Best KickassTorrents Alternative
KickassTorrents, also known as Kickass Torrents, was one of the best torrenting sites around. We say “was” because it was closed down in 2016 after a prolonged effort on the part of the United States government. However, though KickassTorrents is no longer with us, thankfully there are plenty of alternative sites to choose from.
What happened to KickassTorrents?
KickassTorrents was started in 2008, most likely by a Ukrainian national named Artem Vaulin — to this day, it’s unclear if he really owned the site or if he operated it alone. KickassTorrents, or KAT as it quickly became known, was a highly popular site, likely even becoming bigger than The Pirate Bay at one point.
Of course, popularity like this doesn’t go unnoticed and the site was hounded from the beginning by copyright enforcers and law enforcement alike. Torrenting, after all, isn’t exactly legal and the site moved from domain name to domain name every six months or so the entire time it existed.
In 2016, however, the end finally came. Much like the torrent search engine Torrentz (which we discuss in our article on Torrentz alternatives), the law eventually caught up to Vaulin and he was arrested in Poland. However, while the courts were still arguing over the exact nature of his extradition to the United States, he fled while out on bail. His whereabouts are currently unknown, but he never started KAT back up again.
Best Alternatives for KickassTorrents
Though the original site and all Kickass proxies are a thing of the past, plenty of other sites are still carrying the torrenting torch. Below are three of our favorites.
However, before we get to that, a word of warning. Though we doubt anybody reading this is a criminal mastermind, you do need to protect yourself from surveillance unless you want to get the kind of attention Vaulin got, albeit in slightly watered-down form.
As such, we’ve put together a selection of the best VPNs for torrenting so you can make sure you’re not spied on while downloading warez. Skip directly to our NordVPN review if you want to learn about our very favorite VPN. Now on to our picks.
The Pirate Bay
Our first pick is the site that was nearly pushed off the market by KickassTorrents, though, unlike KAT, it survived despite the best efforts of the authorities. Though it was shut down repeatedly and borderline illegal everywhere in the world, The Pirate Bay is still going strong and still has one of the biggest catalogues around.
Major torrent categories: Movies, games, Windows apps, Mac apps
The Pirate Bay Cons: Search function occasionally throws a fit, lots of dead torrents.
Mirrors: thepiratebay.org; thepiratebay.zone; www.tpbproxypirate.com; mirrorbay.top
1337X
As good as The Pirate Bay is, though, it’s not the only successor to KickassTorrents. Another great option is 1337X, which is only a year younger than KAT and has managed to weather the wrath of those trying to shut it down for years.
1337X has a smaller library of torrents to choose from than The Pirate Bay, but there’s fewer duds among them. Also, it has more niche content, like anime and documentaries, which can be hard to find on TBP. In this regard, 1337X is a lot more like KickassTorrents, making it a worthy replacement.
Major torrent categories: music, anime, documentaries, XXX
1337x Cons: Search results can be a bit confusing, not always the latest episodes available.
Mirrors: 1337x.to; 1337x.unblockit.ink; 1337x.unbl0ck.cfd
RARBG
Our final pick for a Kickass alternative is RARBG, which has an interface that of our three picks is the closest to the one KAT had. It’s very easy to use and has a decent search function, as well as clear categorization, which makes things even easier to find.
That said, when it carried over KickassTorrents’ interface, it also copied some of the bad stuff, so you will occasionally spend more time than you like looking for a specific torrent, or trying to figure out if it actually has the amount of seeders it says it has. Get past this, though, and you’ve got a great torrenting site.
Major torrent categories: Movies, series, games, Windows apps, Mac apps, XXX
RARBG Cons: Many duplicated torrents, interface is a bit confusing.
Mirrors: rarbgenter.org; rarbg.torrentsbay.org; rarbg.unblockninja.com
E-Books, Scientific Papers, and Textbooks
Access to knowledge has become another hot topic in recent years. A number of sites have sprung up that focus on freeing e-books, scientific papers, and expensive textbooks from their restrictive paywalls, allowing more people access more knowledge with fewer barriers. Torrent sites like Kickass formerly carried much of this burden, but now there are a number of great alternatives available, no torrent client required.
Sci-Hub – The largest and most popular of the textbook and scientific paper liberators. Sci-Hub is under constant threat from governments and digital rights companies, but so far it has remained online.
AudioBook Bay – Most sites that focus on e-books or related materials fail to include audiobooks as part of their content. AudioBook Bay helps fill that gap by featuring thousands of torrents for new and classic audiobooks.
Library Genesis – Need an e-book? Library Genesis almost definitely has it. The search engine lets you type in a title or author and see a list of results below. Formats can vary greatly, but if you need something in a pinch, you’ll probably find it here.
Using Private Torrent Trackers
Sites like The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents are known as public trackers. Their contents are available on websites where anyone can surf by, set up an account, and start downloading. An advantage of staying public is more content will be shared through the site. A disadvantage is that government agencies and content watchdogs can also freely access these sites, which puts all the other users at risk.
One way to sidestep this issue is to favor private trackers over public ones. Private trackers require registration before you can access their content, and registration isn’t as easy as clicking a few buttons. Some private trackers only open registration once or twice a year, forcing hopefuls to rely on shared invitations from current members. This works as a self-censoring vetting process that helps keep out unwanted parties. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s far safer than displaying the contents open for the public.
The practical drawback to using private trackers is that it isn’t easy to join them. You have to wait for an open registration day, or you have to get an invitation. Both of these events can be few and far between. A good first step is to search for private torrent related forums, message boards, and subreddits. Opentrackers is also a great place to research and find open registration days for private trackers.
It’s also worth noting that private trackers are more likely to enforce good ratios, so make sure you upload more than you download, or else you could lose your membership.
Kickass torrent was the best and top website to transfer files but it is taken by the US Government because the owner of this website permits the visitors to download the copyright content without any cost.