Rating: 4/5
Three Word Summary: Watch more shows
Hulu is normally free. So why pay $8 a month for the premium account? For one, you now get total access to shows, rather than just the most recent three or four episodes.
Hulu Plus is very similar to Netflix in that it provides a huge online library of movies and television shows for a relatively low price.
The biggest advantage Hulu has over Nextflix is that new television shows are uploaded next day rather than a season-at-a-time. I can watch yesterday’s new episode of Community rather than having to wait an entire year for the next season of Archer to appear on Netflix.
The biggest trade-off is the addition of commercials on Hulu. The advantage here is that commercials are usually shown one or two at a time in 30 second intervals, so less than cable broadcasts. And commercials are actually more customized to your needs because you can tell which ones are relevant to you.
Keep in mind, Hulu Plus has a few less commercials than the free account. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the more popular TV shows have more commercials than those more obscure ones.
Also like Netflix, Hulu is beginning to generate some original, exclusive content. Sometimes this means repurposed British programming that is only available in the US via Hulu.
Hulu also doesn’t do as good a job of bookmarking my favorite shows. It keeps a good track of displaying the shows I watched recently, but it’s harder to mark a show that I want to save for later.
It might not be as spectacular as the quality original stuff that Netflix has produced, like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. But Hulu is still coming up with worthwhile programs that only further justify trying their premium Plus.
Both Hulu and Netflix are enhanced by the recent explosion of technology. Both service have great mobile apps that allow access on the go. Even better, the incredible Google Chromecast makes it easy to easily throw these shows and movies directly on to any TV.
But in my mind, you don’t have to choose between Hulu and Netflix— I recommend having accounts for both to practically double that library and have both their advantages. And when you consider that they add up to only $16 a month — far less that the hundreds people pay for cable.