uTorrent Debuts Ad-Free Client for $4.95 Per Year

[Batu69]

The uTorrent team has introduced a new ad-free version of the popular file-sharing client. Users can now buy a yearly $4.95 subscription to download the latest torrents without being subjected to ads. The new client is part of an experiment to optimize the user experience.

 

With well over 150 million active users a month uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client around.

The application generates income by bundling software “offers” during the install process and through in-app banner advertising.

 

The banner advertisements are relatively new. Parent company BitTorrent Inc. decided to include these in 2012 in order to increase its revenues, causing uproar among some of its users.

 

This week the company has reintroduced an ad-free version of its uTorrent client. In addition to the free ad-supported version there’s now a paid client as well, for which users are charged $4.95 per year.

 

Through a paid subscription users can support the developers directly without constantly being subjected to advertising.

“We’ve been busy experimenting with new ways to improve uTorrent for our users while financially supporting the amazing team that works every day to make uTorrent free for millions of people around the world,” BitTorrent’s Jordy Berson notes.

 

uTorrent versions    

The $4.95 version doesn’t come with any of the advanced features that are available in the 19.95 Pro version, but is considerably cheaper.

“This gives users the option of avoiding any and all ads in the client. It’s exciting to us because it gives users the ability to avoid advertising at 25% of the cost that it used to be – about 5 dollars a year instead of 20 dollars,” Berson says.

 

The price setting is definitely reasonable for an application that millions of people use on a daily basis. However, not all BitTorrent users are eager to pay for the products they consume.

 

But instead of pirating a copy of uTorrent, these users can also disable the advertisements in the free version of the client, for now at least. The uTorrent team hasn’t said whether this will change in the future.

 

The release of the paid tier is part of uTorrent’s efforts to move away from invasive advertisements and bundled software, which led to bad PR in the past.

“We’ve never been satisfied with this revenue model. It requires compromises that detract from a premium user experience. We want to find a model that adds value to our product and our users. We want to find a better way,” the uTorrent team previously said.

 

Time will tell whether a paid subscription is the way to go.

 

Article source

[broascadilie]

 

Since i have discovered qBittorrent, uTorrent can debut all he likes :)

[doubleagent]

Tixati is a lot better than uTorrent. 

[OrbingStorm]

Downloading torrents and paying for it ......defeats the purpose of downloading torrents.

[knowledge-Spammer]

we do it for just  $0.00 Per update

[steven36]

4 hours ago, OrbingStorm said:

Downloading torrents and paying for it ......defeats the purpose of downloading torrents.

There's many clients  that can download  files a torrent  that's adfree out the box .  My download manger I use in Linux for filehost witch is open source downloads torrents  fine  for public p2p  . Only time I bother  to open another client  in Linux I use Transmission  is if I'm visiting a private p2p site . I  download mostly from filehost  anywho  i dont like fooling with p2p much. Its  too risky its just a extra option  I have ...  uTorrent days are numbered  next thing  you know the MPPA and RiAA  will sue them out of business like they did Limewire  for charging  money  for adfree versions.  Every since I came on the internet 15 years ago  these companies  come and go  even before  torrents  . The clients for the fasttrack network were packed full of spyware they always try to take advantage  of the poor man  .

[GRiM]

5 hours ago, doubleagent said:

Tixati is a lot better than uTorrent. 

 

Agreed.  Much better.

 

One of the biggest selling points for me is ability to manage more than one drive at once, Multiple simultaneous/automatic download locations with ability to move to multiple labels/locations torrent/data.  Makes running a 30TB server with 6 drives much easier.

Has many great powerful features.  It's not as "pretty" as uTorrent but much more powerful.

[steven36]

Q

 

A

 

 

[broascadilie]

So u recommend Tixati over qBittorrent in terms of functionalities ?

[Ryrynz]

19 hours ago, GRiM said:

 

Agreed.  Much better.

 

One of the biggest selling points for me is ability to manage more than one drive at once, Multiple simultaneous/automatic download locations with ability to move to multiple labels/locations torrent/data.  Makes running a 30TB server with 6 drives much easier.

Has many great powerful features.  It's not as "pretty" as uTorrent but much more powerful.

Gawd if they'd just work on that UI.. I just can't jump on anything that's not designed right.. uTorrent looks the best, might end up switching to qBittorrent but it needs new icons so won't touch it before they

actually treat it like a modern app rather than something that looks like it's from the year 2000.

[steven36]

3 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

uTorrent looks the best, might end up switching to qBittorrent but it needs new icons so won't touch it before they

actually treat it like a modern app rather than something that looks like it's from the year 2000.

Actually, many uTorrent users use a  version that's 5 years old, because  many private sites ban new versions.  It comes with a bitcoin miner and ads  and its nasty  but as long as gui looks good?

 

Last i checked  it was made to download with  not look at . That's they the problem uTorrent its not really improved very much in 5 years other than remote and magnet handling . something that any other updated client can do.  Nice design but poor development . They replaced development for ads years ago, many , many  updates  that didn't  do nothing but update the ads . Now they charge money for something they gave free for years once a ad free version.

 

Even one of The 4 Best Alternatives to uTorrent on Windows

is a old version of uTorrent

http://www.howtogeek.com/197542/the-4-best-alternatives-to-utorrent-on-windows/

[XmYthZ]

On 2/13/2016 at 2:34 PM, doubleagent said:

Tixati is a lot better than uTorrent. 

Yeah, I agree!

 

On 2/13/2016 at 8:11 PM, GRiM said:

Agreed.  Much better.

.....

Has many great powerful features.  It's not as "pretty" as uTorrent but much more powerful.

 

8 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

Gawd if they'd just work on that UI.. I just can't jump on anything that's not designed right.. uTorrent looks the best, might end up switching to qBittorrent but it needs new icons so won't touch it before they

actually treat it like a modern app rather than something that looks like it's from the year 2000.

 

The original installation settings do not look so "pretty" but with some tweaks it can be made to look like below.

Download the Tixati 2.33 Config file: https://mega.nz/#!9ohFwKRB!Lv_bOJnlniF593-yI_h3rZ1l2uASCBd3HFXKtSzwqyo

and Import using the settings.

Hope you'll like it.

 

[CODYQX4]

12 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

Gawd if they'd just work on that UI.. I just can't jump on anything that's not designed right.. uTorrent looks the best, might end up switching to qBittorrent but it needs new icons so won't touch it before they

actually treat it like a modern app rather than something that looks like it's from the year 2000.

I won't lie, qBittorrent looks like a pile of festering shit, and all icon themes look like shit as well. I'm sure it works well, but it has that hideous look that most Linux apps have (why do they always have such terrible icons and often janky fonts?).

 

At the moment I'm using a service that will download torrents remotely anyway. Real-Debrid lets you download 5 torrents, and there's always seedboxes.

[spudboy]

Ummmm. uTorrent can be made ad-free for free. Do people still not know about something as simple as changing a few things in advanced settings? Regardless... I went back to uTorrent 3.3.2 after trying out qbittorrent and having nothing but issues with speeds & "stalled" torrents.

[broascadilie]

1 hour ago, spudboy said:

Ummmm. uTorrent can be made ad-free for free. Do people still not know about something as simple as changing a few things in advanced settings? Regardless... I went back to uTorrent 3.3.2 after trying out qbittorrent and having nothing but issues with speeds & "stalled" torrents.

For me it was the otherway around.With utorrent i had overload hdd's and other stupid things but not anymore with qbittorrent.I can constantly download at max speed without any issues whatsoever.

[SPECTRUM]

I preffer qBittorrent.

[Ryrynz]

16 hours ago, steven36 said:

Actually, many uTorrent users use a  version that's 5 years old, because  many private sites ban new versions.  It comes with a bitcoin miner and ads  and its nasty  but as long as gui looks good?

 

Last i checked  it was made to download with  not look at . That's they the problem uTorrent its not really improved very much in 5 years other than remote and magnet handling . something that any other updated client can do.  Nice design but poor development . They replaced development for ads years ago, many , many  updates  that didn't  do nothing but update the ads . Now they charge money for something they gave free for years once a ad free version.

 

Even one of The 4 Best Alternatives to uTorrent on Windows

is a old version of uTorrent

http://www.howtogeek.com/197542/the-4-best-alternatives-to-utorrent-on-windows/

It doesn't come with a bitcoin miner, you should research before making statements like this.
I disable all possible ads. One green upgrade button and a link to upgrade to pro.. that's it. Hardly intrusive and still looks better than any client out there.
Yes, as long as it works well and the GUI isn't designed by someone back in the 90's.. I'm happy.

Yes uTorrent doesn't have a lot happening development wise, which is why I'll probably jump when devs actually take the UI seriously.

Old utorrent's look horrid, can't handle how anything pre 3.x looks even if it's still a mile better than pretty much every other torrent client out there.

If I'm running Windows then it should look like a native Windows app, not some nasty Java looking or pre 2000 multicolored POS.

[Ryrynz]

5 hours ago, broascadilie said:

For me it was the otherway around.With utorrent i had overload hdd's and other stupid things but not anymore with qbittorrent.I can constantly download at max speed without any issues whatsoever.

I believe uTorrent has fixed all caching issues.. Believe that was done in 3.4.x, unfortunately that's when they screwed up with the bundled miner.. people said it could be installed without accepting the offer
but that was never proven and was probably wrong but the damage was done and it was generally banned, which is why 3.4.5 came out.. it actually forced them to update the version number which is all sorts of crazy.

[Akaneharuka]

I can turn off the AD for free in utorrent XD

 

 

[GRiM]

On 14/02/2016 at 10:03 AM, Ryrynz said:

Gawd if they'd just work on that UI.. I just can't jump on anything that's not designed right.. uTorrent looks the best, might end up switching to qBittorrent but it needs new icons so won't touch it before they

actually treat it like a modern app rather than something that looks like it's from the year 2000.

 

 

It's functionality that matters to me.  It could look like a turd as long as it did what I wanted it to do.

 

I would rather have a program that had a lot of functionality with crap UI than a pretty program that was very limited.

[steven36]

9 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

It doesn't come with a bitcoin miner, you should research before making statements like this.

It did once tell they removed it . It has came with some kind of 3rd party gift  for many years if not  bitcoin miner it was tool bars and other malwares  . That's why  back when i use to use it i only used portable so i didn't have to risk installing it and forgetting to uncheck a box. How  do you trust a nasty program like this is beyond me ?

 

 

[steven36]

On undefined at 5:25 PM, CODYQX4 said:

I'm sure it works well, but it has that hideous look that most Linux apps have (why do they always have such terrible icons and often janky fonts?).

mostly my apps in Linux  just look like witch theme  I decide to install  there's all kinds of eye-candy for mint you can make it look like mac or windows  even.

 

Also you can install icon packs and change them as well noobslab is a good site to do it easy.

 

Windows 7 Aero / Windows 10 dark mixed on Linux Mint 17.3

 

Open source  I didn't  even need a themes patcher  or windows blinds I  just installed them and sort them out in system appearance .

 

[Akaneharuka]

@steven36 Do you still have portable version of utorrent ?

 

If yes can you share it ? XD

[steven36]

2 hours ago, Akaneharuka said:

@steven36 Do you still have portable version of utorrent ?

 

If yes can you share it ? XD

No only portable i have is of qBittorrent, Here are some portables and stuff.

 

[Ryrynz]

19 hours ago, GRiM said:

 

 

It's functionality that matters to me.  It could look like a turd as long as it did what I wanted it to do.

 

I would rather have a program that had a lot of functionality with crap UI than a pretty program that was very limited.

 

Yeah of course it has to function right. utorrent dealing with different locations better would be a nice.. but all they seem to be doing is slowly fixing things.. very slowly.