uTorrent Pro: Price, Features, Functions & More

In this guide, we’ll take a deep look into uTorrent Pro and what it has to offer in comparison to the classic version of uTorrent.

The company behind this popular torrenting app is BitTorrent, the same people who developed the widely used BitTorrent file-sharing protocol.

uTorrent Pro formerly went by the name uTorrent Plus until 2014, when BitTorrent completed a full overhaul of the app’s design—it was essentially an entirely new product.

The name change fits the fresh design.

If you aren’t satisfied with the basic version of uTorrent—or any of the other free torrent clients—then you can pay $19.95 per year to use uTorrent Pro. Currently, it is available for the Windows platform. You can click here to buy uTorrent Pro from the company’s website.

utorrent pro featured image

On the face of it, uTorrent Pro offers a great deal of extra functionality that you can’t find in uTorrent classic. Some of the main features include (but are not limited to):

  • Better download speeds
  • BitTorrent bundles that include free content
  • Virus protection
  • Automatic malware protection
  • More format support
  • Can play any type of file
  • Download file conversion facility
  • Better customer support
  • Access to Instant Streaming beta version

All of these options add something to your overall torrenting and streaming experience.

With the help of better format support, you can pretty much play any type of media file on any type of internet-enabled device you have.

We don’t know if you would ever need to contact uTorrent customer support, but it’s there in case you need assistance.

Finally, the Instant Streaming feature allows users to preview a torrent file without having to download the whole file. As you’re downloading a file, you can see what’s inside to check if it’s what the uploader said it was and decide whether or not you’re happy with the quality of the file.

Pro Tip:

Make your torrenting a breeze by using a SeedBox.

According to BitTorrent, the uTorrent Pro version provides better speeds, but they don’t divulge many details about how exactly it’s able to do that.
a hand pointing towards a holographic floating download button

The free content feature is also a bit of a mystery. The uTorrent website doesn’t mention anything about what free uTorrent Bundles really are, but we’ve been able to gather that uTorrent Pro probably offers some of the content that’s available on the BitTorrent Now streaming service.

uTorrent’s website also says that the pro version offers users early access to cutting-edge features and updates before uTorrent classic users.

This may or may not be important to you, depending on your level of torrent use, but it’s something to keep in mind as you decide whether or not to pay for uTorrent Pro.

This is important:

Customers who have paid to use uTorrent Pro get to have all their downloads scanned and verified to be clean of any malware or virus.

This feature is always a plus since you never fully know what you’re downloading from any given torrent website. On top of that, uTorrent Pro also comes with an HD media player with HD codecs.

In a weird twist, perhaps the most important feature that goes away if you purchase uTorrent Pro is ads.

Advertisements have ruined the original uTorrent experience for many users over the past several years. But the company has always been able to justify this by maintaining that advertisements support the development process. uTorrent Pro customers can support uTorrent developers and get rid of ads by paying the $19.95/year fee.

Is uTorrent Pro Worth It?  

So, is the app really worth your money? Again, this really depends on your usage, experience and expectations. If you don’t care about trivial features that you know will not bring any significant improvement to your torrenting experience, then uTorrent Pro will have to work extra hard to make a case for a yearly payment.

You’re free to make a decision based on your level of interest and participation in the torrenting space.

Always Use a VPN Service With uTorrent Pro

Whether you’re using uTorrent Pro or uTorrent Classic, it’s always important to use a VPN service in order to secure your internet connection and protect your privacy online.

Torrenting is an activity that is especially vulnerable to hackers and other malicious actors. Even if the site you’re using to download a torrent from has all the best intentions, the uploader of the file may not.

Unfortunately, there are very few things you can do to ensure that the file you want to download is legitimate.

We’ll talk more about some of those methods below, but first and foremost, you need to use a VPN.

Using a VPN is the most important thing you can do for your privacy and safety whether or not you’re torrenting.

First, a VPN service hides your IP address, thereby keeping your location and device information safe from third-party access.

Note:

In the context of torrent downloads, that means other users on the same network will not be able to see your IP address.

Secondly, a VPN service encrypts your internet connection.

No one in the world, including your internet service provider or any government agency, will be able to spy on you and your online activities.

Apart from that, VPN services also change your location so that your connection appears as if you’re accessing the internet from an entirely different country. This opens up the opportunity for you to access torrent sites (or any other kind of website) that are only available to users in certain countries.

For example, with a VPN, U.S.-based users can watch the U.K. version of Netflix, which offers a whole different catalog of movies and TV shows that aren’t available to American customers.

Note:

A torrent site can be blocked in your region for a variety of reasons. Your government may not want you to access content that’s available on the site or maybe the internet service provider you’re using may not want you to eat up a lot of bandwidth while downloading torrent files. VPN services allow you to get around these barriers.

The other thing VPNs can do is protect you against internet throttling.

Internet service providers are notorious for throttling customers’ internet connections when they try to download large volumes of files over the internet through torrenting.

If you want to make sure your internet service provider is not able to do that, then use a VPN service.

So which VPN service should you sign up for? That depends on your own personal needs and requirements.

To help you figure this out, we’ve made a roundup of the best VPNs for torrents.

In short, you want to sign up for a VPN service that is not only compatible with uTorrent Pro but also good enough to hide your activity on the app without slowing down your downloading speed.

Having VPN protection is not much good to anyone if it’s not fast enough to complete a download in a reasonable amount of time.

You should also make sure that the VPN service you sign up for has a kill switch feature along with a money-back guarantee.

This is important:

A kill switch is important because it protects your data from being exposed if your VPN connection happens to drop. Otherwise, a VPN without a kill switch feature would reveal your real IP address to the P2P network you’ve connected to on uTorrent Pro.

As for the money-back guarantee, any VPN service worth its salt would not shy away from offering a reasonable money-back guarantee. That way, you can sign up for the service risk-free, test it out and make a decision before making a long-term commitment.

a holographic download button with blue hues and letter background

In our list of the best VPNs for torrenting (linked above), we only listed VPN service providers that offer a money-back guarantee of at least seven days.

Some of the VPNs on our list go further than that by offering users a 30-day free trial. All the VPNs that made it to our list offer cheap rates and a good range of features.

Conclusion

uTorrent Pro is the paid version of uTorrent classic, with a price tag of $19.95 per year. Whether or not the extra features are worth the money will depend entirely on you. From our perspective, if you don’t care about the extra functions and features, then just stick with the free version of uTorrent or any other torrent client.

DISCLAIMER:

Security Gladiators in no way encourages or condones any kind of copyright violation or circumvention of restrictions. That includes torrenting or downloading illegal content. Torrenting is a great way to access and share all kinds of content on the internet and there are plenty of opportunities there to engage in legal and safe online torrenting. You need to do your own research to see if these services and torrents are legal in your own country. We suggest to always use a VPN while torrenting.

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Zohair A. Zohair is currently a content crafter at Security Gladiators and has been involved in the technology industry for more than a decade. He is an engineer by training and, naturally, likes to help people solve their tech related problems. When he is not writing, he can usually be found practicing his free-kicks in the ground beside his house.

2 thoughts on “uTorrent Pro: Price, Features, Functions & More”

  1. Great article. Clear discussion of uTorrent Pro! Looks like I’m upgrading to Pro.

    Seems like the more I learn, the less I know!! Question – with Nord VPN, the free uTorrent became very slow. Will uTorrent Pro + VPN provide MB speeds again? If you covered that in the article, apologies for missing it.
    Thanks,
    Mike

    Reply
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