Pros & Cons
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- High-quality original programming
- A greater live sports push
- Excellent apps and features
- Offline downloads on mobile
- Cool mobile games
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- The ad-based tier doesn't include the full library
- Growing increasingly expensive
Netflix Specs
| 4K Streaming | Requires Premium Plan |
| Ads | |
| Anime | |
| Audio Descriptions | |
| Concurrent Streams | 2 or 4 |
| Offline Downloads on Mobile | |
| On-Demand Movies and TV Shows | |
| Original Programming | |
| Parental Control Tools | Profile-based or Kids Mode |
| Rentals and Purchases | DVD.com (Separate Plan) |
| Sports Coverage | None |
| Starting Price | $8.99 per month |
| Supported Platforms | Media Streaming Devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), Microsoft Store, Mobile (Android and iOS), Game Consoles (PlayStation and Xbox), Smart TVs, and Web |
| Top Original Movies | Beasts of No Nation, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Extraction, I Care A Lot, Roma, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Irishman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The Two Popes |
| Top Original Shows | Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, Dead to Me, Locke and Key, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Never Have I Ever, Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Queen's Gambit, The Stranger, The Umbrella Academy, and The Witcher |
Netflix's streaming service started as a niche offshoot of the company's disc-mailing service. Of course, it has since become much more than that, with a reliable core catalog and excellent original programming, including limited live sports. It works on virtually any device, allows offline downloads on mobile platforms, and features 4K content. Netflix is essentially the default streaming platform, the service I've seen dominate the culture in ways rivals can't match. Thanks to its varied, top-notch content and capable apps, Netflix is an Editors' Choice winner for on-demand video streaming services.
Plans and Prices: More Expensive, No Ad-Free Tier
Netflix has consistently raised its prices over time, and recently streamlined its plans with the latest fee increase. There is no longer a cheap, ad-free option, so I recommend starting with the $19.99-per-month Standard plan (previously $17.99 per month). It includes HD streaming, support for two simultaneous streams, and the ability to download titles to up to two devices at once. For families or groups of friends looking to share accounts, the $26.99-per-month (previously $24.99 per month) Premium plan is a more feasible option. It unlocks Ultra HD (4K) streaming, four concurrent streams, and the ability to download titles on up to four devices.
(Credit: Netflix/PCMag)With these plans, Netflix presents ad-free content, except for its previews of in-house content across its apps. On the upside, you can now disable those previews. Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max advertise their original content similarly. Note that even Hulu's ad-free plan still includes limited commercials in rare instances.
Netflix offers a cheaper, ad-supported plan for $8.99 per month. The company says ads run about four or five times per hour. It's disappointing, even for a budget tier. The resolution caps out at 1080p (not 4K), and you can stream on just two devices at a time. More alarming is that the ad tier doesn't feature the full Netflix library. Perhaps due to licensing deals, it's missing major shows like Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, and The Crown. For the most part, I don't recommend this tier.
If you no longer want to pay for Netflix (or want to pay less), follow our guide on how to cancel or modify your subscription.
For comparison, Hulu charges $11.99 per month for its base plan (with ads), though you can pay $18.99 per month for virtually no ads. Peacock costs $7.99 per month, Apple TV costs $12.99 per month, Disney+ costs $11.99 per month, and Prime Video costs $8.99 per month. Those services support simultaneous streams and 4K streams. HBO Max's Premium plan ($22.99 per month) is on par with Netflix's Premium plan. Netflix's Premium tier costs close to some live TV services like entertainment-focused Philo, which costs $25 per month.
In addition to its web interface, Netflix offers apps for Android and iOS; media streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV, and Roku; and game consoles such as the PlayStation and Xbox.
TV Shows, Movies, Anime, and Live Sports
Netflix has an extensive video content catalog, but it constantly changes. Licensed shows available one day may be gone the next, which is why PCMag keeps track of everything coming to Netflix and leaving Netflix each month.
Most of Netflix's TV shows are season complete because they are released a season at a time. which isn't always the case with competitors. Hulu sometimes only has the most recent handful of show episodes, making it impossible to catch up if you fall too far behind.
(Credit: Netflix/PCMag)With its original productions, Netflix has many titles that are pop culture juggernauts. This impressive list includes shows like Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, Dead to Me, Locke and Key, Never Have I Ever, Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Stranger, The Umbrella Academy, and The Witcher. Many of these productions won awards, including I Care A Lot, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Crown, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The Queen’s Gambit.
If you want something more self-contained, Netflix also produces feature films, comedy specials, and documentaries. For example, Netflix's Knives Out sequels received good reviews. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is another example. If you enjoy watching films, check out the top movie streaming services. Many of the services in that category, including The Criterion Channel and Filmatique, are notable for curating their collections. Netflix also specializes in big-name, blockbuster documentaries, such as Becoming, a documentary about Michelle Obama, and Homecoming, a spotlight on Beyoncé.
However, Netflix no longer enjoys the once-untouchable status it held regarding original programming. Amazon Prime Video offers many top-tier shows and adaptations in its library, including Bosch, Fleabag, Hunters, Jack Ryan, Patriot, The Boys, The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Undone. Hulu is better known for its broadcast television lineup. Still, with original productions such as Castle Rock, Casual, Catch-22, Harlots, and The Handmaid's Tale, it is becoming competitive, as well. Apple TV and Disney+ also promise tons of original content, including Severance and Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. Paramount+ has notable original shows, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, The Good Fight, and Why Women Kill.
On another front, Netflix has quietly become an excellent source for streaming anime. It does a particularly good job with older series, such as Inu Yasha, Little Witch Academia, Robotech, and Rurouni Kenshin. Netflix has also poured its production dollars into other animated series, including Castlevania and She-Ra.
The trouble with Netflix's anime collection is the same as with the rest of its content: It comes and goes unpredictably. Crunchyroll offers a much larger, industry-leading library of anime titles. Hulu is another option for anime fans, offering more than 400 classic and critically acclaimed anime shows and movies, including Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell.
Netflix is experimenting with more live sports content, focusing on major individual spectacles, such as NFL Christmas games, boxing matches, and MMA. However, other primarily on-demand streaming services offer more robust ongoing live sports coverage. For instance, Apple+ has F1, Prime Video streams Thursday Night Football, Paramount+ has all the sports that air on national CBS stations, Peacock's premium tiers include Premier League soccer matchups, and HBO Max broadcasts live NHL games.
Netflix's Cool Video Game Library
Between shows like Cowboy Bebop, Daredevil, and The Witcher, Netflix proudly courts a geeky audience. Castlevania and Resident Evil are straight-up video game adaptations. So it's not surprising to see Netflix introduce mobile games as part of its streaming package. If you're a Netflix subscriber with an Android or iOS device, you can play Netflix games at no additional cost and with no ads. You can access these games either within the Netflix app itself or by manually downloading them from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
(Credit: Netflix/PCMag)There are casual time-wasters among the games, including the poker-themed Card Blast, finicky basketball game Shooting Hoops, and ball-balancing arcade game Teeter Up. If you're looking for something a little more substantive and a lot more on brand, you can also play retro-styled Stranger Things adventure games: Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3: The Game. You can even fire up acclaimed indie hits like Immortality and Into the Breach.
Netflix genuinely wants to explore and expand its gaming offerings, as proven by the company funding a Dark Crystal tactics title, streaming Minecraft: Story Mode, and acquiring talented indie studios. Just don't consider it the next Xbox Game Pass.
Netflix on the Web
Netflix's web interface uses a dark background, white text, and large media thumbnails. It looks elegant and is easy to navigate via the top menu's sections: Home, TV Shows, Movies, Recently Added, and My List. In the upper right-hand corner, you can use the search bar, manage your profiles, access account settings, and open Netflix's help center. Account settings go beyond what most other video streaming services offer, with options for email communications, closed captions, parental controls, and playback settings. You can also view recent viewing (content watched) and streaming activity (devices used and when). I didn't experience any performance issues with Netflix's web interface.
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The Home tab highlights current noteworthy content at the top. It displays a slightly overwhelming number of horizontally scrolling lists of shows and movies across categories, such as New Releases, Popular on Netflix, and Trending Now. Mousing over any content triggers a video preview with sound; I find these annoying and would like the option to turn them off. If you click on an entry, you can view more detailed information, available episodes, and a percentage recommendation based on your watching history. You can also give content thumbs-up (or down) ratings. Finally, you can add content to My List to save shows and movies you want to watch.
Netflix lets you broadly sort the Shows and Movies sections by genre and filter the content lists further by recommendations, release year, and alphabetical order. Oddly, there is no dedicated category in the TV Shows or Movies genre lists for Netflix's originals. Instead, you need to scroll down to one of the horizontally scrolling sections to find them all in one place. Given Netflix's constantly changing library, information on how long content will be available would be helpful, along with an option to add reminders for expiring content.
Netflix runs a site called Tudum that features companion content for its original shows and movies, but layoffs have affected its ability to build online communities. HBO Max already offers some companion podcasts for its original content, but Netflix's initiative seems more focused on replicating Mubi's community features. That service encourages conversations among members and features extensive supporting editorial content, including interviews and long-form features.
Netflix on Mobile
I had no issues installing or logging in to Netflix's Android or iOS on our test devices. The app looks and performs fine and closely resembles the web interface.
You navigate the app via five menu icons at the bottom of the screen: Home, Search, Extras, Downloads, and More. Netflix's iPhone app offers the same features as its Android counterpart and looks nearly identical, though with some minor navigational changes. For instance, the iOS app lacks the Extras icon in the bottom menu bar.
Netflix lets you download select titles for offline viewing, a now common feature among on-demand video streaming services. The Downloads tab shows everything you have designated for offline viewing, but there's no search function. Note that some downloaded titles expire after 48 hours, and others can be downloaded only a limited number of times.
The Home tab lets you sort by TV Shows or Movies and access My List entries. The Extras section shows previews of new and notable content based on your viewing history. The More tab hosts all the essential app settings, including Netflix's Smart Downloads feature, which is helpful for binge-watching programs. Once you finish watching a downloaded episode, Netflix deletes that episode and automatically downloads the next one. In testing, this feature worked as advertised. You can set network streaming preferences and manage profiles from this section.
Smooth Streaming Playback
Netflix's playback screen is among the best I've tested. In addition to the standard 10-second rewind and fast-forward buttons, you can also browse a list of all episodes of a show by season, adjust the audio and subtitle language, change playback speed, and jump to the next episode. The progress bar also shows content previews as you scrub. Yet another useful feature, which several other video streaming services have since copied, is a Skip Intro button. I hope Netflix eventually implements a tool like Prime Video's X-Ray feature, which identifies actors, actresses, and music in a scene. I would also like an option to control the playback resolution.
(Credit: Netflix/PCMag)I tested playback performance on the web over a home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download) by streaming an episode of Bojack Horseman. I didn't come across any stuttering or lag.
For more on streaming, check out five reasons you may want to ditch your video subscription and keep cable, read how streaming has ushered in a new trash TV golden age, and learn why companies must preserve their streaming catalogs. In addition, check out our recommended streaming video guides if you don't know what to watch.
Accessibility and Extras
Although Netflix lets you change the audio and subtitle language from the playback screen, you need to head to the web app to customize subtitles. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Disney+ all offer Audio Description for some programming. Netflix explains audio descriptions as vocal narration that "describes what is happening on-screen, including physical actions, facial expressions, costumes, settings, and scene changes."
Netflix is one of the only on-demand video streaming services I've reviewed that restricts simultaneous streams and streaming resolutions based on your subscription tier; others offer a single tier with all available features. For instance, Disney+'s only plan allows for four simultaneous streams, which matches Netflix's highest tier. BritBox outclasses the competition with support for five concurrent streams. As mentioned, Netflix also requires you to subscribe to its Premium plan to stream shows in 4K, whereas Apple+, Disney+, and Prime Video don't charge extra for this capability.
Netflix, along with those same three services, supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for select titles on supported devices. Apple TV has the advantage here since it can ensure a higher percentage of its content supports these standards in the future. To find 4K content on Netflix, you can search for 4K and UHD directly; the show and movie detail pages also include this information.
Netflix offers lots of family-friendly content, as well as specific content for young children. In your account settings on the web, you can block content of specific ratings behind a PIN code or do the same for individual shows and movies. Netflix is notable for allowing you to create up to four profiles. In addition to the content-control benefits, profiles enable Netflix to better tune its recommendations for each viewer. Disney+ supports up to seven profiles.
Can You Watch Netflix With a VPN?
Netflix's available catalog varies greatly by your locale, and you may not be able to watch some shows at all, depending on which country you live in. Likewise, if you travel abroad, you may suddenly find that you can't continue watching certain shows. In some cases, you can rectify this with a virtual private network (VPN) service. However, Netflix has been working hard to block VPN access to maintain location-based content restrictions.
I tried accessing Netflix on my test desktop and mobile devices, both connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server. I was unable to stream content on either device.
If you are insistent on finding a VPN that works with Netflix, start with the entries in our roundup of VPN services that worked with Netflix at the time of our last testing. Note that a VPN that works with Netflix today may be blocked tomorrow. I recommend choosing a VPN based on other factors, such as its security practices, value, and performance.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Netflix)
Netflix
While pricey, Netflix remains one of the best video streaming services, thanks to its huge catalog of TV shows, movies, and critically acclaimed originals.