Of all the perfect streaming companies, Disney and Amazon personal two of the very largest and are among the many richest dad and mom: Disney owns a number of the world’s favourite film franchises and plenty of studios too, and when Jeff Bezos is not shopping for house rockets his agency is investing closely in increasing Prime Video’s already large catalog.
We’ve collected collectively every thing you should learn about Disney Plus and Prime Video that can assist you resolve which one is best for you – contemplating what every service affords, how they value and, most significantly, the content material they’ve to supply.
Before you resolve, do not forget that discovering the best streaming service for you’ll be private, and depend upon which TV reveals you may’t dwell with out, your funds and whether or not you may afford so as to add one other subscription alongside your present streaming plans.
Disney Plus vs Prime Video: Price and plans
Prime Video is out there in two methods. You can purchase it as a stand-alone subscription beginning at $8.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 monthly, or you may get it totally free as a part of an Amazon Prime membership, which supplies you additional goodies reminiscent of sooner supply, streaming music and different perks.
A Prime membership is presently $14.99 / £8.99 / AU$9.99 monthly. The Student membership possibility is $7.49 monthly within the US and £4.49 monthly within the UK, however that possibility just isn’t out there in Australia.
Prime Video launched a better charge for streaming with out adverts in January 2024. For a stand-alone subscription it presently prices $11.98 / £8.98 / AU$12.98 monthly for its ad-free possibility. Adding ad-free video to an present Prime subscription is an additional $2.99 / £2.99 / AU$2.99 monthly.
If you may spare the money, one of the simplest ways to purchase Disney Plus or Prime Video is to pay for a yr up-front. That brings the value down significantly.
Disney Plus’s annual plans provide you with twelve months for the value of ten on its ad-free plans. Taking out a full Amazon Prime membership within the US provides you a good larger low cost, taking the annual value down from $179.99 to simply $139 – though you will nonetheless have to pay extra if you wish to take away the adverts. In the UK the low cost is not fairly so spectacular: a yr of Prime is £95, an annual saving of £12.88.
The most up-to-date Disney Plus value rise got here on October 17, 2024. That elevated the ad-supported plan from $7.99 monthly to $9.99 monthly within the US, and the ad-free plan went up from $13.99 monthly to $15.99. UK costs additionally went up, from £7.99 monthly to £8.99 for Standard (with out adverts) and from £10.99 to £12.99 for Premium. Australia received dearer too, however otherwise: a dearer tier was added in March 2024 at AU$17.99 monthly for patrons who wished 4K and Dolby Atmos.
At the second, the most cost effective Disney Plus plans are:
Disney Plus has an identical account sharing limitation to Netflix: if you wish to share your account with somebody who does not dwell underneath the identical roof you will have to pay for an additional member account.
In the US, which means there are successfully two and a bit Disney Plus tiers: Basic, Premium, and the Extra Member possibility for each of these tiers.
In different nations there could also be an additional tier. For instance within the UK, Disney Plus Basic turns into Disney Plus Standard With Ads at £4.99 monthly; the Premium tier is there too however there’s an in-between possibility, Disney+ Standard, which is ad-free however lacks the 4K and HDR of the Premium tier. That’s presently £8.99 monthly and Premium is £12.99. Disney Plus can also be out there as bundles within the US with companies reminiscent of Hulu and ESPN.
Disney Plus vs Prime Video: What are you able to watch?
The huge streamers do not give precise numbers for the scale of their catalogs. But third social gathering companies reminiscent of Reelgood attempt to monitor the variations, and as of late 2023 Amazon’s Prime Video had a a lot bigger library of films than another streamer. In reality, it had many extra films than Hulu and Disney Plus mixed.
Prime Video additionally affords glorious add-ons such because the free ad-supported TV service service Freevee, which is without doubt one of the greatest free streaming companies, and it additionally affords dwell sports activities streaming together with Major League Baseball and Thursday Night Football.
Disney’s catalog is smaller, however it has some very huge names: Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and the MCU and extra. It’s additionally slowly merging Hulu and Disney Plus’s catalogs.
Best films and reveals on Prime Video
Although it does not fee practically as many reveals as another streamers, when Prime Video spends it spends huge. This yr we have seen a number of huge hitters together with The Boys season 4, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season 2 and Fallout.
Amazon owns MGM Studios, which implies it is notably good for Hollywood films, and its ad-supported Freevee has a wide selection of basic TV in addition to a number of originals reminiscent of considered one of our favourite reveals, Bosch Legacy.
Both streaming companies are continually including new content material, however they do it in numerous methods: Prime Video provides nearly all of its new content material on the primary of each month whereas Disney Plus tends to replace its catalog extra incessantly. Most of the Disney Plus additions are new episodes of present reveals.
How usually do Disney Plus and Prime Video refresh content material?
Disney Plus vs Prime Video: Features
Basic: | Ad-supported. Up to 4K UHD & HDR4 streams. No offline downloads. Stream on a number of units at a time. |
Premium: | Ad free. Up to 4K UHD & HDR4 streams. Dolby Atmos audio. Offline downloads. Stream on a number of units at a time. |
Extra member: | Access the identical content material and options because the account holder. Stream on one system at a time. Create and entry just one profile. |
One of the most important variations between the 2 companies is that Disney Plus’s dwelling web page focuses on reveals and flicks which are already included in your subscription. Prime Video is extra complicated, as a result of it additionally crams in paid rental and buy choices and further subscription channels too. Some of these channels are free, so for instance the Amazon owned Freevee is ad-supported. Others are typically paid-for with a brief free trial interval.
Disney Plus’s high quality choices are fairly simple: it is 1080p HD except you pay extra for Premium, which delivers 4K and HDR. Prime Video is extra advanced as a result of the standard relies upon not on the subscription you will have however the system you are streaming to, so for instance the app delivers as much as 4K and Dolby Atmos on Android, on Fire TV tablets and on Fire TV sticks, however it’s HD and stereo on iOS and Windows.
Both companies allow you to create and use a number of profiles for various members of the family, however Disney Plus restricts account sharing and Prime Video does not. That means if the youngsters are off to varsity (or if they’ve a couple of dwelling, for instance as a result of they spend half their time with every dad or mum) they will nonetheless entry their Prime Video accounts. With Disney Plus you will want to purchase an Extra Member subscription for anybody who is not viewing underneath the identical roof as you.
Standard with Ads: | Ads, 3 simultaneous streams, UHD 4K, HDR10 and HDR10+ decision on choose titles and obtain to 4 units. |
Ad free: | Limited adverts (some titles could have skippable trailers), 3 simultaneous streams, UHD 4K, HDR10 and HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and obtain to 4 units. |
Amazon Household: | Ads (except every Amazon account indicators up for advert free), 3 simultaneous streams, UHD 4K, HDR10 and HDR10+ decision on choose titles, obtain to 4 units, and possibility so as to add 2 adults and 4 youngsters within the family to obtain choose Prime advantages. |
Disney Plus vs Prime Video: Design
The design of streaming companies is effectively established now, to the purpose the place it is generally laborious to inform which service you are utilizing. As we have beforehand talked about, the large distinction between Disney Plus and Prime Video is that the latter’s dwelling display screen is kind of eager to promote you further issues.
There’s one other key distinction, which is that Disney Plus has a row of studio icons on the high of its dwelling web page: that makes it straightforward to leap to Disney content material, or Pixar, or Marvel, or Star Wars, or National Geographic.
Amazon is getting very fascinated with AI, and it has added AI-powered suggestions to its personal service. It additionally has a useful characteristic referred to as X-Ray Recaps that is presently rolling out to some customers: it’s going to assist you to choose up the place you left off by supplying you with a abstract of what you’ve got seen to this point.
One space through which we expect Prime Video falls down is in its promoting, which is commonly repetitive and does not watch for applicable breaks within the present or film. Prime Video’s adverts have not but reached YouTube ranges of awfulness, however they’re nonetheless an irritant.
Disney Plus vs Prime Video: Verdict
If you are in search of the very newest Star Wars spin-offs or Pixar films then clearly Disney Plus is the streamer for you; if you need a a lot wider choice, then Prime Video is the higher guess. However, each companies could be expanded (for additional money) to supply much more viewing: Disney Plus through its bundles with companies reminiscent of Hulu and ESPN, and Prime Video with further channels.
Prime Video is healthier worth for cash, particularly as a part of a Prime subscription: you get it routinely (albeit with adverts) while you pay for Amazon’s sooner supply service. But at the same time as a stand-alone service it is significantly cheaper: its ad-free 4K possibility is cheaper than Disney Plus Premium.
Ready to change streaming companies? Here’s how to enroll to Disney Plus. Alternatively, test if the Amazon Prime Video free trial continues to be out there or easy methods to cancel your Amazon Prime membership.