For most people, the biggest concern when choosing which streaming services to subscribe to will be the price and the content. How good are the shows and movies you can watch on this thing, and how much will it run you? But there’s another thing to consider: once you’re actually using a streaming service, how easy is it?
You would think that all streaming services are created equal in this regard, but they are not. Some of their user interfaces (UIs) are far easier to use than others, to the point where some may not be worth it no matter the price.
Netflix
Still the best overall
Netflix is the oldest streaming service on the market, and it’s had the most time to figure out how to do this right. Response times are fast as can be expected on any service, and the Netflix home page is arrayed intelligently. There’s a curated bar at the top that recommends new releases; then a bar where you can pick from various categories like Action, Thrillers, Fantasy, and Romance; and then rows for things like “Top 10 TV Shows” and unique categories like “Boredom Busters.”
Netflix is famous for its quirky category titles, which add a little variety to what can be a samey experience. There are several things that Netflix has that other streaming service UIs don’t. The bar where you can choose from different categories is actually very unique among streaming services; it makes you feel more in control of the browsing experience, rather than like the service is deciding what you should watch for you.
Netflix is also the only streaming service that recommends games to play, which can be annoying if you’re only interested in watching content, and you’ve opened a streaming service, so the odds are good that you are. Still, it’s easy enough to skip past.
Finally, Netflix is the only major streaming service to keep the search function at the top of the home page rather than on the left side; it doesn’t really make a difference since it’s still a single button press away at any time, but it is one more example of how Netflix is unique compared to its brethren.
HBO Max
Gets you where you want to go
HBO Max may not be as old as Netflix, but HBO has been in the game a long time and wants its users to have a good experience. To that end, response times are fast and the first several rows of selections on the home page are intelligently arranged with categories like “Today’s Picks,” “Recommended For You,” “Continue Watching,” “Popular TV,” “Top 10 Series,” and “Top 10 Movies.” After that, the categories get a little more whimsical, like “Here for the Drama, “A Fustful of Action,” and “Need a Laugh?”
One quirk of HBO Max is that previews for shows and movies will start playing if you hover over a given selection for even a short period of time, which could irritate users who don’t want to watch anything until they’ve given the go-ahead. Still, HBO Max’s straight-forward, unobtrusive layout mostly gets the job done.
- founded
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May 27, 2020
- number of users
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125 million+ users
- notable shows
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The Pitt, Peacemaker, Pretty Little Liars, Hacks
HBO Max is a subscription-based streaming service offering content from HBO, Warner Bros., DC, and more. In 2025, the service re-branded itself as HBO Max after having previously cut “HBO” from its name.
Peacock
Surprisingly effective
Peacock isn’t one of the higher-profile streaming services out there, but it’s well-designed from a UI perspective. We get the standard set of categorized rows at the top of the home page, starting with “TV For You,” and moving on through “Movies For You,” “Live & Upcoming,” and “Continue Watching.” Response time is very fast, and Peacock gets an extra point for having a little more visual panache than most of the other streamers. The cursors on Peacock are rounded in a visually pleasing way, and where most streaming service UIs tend to be bland and bare, Peacock at least incorporates a hint of color, in this case yellow.
Hulu
Comparatively colorful
Hulu, on the other hand, uses a muted blue color scheme, which makes it positively garish compared to the varying shades of black and grey most of the other streamers employ. We again have a descending series of categorized rows, with “TV For You” at the top; then there’s “Movies For You,” “Continue Watching,” and “Top 15 Today.” Most of the streamers stop at 10.
There’s nothing glaringly good or bad about the Hulu UI. It’s functional, fast, and overall edges out its sister service Disney+.
Apple TV+
Clean and simple, with some unwanted advances
Of all the streaming services on this list, Apple has the least amount of content, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, since they produce a ton of quality shows. Like Peacock, using Apple TV+ is visually pleasing, perhaps thanks to the company’s penchant for aesthetic design.
The top rows of the homepage are filled out with the kinds of categories we’ve come to expect, including “Continue Watching,” “Top TV Shows,” “Top Movies,” “New Releases,” and genre categories like “High-Stakes Thrills.” Also like every other service on this list, when you first open Apple TV+, you’ll start with your cursor on a curated bar of recommended movies and shows. Apple TV+ loses a point because the very first thing it recommended to me when I tested it was a promotion to get a Peacock bundle. I understand why Apple wants me to spend more, but when you’re already paying a subscription fee to access the service in the first place, you don’t want to be sold to the second you open it up.
On the other hand, Apple TV+ is the only service on this list that has only one pricing tier and no commercials, which keeps things simple.
Disney+
Slower than you remember
As usual, the first thing you see when you open Disney+ is a curated row of recommended movies and shows. You can then scroll down through rows like “Recommended for You,” “Continue Watching,” “Originals,” “Newly Added,” and “You May Also Like.”
You have to scroll down pretty far for Disney+ to start recommending content based on genres; more commonly it groups movies and TV shows by brand, like Star Wars or Marvel. Brands are Disney’s bread and butter, so that makes some sense.
Parts of the homepage that try to sell you a Hulu bundle, which is intrusive. But the main reason why Disney+ ranks lower on this list is because it’s surprisingly slow to respond, with too much time passing between inputs on the remote and the cursor moving where I want it on the screen for my liking. Although Disney+ is by no means the worst in this regard.
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Prime Video
What can you actually watch?
Categorized rows on Prime Video include, in descending order: “Featured Originals and Exclusives,” “Top 10 in the US,” “Continue Watching,” and “TV shows we think you’ll like.” That’s nothing out of the ordinary, response times are pretty good, and the UI is visually functional, if not inspired or especially pleasing to the eye.
Where Prime Video trips up is in recommending lots of programming that isn’t actually included in Prime Video. So in the row labeled “TV shows we think you’ll like,” some of them might be shows you can start watching that minute and some are shows you’ll have to pay extra to rent or buy. This feels like Amazon trying to fleece its paying customers, which gets Prime Video knocked down to near the bottom of the list.
Paramount+
The worst there is
Paramount+ is a very badly run streaming service. In some ways, it’s pretty similar to the other services on this list. After the standard row of curated recommendations, we scroll through things like “Your Next Watch,” “Keep Watching,” “Top 10 Shows Now,” and “Top 10 Movies Now.” The problem is that we have to scroll through them extremely slowly. There is an unforgivable amount of input lag on Paramount+, to the point where I wonder how anyone puts up with it.
Watching content on Paramount+ can also be frustrating, since it’s also a challenge to get Paramount to pause, fast forward, or rewind programming according to your wishes. It feels like the UI isn’t listening to you.
Call the whole thing off
Paramount has bought Warner Bros. Discovery, which means that it may try to roll HBO Max into Paramount+. If that happens, all the content that’s so easily accessible on HBO Max now will be bricked up behind Paramount’s terrible system. If the merger goes through, let’s hope that Paramount content gets integrated into HBO Max, not the other way around.
Also, if you’d rather not pay for streaming services at all, there are several free services out there with UIs that are still better than Paramount+.
