Even if you ditch your cable company, you can still keep current with the latest TV series and movies by subscribing to one or more video streaming services. Amazon Prime Video offers a growing library of quality, original content and a decent collection of movies and TV shows to stream. Subscribers also have the option to download content for offline viewing and to watch 4K titles. On top of that, Amazon hosts an impressive catalog that's available for rent or purchase. However, it doesn't have as many high-quality shows as the top rival services, and continues to lose third-party content.
Amazon Prime Video's Movies and TV Shows
Although Amazon Video began as a place to purchase and watch TV shows and movies, it eventually embraced the world of unlimited, buffet-style streaming for a single monthly fee. Take, for example, Amazon's growing library of excellent original content, such as Bosch, The Boys, Catastrophe, Electric Dreams, Flack, Fleabag, Good Omens, Hanna, Homecoming, Hunters, Invincible, Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Patriot, Tales From The Loop, Undone, Upload, Utopia, and The Wheel of Time. Amazon saved The Expanse from cancellation, and it's even working on adaptations of acclaimed video games Fallout and Disco Elysium. Amazon's highest-profile original show by far, though, is the recent epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The list of originals continues to grow, and while it's not as large as Netflix's or Max's (formerly HBO Max) collection, many of the shows are on par, quality-wise. Prime Video's original shows also edge out Hulu's, which feels like a secondary adult alternative to Disney+.
You get more than just Amazon's originals with Amazon Prime Video, including The Americans, Chuck, Burn Notice, Hannibal, and Mr. Robot at no additional cost. Note that Prime Video has already lost shows, such as Justified, Veronica Mars, and The X-Files, to Hulu. Other HBO and NBC shows are leaving soon, too. Amazon Prime Video has the most shows of any streaming service, but when you filter for quality, Netflix and Hulu are better options.
Prime Video's library also includes a rotating library of popular movies, plus a surprising number of classic films. Like Netflix, it also creates original movies, such as Blow the Man Down, The Big Sick, Honey Boy, Manchester by the Sea, My Spy, The Report, Troop Zero, and The Vast of Night. Many of these movies have not fared as well as Netflix's The Irishman, El Camino, or Roma, but Sound of Metal won an Academy Award. Prime Video has more movies than any other service, but when you filter for quality, its numbers are in line with Netflix's. Of course, if you love B movies (and even C and D movies), you may disagree! Amazon bought MGM for $8.45 billion, however, which has boosted the movie library here and on MGM+.
Dedicated movie streaming services tend to offer more curated selections of titles with more supporting content. The Criterion Channel and Mubi are both excellent options for cinephiles.
Documentaries on Amazon Prime Video
Amazon has cranked out original documentaries over the years; examples include Generation Wealth, Gimme Danger, One Child Nation, and Time. For pure entertainment, check out Hamilton: One Shot to Broadway and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, which chronicles the life and times of an eccentric West Virginia family.
All In: The Fight for Democracy is a documentary about voter suppression, while Citizenfour covers NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Lower-budget documentaries about spirituality and non-traditional medicine, such as Food as Medicine, round out its library.
Anime on Amazon Prime Video
The addition of the smash hit Invincible notwithstanding, Amazon Prime Video falters when it comes to anime and cartoons, though it has a good range of animated kids' shows and some anime titles. Crunchyroll is our Editors' Choice pick for watching anime, thanks in part to its massive library of series and films, though Hulu and Netflix offer some anime titles, too. In terms of other animated shows, Netflix leads the pack with originals such as Bojack Horseman and Matt Groening's Disenchantment. Hulu is another good option for animated shows that premier on traditional cable networks.
Our feature on everything arriving on Prime Video can help you keep up with changes to the library.
Live Sports on Prime Video
In addition to on-demand content, Prime Video is the exclusive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football games. That means die-hard football fans must subscribe to Prime Video in addition to one of several other NFL streaming services; no longer will a single live TV service cover all your gridiron needs.
Amazon has streamed regular-season WNBA games, as well as the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game. For New York residents, the service began broadcasting select Yankees baseball games, too. Both initiatives hint at Prime Video's growing live sports ambitions. For now, ESPN+ is still a better sports streaming service in this price range, because of its extensive live coverage of college and international sports.
Amazon lets subscribers add sports-centric channels, such as MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and PGA Tour Live to their subscription, too. Of course, each of these channels adds a significant cost to your monthly or annual subscription.
Some other primarily on-demand services also stream live sports or have begun to recently. For instance, Paramount+ gets you access to all national sports events that air on CBS, and Peacock's premium tiers include Premier League and IndyCar coverage. Max features live NHL games, thanks to a recent broadcast deal between the NHL and Turner Sports.
Video Streaming Services: What You Should KnowHow Much Does Amazon Prime Video Cost?
There are two ways to get access to Amazon's video content: a standalone Prime Video subscription and an Amazon Prime subscription. A Prime Video subscription costs $8.99 per month and only includes access to Amazon's streaming video library. Alternatively, you can pay $14.99 per month (or $139 per year) for an Amazon Prime subscription that includes Prime Video, as well as other perks such as free two-day (and same-day, when available) shipping, music streaming via Amazon Music Prime, a Twitch Prime membership, and discounts at Whole Foods. Both tiers give you access to the same content and are ad-free, save for Amazon's in-house, preroll ads, which are entirely skippable. Amazon's Prime Day event is quickly approaching, which includes deals for Prime subscribers, too; check out our Prime Day coverage to stay up-to-date.
If you no longer want or need your subscription, follow our instructions on how to cancel your Amazon Prime account. This will take away your access to Prime Video, as well.
Students can sign up for an Amazon Prime subscription at a discounted rate of $6.49 per month or $59 per year. This plan includes all the perks of the regular Amazon Prime subscription, including Prime Video and Music (not to be confused with Amazon Music Unlimited).
Like many other video streaming services, Amazon Prime Video also lets users add subscriptions to different content providers to their accounts for a monthly fee. Options include Cinemax ($9.99), PBS Documentaries ($3.99), and Starz ($8.99). Prime Channels are not available for standalone Prime Video subscribers; you need a full Amazon Prime account to add this content.
For comparison, Netflix's cheapest plan with ad-free HD streaming is $15.49 per month. Hulu's most affordable on-demand streaming plan is $7.99 per month, but if you want an ad-free experience, the price jumps to $14.99 per month. Max and Paramount+ have new ad-supported plans, which start at $9.99 per month and $4.99 per month, respectively. The top tier Max and Paramount+ plans cost $19.99 per month and $9.99 per month, respectively. Disney+ charges $7.99 per month.
You don't need to pay anything for your video streaming entertainment. Our roundup of the best free video streaming services includes options for watching popular shows and movies. Our top pick for that category is Tubi. NBC's Peacock is another affordable option for mainstream titles, though you now need to pay to see anything it offers.
All of these are considerably cheaper than cable-replacement-type services, such as Sling TV (starting at $35 per month) and Hulu + Live TV ($69.99 per month).
Amazon Prime Video works on a web browser, Android and iOS devices, media streaming devices (including Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), game consoles (PlayStation and Xbox), and smart TVs. Prime Video also has a Windows 10 app, something Netflix and Hulu do, too. The app supports offline downloads and the IMDb-powered X-Ray panel for streaming content (a feature we'll discuss later).
With Prime Video, you can stream up to three titles simultaneously from the same account. Most other video streaming services support more concurrent streams. BritBox, for example, supports five. Other than Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix also offer 4K and HDR content. Fubo also streams select live programming in 4K.
Alternatively, Amazon also offers an entirely free streaming service called Freevee. Previously known as IMDb TV, Amazon Freevee is an ad-supported free service housed within the larger Prime Video ecosystem. It has a rotating selection of hit movies and TV shows, from Logan to Mad Men. It even features spin-offs of original Prime Video shows, like Bosch: Legacy, along with brand new shows, like Primo.
Renting and Buying Videos From Amazon
Amazon Prime Video offers an advantage over rivals such as Netflix and Hulu with the option to rent or buy TV shows and movies outright, similar to iTunes, Google Play Movies and TV Shows, and the Microsoft Store's Movies & TV section for Windows 10 and Xbox. Notably, for some content, buying and renting are your only options. Keep in mind that purchases and rentals come with restrictions. Once you purchase a video on Prime Video, you can stream it as many times as you want and download it on up to four compatible devices. For rentals, the three-video-stream limit remains, but Amazon does not let you stream the same rental to more than one device simultaneously. If you watch a downloaded rental video on one device, you can still watch it on another (though not simultaneously). You typically get 30 days to download or start streaming a rental, but after you do, you usually have 48 hours to finish watching it. You can read all of the specific details on Amazon's Video Usage Rules support page.
Amazon prioritizes movies and TV shows that are included with Prime, so your best bet is to specifically search for the content you want to watch or navigate directly to the Rent or Buy section. Renting a movie typically costs between $2.99 and $5.99, while buying it runs anywhere from $7.99 to $19.99, depending on how recent it is and the quality (SD or HD). Sometimes, however, the SD and HD options cost the same.
In terms of pricing, Amazon Prime Video is in line with its competitors for both buying and renting movies. For example, Ford v Ferrari (in HD) costs $19.99 to purchase. Google Play, iTunes, and the Microsoft Store charge the same price. However, the iTunes and Google Play versions are in 4K and support HDR. Some movies are free if you subscribe to a channel add-on that includes it. In the case of Ford v Ferrari, subscribers to the HBO add-on watch the movie for free.
The story is pretty much the same when it comes to TV shows, though not all TV shows are purchasable outright. Individual episodes typically cost between $1.99 and $3.99, with seasons running anywhere from $22.99 to $29.99. We compared prices for an HD episode from season 3 of Westworld across the four platforms. Each service charges $3.99 per episode and around $29 for the entire season. Amazon organizes all the content you rent or buy in the Your Video Library section, which is separate from the Your Videos section, which collects streaming content.
Amzon Prime Video's Interface
One of Amazon's biggest issues (not unique to its video services) is that it shoehorns all its services into the same interface. Amazon Prime Video, like all of Amazon's other services, lives in the drop-down to the left of the main search bar. Amazon should create a separate site solely dedicated to its video services or at least organize everything better. That said, the interface's organization has improved substantially over time.
The video service's homepage can't match the minimal aesthetic of Max or Netflix, but it looks fine. At the very top, users can select between the following menu items: Home, Free to Me, Store, Channels, Categories, My Stuff, and Watch Party. Right below that, Amazon Video highlights a few notable shows or movies available for streaming and then organizes everything else in horizontally scrolling lists, such as Watch Next, TV Shows We Think You'll Like, and Blockbuster Movies, going down the rest of the page. The Categories section is particularly useful for finding new releases, originals, and 4K UHD content. There's also a Prime Video Explorer tool for finding additional recommendations.
If you can't find something to watch on the homepage, you can use the search bar up top to find specific content by title, genre, release date, or channel. If you see something that interests you, you can start streaming immediately (provided it is available for Prime Video) or add it to your watchlist. Your watchlist is just an easy way to keep track of the shows and movies you want to revisit at a later time.
Clicking a movie or TV show link opens a page showing the user rating, runtime, release date, and other pertinent information. If you're on a TV show page, you can click the Preview button to watch a snippet; movie pages let you watch a trailer. One advantage that Amazon Video offers over Netflix is user reviews. Mubi and Shudder also let you chime in about shows and movies. Like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video gives recommendations based on the content you watch.
We particularly like Prime Video's Now Playing screen, as it looks clean and lays out the controls intuitively. In addition to the standard play, rewind, and forward buttons, Amazon Prime Video also implements subtitle and streaming quality options on the screen. However, Amazon's biggest draw—and something no other streaming service I've tested currently offers—is its X-Ray feature (powered by IMDb). This transparent overlay populates with useful information on the characters and actors currently in a scene, any soundtrack titles, as well as relevant show notes (such as continuity errors and important cultural references). Most shows get a Skip Intro button as well, a feature that Netflix made popular. Check out our feature on other Prime Video tips and tricks you might not have known about.
Amazon Prime Video on Mobile
We downloaded Amazon's Prime Video app on an Android 11 device to test the mobile experience. Note that Amazon does not offer a separate Amazon Video app: all video accounts use the Prime Video app. We appreciate that Amazon built a separate app for the video experience, since wedging it into the Amazon shopping app would make things much less manageable.
The interface looks identical to that of the website, albeit scaled down for a mobile screen. The app appears similar to many other video streaming apps, notably Netflix and HBO Now, with a dark background and vivid content thumbnails. Across the top, the app displays the following menu options: Home, Originals, TV, Movies, and Kids. There's a new bottom menu, too, for navigating between the Store, Channels, Search, and My Stuff sections. Gone is the overburdened left-hand menu. Tapping on a show or movie brings you to a details page where you can view a show summary and read user ratings and reviews.
The app does give users a fair amount of control over the service, with settings for stream and download quality, parental control options, a list of registered devices, as well as the ability to clear video search history. Prime members (not Amazon Video subscribers) can also manage Amazon Channels subscriptions from the app.
Streaming on a mobile device is quick and stable. We downloaded a 44-minute episode of The Expanse in the highest quality in just under a minute and a half. If you have the time and storage space, the app includes an option for downloading an entire season of a show all at once. For streaming or downloading on a mobile device, make sure that you are on a Wi-Fi connection or have an unlimited data plan; one hour of content equates to about 1.8GB of data.
Accessibility and Parental Controls
Audio descriptions are one step above regular dialogue-based closed captioning (CC). You can search specifically for Amazon's Movies and TV Shows with Audio Descriptions to find compatible content. This search returns more than 1,000 results at the time of publishing. Most of Amazon's Original programming includes audio descriptions, and we hope that it continues to support and implement these enhancements. Apple TV+, Disney+, Max, and Netflix also support audio descriptions.
Prime Video lets you adjust the CC settings directly from the video player. You can change the font size and color of the text. Acorn TV also allows these customization options from the playback screen.
In terms of parental controls, you can require a PIN for any purchases, as well as restrict streaming by user age. You can designate specific accounts as a Kids profile, too. Netflix, Disney+, and Max also include top-notch parental control options.
The Playback Experience
We did not experience any issues streaming over a home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download speed). Although Prime Video may take a couple of seconds to ramp up to full quality, the quality stays consistent once it does. The service is also pretty accurate at saving your progress through a video in case you get disconnected or need to resume watching later.
Amazon Prime Video does not splice ads into the middle of shows, but it does advertise in-house content at the beginning of a show or movie, similar to the way Max does. You can easily skip these ads, or if you're interested in the show, add it to your watchlist directly. In any case, Amazon Video's in-house ads are much more palatable than those of the cheaper plans of Hulu, which plague you with the mainstream commercials that drove people away from cable in the first place. Netflix offers the most ad-free experience, especially since you can now disable the auto-playing video ads for its shows.
Amazon Prime Video now lets you co-watch Prime Video content with up to 100 people, provided they all have an account and are located in the US. The service also finally brought support for multiple viewing profiles to subscribers in the US. Watch Party is also now available on more devices, from desktop browsers to mobile apps, Roku streaming boxes, and video game consoles.
Amazon Prime Video and VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) is an important tool for protecting your privacy online. Unfortunately, some video streaming services, such as Prime Video, make it difficult, if not impossible, to stream content while connected to a VPN. This policy could be due to content licensing deals, as many shows are restricted to viewers in specific countries. Amazon Prime Video did not work after we connected our test mobile and device desktop to US-based Mullvad VPN servers.
You could try to find a VPN that works with all the services you subscribe to, but even if you do, this does not guarantee that everything will work together in the future. Many video streaming services continue to close down the loopholes that VPNs currently rely on to avoid being blocked. Note that some VPNs do offer dedicated streaming servers, which may be more reliable for this purpose.
A Complete Video Streaming Package
Amazon Prime Video offers many entertaining originals at a reasonable price, and it continues to introduce new streaming features. Additionally, Prime Video is available on nearly every platform you can name, and it lets you purchase or rent shows and movies that aren't part of its subscription. The main drawback is that the service does not have as many high-quality shows as our top picks and stands to lose more content to competitors.
Netflix is our Editors' Choice winner for on-demand video streaming, since it has the best library of originals and movies. Hulu is a great value for its combination of a vast on-demand library and live TV capabilities. YouTube TV impresses with intuitive interfaces and an excellent range of channels.
For more on streaming, check out five reasons to ditch your video subscription and keep cable. Learn how to pick streaming services that fit your budget, and enjoy all sorts of reality show trash. Read why streaming services have a moral obligation to archive their catalogs. Finally, check out our recommended streaming video guides if you don't know what to watch.
Kim Key also contributed to this review.
