uTorrent Ad-free comes with a $4.95 per year tag
The makers of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent revealed uTorrent Ad-Free yesterday, an advertisement free version for $4.95 per year.
The program has been available in two different versions up until now: a free, advertisement driven version, and a Pro version which adds add-on features to the client that are not linked directly to the downloading or seeding of torrent files, but to processing these files on the local system.
The company has been in hot water ever since it offered a Bitcoin miner via its advertising program which used resources of the PC to mine for Bitcoin in the background, often without the user noticing that this was happening.
BitTorrent Inc promised then that it would move away from the bundled software monetization model, and that it started to explore other monetization options.
uTorrent Ad-free
The new uTorrent Ad-Free plan is the result of that. There is still a free version of uTorrent available for users who don't want to pay, but it appears to ship with OpenCandy, a platform that monetizes software installations.
Windows users may get third-party offers that are unrelated to uTorrent when they install the program on their system.
The new uTorrent Ad-free version is offered for a subscription fee of $4.95 per year. It is a limited version of uTorrent Pro, as it shares the ad-free nature of the Pro version but does not come with the additional processing options of the Pro version.
For our latest development, we’re happy to introduce Ad-Free μTorrent for $4.95 USD annual subscription. 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.
Free users of the program can subscribe to the new Ad-free version of uTorrent in two ways:
- Select Options > Get uTorrent Pro in the client. This opens upgrade options in uTorrent allowing you to pick Ad-free or Pro there directly.
- Open this page on the official uTorrent website instead. There you can get uTorrent Ad-free and uTorrent Pro directly without installing the free client first.
Remove ads
It is interesting to note that free users can remove the ads in the client without upgrading to the two new paid versions of uTorrent.
We described how this is done back in 2012, and the method works equally fine as of today.
- Select Options > Preferences while uTorrent is open.
- Click on Advanced.
- Search for "offers" using the Filter function.
- Locate offers.left_rail_offer_enabled, and set it to false (double-click on it).
- Locate offers_sponsored_torrent_offer_enabled, and set it to false.
Closing Words
Subscriptions seem to be the way to go in the software world these days. While they provide companies with a constant revenue stream, it is likely that the prospect of making annual payments to a company for use of a service or software does not appeal to all Internet users.
Those who want to support the makers of uTorrent, or any other program they use regularly, may prefer to make a one-time payment instead which is not supported right now.
They could in theory upgrade to uTorrent Ad-free for a year, and cancel their subscription afterwards.
Another thing to remember is that there are several BitTorrent clients out there that are equally good or maybe even better that don't cost any money.
Now You: Would you pay for an ad-free version to support the developers?
Martin,
What is the last build of uTorrent 2.2.1?
Is it “25302”?
Yes that seems to be it.
No, you are wrong.
The latest build number of uTorrent 2.2.1 is 25534
http://utorrent.cz
hahaha
1.8.2 FTW
I’m using 2.2.1 build 25302 and even tho it’s great, simple and effective for my basic needs there is one thing i miss in this version that the other, more recent versions of utorrent have, and that’s the ability to select which files to download when using magnet links.
There are free alternatives that are just as good (qBIttorrent, Tixati, Transmission-QT, Deluge, etc…).
You can still do that after the torrent has started, just not before.
I haven’t tried all of those, but Deluge is absolutely not “just as good”. It is worse, by far. Slower to start up, sometimes impossible to close, frequently crashes, does not report ratios correctly, uses more system resources. Worse.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. seriously. use qbittorrent, it’s constantly being updated and it’s what uTorrent used to be.
http://i.imgur.com/xtbxJxs.gif
Perfect!
$5/year … lol. You amuse me, uTorrent.
Deluge and several others are superior, and 100% free (and ad-free).
I use uTorrent 3.4.2 build 37754. With a few tweaks in the Advanced settings… no ads.
Exactly. I use the latest uTorrent (portable 3.4.1), have done for years (I update it manually about every 3rd or 4th release – maybe 3 times a year), and never seen an advert (but that may change if they want to enforce this model above). All you guys using old versions (1.8.2, or 2.2.1 etc) need to get over the bullshit. uTorrent is light, it’s not bloated. It doesn’t hog resources. I’ve been running it basically non-stop for the last 4 years on this PC. Right now its using approx 50mb of my RAM. Big f*kkin’ deal :) Blah blah blah. Security holes fixed/patched over the years (bound to have been some) blah blah blah. What is this? The late 90’s and you’re all on Win98 SE?
The problem is some trackers block uTorrent 3+
Why would I pay for a BitTorrent client? LOL
If you were to pay for a bit torrent client, you’re better of paying for the content you’re actually downloading. I don’t think they understand their customer base.
Seriously, people refuse to pay the artists but are willing to pay the pirates? Pathetic.
That is not the situation that is occurring here. uTorrent produce torrent software, which some use for downloading copyrighted materials (such as an album) and some use for downloading other kinds of materials (such as LibreOffice or Linux Mint). uTorrent, for their various sins, are not pirates. That is not what they do. It is also not clear that people are willing to pay them what they are asking, especially with better alternatives available.
I’ve stopped upgrading since 3.44 40911 after that utorrentie.exe as another process and I don’t understand the old or this new offer:
– too much alternatives
– why pay for AD-Free version if I can use tweaks? And in the case of a future free version without possibilty to disable them, the obvious choise is to change client
Still like uTorrent (tiny, portable, good speed, good interface especially when I add a new torrent) and I get use to it, but for me the only real alternatives are two:
– free uTorrent with portable option and AD-free (like old times); I think that is good for the software house too, because you regain the trust of old user (and power user)
– uTorrent Pro for that users who want more options; but it is clear that you can’t stimulate users to buy pro only because there’re no AD and maybe the first choise of a new user in this current contest is a free alternative from beginning, so you lost the possibility to spread your basic product too (and chance to sell pro version)
But is enough to see the above comments (or in other forums) to ask itself some questions….
Yeah, I’m on 3.4.1 portable. This move would seem to indicate that future versions will remove the ability to stop the ads in options/config etc. Thanks for letting me know about 3.44.40911+ adding extra processes.
I already have the ad free version, it’s called the hosts file :)
Can’t even remember the last time I used Utorrent, time sure flies these days.
I used vuze for a few years, then it started getting bloated so I switched to Deluge and finally Qbittorrent.
Not a fan of subscriptions when I can find other alternatives, but I don’t mind donating once in a while to open source software that I use regularly.
In someway, a user would not have to pay to fix an issue about PUPs. Please be noted that, uttorrent ONCE even recommended the infamous browser hijacker conduit toolbar! For more tips on securing a PC from PUAs, you can take a visit to my [email protected] https://removeunwantedprograms.wordpress.com/
Tixati. Best torrent client ever. If you love it. Why not donate to this guy instead?
http://www.tixati.com/
Welcome to the entitlement age.
No need to pay for Ad-Free uTorrent. The application can be configured not to show any ads.
Using 2.2. Why even update?
(Maybe to 2.2.1 – what does this offer?)
I made the preferences changes Martin described long ago and have not seen an ad since. I’m currently on version 3.4.5 Build 41202 (32-bit) which runs quite well.
I’d happily pay $5/year for a great torrent client – uTorrent was certainly the best not so long ago, and still remains one of the best. Problem is, I don’t trust them any more, especially after the Epic Scale fiasco.
Get the portable version. The software is fine, it was the installer they bundled with it. (www.portableapps.com)
Try Tixati.
Donate it you love it.
http://www.tixati.com/
pimp my utorrent
https://schizoduckie.github.io/PimpMyuTorrent/#/
one click all ads gone..
use qtorrent.
qbittorrent or tixati ftw. utorrent offers nothing special but ads 👎ðŸ»
The best torrent client ads free is TransmissionQT
32 and 64 bits available.
+1
TransmissionQT is the best.