Watching movies and TV shows is that one moment in your day where your mind is finally being quenched with imagination, wonder and excitement. It connects you with people and their stories. This is why streaming services are all around us – to commercialize our need for entertainment and connection.
Netflix. Hulu. Amazon Prime. Three of the most mainstream (no pun intended) channels for entertainment.
They are three great options to choose from when deciding where you should be shelling out money from your bank account each month. But, haven’t you asked yourself THE question?
Am I paying for the best value of entertainment?
This breakdown will help answer that question for you!
NETFLIX
Price
A subscription plan with Netflix costs a monthly $8.99, $12.99 or $15.99 depending on which plan you choose. This price is actually a recently raised one. The plans used to cost $7.99 to $13.99 just last year, but it’s not clear why that is the case, because their library is still the same size.
Subscription Options
The main difference between the subscription plans is how many screens can play content at once, and the quality of the resolution.
Basic plan – 1 screen, SD resolution
Standard plan – 2 screens, HD resolution
Premium plan – 4 screens, HD + Ultra HD resolution
Content
This might be the biggest downfall of a Netflix subscription. As a Qatari resident, you have access to 178 TV shows and 552 movies.
But if you were a US resident? You would get full access to all the content, including 1326 TV shows and 4339 movies in comparison. This is of course due to the differing rights of the content it streams.
But no matter the reason, you’re paying the same price for approximately 1/7 of the content. Sound fair?
Pro: You get Netflix’s original content. You don’t get original content in every streaming service.
Ergonomics
The platform is easy to navigate through. The genres are categorized clearly. There is a list of content based off of the type of shows/movies you’ve watched and liked previously. You also get to preview content before playing it!
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Nope! Even with the basic plan subscription, no ads are found on Netflix. Yay!
HULU
Hulu is still geo-blocked in Qatar, but if you’ve found a way to work around that (*coughVPN cough*), then here’s a breakdown for you.
Price
A Hulu subscription will cost you $5.99, $7.99 or $11.99 per month depending on the plan you choose.
Subscription Options
Main different between the plans is the extent of content available and the ads interrupting your viewing or appearing as banners on the page.
Basic – not all shows available, with ads
Hulu Plus – all shows available, with ads
Hulu (no ads) – all shows available, without ads
Possible Con? – All plans only allow one stream at a time.
Content
Hulu recently expanded its library. It now has 1650 shows and 2500 movies.
They are also buying the rights to certain series away from Netflix, which means Hulu is growing its library with content that is now exclusive to it – that can’t be watched anywhere else. Hulu is also planning to expand by licensing content for international markets and creating more original content in 2021!
But, if being an international subscriber is not your issue – Hulu definitely has great content variety and at a great price – if you don’t mind the ads or want to shell out double the cash.
Pro: With Hulu, you get earlier access to just released content in comparison to other streaming services.
Ergonomics
Hulu’s interface has always been debated by Hulu users as too confusing and difficult to navigate to be able to find the content they want to watch. The suggested content in the ‘Line up’ feature isn’t as personalized as the name suggests it to be, and is usually a hit or miss.
But, Hulu has plans in the works to re-design its interface soon, and here are the details!
- Replacing the ‘Line up’ option with ‘Hulu Picks’, which will allow Hulu more control over the landing page to display to you better viewing options.
- More content options will be added as you scroll down the page so all you need to do is check the thumbnail for what piques your interest.
- Even as you are searching for something you want to watch, you will still get options of different content options.
- You will be allowed to mark episodes as ‘watched’ or ‘unwatched’ in case you started your viewing somewhere else, and that way you can always pick up where you left off.
- Details of the content, such as the year, genre, and rating will be added next to each one.
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This is really the biggest complaint from Hulu users. There are a lot of ads during your experience in searching for and watching their content. And unless you’re comfortable paying twice as much for no ads, there’s no avoiding it.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
Price & Subscription Options
There is only one subscription plan with Amazon Prime Video. It costs $12.99 per month, in 4k HD quality, allows 3 streams, and gives you additional access to prime shipping, Amazon music and Amazon kindle.
Content
Amazon Prime’s library has 40,000 movies and TV shows to stream in total.
But, here’s the downfall. According to its users, most of the content found are old movies, B-movies, and arthouse films. They are outdated, and even when new content is added on there, it takes a lot of time. If you want newer shows or movies, you have to rent or buy them – outside of your subscription.
Also, not as much original productions here.
Ergonomics
You can only access Amazon Video from the main Amazon homepage, from a drop down menu at the top – definitely not the sleekest way to access your subscribed media.
But when you do get to Amazon’s Prime Video interface, the content is categorized according to genre and thumbnails of different titles can be seen down the page.
The biggest drawback has to be that it’s an actual exercise to search for a title. When you do, the options that come up don’t all fit under your subscription, a lot of them will be for rent/purchase. And so you have to look carefully to find what is free.
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Just like Netflix, no ads here!
The Showdown
| Netflix | Hulu | Amazon Prime Video | |
| Price | $8.99 – $15.99 | $5.99 – $11.99 | $12.99 |
| Content | 178 shows, 552 moviesNew releases, only if licensed internationally | 1650 shows, 2500 moviesQuicker upload of releases, but can’t currently access yet without VPN. | 40000 movies and showsOutdated content, most exciting is for rent/purchase |
| Ergonomics | Sleek, easy to use interface | Satisfactory, exciting changes to come soon | Satisfactory, but searching up titles is confusing |
| Advertisements | No | Yes*No = double cost of basic plan | No |
Conclusion
It all boils down to this – How much are you prepared to spend from your income each month? If you’re someone who’s willing to spend somewhere between what Netflix’s basic and premium plans cost, why not go for Hulu once it’s accessible internationally in 2021? You’ll have a bigger variety of content at a cheaper price (assuming once its available, all content will be accessible). That’s what I would do!
But it’s up to you – which one is the most worth it at its price, to you?
talkk.tech.blog 