MACLOVER1.1  I'll echo a comment made below by GUNTIS below. I would not mind paying an upgrade fee (though it had been said it was a lifetime registration... which GraphicConverter Lemke actually honors... BTW.. so it does exist... very rare).

Anyway I don't mind an upgrade... but not full price ! I'm always amazed that people who potentially help a developer obtain a user base by being the early customers pool "guinea pigs" who end up being the ones who fork over most money over time (I'm saying guinea pig because I have purchased many a shareware (and even "regularware" that drowned a horrible death... and that ended up as money down the cyber drain for me..). That is not correct in my eyes... Sure we got more use out of it over time one could say that it made it possible for a developer to want to keep at it... so please always respect your early customers. That should be "Developer Etiquette 101".  
(Version 2.0v83)

BUZZDATA  I have never understood the level of animosity that is directed at David Watanabe. Yes, he used libtransmission unattributed in an early version of XTorrent, a situation which he remedied pretty quickly. At its core, this is a licensing concern and IMHO does not justify the level of anger directed at this developer.

I'm writing this comment to clear up some of the blatant mistruths being spread by Watanabe detractors on this site and others. I'm not affiliated with this developer in any way, but I have a real issue with this kind of misinformation.

First, XTorrent has always worked well for me. I purchased a license for the product because I appreciated how polished and well-integrated the application is; I support shareware applications, especially when they are well written. I have never experienced the kind of instability that other users have claimed, even when being used heavily.

The upgrade path for XTorrent is clear and well-documented. If you purchase the basic license, you will be paying full price for major new releases. While it would be nice if the author provided discounted upgrades, he is certainly not required to do so.

The "Family Lifetime" and "1-user lifetime" licenses allow free upgrades for all new releases. My 1.x family lifetime license code worked just fine for the 2.0v83 release, and I have access to all "pro" features of the release. I did not, as some users have claimed, have to "pay again" to use my license code. An informal poll of several acquaintances who also use XTorrent revealed similar results; in fact, I was unable to find anyone who experienced difficulties using their existing licenses with the new version.

XTorrent is not a "ripoff" of Transmission. The 1.x release used the open-source libtransmission library, which is a core set of libraries provided by the transmission authors SPECIFICALLY FOR THE PURPOSE of creating alternative bittorrent applications. This is NOT stealing! It is using the library as the authors intended. Watanabe's mistake was not in USING libtransmission, but rather was in not clearly stating that XTorrent used the libraries. This is not that uncommon a situation - XTorrent is hardly the first application written which got called out for lack of attribution.

XTorrent 2.x no longer uses libtransmission - it uses a new mac-native Cocoa library called "XCore". Time will tell whether private trackers will have issues with the new release, but the new release doesn't appear to be affected by several private tracker's ban on transmission-based torrent clients.

Are there other, free bittorrent clients available? Sure. I find them to be clunky and awkward to use, with inconsistent, poorly designed user interfaces, but to each his own. I do occasionally use Azureus as well, typically when I have to download something from a private tracker which blocks transmission-based clients.   
(Version 2.0v83)

DONPERREAULT  I have never heard anything good about this developer. I have notice since he released Xtorrent V2 that most all searches from within Xtorrent V1 produce an error and it is totally useless now, forcing me to upgrade., that is sleazy.

And there is no upgrade feature for Xtorrent v1 customers, very lame! I now believe all the complaints of his customers.

Stay away from this developers software!  
(Version 2.0v83)

ICONZ113  I really like this version 2, I can configure it to search all the torrent sites I want as well as track RSS feeds of torrent sites, its pretty fast too, However one thing with this is that 2 of my favorite torrent sites wont work with this app, maybe it has something to do with the sites being private and not public torrent sites. A feature that was added that I was happy about was the abiltiy to choose where the torrent is downloaded too as opposed to the last version that only downloaded to default location. other then that theres really nothing bad I can say. Im not going to judge the app based on the developer lmao. Why do so many people hate this guy?  
(Version 2.0v82)

JEAN-ERIC GODARD  Hooo,

I call this a crook, I've bought the first version, and there's not upgrade plan.

What kind of people are behind this?

Anyway, never bought a product from this guy anymore.  
(Version 2.0v82)

ROBOTANK  I've heard so many negative things about this developer over the last couple of years that I'm not even willing to try this. However, it's fairly obvious that this app is aimed at noob torrent users who are willing to pay $24 for an integrated search feature. Smart torrent users are using private trackers anyway, where such a feature is useless. Also, in my experience most private trackers have banned this client. Such bans are generally given because a client either doesn't work properly, contains spyware, or is a blatant ripoff of something else (it's been suggested that xTorrent is largely a ripoff of Transmission). It looks to me like anyone who's paid for this app has been taken.  
(Version 2.0v82)

GUNTIS  I paid full price for Xtorrent 1.0, I also added family pack, and also lifetime upgrades option. Now when v. 2.0 is out I'm asked to pay full price again. No sir, this I won't do. It's called cheating your customers.  
(Version 2.0v79)

MACTECHHEAD  Stay far away from this scam artist of a developer.

There is no big differences in version 1 and 2. To pay for a stability update is a pure scam and should have been offered for free to all his paying customers.

The developer is rude, obnoxious, arrogant and offers little or not support when you have problems.

His software is openly stealing code from open source projects and charging fools money for some eye candy that will eventually be disgusted with the developer as many have learned the hard way.

Run, don't walk!

And this time I'm not half asleep, so not accidental 5 star LOL  
(Version 2.0v77)

MPEZ  Have been using Xtorrent 2 for a little while now. Works well - no problems whatsoever. Lifetime upgrade serial number worked fine. This is the only seamless option for torrent downloads on the mac. Transmission is a good program, but the lack of integrated search is a deal breaker. Integrated search in Xtorrent is perfect. Avoids the need to trawl through a hundred porn/gambling strewn sites looking for the file you want.

Re: developer. Yep, he is an unusual one there's no doubt - but he makes good looking software that works as advertised and is reasonably priced. Five stars *****.   
(Version 2.0v76)

::MILE::  Your mileage may vary, but I really don't think that Xtorrent is crap…but then again, most of these rantings seem to come from people who don't even use it but just despise the developer in general…!?

Anyway, I'm not here to rate Mr. Watanabe -- he may be a jerk or or scoundrel or not, I don't really know because I never had any kinds of problems with him, although I understand that for many people that's a big issue…but personally I don't really care…

Nevertheless, for me Xtorrent is one of the best torrent clients on the market, albeit a bit overpriced, but the integrated search and RSS features fit my needs and I have always been very pleased with it…! It's sleek, fast, efficient and well-designed and it's sad that people keep bashing it just because they hold a grudge against the developer…

(Yeah, all you haters feel free to give me frowny smileys as much as you like -- that doesn't change anything… ;)  
(Version 2.0v75)