Best VPN for torrenting: port forwarding and no-logs

Product	Best for	Per month, yearly plan	The deciding fact, and the catch	Link
Proton VPN	Best for port forwarding	$4.49	Port forwarding on every paid plan, in the Windows, macOS and Linux apps. The port changes on reconnect, and the first-year price is not the renewal price.	Visit
Private Internet Access	Lowest listed monthly rate	$3.99	The 3-year plan lists $2.03 a month, the lowest rate on the five pages, and renews at $79 every 3 years. Its pricing page doesn't mention port forwarding, so confirm before paying.	Visit
Windscribe Pro	Best free tier to try	$5.75	10 GB a month free with a confirmed email. Pro adds port forwarding, but as ephemeral ports that last 7 days.	Visit
IPVanish Essential	Unlimited devices, first-year price	$3.89	Low yearly price, but it is a first-year price. Month-to-month is almost four times as much.	Visit

Port forwarding is the feature that separates torrent VPNs from the rest. Without an open port you can still download, but fewer peers can connect to you, which hurts seeding. Check it before you check speed.

By that test Proton VPN leads among the five, going by the pages I could read, and Mullvad is out for seeding.

Proton VPN, if you seed

Proton's support page says port forwarding works on all paid plans, in the Windows, macOS and Linux apps. You connect to a server marked P2P first. The page says you "must be connected to a P2P server for port forwarding to work".

Three catches from the same page. It isn't compatible with NAT type 2 (moderate NAT). The port number "usually changes when you reconnect", so you update your torrent client each time. And UPnP and NAT-PMP should be off in the client. On macOS it's labelled early access. The page doesn't mention mobile apps.

The free plan covers 1 device. Proton's comparison table lists P2P/BitTorrent in the paid columns only. VPN Plus is $4.49 a month on the yearly plan, with a first-year bill of $53.88 and a renewal of $83.88 a year (checked November 1, 2026). Its pricing page also shows a 2-year deal at $3.49 a month, billed $83.76 for 24 months, renewing at $83.88 a year. Paid covers 10 devices. See the Proton VPN review.

Windscribe, if you want to try first

Free is 10 GB/month with confirmed email (2 GB without), servers in 10 countries. Pro costs $9 monthly or $69 billed every 12 months, per its upgrade page. Port forwarding is paid only. The Pro plan includes ephemeral ports that last 7 days at a time, then you request a new one. A permanent port needs a static IP, charged separately, with no price on the page.

Private Internet Access, if you mean to stay

PIA's pricing page lists three plans. One month is $11.95. One year is $3.99 a month, billed $47.88 for the first year and renewing at $47.88. Three years plus 3 months extra is $2.03 a month, renewing at $79 every 3 years. It says unlimited devices on one subscription, and a no-logs policy with RAM-only servers that erase usage traces on reboot.

That page doesn't mention P2P or port forwarding, and I didn't read a PIA support page that does. Confirm both before buying.

Mullvad, if you don't seed

Mullvad charges one flat rate whether you pay monthly or for a year, for up to 5 devices; I couldn't confirm it in dollars. It has no free trial. It offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, and cash payments are excluded.

Its no-logging page says "We do not keep activity logs of any kind". That's firm wording. But on May 29, 2023 Mullvad announced it was ending port forwarding, with existing ports removed on July 1, 2023, citing abuse and blocklisted IPs. Downloading still works. Seeding gets weaker.

IPVanish, with unlimited devices

IPVanish is $3.89 a month on the yearly plan, which is the first-year price ($46.68). Monthly is 14.99 USD/mo. The yearly renewal price isn't stated on what I could read, and I have no port-forwarding source for it either.

Kill switches and no-logs

I'm not scoring kill switches. The pages above don't spell out how each one behaves, and you should turn yours on and read its description in the app. A no-logs claim is a statement until an audit backs it; what a no-logs audit tells you covers the gap.

Going abroad as well? See VPNs for travel and hotel wifi and VPNs for streaming. The VPN catalog lists the rest.