Barely 10 years ago, if you asked the question, “what streaming service is best for movies?” the answer would be pretty straightforward: Netflix.
If you asked, “what’s the ONLY streaming service that has tons of movies?” The answer would have also been Netflix.
But here we are in the future, and it’s a whirlwind of trying to sift through the best 2-3 streaming services you can sign up for when it comes to covering all your bases. Whether that be live sports, live tv, or movies, there are easily over 100 decent options when it comes to finding the right streaming service for your needs.
With that, we wanted to take some time to help you decide on what streaming service has not only the most movies, but arguably the best quality movie selection. It’s one thing to offer thousands of throwaway titles, it’s another to bring blockbuster movies to your library at a substantial cost.
So without further ado, here are the winners for best overall streaming services for movies:
Best overall streaming service for movies
Winner: HBO Now
Price: $15 per month
One of the slightly more expensive streaming services if HBO Now – At $15 per month it outprices other on-demand libraries of streaming services, but nonetheless it’s hard to argue with the fact that they have thousands of titles.
More importantly, HBO Now is the top service when it comes to high quality films in their library. It’s not uncommon to see the freshest library of content on top of being one of the biggest. They cycle new movies in and out pretty fast though, so make sure you’re not sitting on your hands waiting to watch that movie in the queue because next month it may be gone.
Overall, though, the quality that you come to expect from HBO applies to HBO Now and its massive library. There’s no doubt that you’ll be able to find a ton of movies you’ve been wanting to see in their library, including those just coming off theatrical runs.
Best free streaming service for movies
Winner: Crackle
Price: Free
While it’s ad-supported (hard to complain when the movies are free), Crackle’s business model has been focused on having a large library of decent movies available for free with ad disruptions every 15-30 minutes or so to pay for things.
Crackle not only has a good chunk of free movies, but they also offer a good list of TV shows that offer a good source of free entertainment.
While it’d be easy to complain about Crackle if you were paying for it, the fact is its free and that’s about the only argument we need to give it a good rating here.
In second place, and it’s close, is YouTube. YouTube introduced a huge list of free movies available to anyone with an internet connection. Similar to Crackle, they support this free content with interjected advertisements, so while you might be sitting around enjoying a movie on your computer or phone, be prepared for the interruptions.
Check out YouTube Free Movies here
Neither of these are particularly worse than a standard cable television, which will have far more commercial interruptions than either of these two free streaming services.
Best all-around streaming service with movies
So if you’re like us, and you want to not only sign up for a streaming service for a great back catalog of movies but also for other features like live TV options, a back catalog of tons of TV shows, and more, then we’ve got some thoughts here too.
Winner: Hulu Live
Price: $11-$65 depending on the options you select
If you’re looking for a huge catalog of movies as well as things like live TV, next-day TV, your favorite shows on-demand and more, then Hulu is going to be a great option for you to consider.
Hulu Live has been one of our favorite “all around” services for the past several years and comes with our full recommendation for anyone looking for a one-stop-shop.
Best streaming service for kid’s movies
Winner: Disney+
Price: $8 per month
Given that Disney+ is basically designed with children in mind for the vast majority of their content offerings, the winner of the best streaming service for kids is a no-brainer. It’s affordable, it has basically all-things-Disney avialable, and on top of that, there is plenty of great content that people of all ages can enjoy (it’s not JUST kids’ movies).
FAQ about streaming movies
Are there any services that currently let me stream movies that are in the theater?
There isn’t one service that is going to totally replace the theater experience but a handful of services DO compete directly with theatrical releases. Here are some of the top services that do so:
- HBO Now
- Disney+
- Netflix (this can be heavily regionally dependent)
Do any of these streaming services have contracts?
One of the biggest benefits of this brave new world of entertainment is that so few of them require any sort of contract. Try them out for a month or two then cancel anytime if it’s not fitting your needs.
