Torrentsafe.com Review
Torrent Safe is an anonymous cloud torrent site, hosted in San Francisco (CA, 94107, United States) and based in Thailand. It acts as an intermediary to protect the identity of its users by downloading torrents to its servers and then making the files available to the end user through a URL.
The service is also useful to bypass restrictions on torrent activity by either ISPs or network administrators. When it started operating, requested files were encrypted and to unlock them users had to complete two offers (sign ups) which gave them access to the decryption key.
Torrent Safe during its early days. Image grabbed from the wayback machine
According to stats from Alexa, the site receives approximately 900 visitors every day with a vast majority coming from India and Ireland (adding up to more than 60% of the views). The site does not have any publicity, relying only on selling licenses and premium subscriptions to stay afloat.
What does Torrent Safe offer?
Features are offered according to the account type of the customer, which are classified as either premium or basic. Regardless of the account, no registration is required, licenses and subscription are handled via email and premium keys can be introduced by clicking a button on the site.
Since no registration is required, licenses are manually entered in the field above
Sign ups are available only for the affiliate program, whose members earn 50% of the money spent in purchases by the people they refer to the website. Personalized referral URLs and marketing material is available to aid affiliates in their task.
Torrent Safe affiliate program
Pricing
The price of the paid tier on Torrent Safe varies depending on the chosen billing periodicity. Users can purchase an annual license for 34.99 USD (~2.91 USD/month) or a 1-month access by just 4.95 USD. A subscription is also available for 3.96 USD / month, charged until it is cancelled, with no minimum permanence agreement.
Offered plans. There are basically two options, being premium or not, but different payment options are available
Payments for memberships are accepted both in Paypal and Bitcoin, the latter through a partnership with BitPay. There is a 7-day moneyback guarantee on any purchase, regardless of the value.
Buying a premium membership. There are two things to see: how an email address is the only required information and the accepted payment methods
Premium users enjoy an almost unlimited experience, with the only relevant restriction being the 7-day lifetime of any stored files.
On the other hand, basic accounts face considerable restrictions, starting with having the right to download no more than three files per month. File size is also limited to 10 GB, not bad for a free service but something to take into account as software gets bigger and bigger.
Benefits shared by all their customers include unlimited download speeds (up-to their bandwidths), video streaming (not available for some older formats such as avi), support for download managers and a complete web-based experience (i.e. no software required to use the platform).
Using the site
Free Trial
The basic tier that Torrent Safe offers allows its customers to test the service before purchasing a key or subscription. It is also enough for people who need to download torrents sparsely for whom 3 files per month satisfy their necessities.
How to download anonymously through TorrentSafe.com
First we have to find a magnet or torrent URL with the content we want to download. .torrent files are also accepted as a valid alternative.
Once we have a link, we proceed to paste it in the big box at the top of the home page and click on “Download now”.
A magnet link on the download box. Torrent URLs are also accepted.
The site will take us to the “My Downloads” page, the platform will search for the file and download it for us.
My download is starting, the auto download feature is on which means that the file will start transfering to my computer as soon as it is moved to Torrent Safe’s servers
From here on the process is similar to that of Mega. Unfortunately, our download got cancelled and we did not manage to see the entire process. We know how it goes thanks to their demonstration video and the information available on the net.
The file did not work on Torrent Safe, but my desktop torrent client was happy to take the task (almost 5,000 seeders on thepiratebay should have been enough, I think)
How anonymous is Torrent Safe?
Besides not requiring registration, the site does not keep logs of the files downloaded by its users. It translates into the ISPs not being able to track someone’s activity nor pressing Torrent Safe to do so.
Since files are not stored more than a week in the server, private torrents can be used without major concerns. The platform offers a 3 to 1 seeding ratio, so that their users can keep their upload-to-download ratio in good standing.
The only information registered by the site are user preferences and some basic information about his system, mostly in order to provide a better experience. In their privacy policy, Torrent Safe agrees not to sell or give away in any manner whatever personal information it retrieves from its customers.
What about the Security?
Downloads take place via HTTPS, which provides encryption for the exchanged data.
On the other hand, files are not checked for viruses, malware or any other kind of malicious code. The end user is responsible for any damage to his system produced by the content he downloads, and verifying the trustability of a resource is left to his sole discretion.
Customers are also responsible for their keys as they are sent to the email provided during the checkout. With no accounts in place, additional security measures are lost.
User experience on Torrent Safe
The site is well designed, simple and intuitive at the same time. It is responsive and adjusts quite well to different screen sizes and orientations.
One of the few drawbacks are the localization options which are a bit annoying (for example, you can change the language to other different to what your locale suggests, but preferences seem not to be adequately stored and eventually reset to their defaults).
There are mixed reviews about the site, with many people complaining about downloads not completing and being interrupted at different points (not so different to our own experience).
There are multiple posts on their Facebook page giving away license keys for reviewing their extension on the Chrome store or the site itself on Facebook. While it indicates nothing, it may give some clues about why is their rating on Zuckerberg’s social network so high.
Scam Adviser gives the site a 59% trust score, mainly influenced by the fact that the owner of the site chose to hide its identity and the real location of the server.
For support requests, customers can use the contact form embedded on their website, reach them through email or, more informally, get in touch with them on Facebook.
After contacting them asking for some information and informing them about our issue, we had to wait less than four hours to get an answer (on Saturday). They gladly answered all of our questions and even gave us a courtesy premium key to fully test the service out.
The premium experience comes with unlimited downloads in parallel, is not that great?
Suddenly my download showed up. I am still not sure if it is the first one I started 6 hours earlier or my retry after becoming premium. Anyway, there it is!
Pros
- Affordable plans (including one free).
- Great customer support.
- High anonymity.
- No software required.
- Simple and Intuitive interface.
- Support for private torrenting sites and download managers.
Contras
- Files expire too early (especially for users with slow connections).
- No antivirus.
- The site does not always work as expected.
Conclusion
Torrent Safe is a great alternative for users wanting to bypass network restrictions on torrent sites. Till the site gets more stable when it comes to transmitting files, it is recommended to stick either with the free tier or buy the subscription on a per need basis.
Go to torrentsafe.com