The Streaming Service Choice

Netflix and Hulu are compared by price, user friendliness and quality of shows and movies.

Photo by Hattie Ludwig

Netflix was made in 1997 and produces its own movies and shows called Netflix Originals. Hulu was created in 2007 and is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The debate about Netflix and Hulu is the price, the quality of shows and movies and how user-friendliness the streaming service is.

“They have the Netflix Originals and documentaries,” sophomore Amanda Seggerman said, these are movies and shows produced or licensed by Netflix, “They also have the widest amount of shows.”

This is one reason Netflix could be considered better, the number of shows it has is something that matters to people.

Hulu is cheap compared to Netflix, but the price is not everything compared to the number of shows.

“It is incredibly affordable with a student discount. You say you’re from a certain school and if your Student ID gets approved you’re able to have all three streaming services, Spotify Premium, Hulu with ads and ShowTime for 4.99 a month.” sophomore Jack VanSickle said,

To decide which streaming service is better their user-friendliness, content and price need to be compared.

Photo by Hattie Ludwig

Hulu’s menu interface is pretty simple, showing every tab at the top labeled and large enough to distinguish. When people choose one it shows the options under that category and you are able to choose what you want to watch.

“The thing I like about the Hulu Menu is that shows that you might be interested in pop up based on what you have watched and it is easy to switch to your shows. I think Hulu is very user-friendly,” junior Olivia Dorman said.

Netflix also has a very simple menu but it is also very different, Netflix has recommendations on the home page, and you also see the shows and movies on the home tab and don’t have to choose from subdivisions.

Hulu has more shows and has an option for live tv, although the standard Hulu already comes with many shows, Hulu without live TV already has many good shows.

“It has a lot more options than Netflix and other platforms,” Dorman said, “ like Outdoughtered and TLC shows.”

Netflix is said to have 4,335 movies and 1,197 shows by AllFlicks compared to Hulu’s estimated 1,650 shows and 2,500 movies.

This can be important to some people because they may not want to watch the same shows and the same type of show over and over again.

Netflix has a variety of shows, but more so movies. There are a lot of movies on Netflix because of Netflix Originals.

“They are always adding new content which is another reason I chose Netflix,” Health Aide Jessica Westfall said. “The Netflix original series and movies are some of my favorites.”

The quality of shows is important to people because they do not want to pay for something that is worse than cable. Hulu is priced at 5.99 for basic, 11.99 for premium, 54.99 for basic and live TV and 60.99 for premium and live TV all of them are rates for the monthly price, Netflix is 8.99 for basic, 12.99 for standard and 15.99 for premium.

Many people drop cable for streaming services so they can watch shows and movies whenever they like for a cheap price this is like cable but with more steps.

Westfall said “I opted out of cable which can be really expensive and instead use streaming services. I definitely think Netflix is worth the money!” Westfall said.

The debate about Netflix and Hulu is about price, quality and amount of shows and movies, and how user-friendly the streaming service is.