ExtraTorrent was a massively popular torrent site visited by millions of user’s around the globe. It was on the radar by significant movie studios and copyright trolls, which is understandable as it was the second-largest torrent site after The Pirate Bay.
It used to list thousands of movies and TV shows and was the go-to place for many downloaders.
Here, you can find out more about ExtraTorrent. What happened to the site, and how to find one of the best ExtraTorrent alternatives currently working?
You will also see how you can download torrents without landing yourself in hot water for breaking any copyright by using a VPN to keep you safe.
What Happened to ExtraTorrent?
It was back in 2017 when ExtraTorrent shut its doors to its operations. There was a brief message saying all data was deleted, all their mirrors were also gone, and no user should use fake or copy sites.
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It was an unexpected effort, and since then, there has been no effort to bring back ExtraTorrent. However, there are many copycats or clones, and some are mere proxies of other torrents sites, such as The Pirate Bay.
Now, it is easy to see why ExtraTorrent not working then; but it is for now.
5 Alternatives to ExtraTorrent
The Pirate Bay
Pirate Bay has been one of the longest-standing torrent sites on the internet and has achieved more for file sharing overall than any other website in existence.
The founders of Pirate Bay waged war with the law and the copyright watchdogs for many years, and some of them landed in prison.
Although the majority of Hollywood studios would love to see, The Pirate Bay vanish from the surface of the planet.
The site remains online until today, hosting innumerable torrents of many different categories, you can find movies, books, TV shows, music and all manner of digital content.
Limetorrents
LimeTorrents is a widely used torrent site, which appears to be increasing and evolving despite the present stalled landscape of file sharing.
Recently, LimeTorrents brought out a reworked landing page, introducing an elegant design featuring large buttons on popular topics and search bar, which is virtually impossible not to notice.
Regrettably, the remainder of LimeTorrents is not quite as well designed, but you should not allow this to stop you enjoying the site. Ultimately, what matters is the content, and LimeTorrents will not disappoint in this respect by offering anything from movies to TV shows, music, games, apps and anime.
Popcorn Time
Not a torrent website, Popcorn Time enables you to stream torrents directly inside the app without waiting. However, you do also physically download the torrent file for a limited amount of time.
Because it allows you to stream your favourite movies and TV shows directly straight from the torrent, you do need a good speed to prevent any buffering.
The ExtraTorrent alternative makes full use of the BitTorrent Protocol for the delivery and breaks the files into fragments to help avoid delays in streaming.
However, because of this, your IP address is visible in a torrent swarm. Besides, you will be uploading the same content as you download. This is classed as piracy for content that is covered by copyright.
Torrentz2eu
After the end of Torrentz, Torrentz2 has now replaced the site. This ExtraTorrent alternative is roughly the same as the original, but with a greater focus on music. You might be surprised to encounter torrents from over a decade ago.
Torrentz2 is a popular site released as a stand-in for Torrentz after closing its doors voluntarily back in 2016. The site only contains torrent hashes and no longer holds any links to any external torrent sites
The site is still a great ExtraTorrent alternative while functional, and thanks to some add-ons yet the long-term future of this site is uncertain.
RARBG
RARBG is a top-rated torrent site featuring recent movies and TV shows. Every torrent listed on RARBG shows a brief description, artwork, screenshots, and any other pertinent information.
In contrast to most other torrent sites, RARBG is well laid out and has a clean layout. Movies and TV shows are frequently available in many different resolutions and bit-rates. You can find lower quality web-rips or 1080p Blu-ray rips.
Besides movies and TV shows, RARBG also features categories for gaming, software, music, and mature content.
The RARBG community stands together, and the tracker appears to be managed by expert operators who understand how to serve the needs of the file-sharing world.
Is Torrenting Legal?
The act of torrenting isn’t illegal. The question comes from the legality of content from the sources.
Even with this, there are many countries blocking torrent sites, no matter if they are legal or contain links to other sources.
The ExtraTorrents website a prime example. There was no such thing as ExtraTorrents movies as nothing was hosted on the site. Still, they were hounded to the point of closure.
Always use a VPN when Torrenting
Here are some reasons to use VPN’s when torrenting:
- Bypass ISP’s Blocks: As P2P file-sharing can be illegal depending on the files, torrenting can be limited in certain countries, besides this, with data retention, and an ISP can retain your activity for extended periods.
- Avoid Legal Repercussions: It is debatable how safe it is to torrent or share files. Most instances, you will be downloading illegal content, be it accidentally or not. To stop any copyright notices appearing in your letterbox, use a VPN.
- Enforce privacy with VPN’s: Even with any online activity, you can still face hackers and or DoS attacks. P2P also exposes your IP to everyone on the network. Hackers can trace your location, though when using a VPN, they won’t be able to break in the encrypted tunnels.
- Slow Connections: Torrenting may use lots of bandwidth, and ISP’s are known for throttling connections. With encrypted traffic, they won’t see this and thus won’t slow down your downloading.
Best VPNs for Torrents and Torrenting
1. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is an excellent VPN for torrenting and P2P downloads with the best speeds and highest security standards on its network of 3,000 torrenting-optimised servers.
The BVI provider has a large number of custom apps. Using these offers military-grade 256-bit AES encryption, a no-logs policy, a kill switch, and split tunnelling.
The VPN faces external audits from PwC; it has leak prevention built in, no matter how long you leave your system on for downloading.
ExpressVPN also has the best reputation for unblocking sites as you can see above, and all these you can watch movies or TV shows, or even Live TV without buffering and up to 4K resolution.
If you are stuck, which isn’t very often, you can use the industry best 24/7 live chat.
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Besides this, you have 5 connections on the most extensive range of devices through dedicated apps on windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS, or you can manually configure many others, including routers.
The best 30-day money-back guarantee lets you test all the performance and features risk-free and without spending anything.
ExpressVPN unblocks:
- Netflix and Disney plus
- Hulu and ESPN
- HBO and Amazon Prime
- Sling TV, DAZN, and Showtime,
- Hotstar, Sky Go, ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer,
- Many others.
Read our Full ExpressVPN Review
2. Surfshark
Despite being a more recent VPN service, Surfshark is a solid choice for a torrent VPN. It is full of premium features, which is surprising for a new arrival. It provides high torrenting speeds through the network of 1,700 servers worldwide.
Like our other recommendation, Surfshark uses secure encryption with an AES-256 cipher. It uses IKEv2 by default, but you can change this.
It offers a kill switch that stops everything if you lose your VPN connection, so there are no data leaks in your torrent swarms.
It offers the Cleanweb function, which includes an ad blocker, and malware prevention, as well as a locator stop. You can use dual VPN servers, split tunnel, or have the choice of static IP on some servers.
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Unlike other VPN’s, you have unlimited connections and can use the applications on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, among many other devices around the house.
The customer support uses live chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reside in BVI, therefore outside any jurisdiction. It also has a 30-day money-back guarantee to check all features
Surfshark Unblocks:
- Netflix (most libraries), Disney, HBO and Amazon
- Hulu, ESPN, Sling, Showtime, Hotstar,
- Sky Go, ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer,
- Many others.
Read our Full Surfshark Review
Wrapping Up
No matter which torrent site you use, be it one that is packed full of media tiles, a list or a search engine. They all allow you to download torrent files or magnet links that are from potentially dubious sources.
Torrent websites are highlighted in the radar of movie studios, governing agencies and ISP who have orders to block them.
There is no end of agencies trying to put an end to all the popular torrent sites. Even some users will be targeted when they tread on the toes of copyright and rights reserved too heavily.
Therefore, whenever you download torrents, be sure you are using a VPN to keep your location and identity secure.
The two VPN’s here deliver the best torrenting experience and can keep you safe from any prying eyes.
For the ultimate, VPN number one has proven itself more reliable because it is the more mature VPN out there, while still being very user friendly.