Streaming
Streaming price tiers and password-sharing rules, explained
Ad-supported plans, extra-member fees, and shared-account crackdowns have turned a simple monthly bill into a small pricing puzzle. Here is how the pieces fit together.
Best streaming services
Cost per month you will actually pay, catalogue depth, ad-tier trade-offs and how often prices move.
Research in progressPublished rankings appear only after testing is complete.
When you buy through links on THRYV we may earn a commission. This never affects our testing or rankings. How this works.
Our picks
Nothing published until testing is finished.
Streaming comparisons age badly because prices and catalogues change constantly. We track the published price history of each service, record what the ad-supported tier removes, and measure catalogue depth in the genres people actually subscribe for rather than by raw title count.
No picks published yet
This guide is in the research stage. We will not list a "best" product before the testing round behind it is complete — an unranked page is more useful than a ranked guess. When picks go live, each one will state which sources we weighed, what it is good at, and who should buy something else instead.
What we score, and why
Written down before any product is considered.
- Price history over the last twenty-four months
- What the ad tier removes: resolution, downloads, simultaneous streams
- Catalogue depth by genre, and licensed versus original
- Streaming quality caps by device and plan
- Cancellation and reactivation friction
- Regional catalogue differences
How we will decide
- 01
Criteria before candidates
We write down what would make a product the right pick — and how each criterion is measured — before we look at what is on sale.
- 02
Documented specifications only
Anything we state about a product comes from our own testing or from the manufacturer's published documentation, linked on the page.
- 03
Real-world testing
We rate each category against published criteria using manufacturer data, independent test reports, user reviews and price data. We do not claim our own hands-on tests.
- 04
Pricing checked, not quoted
We do not print a price we have not verified, and we do not treat an RRP as evidence of a discount.
- 05
Commercial relationships disclosed
Affiliate links, if present, are labelled on the page. No partner can buy a placement, a rank or a verdict.
The full process is documented in our review methodology and testing process.
Related Streaming coverage
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Ad-supported streaming tiers: what you actually give up
The cheapest tier on any streaming service is rarely free of trade-offs. Knowing which trade-offs apply to which service avoids an unwelcome surprise mid-series.
Streaming
Why your television now shows you different adverts than your neighbour
Streaming turned the least targeted medium in advertising into one of the most addressable. The controls exist — they are just several menus deep.
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