NZBFriends wasn’t working when we checked. It was listed as an open indexer in July 2026, so it may come back. In the meantime our best NZB sites page has the ones that are working, and Easynews searches Usenet without an indexer at all.
NZBFriends is a Usenet search engine that indexes newsgroups so you can search them and download what you want. It has been going in this form since about 2011. It covers over 2,000 Usenet newsgroups and has a very large number of NZB files in its database. Its search algorithm is flexible but still easy for beginners. The advanced search features are a major highlight of NZBFriends.
Easynews is our top choice among the best NZB search options. It is a complete all-in-one solution that includes unlimited high-speed Usenet access plus a Usenet search interface with the most accurate Usenet search results. The interface is easy to use — just log into your Easynews account, enter your query into the search bar, and hit enter.
Other features:
- Highest retention rates / largest Usenet archive
- Retention grows daily (no Usenet posts are expired)
- Fast and accurate results
- Easy to use, fully customizable search interface
- No NZBs, indexers, or newsreaders needed
- Can be accessed from any device (mobile and desktop)
This will also save you the hassle and added cost of subscribing to
various NZB indexers since you get unlimited access + unlimited Usenet search with your Easynews account
Exclusively through Usenet.com: Get 3 FREE Months of Easynews – Includes 30 day MBG + Free Upgrade to Unlimited (normally 150GB/mo)
Features
For a free service, NZBFriends has quite an impressive feature list. The Usenet search service has over 7.5 million NZBs indexed, which amounts to more than 5 Petabytes of data stored. This means that over 174 million binary files are available to search through.
Retention is a solid 1,200 days, and SSL encryption is there too. You can download an unlimited number of NZBs and the site’s search functionality is truly great. Sorting works by relevance, author, file size and plenty of other things. You can also filter out results according to their group or age. That clears out results you don’t want, so it is easier to find what you need from Usenet New Servers.
There is a list of popular keywords, so you can see what other people look for, and a recent posts list for whatever has just gone up. You will need a Usenet Provider and we recommend UsenetServer. You can also browse individually through the most popular groups and see what is being posted on them. RSS feeds are also available for individual newsgroups if you wanted to stay up to date with the latest releases.
Memberships
NZBFriends is completely free for all users. Download as many NZB files as you like, without an account. It pays its bills with adverts and affiliate deals instead with other websites. This includes NZB downloaders like GetNZB, as well as other NZB search services like FindNZB.
Technical Details
NZBFriends crawls over two thousand newsgroups. It indexes each binary file people might search for. This amounts to a massive total of 5PB of data and over 175 million binary files. For context, one petabyte is more than a thousand times the capacity of a home computer.
The website’s optimization still allows it so that your search still takes a fraction of a second across millions of files.
NZB’s & Retention
This binary search engine has a retention of over 1200 days. This means that Usenet binaries stay searchable for 1,200 days, then drop off. Across more than 2,000 newsgroups that adds up to the 5PB figure above. That is 100 days more than Binsearch, the free search engine most people reach for. Older, quieter groups are more or less abandoned, so niche interests are better served elsewhere. The more mainstream groups are frequently indexed though and are kept updated, almost in real-time. So, this is probably extensive enough for most users looking to get into Usenet.
API Integrations
NZBFriends runs on its own platform with no API. Programs that manage and schedule your downloads cannot connect to it. That is a drawback, but the site works more like an ordinary search engine.
Ease of Use
The interface is simple, so you can just start using it. The main search bar is clearly visible and even advanced search options are easy to get to. Overall, NZBFriends is easy to use. The homepage is well designed to place the important things front and center, making the user’s experience much better.
Security
This NZB search service provides SSL security, so you can establish an encrypted connection with their servers. So nobody in the middle can see what you do on the site.
If you care about privacy that matters, and you may also want a VPN service to protect yourself further. When we last looked, the connection failed because the SSL certificate was missing.
How to utilize NZBFriends
This NZB search engine is really simple to use. Type your query in the search bar and click ‘Find in Usenet’. The website will show you all of the results that match your search term. You can click on any of the results to view what files it has. You can individually select files or select all of them at once. Clicking the create NZB button will let you download the NZB file from the website. You can now use this to get your desired content from the Usenet servers.
Struggling to find something? Advanced search lets you cut out results you don’t want. Click on the advanced search link and set the parameters according to what you are looking for.
Its important to note that getting the NZB file is only part of the whole process of downloading your file. You need a Usenet provider and a newsreader as well.
A Usenet service provider is what actually allows you access to Usenet servers by mirroring the files onto their own networks. You can get a subscription to a popular service like UsenetServer. The software that actually allows you to download the content is called a newsreader. There are free options available but you can get 30% off on GetNZB, using the discount code provided by NZBFriends.
Conclusion
Overall, NZBFriends is a really good at what it does. For a free search service, it does almost everything you need it to do without any unnecessary bells and whistles. The only thing lacking is proper API integration and an overall lack of community. Plenty of people use it, but with no forum there is nowhere for a community to form. This means that other people won’t really be able to help you out if you have trouble with NZBFriends services. It’s still a great option to consider, however, especially, if you’re new to Usenet. Be sure to check out our Best Usenet Providers.
You Still Need a Usenet Provider
An indexer only hands you the NZB file. The download itself comes from a Usenet provider, so you need one of those as well. These are the three we use.
- UsenetServer: $5.99 a month for 12 months plus 3 free, with 55 connections, Global Search and a free VPN.
- Newshosting: $5.99 a month for 15 months, with 100 connections, a newsreader with search and a free VPN.
- Easynews: $5.99 a month for 15 months, with 60 connections and search right in your web browser.