Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video
Watching TV series or movies is an indispensable part of many people's lives. It is also a kind of option to reduce stress. There are more and more online streaming platforms emerging, for example, the long-awaited streaming service Disney+ finally has officially launched. With the advent of Disney+, the business model and the rules of survival in the streaming industry might be changed.
As a consumer, should you subscribe to Disney+? And which platform is the best for you? Now the comparisons of features and expenses among the major streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video are introduced here, and you might be likely to unsubscribe or continue to subscribe to a certain platform based on your personal preference and consumption custom.
Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video Side by Side Comparison
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| Price | Basic: $8.99 per month Standard: $12.99 per month Premium. $15.99 per month |
$6.99 monthly or $69.99 annually. ad-supported Hulu service for $12.99 a month | Single plan $12.99 monthly or $119 annually / Student plan costs $6.49 monthly / Prime Video membership is $8.99/month |
| Trial | 30 days | 7 days | 30 days |
| Library | 47,000 TV episodes and 4,000 movie | 7,500 episodes and 500 movies in the first year of launch | more than 17,000 movies |
| Availability | over 190 countries | Netherlands, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the first launching | more than 200 countries |
| Best Originals | House of Cards, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, The Crown… | The Simpsons, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, X-Men, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, The Mandalorian… | Bosch, Catastrophe, Electric Dreams, Fleabag, Good Omens, The Man in the High Castle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Patriot, Red Oaks, Sneaky Pete, and The Grand Tour |
1. Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime: Plans and Pricing
Netflix: The Basic plan ($8.99/month) lets you stream TV shows and movies on one device at a time in SD, and download titles limited to one phone or tablet. The Standard plan ($12.99/month) lets you stream on two devices at the same time and in HD, and download titles to two phones or tablets. The Premium plan ($15.99/month) lets you stream on four devices at the same time and in HD and UHD (including 4K and HDR content, and Dolby Atmos audio support), and download titles to four phones or tablets. US customers can sign up for a DVD-only plan, or add DVDs to their current streaming plan.
Disney+: Disney+ video streaming service costs just $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. And it also will be offering a bundle comprising Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ for just $12.99, the same price as Netflix's Premium Plan. This bundle is cheaper than equal to competitive streaming video services, including Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon Prime Video: Prime Video, as a part of the Amazon Prime subscription, costs $12.99 monthly or $119 annually, and $59 annually for a student. And you can also choose to subscribe to Prime Video only for $8.99/month.
Verdict: Price-wise, Disney is undoubtedly too aggressive with Netflix. When it comes to Amazon Prime video, because it is one of the perks included in Amazon Prime subscription, its advantage will not be wiped out in this battle.
2. Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video: Library
Netflix: Previously, Netflix is a one-stop streaming service that provides thousands of licensed movies, TV shows, and documentaries. In recent years, due to copyright issues, Netflix constantly invests heavily in building its original productions. The audience witnesses the remarkable achievements created by Netflix in originals, such as House of Cards, Stranger Things, and The Umbrella Academy, etc. For some time, no one could compete with Netflix excepts HBO’s content like Game of Thrones, Veep, and Barry. Not only that, Netflix also has been reached the deal with Marvel characters to create its TV version of the Marvel Universe, with which Netflix boosts its reputations in the world, but unfortunately, with the launching of Disney+, Netflix original content on the Marvel characters including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Luke Cage, The Defenders… have now officially been removed.
Although Disney is not allowed to reuse the Marvel characters which had been taken and removed from its own Marvel content within two years. However, in consideration of the fact that Marvel content has had a substantial impact on both the theater and Netflix's own TV series, the losing of Marvel content will leave a huge gap to Netflix's future film and television productions. It is difficult but imperative to find alternatives.
Disney+ is up-and-comers in streaming video services and it is the homeland for the vast library of content created by The Walt Disney Company and its takeovers, including Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, and more. Although it only has 7,500 episodes and 500 movies in the first year of launch, thousands of TV episodes and movies will be offered shortly. So far, Disney+ has less content than Netflix.
Amazon Prime Video also has a catalog of thousands of titles to watch, in the meanwhile, Amazon continues to invest heavily in original content, such as Bosch, Catastrophe, Electric Dreams, Fleabag, Good Omens, The Man in the High Castle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Patriot, Red Oaks, Sneaky Pete, and The Grand Tour. Fascinatingly more, Amazon is also producing a series based on the Lord of The Rings franchise. Plus, some of the channels like HBO, Epix, Starz, and CBS have partnered with Prime Video offering the ability to watch their shows "live", but you need to pay an extra fee to watch the lives.
Verdict: When it comes to sheer volume, Amazon has the largest catalog of content. But quantity is not equal to quality. If you are a loyal fan of the Lord of the Rings, you will give Amazon a chance. And if you prefer quality, Netflix is the top one so far.
Unfortunately, Netflix, as a king of "one-stop-shop" which provides almost all our entertainment needs, might have already gone gradually. What's worse, Disney, which is the owner of the most popular films or TV series on the Netflix platform, now has its own streaming video platform. This kind of "bundling up" marketing strategy is a threaten to Netflix's business model. The era of "content is to form the king" is not gone yet，so we definitely tend to choose the platforms which provide our desired content.
3. Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video: Video and Audio Quality
Netflix: Video and audio quality on Netflix are superb, but this all depends on your internet connection speed and which plans you subscribed to. If you want to enjoy 4K and HDR contents, and Dolby Atmos audio, you need to pay Premium plan at $15.99 per month, actually, the quantities of 4K and HDR contents on Netflix are limited.
Disney+: Disney+ streams up to 4K resolution and HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos at no extra cost, but not all contents are available in 4K or HDR, and you will need a 4K TV to watch the content.
Amazon Prime Video: Amazon offers 4K Ultra HD resolution and HDR streaming support and does so at no extra charge, and offers surround sound content including Dolby Atmos.
4. Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video: Supported Devices
You can stream Netflix on nearly all devices that offer Netflix apps, such as gaming consoles, DVD and Blu-ray players, Smart TVs, set-top boxes, home theater systems, and mobile phones and tablets.
Amazon Prime Video is compatible with a wide variety of devices and platforms, including web browsers on a PC or Mac, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire devices, iOS, Android, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Wii U, Blu-ray players, smart TVs, and Google’s Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra.
Disney listed all of the platforms where you will be able to stream Disney+ content, including iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV, Android phones, Android TV devices, Google Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices, Xbox One, Sony TVs and PlayStation®5, Roku® streaming players and Roku TV™ models.
Conclusion: Should We Abandon Netflix and Subscribe to Disney+?
With a stellar lineup of proprietary movies and TV shows, not to mention Marvel and Star Wars content on tap, Disney+ undoubtedly has the advantage to be the top streaming video platform to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Regardless of the battle among the top streaming services, merely from the consumer's viewpoint, Disney+ is more specifically for families with kids, because most of its content being movies and shows that have already been out for a while and become classics. Besides, we love Disney movies, Marvel, and Star Wars, but we probably don’t plan to subscribe to Disney+ to watch them every day or every week, on the contrary, we might prefer to spend money to watch them at the cinema. So should we subscribe to Disney+? It all depends on what kind of content will be provided by Disney+ in the next.
I am not sure that Netflix will be fine in this round of competition. In consideration of its own unique contents which keep Netflix competitive in these years, and Netflix has been burning money to produce its numbers of originals, though only some of them caught our attractions, we might keep our subscriptions, as it is a "contents" provider, we still have many more contents to watch from Netflix. Also, Netflix is more international, so we can watch more themes from Asia or other countries.
Prime Video is OK because it’s bundled with Amazon Prime. Out of the love for "The Lord of Rings", we believe that we will give a chance to Amazon who paid $500 million to purchase the copyright.