Deciding which streaming service is best has become more complicated than ever in 2024 and 2025. Every year we see the arrival of a new platform and at the same time the ones we have contracted continue to increase in price. What is the best alternative?
It’s a tough question because you can’t just decide which one is the cheapest. Would it be worth it to have a streaming service that’s cheap but doesn’t have anything you want to watch? Or what about having an expensive service that lets you share your account with someone else? What is the experience like with the platform, and what is its availability on other devices?
For this reason, at starscopsinsider.com, we decided to create a guide rating all streaming services but rating only certain things such as their content, price, technology, etc. The long-term idea is to create a complete guide that includes each of these individual ‘evaluations’.
So, shall we begin?
Netflix
There are three important things that set Netflix apart:
Its original series: shows like “Stranger Things,” ”Squid Game,””” “Cobra Kai,” or “Baby Reindeer.” In fact, perhaps one of the most important things about Netflix is the number of shows and movies it releases every month. It is impossible to know which of them will become the next global phenomenon.
If you are a lover of Korean dramas, Netflix is also a platform with a lot of content for you: the service has made these series one of its pillars and today it has one of the best catalogs available for those who want to fall in love and cry a little.
Finally, there’s the diverse content from other producers available on Netflix. The only problem with evaluating it is that today, it’s almost a lottery. A film might be available for a year, or it might only be available for a month. To give an example, the ‘Fast and Furious’ films left the service’s catalogue at least once in 2024, only to return a couple of months later.
The bottom line: Netflix is for you if you’re a fan of several of its original series, Korean dramas, but signing up for the service because your favorite movie is available is a risky bet.
AppleTV+
There’s no other way to put it: Apple TV has some of the best streaming series out there right now. Here’s the lowdown on why you should pay for the service: you’re going for quality over quantity.
This is important because AppleTV+ exclusives are those things that you can’t find anywhere: ‘Ted Lasso,’ Severance,’ Pachinko‘… it’s hard to find replacements for these shows anywhere else.
Unfortunately, AppleTV+ is a service that doesn’t offer much beyond this. Its catalog is quite limited, and the frequency with which it releases new series can mean that, at times, you’re paying for a service that you’re actually using every 6 months when a new show premieres. Paying more for quality and branding, we’re definitely talking about an Apple product here.
Disney+
Disney+ has become the place to watch everything after the company decided to absorb the content of Star+. Today, on the platform, you can watch all of Disney’s content, which includes franchises such as the Marvel Universe, Star Wars, and all of its animated classics. But now you can also find the Fox catalog, which includes all of the episodes of The Simpsons or complete movie sagas such as Alien or Planet of the Apes.
Disney+ also became the new home of ESPN, so it’s the service that has live Formula 1 events, soccer leagues, cycling tours, and more (with the caveat that they’ve been including quite a bit of advertising in these streams lately).
In other words, Disney+ seems to be the streaming service that best suits most people in terms of content. Not sure what to watch? You can surely find something on Disney+.
Prime Video
Prime Video is perhaps one of the strangest cases when it comes to streaming services because it is a mix of everything… without standing out for anything in particular.
In terms of volume, Prime Video’s library is one of the largest available for streaming (and that’s not even counting the shows and movies you can “rent”), but at the same time, a good portion of its catalog is riddled with content that’s either irrelevant or can’t compete with other services: Want to binge-watch bad horror movies or middling foreign shows? Prime Video is for you.
There are some good original series on the service, like ‘ The Boys, ” Invincible, ” Fallout ‘ and ‘The Rings of Power‘… but even these shows have their weak points.
Oh! And Prime Video is the platform you need to watch ‘Ugly Betty,’ which is an important fact for every Colombian.
Max
Max has a lot in common with Disney+: the platform is built with the catalog of a company that has its hands on some of the most popular licenses in pop culture: Harry Potter, the DC cinematic universe, Friends, and The Big Bang Theory, just to name a few.
We also have to mention that it is one of the best platforms for children, with the entire new and classic Cartoon Network catalogue: ‘Adventure Time‘, ‘Dexter’s Laboratory‘, ‘Regular Show‘, etc.
It is also home to HBO series, which for years established itself as the best TV channel with some of the best TV shows of the decade: ‘The Sopranos‘, ‘The Newsroom‘, ‘Game of Thrones‘, ‘VEEP‘… the list goes on.
Oh! And there’s one thing Max also beats Disney on (for now): its anime content. Thanks to the partnership with Warner Japan, the service has a very good catalog of shows, including Naruto, Death Note, and Shingeky no Kyojin.
Crunchyroll
This part of the article should be self-explanatory: you buy Crunchyroll because you want to watch anime and, more importantly, you want to watch the premieres of each season. There’s not much more to expand on here, and the advantage that Crunchyroll has is that eventually some of the movies that are released in theaters do make it to the service, but this is more of an add-on than anything else.
Of course, the service also has one of the best collections of anime series available… so you can not only buy it to catch up on the shows of the season but to watch some anime that has always been recommended to you.
Paramount+
Paramount+ is all about nostalgia. The streaming service is home to Nickelodeon’s entire catalog, including shows like The Fairly OddParents, Drake & Josh, Ned’s School Survival Guide, and Keenan & Kel.
It’s also the perfect place to watch some of Comedy Central’s best shows like South Park and some of the original series like Halo and Star Trek: Discovery.