on by default and cannot be disabled by a crash.
Open-source apps, court-proven no-logs, unlimited devices; US-based and Kape-owned.
64
Owner
Kape Technologiesalso owns review sites
Jurisdiction
United States · Five Eyes
No-logs audit
Deloitte, 2022 (report not public)
Price
from $2.03/mo · renewal price unconfirmed
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
Port forwarding, unlimited devices, a kill switch with a firewall-level 'always' mode, and a no-logs claim that has been tested in US court twice with nothing to produce. All apps open source. The complete torrenting feature set at the lowest long-term price on the page.
US jurisdiction and Kape ownership. Port forwarding is not available on US servers.
Swiss, non-profit-controlled, open source, with the only free tier worth using.
81
Owner
Proton Foundation
Jurisdiction
Switzerland · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
None — apps audited by Securitum, 2025
Price
from $4.49/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
Port forwarding on P2P servers, a permanent kill switch, open-source audited apps, and a Swiss non-profit owner in a jurisdiction that does not participate in copyright disclosure orders. The privacy-first torrenting pick.
Port forwarding requires the Plus plan and is per-session; slower than PIA on distant servers.
Privacy & trust
73
Features
98
Price & renewal
77
Speed (our tests)
—
Controlled by a Swiss non-profit foundation since 2024
All apps open source and independently audited
Free tier with no data cap and no ads
Renewal is higher than the intro price
Free tier cannot choose a country
Speeds trail NordVPN and ExpressVPN in most tests
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 68/100 from 101,311 ratingsFull reviewVisit Proton VPN
Flat €5 a month, no email required, accepts cash; the privacy benchmark.
69
Owner
Amagicom AB
Jurisdiction
Sweden · Fourteen Eyes
No-logs audit
None — apps audited by Cure53, 2024
Price
from $5.40/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
No account email, cash or Monero payment, Swedish jurisdiction with a court record of having nothing to hand over, and a kill switch that is on by default and cannot be disabled by a crash. The pick when anonymity is the point.
Port forwarding was removed in 2023, so seeding is slower; not a streaming VPN.
Privacy & trust
65
Features
76
Price & renewal
83
Speed (our tests)
—
Account is a random number, no email or name
Same price forever, no intro-vs-renewal games
Accepts cash by post and Monero
Streaming unblocking is unreliable by design
Port forwarding removed in 2023
Smaller server network
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 63/100 from 1,441 ratingsFull reviewVisit Mullvad
Canadian, founder-owned, with a generous free tier and unusually flexible pricing.
65
Owner
Windscribe Limited
Jurisdiction
Canada · Five Eyes
No-logs audit
None found
Price
from $5.75/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
Port forwarding (static IP add-on or ephemeral), a firewall-mode kill switch that blocks everything outside the tunnel, and a 10 GB free tier that is enough to test with. Founder-owned, no outside investors, and R.O.B.E.R.T. blocks tracker-laden torrent sites' ads.
The biggest network and the most features; renews at nearly triple the intro price.
73
Owner
Nord Security
Jurisdiction
Panama · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
Deloitte, 2024 (report not public)
Price
from $3.39/mo · ~$7.53/mo over 3 yrs after renewal
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
Dedicated P2P servers, a kill switch that works, four Deloitte audits and Panama jurisdiction, and the largest network for speed. The mainstream pick if you do not need port forwarding.
No port forwarding at all; renewal is steep.
Privacy & trust
65
Features
91
Price & renewal
62
Speed (our tests)
—
Largest server network in the market
NordLynx (WireGuard) is consistently fast
Four Deloitte no-logs audits since 2018
Two-year plan renews at roughly 3× the intro price
Sibling brand Surfshark is presented as a competitor
No port forwarding
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 58/100 from 699,424 ratingsFull reviewVisit NordVPN
Handed logs to US authorities in 2016 under prior ownership while advertising no logs. For the one use case where logs become settlement demands, that record disqualifies it.
US-based, no port forwarding, a free tier that shares data with advertisers, and no independent no-logs audit.
What we weighed for torrenting, and the exact weights
Kill switch that holds
A torrent client keeps announcing when the VPN drops. A kill switch that engages a second late has already leaked. Firewall-level switches and client interface binding are what work.
No-logs claim, tested
A copyright notice becomes a settlement demand only if someone can name you. Audited no-logs policies and court records matter more here than anywhere.
Port forwarding
Seeding without a forwarded port is slow and hurts ratio on private trackers. Only some providers offer it.
Jurisdiction and payment
A provider outside copyright-aggressive jurisdictions, paid for anonymously, closes the loop.
Weights on this page: Privacy & trust 30% · Features 22% · Price & renewal 14% · Speed (our tests) 12% · App quality 10% · Support & refunds 6% · Censorship bypass 4% · Streaming 2%. Formula.
The failure mode, and why the ranking is built around it
Copyright monitoring firms join public torrent swarms, log every address they see, and pass them to law firms, which obtain subscriber identities from ISPs and send settlement demands. Germany’s Abmahnung industry and the US and Canadian bulk-litigation cases are the same machine. It runs on one input: your real IP in the swarm.
A VPN removes it, as long as the tunnel is up. The moment it drops — a Wi-Fi handoff, a laptop waking from sleep, the app crashing — the torrent client carries on over the ordinary connection, announces your real address to the tracker, and the monitoring firm logs it. That is why this page weighs the kill switch and the logging record above speed, and why the two tools linked at the top exist: the torrent IP check shows what your client is actually announcing, and the kill switch test shows how long you are exposed when the tunnel drops.
The two settings that matter more than the provider
A firewall-level kill switch. Not the kind that notices the VPN dropped and then blocks traffic — by then the announce has gone. The kind that blocks everything outside the tunnel at the firewall, permanently, so that if the VPN is down nothing can leave. PIA calls it “always”; Mullvad has it on by default; Windscribe calls it firewall mode; Proton’s “permanent kill switch” does it on desktop.
Interface binding in the client. qBittorrent, Deluge and Transmission can be told to use only the VPN’s network interface. Bound that way, the client cannot send a packet over any other route, regardless of what the VPN app does. It is the belt to the kill switch’s braces, and it is free.
Port forwarding
Without a forwarded port, other peers cannot initiate connections to you; you can download, but seeding is slow and your ratio on private trackers suffers. PIA (non-US servers), Proton (Plus plan, P2P servers) and Windscribe offer it. Mullvad removed it in 2023 after abuse. NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark have never offered it. If you seed, this decides between the top two picks; if you only download, it does not matter.
Jurisdiction and paying anonymously
A provider in Switzerland or Sweden is outside the countries that run disclosure-order schemes for copyright. A provider you paid in cash or Monero, with no email on the account, has nothing to hand over even if asked. Mullvad is built entirely on that model; Proton and IVPN accept crypto; PIA accepts gift cards. The US-based picks are on the list because their no-logs claims have been tested in US court and held — which is stronger evidence than most foreign providers can show — but the caveat is stated.
What we have not tested
Speeds are from published tests. Kill-switch behaviour is from provider documentation and user reports; our own tests, using the kill switch tool on each provider’s default settings and then its strict mode, are next on the list and will change the “features” score where a switch turns out not to hold.
iPhone app rating is far below every established provider in this catalogue
Frequently asked questions
Is torrenting with a VPN legal?
Torrenting is a protocol and is legal everywhere; downloading copyrighted material without permission is not, VPN or no VPN. What a VPN changes is whether the swarm sees your address or the VPN's — and therefore whether a monitoring firm can obtain your identity from your ISP. Many countries (Germany, the US, Canada, Australia) run industrial-scale notice or settlement schemes based on exactly that address.
How do I know my torrent client is actually using the VPN?
Use the torrent IP check on this site: it gives you a magnet link pointing at our tracker, and shows the address your client announced. If it is your real address, the client is bypassing the tunnel — usually split tunnelling or interface binding. Then bind the client to the VPN's network interface so it cannot send anything when the tunnel is down.
What is port forwarding and do I need it?
It lets peers initiate connections to you, which makes seeding much faster and matters for ratio on private trackers. Without it you can download fine but seed slowly. PIA, Proton and Windscribe offer it; NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark do not; Mullvad removed it in 2023.
Which is safer: a kill switch or interface binding?
Both, together. A firewall-level kill switch in the VPN app (PIA 'always', Mullvad default, Windscribe firewall mode) blocks all traffic outside the tunnel. Binding the torrent client to the VPN interface (qBittorrent → Advanced → Network interface) means the client itself cannot use any other route. The second does not depend on the app noticing a drop.
Does the VPN provider see what I torrent?
It can see that you are connected and how much traffic flows; whether it records anything is the no-logs question. PIA's claim has been tested in court, Mullvad's in a police raid, Proton's and NordVPN's in audits. That record is why those providers rank here.
Are torrents slower over a VPN?
Somewhat, as with everything. A nearby server on WireGuard keeps most of your speed; port forwarding recovers seeding speed. Providers that shape or block P2P (Norton) are the real problem, and the P2P policy is scored on this page.
