How to Use Windscribe VPN for Torrenting

Pros	Cons
Privacy-friendly logging policy proven by real-world events	No torrenting on free plan
Advanced kill switch on desktop apps	Paid tier blocks torrenting in 11 countries and select US cities
ChaCha20 & AES-256 encryption	Slower torrenting speed than rivals
Effective malware blocker & open-source apps	Logs your bandwidth and most recent connection timestamp
Includes port forwarding

Overall, the paid version of Windscribe is safe to torrent with since it prioritizes privacy and security.

All of this comes at a cost, though: it’s significantly slower than other torrenting VPNs and its cautious approach means you can’t torrent in certain locations.

Windscribe’s free VPN doesn’t support P2P traffic so we can’t recommend it. Attempting to use it for file-sharing causes your torrent client to freeze.

You can find a more in-depth overview of Windscribe’s torrenting performance in the sections that follow:

Does Windscribe Log Your Torrenting Activity?

Windscribe logs a small amount of anonymous data but this isn’t enough to identify you and it doesn’t include your torrent downloads.

Though based in privacy-unfriendly Canada, Windscribe uses diskless servers. This makes it impossible for anyone to extract data from a Windscribe server, keeping your torrenting activity hidden.

We have come across anecdotal reports of Windscribe customers receiving DMCA notices for torrenting from 9 years ago, but it’s highly unlikely that this is due to Windscribe cooperating with authorities.

In fact, the VPN’s transparency report demonstrates, in real-time, that exactly zero DMCA requests have been complied with.

Dependable Security Features for Safe Torrenting

Windscribe encrypts your file-sharing traffic with ChaCha20 encryption (or AES-256) and securely tunnels it using WireGuard (or OpenVPN).

Using Wireshark, an open-source packet analyzer, we confirmed that Windscribe successfully encrypted our torrenting traffic:

Windscribe also has a ‘Firewall’ kill switch to disconnect your torrent client from the internet if your VPN connection drops. Unlike a standard kill switch, Windscribe’s Firewall blocks all connectivity outside the VPN tunnel, which makes data leaks even rarer.

To verify this, we torrented while connected to a Windscribe server and simulated several VPN disconnections. In each case, the kill switch activated and we didn’t register any IP leaks on our custom kill switch test tool.

For added reassurance, Windscribe also features built-in leak protection which has never failed our leak tests.

Slower Torrenting Speeds Than Other Top-Rated VPNs

We tested Windscribe’s file-sharing speeds by torrenting a 1GB test file on a fixed 10MiB/s connection while connected to a local VPN server.

This is the standardized P2P speed test we use for all 60 VPNs we review including the same virtual machine and private torrent tracker.

We measured an average download bitrate of 7.2MiB/s using a nearby Windscribe Pro server. Although this is slower than the best torrenting VPNs, it’s fast enough for downloading content with smaller file sizes such as e-books or music.

To put this into context, here’s how long it took Windscribe Pro to download a 20GB torrent file compared to other top-rated VPNs:

VPN Service	Download Bitrate	Time to Download 20GB Torrent File
No VPN	10MiB/s	32 minutes
Windscribe Pro	7.2MiB/s	44 minutes
Surfshark	8.7MiB/s	37 minutes
Private Internet Access	9.6MiB/s	34 minutes
ExpressVPN	9.8MiB/s	33 minutes

As the data shows, Windscribe is significantly slower than other big-name VPNs. If speed is a priority for you, then we recommend Private Internet Access since it offers the best balance of file-sharing speed and security and at a much cheaper price than Windscribe too.

Windscribe Pro Includes Port Forwarding

Windscribe Pro has a port forwarding feature, which allows you to seed torrent files faster. It works by enabling the necessary data packets to travel to and from your torrenting client for file-sharing.

To mitigate any security risks, Windscribe only allows you to forward one port at a time, and only on the server location you choose.

We found it time-consuming and needlessly complicated to set up port forwarding with Windscribe. Other VPNs, like PIA, only require you to tick a box whereas Windscribe makes you go to its website.

Before you torrent with Windscribe, it’s essential you correctly configure the VPN client to protect your online anonymity.

For a general overview of these steps you can refer to our guide on torrenting safely, but for instructions tailored to Windscribe we suggest reading on.

Here’s a video demonstrating how you can use Windscribe to torrent privately and securely. We’ve used qBittorrent, but the steps will be the same no matter which torrenting client you use:

Windscribe Pro doesn’t support torrenting in the following countries:

• Albania
• Bosnia
• Cyprus
• India
• Indonesia
• Lithuania
• Philippines
• Russia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Thailand

In addition to these countries, P2P traffic is blocked on all US and Canadian residential static IPs as well as the following US server locations: Bend, Santa Clara, Charlotte, Boston, Tampa, and Philadelphia.

The free version is far simpler: you can’t torrent on any servers, period.

If you’ve followed our steps for torrenting safely but still experience IP leaks, then it might be due to improper torrenting practices, not Windscribe.

Here’s how to make sure Windscribe is working properly while torrenting:

1. Test your Connection for leaks. Use our IP leak test tool to ensure you aren’t leaking your IP or DNS information while torrenting.

   If no leaks are detected, you can download and upload torrent files without exposing your real IP address.

2. Bind Windscribe to your torrenting client. This ensures torrent files will only download when you’re connected to a Windscribe server.

   Follow these steps to bind a VPN to your torrenting client:

   1. Open your torrenting client, for this example, we are using qBittorrent.
   2. Select the cog icon at the top of the screen.
   3. Navigate to Advanced on the sidebar.
   4. Click the dropdown list next to Network Interface and take note of the options displayed before clicking cancel.
   5. Open the Windscribe app and connect to a server. We recommend connecting to a server in the country you are located in to reduce speed loss.
   6. Return to qBittorrent and repeat the steps listed above. When you click the Network Interface dropdown list, select the option that was not shown before.
   7. Click Apply and OK
   8. qBittorrent will now be bound to the IP address of the Windscribe server.
3. Block your torrenting client from opening on startup. Torrenting clients may open as soon as your device turns on which risks exposing your IP address if you haven’t got a VPN connected.

   Here’s how to prevent your torrent client from auto-launching:

   1. Open your torrenting client. For this example, we are using qBittorrent
   2. Open your settings. Go to Tools at the top of the screen and click Options…
   3. Find the desktop settings. Click on Behavior and scroll to Desktop
   4. Disable automatic start up. You can do this by unticking the box Start qBittorrent on Windows Start up
4. Ensure your torrenting client has shut down completely. For most torrent clients, clicking the ‘X’ only minimizes the tab and doesn’t close the client completely. This can cause the torrenting client to continue to run in the background and potentially expose your IP address.

   To prevent this from happening on qBittorrent, click File > Exit.

If you only need to torrent now and again, and the file size isn’t too large, then Windscribe is good enough.

However, if you want to torrent regularly with the fastest possible speeds and the best user experience, then there are better VPNs available.

Here’s how the paid version of Windscribe compares to other top torrenting VPNs:

We’ve evaluated each alternative to Windscribe in greater detail below:

1. Private Internet Access: Best VPN for Torrenting Overall

Pros	Cons
Fast average bitrate for file-sharing	Port forwarding isn’t allowed on US servers
Port forwarding feature	Apps can be confusing for beginners
Verified no-logs VPN with regular transparency reports	Port numbers are randomly assigned
Cheap on long-term plans	US jurisdiction
Dependable kill switch & IP leak protection
Diskless servers

PIA outperforms Windscribe in every P2P testing metric. Unlike Windscribe, PIA is a genuine no-logs VPN which ensures your torrenting activity can never be linked back to you.

PIA is also much faster than Windscribe for torrenting and it’s less likely to experience any server congestion due to its large network of 18,651 P2P servers.

We found PIA much easier to torrent with than Windscribe, mostly due to its easy-to-configure port forwarding.

PIA is substantially cheaper than Windscribe too. It costs just $1.33/mo on its cheapest deal compared to $5.75/mo with Windscribe.

2. ExpressVPN: Beginner-Friendly Torrenting VPN

Pros	Cons
Fast torrenting speeds	No port forwarding
Independently audited private logging policy	Slightly expensive
Easy-to-use VPN apps	No multi-hop servers
13,360 P2P-optimized servers
IP leak protection & effective kill switch

Based on our experience, ExpressVPN is a more user-friendly option for torrenting than Windscribe.

To begin torrenting with ExpressVPN, you just need to connect to a server and start downloading. Its kill switch and Lightway protocol are enabled by default and all of its servers are optimized for P2P, removing any unnecessary setup time.

ExpressVPN has also carried out an independent audit of its logging policy to prove that it doesn’t collect any identifying data.

Despite its lack of port forwarding, ExpressVPN is much faster for file-sharing than Windscribe with an average bitrate of 9.8MiB/s.