Best Kickass Torrents Alternatives in 2024 (100% Safe to Use)

Kickass Torrents continues to be one of the most popular torrent sites – even though it’s offline. Still, many torrent sites claim to offer a similar experience. In this guide, we’ll take a look at the best Kickass alternatives in 2024.

We’ll also answer some FAQs and show you how to safely download torrents.

Is Kickass Torrents Back?

Not exactly. The original site went down when the authorities arrested its alleged founder. In December 2016, some of the original Kickass Torrents staff brought the site back. However, some sources say the site has been offline since 2020.

We managed to track down this Kickass alternative link: katcr.to. On our end, it works well (no blocking from our ISP). Our antivirus software and VPN’s ad blocker didn’t block our connection to the site either. We also downloaded a few torrents and it worked well – fast downloads and no malicious files. It’s not very ad-heavy, but it does have annoying invisible ads, so keep the ad blocker on while using this Kickass alternative.

Can’t Access Kickass Torrents? Try a VPN or Proxy

If you can’t download from Kickass Torrents because your ISP is blocking the domain, you can unblock it with a VPN or proxy. Both tools let you communicate with the Kickass alternative domain through a new IP address – one that doesn’t have firewall blocks linked to it.

We recommend using a VPN since it’s more secure than proxies because it also encrypts your traffic. So, your ISP can’t see your torrent traffic, and they can’t throttle it either (slow it down). We recommend using NordVPN because it’s one of the best torrenting VPNs on the market. It has fast download speeds, excellent security, and thousands of dedicated P2P servers.

Here Are the 10 Best Kickass Torrents Alternatives in 2024

1. The Pirate Bay

This is the closest thing to an “industry giant” for torrenting. The Pirate Bay has been around for 15+ years. Even though its founders were arrested, The Pirate Bay is still going strong. You can easily find the latest torrents and even old or lesser-known movies, TV shows, and video games. Also, most torrents have enough seeders, so download speeds are usually fast.

The site’s design hasn’t changed a lot over the years, so it looks a bit outdated. But it’s not as overwhelming as other torrent sites. So even if you never used The Pirate Bay before, it should be easy for you to get used to it.

The Pirate Bay is full of ads if you don’t use an ad blocker, but they don’t interfere with your torrent downloads.

2. RARBG

The site goes back to 2008 and has been consistently offering great torrenting since then. In fact, RARBG usually appears in every edition of TorrentFreak’s yearly list of the most visited torrent sites.

RARBG has a pretty sleek and user-friendly design. You should also be able to find the latest releases. In our opinion, RARBG is a good Kickass alternative for people who want to find high-quality video releases (BluRay, 4K, and even 3D).

One thing we really like about this site is that it offers a pretty ad-free experience. Even with uBlock Origin and uMatrix turned off, we still don’t see as many ads as we see on other torrent sites.

3. 1337x

Launched in 2007, 1337x has always offered safe torrenting. The site takes torrenting so seriously that it started banning YTS releases – not because it’s a competitor, but because they have been sharing user data with movie companies.

It’s easy to find new releases (video games, TV series, movies, software, music, anime, documentaries, etc.) with lots of seeders on 1337x. And while there are ads, they’re not all over the place so they don’t get in the way of you downloading torrents.

4. LimeTorrents

With over one decade of service, LimeTorrents is a reliable torrent site. TV shows and music seem to be trending on LimeTorrents right now since those kinds of torrents have the most seeders (so you’ll get the best speeds).

LimeTorrents has a minimalistic design that’s pleasant to look at and easy to use. We like that we didn’t see too many ads while using this Kickass alternative. Most of them were small pop-up ads that showed up in the lower right, so they didn’t interfere with our searches. Though you should still use an ad blocker since you might sometimes deal with invisible ads (they redirect you to an affiliate web page when you first click on something).

5. TGx

TGx (TorrentGalaxy) is a pretty new Kickass alternative. Despite that, it’s a reliable torrent site. The uploader community is very active, so you’ll often see new movies and TV episodes quickly pop up on TGx a few hours after they launched.

What’s really cool is that TGx makes some releases available for streaming. You don’t need to download the latest Godzilla vs Kong movie – you can watch it straight on TGx.

The design can feel overwhelming for new users, though. And there are a lot of ads (including pop-up ads) on the site. Even so, you’ll get used to it pretty fast. And using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin will get rid of all ads.

6. Torlock

If you need a very safe Kickass alternative site, Torlock is a perfect choice. It stands out from other torrent sites because it only has verified torrents (there is zero risk of downloading malware). And Torlock’s library is really impressive – over 8.4 million torrents, with roughly 2,000 added each day.

Torlock is pretty ad-heavy – especially porn ads. So we wouldn’t recommend using it at work. Or just use uBlock Origin to get rid of them completely to avoid any embarrassment.

7. MagnetDL

MagnetDL is the perfect Kickass alternative in 2024 if you love magnet links. Instead of downloading the torrents to your device and manually opening them, you can automatically start downloading them straight in your torrent client with just a click.

This site lets you quickly find magnet links for popular video games, TV shows, movies, eBooks, and software. The website has a very simple and user-friendly design. Also, MagnetDL seems to be ad-free since we never encountered any ads (not even invisible ads).

8. Torrent Downloads

Launched in 2007, Torrent Downloads has accumulated a pretty impressive library – not to mention it hasn’t been targeted by ISPs and governments as much as the other sites on this list.

Overall, Torrent Downloads is a good Kickass alternative. It’s easy to navigate and most popular torrents have tons of seeders. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ads (including invisible ads), so make sure you use an ad blocker. Also, the community isn’t very active, so don’t expect useful comments warning you about malicious files, wrong subtitles, or damaged audio and video files.

9. NYAA.si

This is the perfect torrent site for anyone who loves anime and manga. NYAA.si has thousands of anime series and movies, manga, and even live-action movies (you can filter the searches by English translations). You can even find popular Japanese video games.

NYAA.si has a simple and intuitive design, so it’s easy to use even if you’re new to torrenting. Also, this is one of the few torrent sites that doesn’t spam you with ads.

10. Zooqle

Zooqle is a decent alternative for Kickass Torrents. It boasts over 5.5 verified million torrents, with around 2,500 torrents added each day. Zooqle has a dedicated user base and it shows – you’ll easily find tons of popular movies and TV shows.

There are a few invisible ads, but – for the most part – Zooqle is pretty ad-free.

Are All Torrent Sites Safe to Use?

No, not all of them. Access random torrent sites you come across on Google, Reddit, and through ads, and you’re gonna have a bad time.

Malicious Ads

Most torrent sites display ads, that’s not a secret. However, some of the ads might be malicious. They could trigger a malware infection the moment you click on them – which is easy to do with invisible ads or delayed pop-up ads.

Malicious ads could also send your traffic to phishing sites. You might not fall for the “please enter your credit card number to download a torrent” trick, but you might accidentally click on a malware-infected link, ad, or button (like a red X button, or a button labeled “Cancel” or “Close”).

Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking is when someone uses your computer to mine cryptocurrencies without your knowledge. That uses up a lot of processing power resulting in pages loading slower and your device crashing. Torrent sites (and any site, really) can use cryptojacking with malicious scripts or ads. Once you visit an infected site or see a malicious pop-up ad, the cryptojacking script runs automatically.

The Pirate Bay actually did this at one point. But at least they were transparent about it. They had a disclaimer on their site warning users that by using the site they agreed to let The Pirate Bay use their CPUs to mine Monero (XMR). We don’t think they do this anymore – the cryptomining warning is gone and we don’t see increased CPU usage while using The Pirate Bay. 

However, shadier torrent sites would never warn you about this. They’d straight up use your computer’s resources until it crashes.

Malicious Torrents

Not all uploaders are good-natured people. Some of them are wannabe hackers or seasoned cybercriminals who upload malware-infected torrents. If you download and run the malicious programs, you’ll basically hand over access to your data and device.

For example, someone used a malware-infected Fallout 4 torrent to infect a person’s device and steal 4.88 bitcoins from them (around $2,000 when that happened in 2015, valued at around $285,000+ today).

Malicious torrents are pretty easy to spot most of the time. If you see a 23 KB executable file that claims to be the full Far Cry 5 game, it’s definitely fake. However, some hackers are really good and upload full versions of movies, games, TV shows, and software that contain malicious code.

Torrent Poisoning

Copyright protection agencies use this method to disrupt torrenting and collect torrent users’ IP addresses. Basically, they upload fake torrents that contain movies, TV shows, games, and audio with intentionally corrupted data.

That’s pretty much one of the reasons many of you get angry letters from copyright agencies and ISPs. The agencies track down your ISP using your IP and threaten it with legal action.

3 Ways to Stay Safe While Using Kickass Alternatives

Torrenting can be risky if you’re not careful. Here’s how to make it safer:

1. Use a VPN

VPNs are services that hide your IP and encrypt your traffic. Here’s how they make torrenting safer:

• Copyright agencies, copyright trolls, and lawyers can’t find your IP address if they use torrenting poisoning.
• Your ISP won’t know you’re using torrent sites and downloading torrents. They can’t see what websites you connect to or your traffic.
• ISPs can’t throttle your torrent speeds because the VPN encrypts your torrent traffic.
• VPNs can block connections to malicious torrent sites through ad blockers.

There are dozens of good torrenting VPNs on the market, but (in our experience) NordVPN outperforms them all. It allows torrenting on thousands of servers, has fast speeds, an audited no-logs policy, works with all torrent clients, and great security (full leak protection, AES-256 encryption, a kill switch, and RAM-only servers).

2. Use Antivirus Protection

VPNs can’t stop malware from directly infecting your device if you download malicious torrents. Only antivirus software can. Make sure you keep it running at all times.

Also, antivirus programs can block shady sites. That comes in handy if the VPN’s ad blocker happens to miss a malicious Kickass alternative domain.

3. Use an Ad and Script Blocker

Yes, VPNs have ad blockers, but they’re not perfect. Some ads still slip through the cracks and display on torrent sites.

We recommend using uBlock Origin. It’s open-source, free, and blocks pretty much all ads. You should also use uMatrix, which is a script blocker. It can stop malicious scripts from loading on torrent sites (like cryptojacking scripts).

How to Access Kickass Torrents (and Other Torrent Sites) Safely

Here’s a quick guide you can use:

1. Sign up for a VPN (we recommend NordVPN).
2. Download the VPN provider’s app and install it.
3. Buy an antivirus program (we recommend Malwarebytes).
4. Download and install the antivirus app.
5. Run the antivirus program.
6. Run the VPN and connect to a server (make sure it allows P2P traffic).
7. Access this Kickass Torrents alternative site (or any other torrent site you want to use).
8. Download any torrents you want.

FAQs

Here are some of the most common questions people ask about Kickass alternatives:

Is Kickass Torrents Still Safe to Use?

That depends if you’re using a safe alternative or a risky one. This is the one we use and we can confirm it’s safe. However, you should still use an ad blocker to get rid of annoying invisible ads.

The easiest way to check if a Kickass Torrents link is safe is to use the uBlock Origin + uMatrix combo, a VPN with an ad blocker, and an antivirus program while accessing it. If it’s malicious, those tools will automatically block your connection to the site.

What Is a Kickass Alternative?

It’s a torrent site that offers similar functionality to Kickass Torrents – the ability to quickly and easily download the latest torrents. A Kickass alternative can also be a mirror site – one that looks and functions exactly like Kickass Torrents but has a different URL.

Sites similar to Kickass, like EliteTorrent or RARBG also have alternate versions.

Why Can’t I Download from Kickass Torrents?

Here’s what might be causing that:

• Your ISP is blocking torrent traffic. The solution is to use a VPN (like NordVPN) to hide your traffic by encrypting it. Your ISP won’t know you’re downloading torrents. They’ll just see gibberish like “HG56=LifdkFH6.”
• You’re using torrents that don’t have any seeders. Find a torrent with enough seeders. To get good download speeds, there should be more seeders than leechers.
• Your torrent client is acting up. Torrents users on Reddit often complain about torrent downloads stalling for no apparent reason. The solution is to update to a new version or downgrade to an older version. If that doesn’t work, use a different torrent client.

Can I Use Kickass Torrents With a Free VPN?

Yes, but we don’t recommend it. Free VPNs usually have slow speeds and bandwidth caps (up to 2GB per month is the standard). You can’t download from Kickass (or other sites) anything you want because you’ll go over the bandwidth limit very soon.

Also, free torrenting VPNs are risky because they might log your data (some even sell it to advertisers). That and you’ll see lots of ads (as if the ads on torrent sites aren’t enough). Finally, if you use random free VPNs, they could infect your device with malware.