Key Takeaway: Torrentio wins if you want the widest raw torrent coverage and the simplest possible setup. Comet wins if you want the fastest cached results and built-in multi-device streaming. Most people should start with Torrentio, and add Comet the moment they care about speed, self-hosting, or watching on several devices at once.
These two addons get pitted against each other constantly, and most comparisons miss the point. They solve the same problem in genuinely different ways.
I have run both on a Fire TV Stick 4K Max and on Stremio v5 desktop, and for this comparison I reinstalled each from scratch in July 2026 with the same Real-Debrid account, timing how fast each returned links and how clean the results were across a week of real viewing.
Comet vs Torrentio: The Short Answer
If you only read one section, read this one. The two addons overlap more than the whole-app comparisons do, but the right choice is usually obvious once you know which of these rows actually matters to how you watch in practice.
| Torrentio | Comet | |
| Released | 2021, established | 2024, newer |
| Core approach | Public torrent scraper | Debrid-cache-first search |
| Sources | 20+ public indexers | Jackett, Prowlarr, Zilean, DMM |
| Speed to results | Fast | Fastest |
| Works without debrid | Yes, via P2P | Barely |
| Debrid support | All major services | All major services |
| Built-in proxy | No | Yes |
| Self-hosting | Public instance only | Yes, via Docker |
| Configuration | Very simple | Moderate |
| Development pace | Slow and quiet | Very active |
| Cost | Free | Free, open-source |
| Best for | Widest coverage, simplicity | Fastest cached, multi-device |
What Is Torrentio?
Torrentio is the addon almost everyone starts with, and it is the one that built the modern Stremio streaming experience. It scrapes public torrent indexers, checks them against your debrid account, and returns a sorted list of streams. It is simple, broad, and despite constant rumours of its death, still quietly updated.
- Broad public scraping: it pulls from more than twenty public indexers like YTS, 1337x, and EZTV, giving it the widest raw torrent reach of any single addon.
- Quality sorting: results arrive ordered by resolution, seeders, and size, so the best available copy of a title usually sits right at the top.
- Every major debrid: it connects to Real-Debrid, Premiumize, AllDebrid, TorBox, and more, resolving cached torrents into fast direct links with no extra setup.
- One simple config page: a handful of toggles and an install button is the entire setup, which is far gentler than most alternatives for a beginner.
- P2P fallback: without debrid it can still stream directly from the swarm, which no debrid-first addon really does, though it exposes your IP.
What Comet Actually Is
Comet is the newer challenger, built specifically to be fast. Rather than leading with raw scraping, it checks what is already cached on your debrid account and returns those instant links first. It pulls from Jackett, Prowlarr, Zilean, and shared hashlists, and it is designed from the ground up for speed and self-hosting.
- Debrid-cache-first: it checks your debrid cache before anything else, so popular titles return instant playable links rather than torrents you must wait to resolve.
- Parallel indexers: it queries Jackett, Prowlarr, Zilean, and DMM hashlists simultaneously, which is how it consistently populated my stream list fastest of the two.
- Built-in proxy: it proxies debrid streams natively, so one account works across several devices without the IP-restriction errors that break other addons.
- CometNet caching: it shares torrent metadata between instances, which steadily improves debrid cache hit rates for everyone on the network over time.
- Self-hosting and Kodi: it runs as a Docker container and ships an official Kodi client, giving it flexibility Torrentio simply does not offer.
Setup and Installation: Which Is Easier
Both install the same way in principle, through a browser config page that hands off to Stremio, but Torrentio asks less of you. Comet gives you more to configure, and rewards a little extra effort with more control. For a first-time user on a Firestick, Torrentio is the gentler landing.
- Torrentio is quicker: open the config page, paste your debrid key, pick a couple of filters, and install, and you are watching in about two minutes.
- Comet has more options: its config exposes indexer choices, proxy settings, and result limits, which is powerful but takes a little longer to work through.
- Both hate remote typing: configure either on a phone or laptop and sign into the same Stremio account, because typing a manifest URL on a Firestick is miserable.
- Self-hosting is Comet-only: if you want no rate limits, Comet’s Docker option exists, whereas Torrentio only offers its public instance to everyone.
- Reinstalling is painless: both remember your setup through your Stremio account, so a fresh Firestick just needs you to sign in again.
Speed and Caching: Which Buffers Less
This is where Comet earns its reputation. In a straight race to a playable link, Comet’s cache-first design usually wins, but the gap narrows once both are pointed at the same debrid account and the same well-cached title. For obscure files, the picture flips.
- Comet is faster first: its cache-first lookup meant popular films populated a playable list before Torrentio had finished scraping in nearly every test I ran.
- Torrentio catches up cached: once a title is cached on your debrid account, Torrentio resolves it just as instantly, since both use the same provider.
- Obscure files favour Torrentio: for uncached, rare releases, Torrentio’s broader scraping finds something to send to debrid where Comet may return nothing.
- Proxy prevents stalls: Comet’s built-in proxy avoids the mid-stream IP errors that occasionally interrupt Torrentio across multiple devices.
- Both need good debrid: without a debrid account, both fall back to slow, unreliable options, and the speed comparison stops meaning very much.
Sources and Results: Which Finds More
Coverage and speed pull in different directions here. Torrentio casts the widest net over public indexers, while Comet leans on curated indexers and shared hashlists tuned for cache hits. For a complete library, many users end up running both, which our guide to the best Torrentio alternatives explores further.
- Torrentio casts wider: its twenty-plus public indexers mean it usually finds something for obscure, older, or niche titles that curated addons miss entirely.
- Comet finds cached faster: its hashlist and DMM integration surface already-cached releases first, which is exactly what you want for popular, current content.
- Duplicate handling differs: Torrentio can return long unfiltered lists, whereas Comet’s results tend to be tighter but occasionally narrower for rare files.
- Both benefit from an aggregator: running either through AIOStreams deduplicates and merges results, which is how many power users get the best of both.
- Overlap is real: because Comet can itself query Torrentio, their results overlap, so running both without an aggregator produces noticeable duplicates.
Debrid Support Compared
Neither addon is truly useful without a debrid service, and here they are closely matched. Both support every major provider, and one account serves both at once. The differences are in how they handle that account across devices. Our explainer on what is Real-Debrid covers why it matters.
- Same providers supported: both work with Real-Debrid, AllDebrid, Premiumize, TorBox, and Debrid-Link, so your existing account works in either addon.
- One account, both addons: a single debrid subscription serves Comet and Torrentio simultaneously, so there is no reason to pay twice to run both.
- Comet proxies natively: its built-in proxy sidesteps debrid IP restrictions across devices, which Torrentio needs an external proxy addon to replicate.
- Torrentio is plug-and-play: paste one API key and it works, with no extra proxy or indexer configuration required to get streams flowing.
- Cache hit rates vary: Comet’s CometNet can improve hit rates over time, though the underlying debrid cache is ultimately shared by both addons.
Comet vs Torrentio Feature Map
Most of the confusion in this comparison comes from overlapping capabilities described in different words. Mapping the two addons feature by feature makes the practical differences obvious, and shows exactly where Comet adds things Torrentio never attempted to.
| Feature | Torrentio | Comet |
| Torrent indexers | 20+ public | Jackett, Prowlarr, DMM |
| Debrid caching | Via debrid | Native + CometNet |
| Built-in proxy | No | Yes |
| Self-host option | No | Yes, Docker |
| Official Kodi client | No | Yes |
| Config complexity | One simple page | Config plus optional self-host |
| P2P without debrid | Yes | Limited |
Reliability and Uptime
An addon that returns nothing is useless no matter how fast it is in theory, so day-to-day reliability matters more than raw benchmarks. Here the two differ in character: Torrentio is a stable public target, while Comet’s flexibility gives you options when a public instance struggles.
- Torrentio is a big target: its popularity means its public instance is sometimes rate-limited or ISP-blocked, since everyone hits the same endpoint at once.
- Comet has a fallback: if the public Comet instance struggles, you can self-host your own, which removes rate limits entirely and improves reliability.
- Both depend on debrid uptime: when your debrid provider has an outage, neither addon can return cached links, and that is outside either project’s control.
- Active development helps: Comet’s frequent updates mean breakages get patched quickly, whereas Torrentio’s quieter pace can leave issues open longer.
- Public instances move: both occasionally change public endpoints, so if results vanish, checking for a current instance URL is the first thing to try.
Which Is Better for 4K and Large Files
If your priority is high-bitrate 4K remuxes, the choice comes down to filtering and cache behaviour rather than which addon is objectively better. Both can deliver enormous files through debrid, but the way each handles quality selection changes the experience noticeably.
- Torrentio filters finely: its resolution and size filters let you demand only 4K remuxes, and its wide scraping usually finds a cached one.
- Comet returns cached 4K fast: for popular 4K titles already cached on debrid, Comet surfaces the playable link quickest, which suits impatient viewing.
- Big files need debrid: a forty-gigabyte remux is only practical through a debrid cache, so both addons depend on that entirely for 4K.
- Proxy helps multi-device 4K: Comet’s proxy keeps a high-bitrate stream stable when you move between a Firestick and another device mid-film.
- Hardware still matters: a Fire TV Stick 4K Max handles heavy remuxes far better than an older Stick, regardless of which addon fetched the file.
Privacy: Do You Need a VPN for Either?
Both addons index torrent content, so the privacy question applies equally, but debrid changes your exposure. With a debrid account, streams arrive over HTTPS rather than the swarm, which is a meaningfully different profile. A VPN is still standard practice, especially if you ever fall back to peer-to-peer.
- Debrid reduces exposure: both fetch cached files over HTTPS through debrid, so your IP is not sitting in a public torrent swarm.
- P2P exposes you: Torrentio’s peer-to-peer fallback puts your IP in the swarm, which is precisely where a VPN becomes genuinely important.
- ISP throttling: a VPN can stop the throttling some ISPs apply to streaming traffic, which helps both addons hold a steady stream.
- Unblocking indexers: where an ISP blocks Torrentio at DNS level, a VPN or changed DNS usually restores results immediately.
- Pick a fast server: choose a nearby, high-speed VPN with a Fire TV app, because a slow one will ruin 4K playback through either addon.
Can You Run Both Together?
Yes, and it is what I actually do. The two are not really rivals once you stop treating the question as either-or. Comet handles the fast, popular content, and Torrentio backs it up for anything rare, and one debrid account covers both without any extra cost.
- Comet for speed: let Comet handle popular and current titles, where its cache-first design returns a playable link almost instantly every time.
- Torrentio for the rest: fall back to Torrentio for obscure, older, or niche releases that curated indexers simply do not carry.
- Use an aggregator: run both through AIOStreams so it deduplicates the overlap and merges everything into one clean, filtered list.
- One debrid covers both: a single Real-Debrid account serves both addons at once, so running the pair costs you nothing extra.
- Mind the duplicates: without an aggregator, running both produces repeated results, since Comet can itself query Torrentio behind the scenes.
Which Should You Install First?
If you have read this far and still cannot decide, this is the honest recommendation, based on what people actually keep using rather than what benchmarks best. It is worth being direct about where each addon belongs in a real setup.
- Start with Torrentio: it is the simplest to set up, the broadest in coverage, and it works within minutes, which suits a first Stremio setup.
- Add Comet for speed: once you want faster cached results or watch across several devices, install Comet alongside it rather than replacing Torrentio.
- Self-host if you can: if rate limits frustrate you, Comet’s Docker option is the upgrade path, and it removes the shared-instance bottleneck entirely.
- Budget for debrid: around a few pounds a month for Real-Debrid transforms both addons, and one account serves them simultaneously.
- Consider an aggregator: if you end up running both, AIOStreams keeps the combined results clean and is the tidiest long-term setup.
Verdict:
Comet is the faster addon and Torrentio is the broader one, and those two statements are not in conflict. The right question is not which wins in the abstract, but which behaviour matters to how you actually watch. For most people, the answer is to start with one and add the other.
- Torrentio: the right first install for almost everyone, with the widest coverage and the simplest setup on any Stremio device.
- Comet: the better choice for speed, multi-device streaming, and self-hosting, especially once popular cached content is most of your viewing.
- Both together: the setup I actually run, with Comet for fast popular titles and Torrentio backing it up for anything rare.
FAQs
Is Comet better than Torrentio?
For speed on popular titles, yes. Comet’s cache-first design usually returns a playable link faster. But Torrentio finds more obscure and older releases thanks to its wider scraping. Most users run both, using Comet for current content and Torrentio as a broader backup.
Do Comet and Torrentio both need Real-Debrid?
Neither strictly requires it, but both are transformed by it. Comet is close to useless without a debrid account, while Torrentio can fall back to peer-to-peer. One Real-Debrid account works in both addons at the same time, so there is no need to pay twice.
Can I run Comet and Torrentio at the same time?
Yes, and many people do. The catch is duplicate results, because Comet can itself query Torrentio. Running both through an aggregator like AIOStreams deduplicates the overlap and merges everything into one clean list, which is the tidiest way to use the pair together.
Which is faster, Comet or Torrentio?
Comet, generally. Its cache-first lookup surfaces already-cached links before Torrentio finishes scraping. Once a title is cached, though, Torrentio resolves it just as instantly through the same debrid provider, so the gap mainly shows on the first search for popular content.
Is Torrentio still working in 2026?
Yes. Despite regular rumours, Torrentio is still active and receiving updates. The most common reason it appears broken is an ISP block on its domain or an expired debrid key. Switching to a VPN or checking your subscription usually restores results immediately.
Are Comet and Torrentio legal?
Both addons are just search tools and are legal in themselves. What is often not legal, depending on your country, is streaming copyrighted content through them. Using a debrid service and a VPN is standard practice, but the responsibility for what you stream remains yours.
