With the dominance of Netflix for the better part of a decade, every big network has rushed to release their own in-house streaming service to compete for that sweet streaming money. With so many streaming services, it can be very easy to be turned around with what each streaming service offers. It’s easy to keep track of the big ones like Disney+, but what about the smaller, newer ones like Peacock or FuboTV? What do they offer over their competition? Let’s take a comprehensive look at each streaming service and what they offer. Note: the only streaming services covered are those that offer something more than strictly the content from a single channel or straight up cable; so no Showtime or DirectTV Now.
How we evaluate: Each streaming service will receive an overview of the content with highlights of the streaming service’s biggest attractions. The biggest factor for each service will obviously be the quality and quantity of the TV shows, but also how easy the service is to use. Basically, does navigating the service feel like smooth butter or like trying to navigate Internet Explorer without the wifi router turned on? At the end of each evaluation, there will be a 5-star review based mostly on the value and quality of the streaming service relative to the other streaming services.
Netflix: The King of Streaming
Price: $8.99 (single viewer at a time) – $12.99 (two viewers) $15.99 (4 viewers)
Netflix easily offers the best package backed by years of catalog buildup in anticipation of large networks swooping in to capture some of the market share. With a massive list of A-list movies and TV shows along with a strong list of original programming, Netflix is poised to continue their dominance with bar-conversation stealing topics like “Tiger King,”which brought a much needed reprieve from the somehow crazier events happening in the world today. Netflix’s movie catalog is deep and dense. It offers a number of blockbuster movies like “Inception,” “Jurassic Park,” “Back to the Future,” “Indiana Jones”and much more. Their television offerings are mind-boggling with how much content they offer. You want cool horror, “Stranger Things”? You want a superhero show, “Umbrella Academy.” You want a different “Twilight Zone” show to pair with the “The Twilight Zone” you already have, “Black Mirror.”You want a hit TV show, “Breaking Bad,“ “Arrested Development,“ “The Office,“ “Orange is the New Black,“ “Dexter.“ You get the point. Netflix has about everything and we didn’t even talk about documentaries, stand-up comedy or just about anything you’d want. It is the most broadly appealing service and absolutely offers something for everybody. The user interface is fantastic; it’s arguably the easiest to navigate and feels smooth to control. The service is constantly updating its library every month with fresh, stand-out shows to keep things interesting. If I had to nit-pick the service, it seems like they’re moving towards more shock-value programming like “Tiger King” and away from the golden age of Netflix where they handed out money like it was water to every show that looked remotely interesting, but that’s a small complaint for an otherwise phenomenal service.
5-stars
Disney+: The New Kid with a Killer Bundle
Price: $6.99(Disney+ alone) $13.99(Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle)
Disney+ has the advantage of being backed by Hollywood overlords Disney and their insane catalog of movies from “Star Wars”to the hugely popular Marvel movies, to almost every classic Disney movie including Pixar, “The Pirates of the Carribean”franchise and a number of National Geographic documentaries.. It’s a strong, star-studded movie lineup from Disney. They also have the TV shows from their kids television networks like “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and “Phineas and Ferb.“It also has the insanely popular “The Mandalorian“ and its highly-anticipated second season coming out on Oct. 30. It’s also the only place you can see the incredible “Hamilton“ and “Avatar“ (the movie, not the show). Beyond these Disney offerings, Disney+ doesn’t really have anything else to offer besides some future stuff like a new “Star Wars” series featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. But, Disney has a trick to compete with Netflix. Disney offers Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ altogether in one bundle for $13.99 and it’s a great deal. Suddenly Disney+ goes from looking somewhat slim in terms of offerings to legitimately challenging Netflix. They absolutely can’t offer the same amount of rich content as Netflix, but they diversify the offerings immensely with each addition adding a strong dimension to Disney+ with Hulu’s broad TV offerings and ESPN’s live sports and articles plus the fantastic 30 for 30. Disney+’s user interface is solid and works well. Disney+ alone feels somewhat expensive and only someone with a real itch to rewatch all these huge movies will probably get value out of this service otherwise it’s just a “The Mandalorian” viewing service. The Disney+ bundle though is a pretty great offer and offers more than basically every service outside of Netflix.
3-stars (alone) 5-stars (bundle)
Hulu: A mix of easy-to-watch TV with a ton of animation.
Price: $5.99 (with ads) 11.99 (without ads) $13.99 (in the Disney+ bundle)
Hulu is a more focused streaming service geared towards more niche content like animation and anime mixed with more consumable content like sitcoms and easy to watch TV. The service somewhat revolves around “Easy TV” or shows that are very episodic and don’t require your brain to be on to enjoy when you’re watching. These are shows like “Storage Wars”or “The Masked Singer,“ which you can turn on and immediately be tuned into what’s happening. That’s not to say the service’s content is dumb or devoid of any high-quality, long-form content, just that it’s focused on what it is good at and it’s very good at what it does. These four categories are arguably the strongest of any streaming service. The animation library is very robust with a large number of well-known shows like “Family Guy”, “Rick and Morty,” “Futurama,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “King of the Hill”etc. Its kid-oriented animation section is very diverse with basically any out of the way hit show from your childhood along with massive recent hits like “Adventure Time,” “Rugrats,” “Hey Arnold!” and “Gravity Falls.” The anime section is easily the best of the non-anime focused streaming services with tons of hit shows like “Naruto,” “One Piece” and One-Punch Man.” Hulu has a wide range of anime from extremely popular to very out of the way stuff. Hulu has a huge advantage over services with its simulcast anime. Basically, if an anime episode debuts in Japan, that episode will be available for streaming immediately after it airs. Hulu has some of the best sitcoms like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,“ “Atlanta,“ “Seinfeld,“ “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,“ “Drake and Josh,“ and “Parks and Rec.“The “Easy TV” section is easily the biggest and most accessible part of Hulu with a mash of shows, such as “Kitchen Nightmares,“ “Survivor,“ “Family Feud,“ “American-Ninja Warrior,“ “River Monsters,“ “Naked and Afraid,“ “The Bachelorette,“ “Hoarders,“ “Ancient Aliens“etc. The only real weaknesses for Hulu in terms of content is basically anything that’s longer than an hour. The movie section is pretty weak outside of the spectacular “Parasite.“ The Hulu originals are pretty weak also. There are a handful of standouts like the fantastic “The Handmaid’s Tale“and “Catch-22,“ but otherwise Hulu has a fairly weak offering with most of the originals being too weird or straight up bad. The user interface is decent; it’s nothing to write home about. Overall Hulu’s a great service that offers a little bit of everything and hammers home its strengths like there’s no tomorrow.
4 stars
ESPN+: Live sports, exclusive articles and 30 for 30
Price: $5.99 (no ads)
ESPN+ is a solid package for sports entertainment. It offers live sports from the MLS, NBA, MLB WNBA and golf along with a ton of college games. It’s possible to watch Clemson games, but it depends if the game is nationally televised. It basically offers whatever sports you want including the rising UFC. ESPN+ also comes with access to exclusive articles; if you pay attention to the NFL Draft then you can view Mel Kiper’s popular mock drafts. The service also has replays from past games like the Falcons vs. Patriots Super Bowl along with a myriad of other replays available. It comes with the excellent 30 for 30 series, a documentary series following specific sports person’s or events. Some highlights include “Be Water,”about Bruce Lee’s life and “OJ Simpson: Made in America”following OJ’s life leading to his infamous case. The user interface on ESPN+ is decent, but it’s hard to navigate and search for what you want sometimes. Some content is buried beneath confusing paths and is hard to access. Overall ESPN+ is a great package that’s even better included in the bundle.
4-stars
HBO Max: HBO’s stellar programming mixed with classics and legendary animation
Price: $15.99
HBO Max is an impressive improvement to the previous HBO Go which only had the HBO programming. With the rebrand to HBO Max came the addition of a ton of content from Time Warner Cable. Along with the usual HBO programming, HBO Max received content from Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Studio Ghibli, DC Comics and a long list of Warner Brothers movies. The content from HBO includes some of TV’s greatest shows ever like “The Sopranos,“ “The Wire,“and “Chernobyl.“It also includes the social phenomenon that is “Game of Thrones,“ which at one point was worth the ticket of admission to view the series. HBO also has extremely popular shows like “Euphoria,“ “Succession,“ “Westworld,“ “Curb Your Enthusiasm“ and “Ballers.“HBO Max, unsurprisingly, has all of HBO’s content; every show or documentary they’ve ever created is available on the service. HBO Max has the advantage of being the only viewing place for “South Park“after its departure from Hulu earlier this year. The service offers a small number of Cartoon Network shows like “Adventure Time“and “Regular Show,“while its channel neighbor Adult Swim also has a small number of shows like “Rick and Morty“and “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.“HBO Max is the only place where you can view Studio Ghibli’s awe-inspiring movies inside the US, like “Spirited Away“and “My Neighbor Totoro.“DC Comics movies and animation are available and more is on the way with the announcement of DC Universe, DC’s own streaming service moving to focusing on comics, moving its original shows to HBO Max like the cult classics “Harley Quinn“and “Doom Patrol.“HBO Max has access to a large catalog of some of the best movies to ever hit the big screen like “2001: A Space Odyssey,“ “Citizen Kane,“ “Apocalypse Now“and a large collection of other classic movies. HBO Max’s user interface is ok, it’s a little janky and can be funny to use. The only legit downfall of HBO Max is they rotate content which means that they will move content in and out depending on what they feel will attract new subscribers. For instance, the entirety of “Harry Potter“ was available; now it’s not for confusing reasons, but at some point it will be back on the service. Overall HBO Max is a great service; originally it was just the HBO programming and it was arguably worth it, but now with the massive influx of content from the rebrand it’s practically two services in one.
5-stars
Amazon Prime Video:A good streaming service handed out for free
Price: (free with Amazon Prime)
As long as you have Amazon Prime you have Amazon Prime Video. It comes free with the service. Amazon Prime Video has a decent number of original programming and a large number of movies. Amazon’s original programming is decent with a number of very popular TV shows like “The Boys,“ “The Grand Tour“ and “Jack Ryan.“ The service features a large number of movies like “Inception,“ “Lincoln“ and “Casino Royale.“The user interface is solid with the typical Amazon polish. The only downside is that the content is oddly spread out and it can be hard to find things that you like. Overall, Amazon Prime is a nice addition thrown into a delivery service.
3-stars
Fubo TV: A sports fan’s paradise
Price: $64.99 (basic plan) $79.99 (for more channels)
Fubo TV is a relatively new service built around live cable TV, specifically live sports. It has deals with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and a ton of college sports. You can watch basically any live sport you can imagine depending on where you live. Due to the regional nature of some of the programming, you may not get a game from Pittsburgh, but you will definitely get the Carolinas including Clemson games. In addition to sports, Fubo has live news from the regional broadcast stations like NBC and Fox. Overall, Fubo TV offers 109 channels like A&E, History, NatGeo Wild and AMC. It even lets you record your shows so you can watch it later. FuboTV is great for avid sports fans who want cheap cable.
4-stars
Peacock: NBC’s service without an anchor
Price: $4.99 (with ads) $9.99 (without ads)
Peacock is filled with NBC’s content, but I don’t think any of it is really worth it. Peacock’s original claim to fame is that it would be the exclusive place to stream the Olympics and that might be a great addition, but due to the indefinite delay of the Olympics due to the coronavirus; who knows when that will be available. Peacock has some nice touches; the service offers live TV including news and live sports from the NFL. It has a decent amount of NBC shows like “Downton Abbey,“ “Two and a Half Men“ and “A.P. Bio.“it also has an ok collection of movies, but it’s nothing to really talk about. The user interface is ok; it’s a little annoying to navigate due to the weird nature of its sliding. Overall, Peacock’s a nice little package that doesn’t offer the same amount of intriguing content as competitors, but does enough to not be unpurchasable.
2-stars
Crunchyroll: An anime fan’s dream
Price: 7.99 (no ads)
Crunchyroll is the premiere anime streaming service with a mind-boggling amount of anime available from the hit TV shows like “Dragon Ball Z,“ “Naruto,“ “One Piece“ and “Attack on Titan“to the niche of the niche. It has basically any anime you could possibly. Like Hulu, Crunchyroll has simulcast allowing an episode of a show to be played immediately after being aired in Japan. The user interface is easy to use and flows pretty easily. Overall, Crunchyroll is the best anime streaming platform.
5-stars
Tubi TV: a free mix of TV and Movies
Price: free with ads
Tubi TV offers free content along with ads. It has a decent collection of movies and TV; it’s about what you expect from something that’s free. It has all the “Hunger Games“ movies, along with a couple of classics like “Good Will Hunting“and “Hacksaw Ridge.“It has a large amount of stand-up comedy with some of the greats like Bernie Mac and George Carlin. There isn’t much TV, almost none outside of kids shows. The user interface of Tubi is weird; it doesn’t have TV shows as a searchable category so you have to go into each genre to look for TV. Overall, Tubi’s not bad for a free service. It even has a fairly quick rotation of movies that are constantly coming in.
3-stars
Apple TV+: all original programming but if no one’s watching who cares?
Price: $4.99 (no ads)
Apple TV+ is weird. For some reason Apple has decided to go with the shocking decision to release all original content with nothing else. There’s maybe 30 shows available on the service and they’re all unrecognizable. That’s not to say they’re bad, just nobody talks about these shows. Their biggest show is “The Morning Show“which has Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carrell in the cast and has a 150 million dollar budget per season. Apparently, it just barely worked out as the reviews are mixed, but the show has eight Emmy nominations. Most of these shows have famous actors like Tom Hanks, Jason Mamoa and the elusive Bill Murray. The shows are decently rated, but the risk of buying this service and then forgetting it exists seems far too high. The user interface is well-designed and flows nicely. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Apple TV+; it doesn’t have any shows that are worth the price point, and it’s honestly shocking that Apple decided this was the way they wanted to approach streaming instead of actually competing.
1-star
