Almost every streaming company has raised its subscription prices. However, while these price increases make streaming more expensive than ever, these services continue to offer the best value for the money and are worth paying for.
Netflix remains the biggest streaming service thanks to its vast library of original movies, TV shows, and documentaries. It also remains one of the most compelling streaming services to subscribe to on the market, thanks to global availability.
If you’re looking for a service that offers a constantly refreshed library of content, Netflix is among the top choices. Whether you love binge-watching TV shows or prefer one-off movies, there’s always something new to watch on Netflix that will keep you hooked every other month.
This steady pipeline of content is difficult to match. Netflix also doesn’t license content to other platforms, so you’ll find plenty to watch that isn’t available elsewhere, and its global focus on content is a bonus.
Netflix’s intuitive user interface also plays a vital role in enhancing the overall user experience, making it a worthy service to have. User-friendliness is a key consideration when choosing the best streaming service. Netflix offers three plans: Standard with ads ($7.99 per month), Standard without ads ($17.99 per month), and Premium ($24.99 per month).
HBO Max is a go-to streaming service for its premium original content. If you’re looking to watch some of the best TV shows of all time, HBO Max is the site to pay for. Unlike platforms that prioritize quantity over quality, HBO Max has built a reputation for curating some of the best television and film offerings available.
The biggest draw to HBO Max has been, and still is, the quality of HBO Originals, ranging from older titles like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Rome to newer ones like Succession, Euphoria, House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, and The White Lotus.
Besides its high-quality original content, HBO Max’s value proposition is further enhanced by the inclusion of live sports in its Standard and Premium plans, which cost $16.99 and $20.99 per month, respectively. In addition to on-demand content, you can also watch a variety of live sports content, including the NBA, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, US soccer, and more.
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If you don’t want live sports content, the Basic With Ads plan is only $9.99 per month. Unlike most streaming services, HBO Max offers annual payment options, which reduce subscription costs and further increase the value proposition. To top it off, it also offers one of the best streaming bundles, making it an ideal option to access even more content for less. You can get the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle with ads for $16.99 per month or the three without ads for $29.99 per month.
Hulu is one of the best value-for-money streaming services available, offering a well-balanced mix of current TV shows, original content, and on-demand movies. The service has invested in original programming, producing major titles like The Handmaid’s Tale. But Hulu’s strong selling point isn’t its on-demand content library.
Its most significant strength is the next-day streaming of current TV episodes from major networks, including ABC, NBC, and Fox. It’s a perfect service if you want to stay up to date with popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy without waiting for full seasons to drop. It’s a significant value proposition, especially if you want to follow traditional television schedules but with more flexibility.
Hulu offers an ad-supported plan for $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) and one without ads for $18.99 per month. It also offers bundles with various services, allowing you to select what you need based on your specific requirements. It provides a Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ bundle, a Disney+ and Hulu bundle, a Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max bundle, and a Hulu + Live TV bundle.
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If you’re a sports fan, the Hulu + Live TV bundle is an ideal alternative to cable. It offers over 100 channels, allowing you to watch major networks like CBS and Fox, as well as a variety of sports, including the NBA, the English Premier League, and the NFL. Hulu also supports DVR recording with no limits, and you can watch these recordings for up to nine months. You can even fast-forward through the DVR content, which is quite handy.
Disney+ is attractive for its iconic franchises. Since Disney continuously removes its content from various competing services, Disney+ has become the go-to platform for that. It’s the home of popular franchises, bringing together content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars under one roof. This exclusivity for its popular franchises is what makes it worthwhile to subscribe to.
Another standout feature is that Disney+ doesn’t restrict 4K HDR streaming to higher-priced tiers, despite offering two subscription plans: Disney+ Basic with Ads ($9.99 per month) and Disney+ Premium ($15.99 per month or $159.99 per year, paid annually). It keeps it simple by allowing all subscribers to enjoy content in 4K as a standard if available, which many competitors reserve for higher-priced tiers.
When considering a subscription, consider other factors, but not streaming quality, as Disney+ offers 4K to all users. This is a significantly better approach than most competitors, such as HBO Max and Netflix, which offer the cheapest plans that limit streaming quality and include ads within content.
Apple TV+ is another value-for-money streaming service that’s still worth paying for. While Apple TV+ doesn’t have a vast library of content compared to the competition, what it lacks in volume, it more than makes up for in quality. Debuted in 2019, Apple TV+ already boasts a strong library of original content that anyone who places a premium on storytelling and cinematic production will enjoy, such as Ted Lasso and Severance.
Pair the quality content with its affordable price of $9.99/month for ad-free streaming in 4K, and you get a strong value proposition. Apple TV+ offers one of the most affordable ad-free streaming plans available on the market, also providing 4K streaming. On most services, plans that cost around or slightly over $10 per month typically include ads, and the streaming quality is limited to 1080p (Full HD).
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And for that price, Apple TV+ does include Friday Night Baseball and Sunday Night Soccer. While it doesn’t offer full-blown sports content, the two options are a bonus and make Apple TV+ more worthwhile. Apple TV+ becomes even more affordable when you subscribe to the all-in-one Apple One bundle, which starts at $19.95/month and includes 50GB of iCloud storage, as well as access to Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade.
Amazon Prime Video is often seen as a bonus feature of the broader Amazon Prime membership, which costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year, paid annually. Still, it stands on its own as a streaming service worth paying for, offering an individual plan for $8.99 per month. It boasts a vast library of content, ranging from TV shows to classic sitcoms and blockbuster movies.
It also features its standout original programming, including Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Reacher, The Wheel of Time, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The interface might not be the best among its peers, but it makes up for it with its vast content library. In addition to on-demand content, Prime Video also offers sports content, most notably exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Football games from the NFL.
While there are several free movie streaming sites, none can match the quality of content offered by paid services. With numerous streaming platforms competing for your attention—and your wallet—it’s essential to select services that consistently deliver value. All the services discussed have a unique value proposition and, most importantly, contain content libraries that cater to a diverse audience.
