When trying to choose between the best torrent sites, there are several factors to consider if you want to have a smooth experience with fast download speeds and minimal ad intrusion.

Here’s what to look for when selecting the best torrent site.

Download speed

A site’s average speed for downloading torrents is important to gauge the quality of trackers. Think of it only as a ballpark, though. Your actual download speed can vary based on the quality of torrent files and your internet connection.

Most sites have their own uploaders, so download speed will vary for new content. Generally, however, they’ll have around the same speed. Torrent sites scrape their competitors for trackers every day. If you browse for an old torrent, the seeder/leecher ratio and download speed will be more or less the same for any site.

Monthly traffic

The traffic of a torrent website tells us a lot about its popularity. This can further affect metrics like library size or seeder/leecher ratio. When preparing this list of top torrent sites, we chose to factor in website traffic over the number of seeders for popular torrents, as these numbers can change overnight.

Library size

The library size for different torrenting sites also plays an important role. Certain sites like The Pirate Bay have considerably vast libraries, which is why they rank higher on our list. We compared library sizes for each when ranking the best torrent sites.

Comments and ratings

Always make it a habit to read the comments and ratings from other users who have downloaded the same torrent. This can provide valuable information about the quality and safety of the file. Look for comments that mention computer worms, malware, or other issues, and take them into consideration.

Torrent type and variety

The best private torrent sites, like IPTorrents, have big libraries with torrents from all categories. Specialized sites like Bibliotik or YTS have smaller libraries, but they have a considerable number of book and movie torrents, respectively.

This list favors torrenting sites with large, diverse libraries, but don’t shy away from smaller, specialized torrenting sites if you’re looking for a rare gem.

Ad intrusion

Ad intrusion can make or break your experience with any given torrent site. Self-clicking pop-ups and fake contests that you just happened to win are beyond annoying. If you have to go through eight ads just to find one file, you should try a different torrent site.

We omitted a couple of popular torrent sites just because of their excessive ad intrusion levels. We believe security is very important when downloading torrents. There are plenty of shady P2P platforms that could compromise your online safety. That’s why our list of the best torrent sites also takes ad intrusion and other security concerns into account.

However, you can always use a good ad blocker to help you stop these ads from ever reaching your device.