Torrenting can be a rollercoaster ride, especially when it comes to maintaining anonymity and achieving high-speed downloads. But what if there’s a VPN that can ease this ride and provide you with a very high level of privacy, security, and performance?
Enter Surfshark, one of the best VPNs for torrenting currently on the market. With Surfshark VPN, you can easily torrent files from anywhere in the world with ironclad security and privacy. And with its extremely fast servers and VPN protocols, you don’t have to sacrifice performance. So let’s see if this is the right VPN for you to safely torrent in today’s environment.
Key points for using Surfshark for torrenting
- Surfshark VPN provides a secure and reliable torrenting experience with nigh-unbreakable encryption, dependable leak protection, and optimized torrenting servers.
- Support for unlimited simultaneous connections.
- A high-quality VPN service at an extremely low price.
- To get the best deal on Surfshark, use this 79% off coupon >
Surfshark and Torrent Clients: A Match Made for P2P Users?
Surfshark is one of the best torrenting VPNs thanks to its range of features designed to make your P2P transfers fast and secure. Whether it’s compatibility with major torrent clients, efficient handling of torrent traffic, or comprehensive privacy features, Surfshark has you covered.
“Will Surfshark work with my favorite torrent client?” is a common concern when looking for a good VPN for torrenting. Don’t worry. When it comes to compatibility with any popular torrent client, Surfshark doesn’t miss a beat. Just like when using NordVPN for torrenting, Surfshark plays well with all the most popular clients, including uTorrent, qBittorrent, and granddaddy BitTorrent.
What about managing torrent traffic? Surfshark does an excellent job here. You can manually select a P2P server location to use. Type P2P in the search box (see the previous image) to see a list of all the Surfshark VPN server locations that have P2P servers.
Note: Surfshark will also automatically route P2P traffic to one of its P2P-optimized servers if you don’t select one yourself.
In the image below, you can see that Surfshark is connected to a P2P server in Panama. qBittorrent is downloading 2+ GB of software while protected by Surfshark. See our guides to using Surfshark for uTorrent and Surfshark for qBittorrent for more details on using Surfshark with those specific torrent clients.
Privacy is vital if you want to torrent safely. After all, who wants their ISP (Internet Service Provider) or a copyright troll tracking what content they download or share? Who wants to get sued by some mega-corporation because they happen to be torrenting in the wrong place at the wrong time with their IP address exposed?
Surfshark ensures your torrenting remains your business alone. It maintains a strict no-logs policy audited by Deloitte and ranks as one of the best no-logs VPNs. Being based in the Netherlands, Surfshark is located in a secure jurisdiction to better protect your privacy.
Like NordVPN and ProtonVPN, Surfshark uses the leading VPN protocols with their robust encryption, solid leak protection, and numerous other advanced security and privacy features. As a result, you can use your favorite torrenting client safely.
Enhancing Security While Torrenting with Surfshark
While torrenting can be an adventure, it’s not without its perils. But Surfshark protects you in this dangerous space. Here are some of the characteristics that make Surfshark torrenting secure:
- Strong Encryption Standards – You want the strongest encryption to protect your torrent activities. Surfshark uses AES 256-bit encryption when you select the OpenVPN protocol, and ChaCha20 when you select the WireGuard VPN protocol. Those are two of the strongest encryption algorithms in existence. So, you can torrent with the confidence that your data is secure.
- Leak Protection Measures – Everywhere in life, leaks are bad. For torrent users, IP leaks can be disastrous. So Surfshark makes sure they don’t happen. It offers IPv4/DNS/WebRTC leak protection, ensuring your real IP address stays hidden when torrenting.
- Secure, Fast VPN Protocols – VPN protocols handle the interactions between the VPN apps on your devices and the VPN servers. Surfshark supports the WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 protocols. Choosing the right protocol for the situation is important for the best performance, so let’s talk about that for a minute.
Choosing the Right VPN Protocol
Each VPN protocol supported by Surfshark has advantages and disadvantages, which affect which one is the right one for any particular situation. But in almost all cases, OpenVPN or WireGuard will be the best option. Based on our speed tests, WireGuard is almost always faster than OpenVPN. Both are very secure, so going with WireGuard is the best option when you can.
You can select your protocol automatically, or you can let Surfshark do it for you. We think letting Surfshark choose the protocol is the way to go. Here’s how you do that:
- Make sure you aren’t doing anything where you need to hide your IP address. To change the VPN Protocol, you need to disconnect Surfshark. That means internet traffic during this time will include your real IP address. So close your torrent clients, and anything else doing anything sensitive before going any further.
- Open the Surfshark app and go to Settings, then VPN Settings.
- Scroll down the VPN Setting page to the Protocol section. If the Protocol is not already set to Automatic, open the list and select it.
See all Surfshark VPN features here >
The Surfshark VPN Server Network and Performance
In the world of torrenting, speed is king. The faster you can download your files, the better your P2P experience and the shorter the time you are exposed to any potential risks. This is where Surfshark’s server network and performance play a pivotal role. Our in-depth speed tests from our US-based VPN lab show that Surfshark is one of the fastest VPNs on the market.
Surfshark also offers obfuscation technology to get around VPN blocks in the form of its NoBorders mode. This will conceal your VPN traffic to look like regular HTTPS traffic, so you can use the VPN in remote places that typically block VPNs. This is useful when using a VPN for China or a VPN for UAE and Dubai.
Server Selection Strategy for Optimal Torrenting
Choosing the right server for torrenting can be complicated. Surfshark has a large server network comprised of over 3,200 servers spread across 100 countries. For good torrenting, you need a server that’s fast enough to provide reasonable torrent speeds, but also secure and reliable.
All the thousands of Surfshark VPN servers are fast. All of them are RAM-only servers, meaning that they have no disk drives. No disk drives mean no spinning disks to wear out, no place for malware and spyware to hide on the server, and no storage devices to be seized for forensic analysis by hostile entities like national intelligence agencies. So all Surfshark servers are fast, secure, and reliable.
Surfshark takes things one step further with their P2P-optimized servers. P2P optimized servers are designed to prioritize P2P traffic over regular internet traffic and can have additional security features to protect torrenting and other P2P traffic. They may also include special support for P2P protocols like BitTorrent for even faster performance.
We don’t know the specifics of how Surfshark optimizes its P2P servers. What we do know is that you should use them for the fastest most secure torrenting.
Another thing you can do to speed up your torrenting is to select a VPN server location that is near your physical location. This tends to give you the fastest speeds.
However, you want to choose a server location in a “torrent-friendly” country for the safest torrenting. Some countries have tough copyright laws that can lead to huge trouble for someone torrenting copyrighted material without the correct permissions, even accidentally. The United States is one such country.
Other countries are known for their relaxed approach to torrenting and strong privacy protections. Perhaps the four most torrent-friendly countries right now are Switzerland, Romania, Iceland, and Panama. In addition to the above characteristics, none of these countries are (as far as anyone knows) members of the Five Eyes or similar intelligence alliances.
Going further with the idea of avoiding surveillance, using VPN services like NordVPN and Surfshark, which are based outside the USA, Canada, the UK, and similar countries is a good idea too. See the following guides for help in choosing the:
The Legal Landscape of Torrenting with Surfshark
As we mentioned previously, torrenting files is generally legal, but downloading copyrighted material (without the right permission) generally is not. Torrenting laws vary globally, with some countries having strict regulations, while others are more lenient. We already flagged four torrent-friendly countries that you should consider.
Surfshark’s policy on the subject is that they do not support the downloading of copyrighted material. At the same time, they have a strict, audited no-logs policy. No one, not even Surfshark, can track what you are doing online. This puts the burden of complying with Surfshark’s anti-piracy policy squarely on your shoulders.
The User Experience: Setting Up and Using Surfshark for Torrenting
Surfshark is generally known as an easy-to-use VPN thanks to its well-designed apps. Setting up Surfshark to use it for torrenting is easy, since all its servers support torrenting, and the VPN has strong security features to protect you. The only things you need to do to use Surfshark for torrenting safely are:
Make sure that the kill switch is activated. For maximum security, you should select the, “If VPN disconnects or is interrupted in any way (strict)” kill switch option.
- Make sure that your torrent clients are not included in Surfshark’s Bypasser list. Bypasser controls which VPN traffic goes through the VPN tunnel, and which goes directly to the internet. You want to ensure that your torrent clients work through the tunnel since the kill switch won’t protect them if they go through Bypasser.
- Make sure Surfshark is connected to a VPN server before you start torrenting. Surfshark can’t protect you if you connect to torrent sites before the VPN is active. If you connect to torrent websites first, your real IP address will be exposed.
Note: Our guide on how to use a VPN for torrenting includes information on how you can confirm that your VPN is connected and working properly before you connect to any torrenting platforms.
Surfshark Compared to Other Torrenting VPNs
Let’s assess how Surfshark compares to other top VPNs that work for torrenting.
When compared to other VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN, Surfshark holds its own. For example, our ExpressVPN vs Surfshark comparison showed that Surfshark is much faster, and offers more features than ExpressVPN. Surfshark is one of the best VPNs for torrenting.
Surfshark is also a great value. Despite its high-end features, it is on our list of the best cheap VPNs. And like IPVanish (another good torrenting VPN), Surfshark gives you unlimited simultaneous connections.
In addition to all this, Surfshark is also on several other “best VPN” lists, including:
Surfshark is a powerful contender across the board.
Summary
In the vast ocean of VPN services, Surfshark stands out. With a full set of beginner and advanced features, a user-friendly interface, cost-effective pricing, and proven compatibility with leading torrent clients, Surfshark merits consideration as one of the best torrenting VPNs.
You can test Surfshark risk-free thanks to its 30-day money-back guarantee. You will also have access to 24/7 live chat customer support to help you with any torrenting questions you might have. You can test drive Surfshark today, and get the best possible price at the same time by using the discount coupon right here:
Surfshark VPN Coupon:
Get 87% off Surfshark VPN plus an additional 4 months extra with the coupon below:
(Coupon is applied automatically; 30 day money-back guarantee)
Related Torrenting Articles:
- How to Use a VPN for Torrenting
- ExpressVPN for Torrenting
- IPVanish for Torrenting
- Best VPNs for uTorrent
- NordVPN for uTorrent
- ExpressVPN for uTorrent
- Best VPNs for qBittorrent
- NordVPN for qBittorrent
Now we’ll finish up this Surfshark torrenting guide by covering some FAQs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about using Surfshark as your torrenting VPN:
Is Surfshark good for piracy?
Technically, Surfshark is a great option for piracy as it offers key safety and privacy features. With features such as double VPN, Kill Switch, and 256-bit encryption, Surfshark guarantees a secure torrenting experience. However, Surfshark policies do not permit using the VPN for illegal activities.
Which VPN is better for Torrenting?
NordVPN is an excellent choice for torrenting, given its extensive server park and its consistent ranking as one of the best VPNs. Surfshark is also a great option, offering fast and low-cost torrenting.
Can I trust Surfshark VPN?
Want to torrent safely? You can trust Surfshark VPN with its competitive price, unlimited simultaneous connections, amazing connection speeds, AES-256 bit encryption, kill switch, split tunneling, Netflix and torrenting access, plus a headquarters outside of the Five Eyes alliance and a no-log policy audited by Deloitte.
How does Surfshark handle torrent traffic?
Surfshark provides P2P-optimized servers specifically for torrent traffic, allowing for improved performance and reliability.
This guide to torrenting with Surfshark was last updated on May 13, 2024.
Do you mind addressing the recent changes to Surfshark’s terms of service and multiple users accounts being terminated?