Introduction
There is a great deal of content available in bittorrent. There is over 10 PetaBytes of content available in over 10 million plus active torrents. Finding the content you want within all that is what these torrent search sites are about.
If you do not know what bittorrent is, see What is Bittorrent?.
The first step in bittorrent is getting a bittorrent client (Best Free Bittorrent Client) and then setting it up properly (Optimizing Bittorrent Clients for Speed). The next step is finding the content you want, which this article hopes to help with.
This article lists public torrent search sites, which do not require registration. There are many private torrent search sites. The best place to look for information on those is the articles at FileShareFreak .
Used properly, bittorrent is one of the safest ways to transfer content. The torrent file contains metadata 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.
Torrent Search Site Features
There are two features of these sites that will be discussed here. Comments and Ratings help avoid fakes and scams. Sorting helps to find the healthiest torrent for the exact content you want. All of these sites have features to show the files the torrent contains. Many of these sites have ads, but none are overwhelming and none have popups. Sites without ads will be noted in their description.
Comments and Ratings
To avoid malware, fakes and scams in torrents only download torrents where the comments or ratings indicate the content associated with the torrent is clean and real. As stated above, the content associated with a torrent can not be altered once it is active. So the comments and ratings can be relied upon to find a good torrent. Each torrent has a unique ID called an Info Hash. This Info Hash can also be used to find information on the torrent.
To avoid malware, fakes and scams in torrents only download torrents where the comments or ratings indicate the content associated with the torrent is clean and real. As stated above, the content associated with a torrent can not be altered once it is active. So the comments and ratings can be relied upon to find a good torrent. Each torrent has a unique ID called an Info Hash. This Info Hash can also be used to find information on the torrent.
Sorting
Sorting is used primarily to find the healthiest torrents. There is no way to know for certain which torrent is faster as the download speed depends on the upload capacity off the other users. The best indicator is the seed to peer ratio on the torrent. The higher that ratio, the more likely it is that the torrent will be faster. For more info on this, see Good Torrents. Sorting by seeds, peers (leeches) or "health" is helpful for this. (personally I find the "health" sorting to be somewhat inaccurate and prefer sorting by seed numbers)
Sorting can also be helpful to find the exact content you want, which is where sorting by date, name, size and category can be helpful.
Sorting is used primarily to find the healthiest torrents. There is no way to know for certain which torrent is faster as the download speed depends on the upload capacity off the other users. The best indicator is the seed to peer ratio on the torrent. The higher that ratio, the more likely it is that the torrent will be faster. For more info on this, see Good Torrents. Sorting by seeds, peers (leeches) or "health" is helpful for this. (personally I find the "health" sorting to be somewhat inaccurate and prefer sorting by seed numbers)
Sorting can also be helpful to find the exact content you want, which is where sorting by date, name, size and category can be helpful.
At a visitor's request, I have added information on those sites that offer magnet links. Sites with a 
offer the alternative of a magnet link. For those of you who prefer, or need, magnet links the GreaseMonkey script Magnet Catcher will show magnet links even at sites that do not offer them. I have tried this and it was successful on most sites.
offer the alternative of a magnet link. For those of you who prefer, or need, magnet links the GreaseMonkey script Magnet Catcher will show magnet links even at sites that do not offer them. I have tried this and it was successful on most sites.Torrent Search Site Listings: Popular and Unique
This listing is divided into two parts. The Popular listing is of the sites that are used by many people. These sites have large listings of torrents and good comments and ratings systems along with various sorting features. Most of the time, you will find the content you are looking for at these sites. The Unique sites are less popular, but have unique features that make them worth using in certain searches.
Warning: Although each of these sites has legally distributable content, they also contain a good deal of copyrighted content which is not legally distributable. While bittorrent file sharing technology is legal, the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content is not. Obtaining copyrighted content through bittorrent may result in civil and/or criminal legal actions. This may result in fines of many thousands of dollars per download.
Popular Torrent Search Sites
These are listed in order of what I think are the best:
btjunkie.org is a comprehensive search engine that lists over 4.5 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. Again, "bad" torrents are not removed and comments and ratings should be used.
Comments and Ratings: are very well used and the amount of them is indicated on the search results. Users can verify a torrent to be clean and real or tag it as fake, virus, password or low quality.
Sorting: by seeds, leeches, health, size, date, name, age and category.
Pros and cons Fast and clean look. Ratings are well used. Not as much information on the torrent as other sites.
Comments and Ratings: are very well used and the amount of them is indicated on the search results. Users can verify a torrent to be clean and real or tag it as fake, virus, password or low quality.
Sorting: by seeds, leeches, health, size, date, name, age and category.
Pros and cons Fast and clean look. Ratings are well used. Not as much information on the torrent as other sites.
Torrentz is another comprehensive search engine that lists over 11.5 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. These trackers can be added in to the torrent active in your bittorrent client and will most likely speed up your download. They also have cloud search of the more popular search terms.
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.
Sorting: Torrents may be sorted by name, date created, size or number of peers (seeds and peers/leeches combined)
Pros and cons Largest listing of torrents, particularly for verified and good information on the torrent including all trackers available for the torrent. Comments and ratings are not well used, but the site links you to other sites carrying the torrent.
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.
Sorting: Torrents may be sorted by name, date created, size or number of peers (seeds and peers/leeches combined)
Pros and cons Largest listing of torrents, particularly for verified and good information on the torrent including all trackers available for the torrent. Comments and ratings are not well used, but the site links you to other sites carrying the torrent.
KickAssTorrents is a newer search site that is fast and good. They list almost 8 million torrents. They have verified torrents (clean and real) as well as comments. They list over 500,000 verified torrents.
Comments and Ratings: Comments appear to be well used and the last 5 comments can be viewed by hovering over the comments icon in the results list without going to the torrent page. Also, a good number of verified torrents.
Sorting: by size, date (age), files (number of), seeds and leeches.
Pros and cons Large size listing of regular and verified torrents with good information on the torrent. One annoyance is their link to direct download at a pay site, which I have not verified to be legitimate.
Comments and Ratings: Comments appear to be well used and the last 5 comments can be viewed by hovering over the comments icon in the results list without going to the torrent page. Also, a good number of verified torrents.
Sorting: by size, date (age), files (number of), seeds and leeches.
Pros and cons Large size listing of regular and verified torrents with good information on the torrent. One annoyance is their link to direct download at a pay site, which I have not verified to be legitimate.
PirateBay is probably the most well known torrent search site. I had removed PirateBay from this listing when they were supposed to be sold to a private group some time ago. That sale fell through and PirateBay has come back as a public torrent search site. They list almost 3 million torrents. PirateBay has dropped their tracker (they were the largest tracker) and has inserted magnet links for every torrent listed. They are probably the main reason for the new interest in magnet links.
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.
Sorting: by type (category), name, date uploaded, size, seeds and leeches (peers). They also allow search by category, but I advise against this as uploaders often mis-categorize their torrents.
Pros and cons Good sorting features. Still popular among users, although they no longer have their own tracker.
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.
Sorting: by type (category), name, date uploaded, size, seeds and leeches (peers). They also allow search by category, but I advise against this as uploaders often mis-categorize their torrents.
Pros and cons Good sorting features. Still popular among users, although they no longer have their own tracker.
isoHunt.com is a comprehensive torrent search site and lists over 4.5 million torrents from its own trackers and other trackers. These torrents contain over 10 petabytes of content. isoHunt is a comprehensive search engine that lists torrents from many trackers. Because off this, they can not remove "bad" torrents. Comments and ratings should be used to avoid these.
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.
Sorting: by seeds, leechers, category, age, size and name (tags).
Pros and cons This was my favorite, but due to Court rulings they have switched USA users to a lite version, which has none of the features mentioned above. For those outside of the USA, this is an excellent site.
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.
Sorting: by seeds, leechers, category, age, size and name (tags).
Pros and cons This was my favorite, but due to Court rulings they have switched USA users to a lite version, which has none of the features mentioned above. For those outside of the USA, this is an excellent site.
BitSnoop (Offline Temporarily?) This was an excellent site with very fast and clean results. They have been offline for quite a bit. They have promised to return, but that promise has been out there for a while.
Unique Torrent Search Sites
Vertor has the unique feature of only listing torrents that are verified to be clean and password free and downloadable in full. They presently list almost 800,000 working, verified torrents. This is an ad free site. For more information on its features, see FileShareFreak.
Comments and Ratings: Comments are available, but since all torrents are verified they are not much used.
Sorting: by seeds, leeches, date, category, size and description.
Comments and Ratings: Comments are available, but since all torrents are verified they are not much used.
Sorting: by seeds, leeches, date, category, size and description.
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).
Comments and Ratings: comments and ratings are available and seem to be well used.
Sorting: None
Comments and Ratings: comments and ratings are available and seem to be well used.
Sorting: None
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.
Comments and Ratings: available, but rarely used as listings are verified.
Sorting: Their unique search results and limited listings do not allow for sorting and it is not needed.
Comments and Ratings: available, but rarely used as listings are verified.
Sorting: Their unique search results and limited listings do not allow for sorting and it is not needed.
Between the popular sites above, one should be able to find just about any content wanted. For the hard to find items this meta-search engine may be helpful:
Torrents.to is a meta-search engine. Searches take you to other search sites. Allows you to choose among their available search sites for the ones you wish to search.
There are no comments/ratings or sort features as the search results take you to the pages of the various sites searched.
There are no comments/ratings or sort features as the search results take you to the pages of the various sites searched.
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.
This is not a comprehensive list, but rather a starting point for new users that should meet their needs.
This is not a comprehensive list, but rather a starting point for new users that should meet their needs.
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