When it comes to online privacy one might guess that torrenting, P2P, and file sharing users would be fans of VPN. That’s certainly true but those who wish to use a VPN for file sharing purposes tend to do more research before signing up for a service. Choosing a provider to encrypt your data is one thing, but those who plan to use it for P2P, torrent purposes want to ensure their anonymity at all times. In a moment I’ll share a list of top VPNs that will help protect your privacy at all times. All of which are no-log VPNs meaning they do not keep logs of your usage.
| Rank | VPN Service | Rating | Server Locations | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 9.8 | 160 |  |
| 2 |  | 9.4 | 87 | |
| 3 |  | 9.2 | 95 | |
File sharing gets a bad wrap as people point to piracy and lump P2P / bittorrent into all kinds of non-related topics. There are lots of uses for torrents and file sharing. How you use the technology may be based on your location and the laws in your area. Some would argue that is also depends on the laws that are active in the location in which you choose to connect to with a VPN. That’s one reason the Netherlands are so popular for P2P VPN usage.
There have certainly been penalties imposed on P2P users who downloaded or in most cases shared copyrighted content with others. The copyright owners typically go after torrent users based on their IP address. What if you share your Internet connection with roommates or a neighbor decides to download the latest GoT using your internet connection? That’s yet another reason for the popularity of VPN as it changes your address to a shared IP for greater privacy protection.
Here are some things to think about when researching the best VPN for torrenting, P2P, and file sharing use:
- Does the VPN provider support P2P? That might sound silly but a lot of VPNs block P2P traffic and will kick you off their service without a refund if you try to use it for that purpose. As you might suspect these are not the services you want to consider. Stick with our list above and you’ll be in the clear.
- Does the VPN provider log? You’ll find that for torrent use the most popular services are those who do not keep logs. Watch out though because a lot of companies will launch advertising a “no-log” policy. I would suggest going with a well known VPN company with a strong track record for privacy. None of the VPNs listed in our post log usage.
- Does the VPN offer a kill switch? Kill switches come in two flavors. The first will kill your internet connection any time the VPN drops. The other will allow you to put in a list of applications to kill anytime the VPN drops. Either scenario works well to protect your privacy and anonymity until the VPN reconnects.
That gives you a good start when researching which VPN to trust for P2P usage. I would also suggest you go with a company that can support high speed connections in key locations. All VPNs add some overhead for the encryption. It’s a trade-off between speed and privacy. With that said there are big differences between the performance from one VPN provider to the next. We have found ExpressVPN to be the best VPN for torrenting in terms of speed. NordVPN is also a very solid choice for P2P use.
You can read over our list of the top 10 VPN services for more options but I highly recommend the services listed above for file sharing purposes. We selected them over other leading VPN services based on privacy (log policy and encryption), support for P2P / file sharing, availability of server locations in key locations, performance, reliability and price. We also looked for services with a good number of servers that allow P2P usage and those with lots of bandwidth. You’ll want a reliable VPN provider to help secure your online privacy. You may will also want a fast network to download and stream HD content. The services shared in the post are the best VPNs for P2P and to unblock geo-restrictions for popular streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO NOW, and hundreds of other channels.