Ever since Simar turned into a ‘Makhi’, India has started to shy away from traditional TV. Without quality content that engages viewers, there are just mindless characters, confusing plots, and endless “holiday’ episodes.

So, as an inevitable result, the focus of people has shifted to the next available option. Streaming.

Besides offering the advantage of quality content, streaming sites have many other one ups. You can watch it anywhere on any kind of device with an internet connection. It is way cheaper. There are no ads (if you pay).

You can skip forward, backward, any ways you want. And the best of all, binge watching! All in all, paying a bit for a streaming service is much better than paying for TV connections.

But now the question that lies before us is which to choose? Amazon Prime Or Netflix Or Hotstar: Which One Is Better?

There are many players in the market right now, and the choice is naturally difficult.

I myself struggled to choose between the 3 market leaders, spending an unholy amount of time on their free trials. I will compare the 3 platforms on 4 criterions. Do look out for my choice at the end!

Amazon Prime Or Netflix Or Hotstar: We Answer This For You

1. The Ultimate question that comes first: Paisa  ie Price Comparison

amazon prime or netflix or hotstar

The price difference between the three is very high. Amazon Prime comes the cheapest at Rs 500 for a year, which works out to about Rs 42/month. About what you spend on an average cab ride.

Next up is Hotstar, with a Rs 200/ month subscription. A nominal amount for the content it offers(more on that later). It also has a free tier.

Netflix is the biggest daddy of them all. It has 3 tiers of subscription, each with a different feature list. The cheapest tier at Rs 500/month which is still more expensive than the competitors. In this, you can watch Netflix on one device at a time.

In the next tier, you can watch simultaneously on 2 screens and Ultra HD and HD streaming available. This will set you back Rs. 650/ month.

The only difference between this and the final tier is that you can watch simultaneously on 4 screens here. And this costs you Rs 800.

2. The App Experience

Streaming Services

App experience for me is very important. I have grown tired of poorly built apps that sometimes do not even work properly.

Out of the 3, I found Netflix’s app to be the best built, the most intuitive, and with the most user-friendly features.  At the top of the screen you have the current episodes, below that your bookmarked shows, and below that suggestions based on your watch history.

As for Prime and Hotstar, they too have well-built apps, similar in design to Netflix. Prime is the better of the two, although it does have some issues with the last played episode.

Hotstar’s app is occasionally buggy. It gets stuck on the loading screen and by far has the highest loading time of the 3.

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3. The great-great-granddaddy of all the questions: CONTENT!

This is without the doubt the most important question and also the most difficult to answer as all the platforms have their merits and demerits. Let’s get started.

Hotstar has offers from the Star Parivar for its Hindi content, and recently Sarabhai’s reboot. It also has a healthy population of Hindi movies. It also offers HBO shows on it’s paid tier, which means and you guessed it, GoT! And, and Silicon Valley and also LWT. it also has quite a few good shows like Modern Family and a decent English movie collection.

Amazon Prime comes next with a good collection of English TV shows and movies, as well as Hindi content. It even has Shinchan. However, it’s USP is the standup specials that have been all the rage on social media, particularly, Biswa’s and Kanan’s.

But unfortunately, it censors content like a TV channel. No mention of cows, India, Gandhi, gods, anything. Names of Hindu gods were blurred in Supernatural. No nudity, no cursing. Pahlaj’s favorite no doubt.

Netflix by far has the most diverse and expansive library, with a ton of amazing original content like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards and Narcos. And therefore it wins the content race.

4. The Little Things: Add-Ons 

Out of the 3 only Amazon Prime offers any tangible benefit outside of the streaming arena.

With it, you also get an Amazon Prime account which gives you free next day free delivery. You also get better deals and early access to deals along with online photo storage and Kindle Rentals and a there are reports of a music service coming next year.

A lot, isn’t it?

So, which one would I choose? Well, after much thought, I chose Netflix. But,  I took the second tier of Netflix because I needed HD and a Prime account because of the freebies. I will subscribe to Hotstar for GoT in July. HAHA!

This is my setup, comment your preference in the comments section.


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