Update: TorGuard now blocks Bittorrent traffic on US servers. This means we can no longer recommend them as a torrenting VPN. Check the alternatives section or Best VPN for Torrenting page for our current picks.
TorGuard touts itself as the fastest VPN on the market, with robust support for both torrenting and streaming. But you can’t always trust advertising, can you?
So, in our effort to find the best torrenting VPN, we ran TorGuard through our detailed review process to see whether it lives up to its claims – and how it stacks up to the competition. Keep reading to find out more.
[+] 'TorGuard Torrenting' contents (select to expand)
Is TorGuard Good for Torrenting?
Checklist
Before we jump into the nitty gritty details of this torrenting VPN service, here’s a quick rundown of some of TorGuard’s most important features for anonymous torrenting.
Comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Is TorGuard Safe for Torrenting?
The first thing you should consider when choosing a torrenting VPN is whether it’s safe or not. So, let’s dive right into TorGuard’s security features and credentials.
No-Logs Provider
Just like you should never torrent without a VPN, you should never use a VPN that keeps logs either.
Fortunately, TorGuard is a zero logs provider. That being said, they haven’t been audited like some of the other major torrenting VPNs, like NordVPN, VyprVPN, or ProtonVPN.
But their logging practices have held up in court, unlike IPVanish and PureVPN.
(Kind Of) Supports Torrenting and P2P
It’s also important to choose a VPN that explicitly allows torrenting, rather than one that either forbids it or simply doesn’t acknowledge the subject on their site.
So, does TorGuard support torrenting? Well, the ‘Tor’ in TorGuard is actually short for torrents (not the Tor network, like some people may think).
Unfortunately, a recent court case has forced TorGuard to block Bittorrent traffic on its US servers. Whether this expands to servers in other countries remains to be seen, but it can no longer be claimed that TorGuard fully supports torrenting and P2P.
Customizable Kill Switch
A kill switch is a crucial feature for any good torrenting VPN.
Why? Because if your VPN connection drops for any reason during a torrenting session, the kill switch will kick in and “kill” your internet connection completely. So, rather than your downloads continuing unprotected, they’ll be stopped until the VPN is back up again.
This makes P2P much safer, especially if you like to download stuff when you’re away from your computer.
Not only does TorGuard provide a built-in kill switch, they take it a step further, with a setting called ‘App Kill’. With this, you can set specific apps to be terminated if your VPN disconnects, rather than your entire connection.
For example, you could add a torrenting client, like qBittorrent to the list. If your VPN drops while you’re torrenting and streaming a video at the same time, only the torrenting would stop.
This is pretty unique features, and one that could definitely come in handy.
Stealth, Obfuscated VPN
From restrictive governments to Netflix to your internet service provider, there are plenty of people who don’t like it when you use a VPN.
Unfortunately, using a method called deep packet inspection, they can usually figure out which traffic is using a VPN. They won’t be able to tell what the traffic is, but they’ll know that it’s not “normal” traffic.
And this can lead to things like Netflix blocking you from streaming, your ISP throttling your traffic, or even legal trouble, if you live in a country where VPN use is banned.
But there’s a way to stop this, and that’s through various ‘obfuscation’ practices that disguise your VPN traffic. And TorGuard offers not only, not two, not three, but four, count ‘em, four different methods of obfuscation. They are: OpenConnect stealth VPN, a stealth VPN port, stunneling, and a ShadowSocks stealth proxy.
Even cooler is the fact that the last three can all be enabled at the same time, for three different layers of obfuscation.
Built-in Leak Protection
Having your IP leak while connected to a VPN = bad
Having your IP leak while torrenting through a VPN = even more bad
But there’s an easy solution, and it’s leak protection, the same kind that’s built into the TorGuard app. No leaks, no problems.
Cryptocurrency and Gift Card Payments
You have to pay if you want a good torrenting VPN, as you simply can’t trust the “free” services. And yet that act of paying actually creates its own security vulnerability, since your payment information is connected to your identity, and thus could be used to connect your torrenting activities to your identity too. It’s a sort of catch-22 of the VPN world.
So, what’s the answer? More anonymous payment methods, like cryptocurrency and gift cards.
Fortunately, most top torrenting VPNs accept at least one of these, whether it’s a single cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, or gift cards from major companies, like Amazon. But TorGuard is one of the few that not only accepts both, it accepts a huge variety of cryptocurrencies, through Coin Payments.
Score one for Team Privacy.
Conclusion:
TorGuard has some nice security features, and their logs policy held up in court. But their lack of support for torrenting on US servers is a major blow.
Is TorGuard Fast for Torrenting?
Here’s the bad news: in order to protect yourself when torrenting, you’ll need to sacrifice a little download speed, because having your traffic routed through a VPN server and encrypted is going to slow it down.
The good news? With TorGuard, that speed loss is minimal.
We downloaded a torrent both without a VPN and with TorGuard connected, and we were really impressed by TorGuard’s performance.
Yes, there was some speed loss, but again, that’s to be expected. And with TorGuard, it wasn’t enough to be noticeable.
TorGuard also comes with a pretty solid network of servers, with 3,000+ spread across 50+ countries. This makes it easy to find a server that’s close to you – or to hop around the globe, accessing content from other regions.
Is TorGuard Easy to Use?
A good torrenting VPN shouldn’t just work; it should be easy to use too! Does TorGuard pull this off? Let’s take a look.
Quick and Easy Sign Up
While TorGuard isn’t the most newbie friendly torrenting VPN (we’ll get to that in a second), the sign up process is easy enough.
Just enter your info, select a payment method, and bam, you’re in. Just make sure to check your email and activate the service too.
Also, keep in mind that with certain payment methods, like Bitcoin, you don’t actually have to use your real personal information.
Highly Configurable (but Clunky) App
The good news is, TorGuard has one of the most highly configurable apps we’ve used, with tons of different settings to tweak and play with.
The bad news is, well, this type of setup isn’t exactly newbie friendly. In fact, even users with plenty of experience with VPNs may not know what all these different privacy settings and network dropdown menus mean.
And in general, TorGuard’s app is just kind of clunky compared to some of its competitors. The UI is bare and outdated-looking, there’s no ‘fastest server’ option, connecting is relatively slow, and you have to disconnect your current VPN connection just to change location.
Again, the settings are great, but we just don’t enjoy using TorGuard’s app as much as the sleek, sexy offerings by VPNs like Private Internet Access, NordVPN, ProtonVPN, or… well, you get the picture.
24/7 Support with Live Chat
If you do find yourself confused by TorGuard’s numerous settings – or confronted with another issue with the service – you’ll be happy to find that the provider offers around the clock support via both a ticket system and live chat.
4.5 Trust Pilot Rating
You don’t have to take our word for it. If you’d like to see what other TorGuard users have to say about the provider, give their Trust Pilot page a look, where they currently enjoy a 4.5 (out of 5) start rating on over 130+ reviews. Not bad.
Conclusion:
TorGuard’s no-frills aesthetic and plethora of options mean it's never been the best torrenting VPN for inexperienced users. And that's even more true now that they block torrenting traffic on certain servers.
Comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
TorGuard Torrenting Tips
As we highlighted above, TorGuard has a ton of settings to fiddle with. Here are a few tips for using them to maximize your P2P experience.
1. Enable the kill switch and leak protection before you start torrenting.
Before you start torrenting, you’ll want to make sure the TorGuard app is setup to protect you from leaks and dropped connections. These may be enabled by default, but it’s better to double check.
Fortunately, it’s easy. Just navigate to the ‘Network’ section of the app’s settings and enable the first four options, like so:
But for the kill switch, there is a slightly more flexible – but also more complicated – option. To enable this, you’ll need to go to the ‘App Kill’ section of the settings.
1. Use ‘Select’ to find the apps you want to be killed if your connection drops. In the example, we chose qBittorrent, but if you’re using another torrent client, use that one.
2. You can repeat this step to add other apps, if you want.
3. Once your apps/programs are added, make sure the ‘Terminate these...’ box is checked. Then ‘Save’.
Now, you can disable the ordinary kill switch under ‘Network’. With the App Kill in place, TorGuard will only stop the connection to the specific apps that you set (ex. Qbittorrent) rather than all of your apps, as a normal kill switch would.
2. Utilize stealth technology to hide your VPN use [Advanced users].
TorGuard offers several different ways to stealth-ify your connection and disguise your VPN use. Three of them can be enabled from the main connect screen of the app:
1. Change the Tunnel type from OpenVPN to OpenConnect.
2. Change the port to 4443.
3. Enable Stunneling. Note: The Protocol must be switched to TCP to make the stunneling option selectable.
There’s also a stealth proxy, which you can enable from the ‘Proxy’ section of the app’s settings.
The last three can all be enabled at the same time for three layers of obfuscation – but this is probably overkill for most people. You can find more detailed instructions and explanations of all of these methods on TorGuard’s site.
3. Connect to the right servers.
Update: TorGuard now blocks Bittorrent traffic on US servers, so you will have to use non-US servers, even if you're based in the US.
It might be tempting to just choose a server at random and start torrenting, but there are a few factors to keep in mind, including your distance from the server, the P2P laws that country, and the strengths of TorGuard’s network.
While torrenting is allowed on all of their servers, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Russia, and Romania servers are the best optimized for P2P, according to the TorGuard website. Of course, if you’re in, say, South Africa or Australia, it may be worth trying a server closer to you, even if it’s not as well optimized.
By the way, if you need some general tips on finding the best torrents, you might find this guide helpful.
4. Try the Wireguard protocol.
TorGuard recently added the Wireguard protocol.
Why is this a good thing? Because Wireguard's not only faster than OpenVPN, it's more secure. Sweet.
And it's easy to use, too. Just select 'Wireguard' in the 'Tunnel Type' drop down menu and you can now connect to any server through the new protocol.
TorGuard Plans & Prices
TorGuard offers several different plan types to choose from.
While the Streaming Bundle is great if you stream a lot of content, it’s not necessary for torrenting. On the other hand, the Anonymous Proxy doesn’t offer as much protection as we’d like.
Fortunately, the Anonymous VPN plan is just right, both in features and price. It provides everything you need for safe torrenting, and there are some nice discounts for longer term subscriptions, with the 1-year price coming to just $4.99 per month.
All plans come with a 7-day money back guarantee, which is better than nothing but a little stingy compared to the 30+ day guarantees offered by many torrenting VPNs.
But TorGuard is much more generous with their payment options, which include credit card, Amazon Pay, gift cards, and a wide variety of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and Litecoin are accepted through TorGuard’s main processor, and they also allow payments through Coin Payments, which accepts a whopping 1,900+ different cryptocurrencies.
Conclusion:
TorGuard isn’t the most expensive torrenting VPN on the market, but it’s certainly not the cheapest either.
TorGuard Apps
TorGuard has apps for every major operating system, including:
- Windows
- MacOS
- Linux
- Android
- iOS
Keep in mind that TorGuard is one of only a handful of VPNs that provide an actual app with GUI for Linux. And there are even browser browser extensions for both Chrome and Firefox.
More Uses for TorGuard
It may be called Torrenting Guard, but that doesn’t mean torrenting is all TorGuard’s good for. Here are some other great uses for the VPN.
Access Blocked Content
Are you unable to access certain content online because of a block put in place by your school, employer, or government? Or maybe it’s locked to your region?
A VPN can help with that. And TorGuard is particularly well-equipped for this task because of its stealth VPN and obfuscation technology.
Stream Anything From Anywhere
If you’ve binged through everything in your country’s Netflix library, you’ll love TorGuard’s streaming capabilities.
While many VPNs struggle to bypass the blocks that streaming services employ to stop VPN traffic, TorGuard doesn’t. In fact, they have a more expensive package that’s dedicated entirely to streaming, which includes features like dedicate IPs.
But even with their normal package, you should have no issues accessing your favorite streaming service, especially if you enable obfuscation (check the Torrenting Tips section for more info).
Protect Your Privacy Online
From social media companies to identity thieves, your online privacy is being assaulted from all sides these days. And these privacy breaches aren’t just limited to the digital world; they can have real world implications. Serious ones.
That’s why we highly suggest that everyone use a VPN. You may think you have “nothing to hide”, but the protections a VPN provides are critical regardless.
TorGuard Alternatives
As we've pointed out, TorGuard no longer allows torrenting on its US servers. That will be a deal breaker for many users. So, here are some of the other torrenting VPNs to consider.
What Private Internet Access does better than TorGuard: Cheaper, audited, nicer app
What TorGuard does better than PIA: Obfuscation, better for streaming
Conclusion: PIA lacks TorGuard’s obfuscation abilities, so it’s not quite as good for streaming, but it’s still higher secure while being cheaper and easier to use.
What NordVPN does better than TorGuard: Cheaper, audited, nicer app
What TorGuard does better than NordVPN: More connections, more customizable settings
Conclusion: TorGuard shines in its speed and advanced security features. But NordVPN shines in the same areas, while being cheaper and more user friendly.
What ExpressVPN does better than TorGuard: More countries, audited
What TorGuard does better than ExpressVPN: Better obfuscation
Conclusion: ExpressVPN is just as fast as TorGuard, and it’s also more newbie friendly.
What PureVPN does better than TorGuard: Cheaper, better guarantee, more countries
What TorGuard does better than PureVPN: Advanced security features, more connections
Conclusion: PureVPN’s combination of price, ease-of-use, and overall performance makes it a worthy alternative to TorGuard, though it lacks some of the latter’s security features.
What IPVanish does better than TorGuard: Cheaper, more connections, better guarantee
What TorGuard does better than IPVanish: Better security features
Conclusion: If you’re on a budget, IPVanish comes with a cheaper price tag and a longer (30 days) guarantee. But it’s previous logging failures and lack of safety features compared to TorGuard means it’s less secure.
Final Thoughts
Checklist
Okay, we know that’s a lot of info to unpack. So, let’s sum it up, short and sweet, shall we? TorGuard offers:
Conclusion:
TorGuard has the features to be a good torrenting VPN, but its blocking of torrent traffic on certain servers is a huge blow. It's also slightly more expensive and less user-friendly than top competitors, like Private Internet Access.
Comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.