Searching for Torrents (Best Torrent Search Sites)

Introduction

Used properly, bittorrent is one of the safest ways to transfer content.  The torrent file contains metadata (hash) about the files to be shared and the bittorrent client checks content received against this metadata.  If there is any difference, the content received will be discarded.  This means that malware cannot be added to a torrent after it is active and that any data that is damaged in transmission will be discarded and re-downloaded.

This article is part of a series of articles on bittorrent here at Gizmo's Freeware.  If you are not familiar with bittorrent, then before using this article you should read these:

• What is Bittorrent? - explains the bittorrent protocol and defines some common bittorrent terms that the new user is unaware of
• Best Free Bittorrent Client - To use bittorrent you need a bittorrent client.  This review will help you choose a bittorrent client that best serves your needs.
• Optimizing Bittorrent Clients for Speed - A general guide to setting your bittorrent client properly, with links to specific guides for the bittorrent clients suggested in the article above.

This article is about finding the content you want.  There is a great deal of content available in bittorrent.  Over 20 PetaBytes of content is available in over 16 million active torrents.  These sites will help you narrow the results from all those torrents to find the clean, real and healthy (bittorrent-wise) torrent for the content you are looking for.

Public vs Private Torrent Search Sites

This article lists public torrent search sites, which do not require registration.  There are many private torrent search sites and it would be impossible to fairly rank them here as one would have to be a member to fully evaluate.

Many people prefer private torrent sites for the privacy (only members active on torrent), clean torrents and speed (ratio enforcement ensures a well seeded torrent).   The downside is that there are rules and regulations and sometimes overzealous administrators. 

If you are interested in a private site take a look at Getting In To Private Torrent Sites.

Scam Links Toolbars and Ads

Unfortunately, even the best public torrent search sites have ads, scam links and toolbar downloads.

I strongly suggest that you use a web browser that has ad blocking capability as that will make all the ads, toolbar download and scam links disappear.

I use Firefox with the AdBlockPlus add on and all scams, fake downloads and ads were invisible.   Other browsers may have a similar feature and may be more to your liking.  There is an excellent review of the Best Free Web Browser here at Gizmo's Freeware.

SCAM LINKS Many bittorrent search sites, and some of these, have advertisers that offer "High Speed download" "Trusted Download" "Direct Download"  "Sponsored Links" or similar terms.   These should all be avoided.

TOOLBAR DOWNLOADS  Some sites deceptively put a "Download" button near the "Download Torrent" button.  Many times I have seen a new bittorrent user end up with a toolbar instead of the torrent. 

ADS Some torrent search sites have a large number of ads through the pages.  Many of these are ads for questionable site and all ads should be avoided.

Again, if you use a web browser that has ad blocking capability, all the ads, toolbar download and scam links disappear.  See Best Free Web Browser here at Gizmo's Freeware.

Torrent Search Site Features

Your goal in a public torrent search is to find a clean, real and healthy torrent for the content you want.   Google will return the most results for your search, but has no tools to narrow the search towards your goal.   It is important for a torrent search site to have a large index of torrents, but the value of these torrent search sites are the tools they have to achieve this goal.  This goal is achieved through three features:

• Comments and Ratings - The first step is finding the torrent that has the clean and real content you want.  Some of these sites have torrents that have been "verified" to be clean and real.  Others have a rating system that achieves the same result.  Comments also help in this.  The rating system and comments need to have high user interaction at the site.  The "verified" rating uses a variety of confirming techniques.
• Search Filters - Features such as Categories and versions can help to filter the results closer to the one torrent you are seeking.
• Sorting - The ability to sort the results of a search is used primarily to find the healthiest torrent.   On occassion sorting may be needed to filter the results to exactly what you want.  Using age, name or size sort may help in this regard.

I have added information on those sites that offer magnet links as this will appeal to some users.  Sites with a offer the alternative of a magnet link. (Thanks to Max for this suggestion).

Torrent Search Site Listings:  General and Unique

This listing is divided into two parts.  The General listing is of the sites that index all varieties of content.  They have large listings and will be the sites that most of you will use most of the time.  The sites listed in the General listing are also among the most popular torrentt search sites.  The Unique sites are less popular and have smaller indexes, but have unique features that make them worth using in certain searches.

I am not going to consider or discuss the scams and ads much.  If you have read the above, you will be using an ad blocker at these sites and will not see these.

General Torrent Search Sites

These sites are among the most popular torrent search sites and offer large indexes of torrents and helpful features to verify, filter and sort among search results.  Any one of these sites will serve your goal of finding a clean, real and healthy torrent for the content you want.
Other than Demonoid, these sites are meta-search sites that obtain results from other trackers.  This means that their listings will have fakes and care needs to be taken.

KAT   is the top pick here at Gizmo's due to its large index of torrents and verified torrents as well as the comment, filter and sort features that they offer.   They index over 9 million torrents, including over 1 million verified torrents.  Tabs on the torrent page allow viewing of the files, trackers and comments.  KAT offers many features to help in your search, they are responsive to user feature requests and are always improving.

Comments and Ratings: Large listing of verified torrents.  Advanced search may be used to list only verified torrents.  Comments are very well used and are helpful in verifying as well as quality.  Number of comments and verified "crown" shown in search results.
Results may be filtered by categories and for videos further filtering is available by version.  Sort by size, date (age), files (number of), seeds and leeches.

ThePirateBay   (https)  is probably the most well known torrent search site.  They list about 3.7 million torrents.  TPB has an excellent filtering system and clean torrents can be found quickly in the search results by looking for a skull image next to the torrent.

Comments and Ratings:  PirateBay has a comments and ratings system.  They are fairly well used.  I find the comments often deteriorate into "please seed" requests, but for many torrents they are useful.  Their best feature is the use of colored skulls to show the uploader's status.  Basically any skull for an uploader is a good sign.
Excellent filtering by categories, using Other allows very detailed filters.  Sort  by type (category), name, date uploaded, size, seeds and leeches (peers) and by uploader.

btjunkie.org (https) delivers results quickly in an easy to view listing.  Their file search feature can be very helpful.  Its index is over 5.5 million torrents from its own trackers and other trackers.  It also lists torrents from a large number of private trackers, which can be good or bad.  The private torrents are indicated by a lock image on the search results.  The search results show the clean healthy torrent at a quick glance.  Their file scan option, which searches through files within the torrent, is a nice option.

Comments and Ratings are very well used  and the amount of them is indicated on the search results making finding clean torrents easy.  Users verify torrents or  tag as fake, virus, password or low quality.
Good filtering system with categories and advanced search offers further filters.  Sort by seeds, leeches, health, size, date, name, age and category.

isoHunt.com  (https) is a comprehensive torrent search site and lists over 8 million torrents from its own trackers and 582 other sites.   isoHunt is supposed to be offered only as a "lite" version in the USA  and that does not compare to the real isoHunt or any of these sites.  Many users like the layout and information at isoHunt and it would be a good choice for those that have accesss to the full version.

Comments and Ratings:  isoHunt has comments and ratings which are well used.    A user can  either "Flag" a torrent (bad) or give Thanks (good).  These ratings will show up in searches as -1 (flag) or +1 (thanks).  Comments can also be made and the number of comments is also indicated in the search results.  There is also a feature to search for comments on the torrent elsewhere and to Google search the Info Hash to find information elsewhere.  A sort by isoHunt rank will list the best rated torrents first.
Sort by seeds, leechers, category, age, size and name (tags).  No filtering available.

Torrentz (https) is another comprehensive search engine that lists over 14.5 million torrents and has almost 3 million  torrents that have been verified to be clean.  Torrentz also has the nice feature of listing all trackers for a torrent, not just the ones embedded in the torrent file, though this is not that important in torrents now.  One drawback is that they do not host the torrent files and one must go to other sites for the download.  Still their large verfied listing is an attraction.

Comments and Ratings:  are well used.  Users can verify a torrent to be clean and real or tag it as fake, virus, password or low quality.  Large listing of verified torrents and results may be filtered to show verified only.
Torrents may be sorted by relevance, date created, size or number of  peers (seeds and peers/leeches combined).  No category filters.

BitSnoop This is a metasearch site that indexes over 15.7 million torrents from 369 sites.  Although they do not list a number that I could find, they appear to have a large listing of verified torrents. This site is extremely fast at returning search results.   They also have a TV Finder which lists all shows alphabetically with links to all torrents for each show.  Their filter and sort features are not as good as the above, but they do have their followers.

Comments and Ratings: They have a good number of verified torrents.  They have a "no fakes" filter for search results.  Comments are not widely used.
Filtering by category is decent and they have the no fakes filter.  Sort by age, seeders, name, size and rating+health.  Their TV finder is useful.

Demonoid does not have a large number of torrents in their index, but they seem to have everything and often have content that the others do not.  Although a private site, I include it here as they do allow non-members access to just about all torrents.  They have a filtering system superior to any other site.  They are able to eliminate fakes from their listings and their offerings are very clean.
Comments and Ratings:  Comments are very well used and they prune out bad torrents quickly.  Overall their offerings are clean as they are able to prune bad torrents out.
Their filtering system is superior.  Sort by size, health, leechers, seeds, times downloaded and health.

Unique Torrent Search Sites

These sites cater to special niche interests and stand out for their attention to that niche and their clean offerings.

EZTV  (https) is the site for all things television.  It is the biggest and past and easiest to use for TV offerings.  In addition to torrents they have a countdown list as to when shows are to return to original broadcasts, a show list indicating the status of a TV show (ended; pending; airing etc.), TV news and a calendar of shows being broadcast.

Coda.fm is a music albums bittorrent site.  There is a good deal of information on the artists and albums.  All listings are verified to be clean and real.  If you are looking for a public, music only, bittorrent site, then this is the place to look.  It is an ad free site.  The amount of listings is still quite small, being in the thousands.

Take.fm is the sister site to Coda.fm, specializing in movies.  It is similar to Coda in layout and all of its listings are also verified to be clean and real.  At this time there appears to be just shy of 2000 listings.  Hopefully the site listings will grow as time goes by as a clean movie search site is needed in bittorrent.

Podtropolis lists only iPod compatible content.  I could not find statistics, but there appears to be a good amount of content listed (although certainly less than the popular sites above).  This is not available to USA users (where I am).   I was able to access through a proxy service.  As of November 9, 2011, this site is down.  No word yet if this is permanent.

All of these sites have received a green rating from WOT (Web Of Trust) and only sites with a green rating from WOT will be listed here.

If you have any questions, comments or sites, please feel free to post here or in Gizmo's Freeware Forums.