In many ways, YIFY ranks high on the list of the best torrenting websites. It’s been consistently providing access to high-quality movie torrents since 2011, which has helped it build a strong reputation in the torrenting community. Unfortunately, due to the same restrictions that affect all other torrent sites, some of you may be unable to access the site. We’ll discuss how you can get around these restrictions later on.
YIFY regularly posts links to torrents of new movies and TV series as soon as they become available. The rapid addition of new content has helped the site maintain its popularity. It’s also what’s driving more and more torrent users to the site, allowing it to continue to grow.
Table of Contents
What Does YIFY Mean?
Many people in the torrenting community know YIFY as YTS, which is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent Solutions. This is the reason that when you access the site, you’ll see that the URL and the site itself have the YTS logo. You’ll also see that the site says that it only features links to YIFY movies or YTS movies. The TV series torrents are on another YTS site that also has YTS movies.
One of the reasons why the site is more popular than the vast majority of other torrent websites is its ability to offer validated torrent files. Due to the large audience of the site, the volume of comments and the download metrics serve to actively validate the files. In other words, most of the content on the site is high quality because the community and the website work together to promote the best quality content.
Pro Tip:
Expedite all your Torrenting activities using a SeedBox.The torrent files available on YIFY offer a better downloading experience and better seeding speeds when compared to other torrent websites like Kickass Torrents, ExtraTorrent and LimeTorrents.
While the experience and download speeds on the site are great, they’re meaningless if the site is ever taken down voluntarily or by a law enforcement agency. The loss of YTS would leave a major hole in the torrenting community, but it likely wouldn’t come as a surprise given what’s happened to other big names in the industry on a regular basis.
The fact that YIFY can easily disappear from the torrenting scene underscores the importance of YTS proxy services. YTS proxies and mirrors sites act as alternatives for when you can’t access YTS via the main URL. This is true if the site is offline for maintenance or has been blocked by law enforcement.
In some cases, even the proxies and mirrors of the site aren’t working. When this happens you’ll have to turn to one of the alternative sites we discuss in a later section.
Whether you’re using the official YIFY website, a YTS proxy or mirror or an alternative torrent site, we always recommend using a VPN. We’ll discuss more about why you should use a VPN later on as well as how you can use a VPN to access sites that have been blocked by your country’s government.
Why is YIFY Not Banned?
The answer depends on where you live. The site is only banned in certain countries where law enforcement agencies have taken action against it. Since the sharing of much of the content on torrent sites goes against copyright law, countries that strictly enforce these laws regularly block access to the sites. While this may the case in your county, there are ways around these bans that we’ll discuss later.
YTS originally found fame as an online piracy group and has maintained steady growth since its inception. It’s still one of the dominating forces in the torrent scene despite the popularity of other sites. To set themselves apart, the group behind the site takes a different approach to gaining an audience. As we discussed earlier, they focus on only providing access to high-quality movie and TV show files while other torrent sites provide links with little focus on quality. Additionally, they distribute their files across multiple sites, which gives users multiple avenues to reach their content.
The model they’ve chosen to use appears to be working. Some of the latest figures suggest the YIFY torrents site is getting around one million hits per month. While this an impressive number, reaching this level of success brings some unwanted attention along with it. As torrent sites grow in popularity, law enforcement agencies start to pay attention and begin working to take the site down.
This is exactly what happened with YTS. Law enforcement agencies hunted down the group behind the site and the MPAA filed a lawsuit against them and another torrent site on the same day. Eventually, the legal battle resulted in YTS being shut down.
As a result, the initial YTS administrative team had to leave the torrenting community since they were accused of a crime. However, this was not the end of YTS. While the original site is gone, there are many active mirrors and proxies that function exactly as the initial site did. Some of these sites are legitimate while others are designed to install malware on your computer. It can be difficult to tell which ones are real and which ones aren’t which is why it’s so important to use a VPN.
The proxy sites generally make claims about their relationships with the initial YTS team, but these relationships are difficult to validate. It’s best to focus on which of the sites are providing high-quality, legitimate content and not put too much faith in their claims.
Regardless, whoever is behind the proxy sites is doing a good job and visitors are leaving satisfied. The content is still of top-notch quality and new movies and TV series are added on a regular basis. While the first YTS site is gone, the proxy sites are carrying on its legacy.
Is YIFY Torrents Operational?
The answer to this question is the same as the last one: it depends on where you live. As we discussed in the last section, the original YIFY torrents site is gone and the group behind it hasn’t set up any alternatives. All the sites that claim they’re the original are probably lying and are trying to cash in on the downfall of a giant in the torrenting community. While this may be true, it doesn’t mean that they’re not providing high-quality torrents.
In fact, most of the current YTS sites work fairly well and haven’t been known to harm their users either by installing malware on their devices or using their devices’ resources to mine cryptocurrencies. These are common practices of disreputable torrent sites and disreputable sites in general.
The top three alternative sites are:
All three of these sites are working and should be available to everyone. Many of the other YTS URLs appear to redirect to the .lt site, possibly indicating that this is the main one. These alternative sites not only provide users with links to HD content but also do so quickly without wasting time with overly complicated homepages and sign-up pages.
Of course, while these sites are currently working, that doesn’t mean they’ll continue to do so indefinitely. Sometimes a YTS website can come and go inside a couple of weeks. Issues like server crashes or data migration problems can wreak havoc on an administration team. Additionally, as is always the case with torrent sites, there’s the perpetual problem of law enforcement agencies working to take down the site.
Members of the torrenting community have likely become accustomed to popular torrent websites suddenly disappearing. The downfall of YTS is certainly not going to be the last time a popular torrent website has to call it quits.
The reasons for the takedown of the initial site are numerous and are common among almost all torrent sites that get taken down. The most obvious reason is that a significant portion of the content on the site was protected by copyright law. Sharing this type of material violates the law, but it often goes unnoticed if a site can remain under the radar. However, YTS was plagued by its own popularity.
As we discussed earlier, the popularity of torrent sites catches the attention of law enforcement agencies which eventually leads to their downfall. However, the case with YTS is a bit different. Even after law enforcement agencies threatened to shut down the site, the administrators refused to back down. Such an approach has worked for some torrent sites in the past, but it didn’t work for the YTS team.
Though the site was taken down and some alternatives have taken its place, the administrators of the site had mirror sites and proxy sites in place. This is common practice in the torrenting community. Let’s take a look at some of the best ones.
Best YIFY Mirror/Proxy Sites
Almost all the torrent websites with large audiences have mirror sites and clones. In fact, most of them start preparing their mirror sites as soon as they become popular in the torrent scene. They’re used as a sort of preparation for the worst-case scenario.
While the mirror sites offer more or less the same content as the original site, sometimes using them isn’t safe. They may have files containing malware, which can steal your data without you knowing about it. You can protect yourself from all kinds of problems associated with using the mirror sites and downloading content by using a VPN service. We’ll talk more about VPNs in the next section.
Of course, using a VPN doesn’t change the fact that some of the mirror sites and clones may contain malware or may be attempting to use your computer’s resources without your knowledge. The threat will still be there even if a VPN is being used, you’ll just have a strong defense against it. You’ll still need to be cautious on the mirror sites.
That being said, we still feel that the mirror sites are a good option to use if none of the alternative sites work for you. The best ones are:
All of the proxy sites mentioned above release movies in HD formats. Most of these sites also come with comprehensive search functionality that helps torrent users search for different YTS movies based on their IMDB rating, release date or any other criteria. You’ll find that even when the main YTS site is down, these proxy sites will be operational.
Is it Safe to Use YIFY?
In short, the answer is yes. However, the real answer depends on what you download. If you download torrent releases that have only been downloaded a few times or are uploaded by a new user then you’re more likely to get into trouble. If you download files only after taking a look download numbers and whether the file was uploaded by a reputable group like RARBG, EZTV or MkvCage then you’re likely to be safe.
Keep in mind that even if you’re smart about which files you download, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll be safe from hackers, government agencies or your internet service provider. In fact, no website, torrent sites included, can guarantee protection from these groups. Those looking to harvest your data are not limited to the three groups we’ve mentioned here.
The only way to protect yourself, as we’ve mentioned before is to use a VPN service. VPNs protect you by encrypting your internet connection and routing it through a remote server. At the most basic level, this accomplishes two things. First, it keeps hackers, the government and your internet provider from seeing what you’re doing on your computer. They’ll have no way to log your activity and won’t be able to see what websites you’re using. Second, it makes it appear as though you’re in a different location from your physical location. For example, if you live in Germany but you connect to a VPN server in Canada, it will appear to the websites you visit as though you’re in Canada. This feature allows you to bypass the restrictions your countries government has placed on websites.
VPN services are great at keeping you anonymous, protecting your data and allowing access to blocked websites. If you live in a country where you’re unable to access a torrent site, you can use a VPN to access it. This is also true of any other website that has content that’s only available in specific regions like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube. We’ve compiled a list of the top ten best VPNs to help you find one that works for you.
Best YIFY Alternatives
You can tell an industry is growing by looking at the number of new companies that pop up each year. There’s no doubt that the torrenting industry is on the rise as more and more torrent websites are founded over time.
The growth in this industry is great for the torrenting community because there are more options than ever before. You’re not restricted to using the YIFY proxy sites or mirror sites. Let’s take a look at the best alternatives.
ExtraTorrent
If law enforcement authorities hadn’t terminated ExtraTorrent back in 2017, it likely would’ve made to the top of every torrent list. It was an amazing torrent website in terms of the quality of torrents and the number of comments from dedicated community members rating the content. While it had to close, it did have a great run.
Fortunately, you can still access ExtraTorrent using its mirror and proxy sites. We’ve linked to the best one in the subheading. While this one is considered the best, there are many other URLs that will allow you to access the broad library of content ExtraTorrent has to offer.
ExtraTorrent can handle any file size or type and offers movies in 720p, 1080p and 3D content. This makes it a great place to download torrents. Whether it’s action, adventure, drama, racing, crime, mystery or anything in between. ExtraTorrent probably has it. This includes nearly every YIFY movie, making it an excellent alternative. All of this is available without having to register an account.
A quick note: make sure you’re using a VPN service and an ad blocker before accessing ExtraTorrent. There are ads on the site and accidentally clicking one can open a new ad or take you to a potentially dangerous website.
1337x
1337x is another great alternative. It’s been around for quite a while and has built up a good reputation in the torrenting community. While the site mainly specializes in movies and TV series, you’ll be able to find files for most other types of content as well. Most of the content is in 720p, 1080p and 3D quality. It also has a rating system that shows the top 100 torrents to help you find the best ones on the site.
The site occasionally goes down from time to time, which is when illegitimate sites can start to steal some of its traffic. So, be sure to use a VPN before going on your torrent hunting adventure.
Kickass Torrents
To wrap up our alternatives list we have Kickass Torrents, also known as KAT. KAT is one of the most well-known and well-respected names in the torrent industry, around the level of The Pirate Bay, for the simple reason that it uses better screening tools to find its torrents.
The first KAT site was taken down, but it’s rumored that the team behind it is also behind the new version of the site. This means that the site’s reputation has carried on over the years.
KAT, just like ExtraTorrent, can provide you with all the YIFY movies that you desire, which makes it a great alternative. Similar to the other alternatives on this list, KAT offers content in 1080p and 3D quality in categories like action, adventure, thriller, horror, true crime, mystery, comedy, drama and more. Moreover, it doesn’t require you to remember a login or password in order to browse or download the content which makes getting started much faster.
Honorable mentions
- ISOHunt
- RARBG
- LimeTorrents
- The Pirate Bay
- Torrents.me
- Demonoid
Conclusion
There you have it, folks. YIFY torrents and YIFY movies made a name for themselves for their quality and file size. Sadly we won’t be seeing any more original YIFY torrents or YIFY movies.
The good news is that people in the industry have launched their own YIFY movies and while these are not as reliable as the old YIFY movies, they do offer the same benefits of small file size and reasonably high quality. In fact, most of these sites are good enough for people to visit them and share them with their friends. That’s how they have amassed a user base in the millions.
If this guide has helped you then maybe you should also share it with your friends and then hopefully they will share it with theirs. After all, that’s the core concept behind torrenting.
This platform has risen quickly to become one of the best torrent sites on the Internet today. If you’re looking for an alternative to The Pirate Bay, then you will definitely enjoy the modern layout of this design. It features an intuitive interface that allows you to focus on the content instead of a flashing advertisement or useless advice. This site does push the concept of using a free VPN as part of your torrenting experience. That may not be the best solution. There is still a chance that DNS leakage could occur, which would influence your privacy levels. Choose a paid provider that offers guaranteed uptime levels of 99.9% or higher, military-level encryption, and affordable access instead for the best possible experience.