Which streaming service is best value in 2026?
Every service claims a huge catalogue. A more useful question is what it costs to reach the shows people actually watch — so we took the 108 shows our members track, worked out which services carry them, and divided by the price. Amazon Prime Video comes out cheapest at $0.33 a show.
This is the one guide here built on our own library rather than published prices alone, so read it for what it is: a measure of the shows 108 strong that our members chose to track, not of any service's full catalogue. It moves as the library grows.
Cost per show, service by service
| Service | Monthly price | Shows carried | Share of library | Cost per show |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Prime Video | $8.99 | 27 | 25% | $0.33 |
| Netflix | $8.99 | 20 | 19% | $0.45 |
| Apple TV+ | $12.99 | 28 | 26% | $0.46 |
| Max (HBO) | $10.99 | 17 | 16% | $0.65 |
| Disney+ | $11.99 | 15 | 14% | $0.80 |
| Hulu | $11.99 | 14 | 13% | $0.86 |
| Peacock Premium | $7.99 | 7 | 6% | $1.14 |
| Paramount+ | $8.99 | 7 | 6% | $1.28 |
Prices are each service's cheapest paid tier. A show counts once however many members track it.
How many services do you actually need?
Catalogues overlap, so the second subscription is always worth less than the first. Below, each step adds whichever service brings the most new shows per dollar — not the biggest catalogue, since a service duplicating what you already have adds nothing:
| Add | New shows | Covered | Running cost | Cost per show |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Amazon Prime Video $8.99/mo | +27 | 27 of 108 (25%) | $8.99/mo | $0.33 |
| 2. Netflix $8.99/mo | +18 | 45 of 108 (42%) | $17.98/mo | $0.40 |
| 3. Apple TV+ $12.99/mo | +23 | 68 of 108 (63%) | $30.97/mo | $0.46 |
| 4. Max (HBO) $10.99/mo | +16 | 84 of 108 (78%) | $41.96/mo | $0.50 |
| 5. Disney+ $11.99/mo | +14 | 98 of 108 (91%) | $53.95/mo | $0.55 |
| 6. Paramount+ $8.99/mo | +6 | 104 of 108 (96%) | $62.94/mo | $0.61 |
| 7. Peacock Premium $7.99/mo | +3 | 107 of 108 (99%) | $70.93/mo | $0.66 |
| 8. Hulu $11.99/mo | +1 | 108 of 108 (100%) | $82.92/mo | $0.77 |
What this means: one subscription — Amazon Prime Video at $8.99 — already reaches 25% of what our members track. Three reach 63% for $30.97 a month. Everything after that is paying steadily more for steadily less.
What this measure misses
Cost per show is a blunt instrument and it is worth being straight about how blunt. It counts a show you loved and a show you abandoned after one episode the same. It rewards breadth, so a service with many mediocre titles scores above one with a handful you would actually miss. And the library it measures is what our members chose to track, which is not a neutral sample of television.
Where it is genuinely useful is spotting the subscription you keep paying for and rarely open. If a service sits at the expensive end of that first table and you cannot name three things on it you want to watch, that is the one to cancel first. Our money-saving guide covers rotating the rest, and the bundle guide checks whether bundling them is cheaper.
Common questions
- Which streaming service is the best value?
- Amazon Prime Video, at $0.33 a show — 27 of the 108 shows our members track, for $8.99 a month. Best value still depends on what you watch.
- How many streaming services do I actually need?
- Fewer than most people pay for. One reaches 25% of what our members track, and three reach 63%.
- Is cost per show a fair way to compare services?
- Only as a starting point. It rewards breadth over quality and is measured against what our members happen to track rather than a full catalogue.
Based on 108 distinct shows tracked by members and the current prices in our pricing table. Services with no canonical price are excluded.