Which streaming service is the best? How to decide which to keep and which to dump

Welcome to the new financial year!

Perhaps this fills you with dread as it dawns on you that your “I haven’t done my taxes in three years” becomes four. Or maybe you greet it with gusto, armed with spreadsheets, receipt apps and budget plans – those are things, right?

With many people doing a little amateur accounting of household finances, now might be a good time to extend that audit to your streaming subscriptions.

Prices fluctuate (up), new entrants are in the market and some services don’t give as much as it takes from you.

It’s not necessarily whether you have too many streaming services (the average Australian household has 3.4 and that’s expected to trend up) but do you have the right ones for you?

NETFLIX

Cost: $7.99 monthly with ads/$18.99 monthly for standard/$25.99 monthly for premium/$5.99 per month for extra members

Unmissable title: Adolescence. The four-part British drama was a combination of excellent filmmaking (the performances, the writing, the superb one-shot cinematography) and socially relevant themes around toxic masculinity.

Honourable mentions: Asura, Too Much, Drive to Survive, Dept. Q

Keep it: Netflix still has the occasional banger series that, at least for a week, manages to capture everyone’s attention. Or you like true crime docos, because there’s a saturation of those. There are some exciting things coming up later this year including the next Knives Out movie, and lots of people are keen for the return of Stranger Things and Wednesday.

Get rid of it: If every time you open the app, you get overwhelmed by the sheer of volume of crap and you don’t want to be bombarded with promos for WWE and reality shows. Netflix’s game is more about quantity than quality and it can be hard to find the gems, which are far and few between.

DISNEY+

Cost: $15.99 monthly or $159.99 annually for standard/$20.99 monthly or $209.99 annually for premium/$7.99 monthly for extra members

Unmissable title: Andor. Yes, it’s a Star Wars show, but that’s merely the framework for a piercing, smart and chillingly resonant political drama that explores fascism, manipulation and resistance.

Honourable mentions: Paradise, Dying for Sex, The English Teacher, The Bear, Say Nothing

Keep it: Especially if you have children, the library of Disney classics is undeniable a goldmine, but there’s also a raft of 20th Century Fox movies, plus Disney is home to FX TV shows and some of its British and European commissions are great. Also if you’re into American sports with the ESPN inclusion.

Get rid of it: If Mickey Mouse makes you roll your eyes and you’re more into reality TV than scripted series. Plus, Disney didn’t raise prices when it folded ESPN into the service, but at some point, they might want to recoup the cost of that roll-out. If nothing else, maybe lock it an annual deal before they do.

APPLE TV+

Cost: $12.99 monthly/$24.99, $31.99 and $49.99 monthly as part of different tiered bundles with other Apple subscriptions such as iCloud and Music.

Unmissable title: Slow Horses. Truly an excellent spy thriller that can genuinely make your heart race and send you into fits of laughter. There are already four seasons and it’s been renewed through to the seventh.

Honourable mentions: The Studio, MurderBot, Severance, Shrinking, Bad Sisters, Careme

Keep it: Apple has one of the highest success rates at the moment in terms of what it’s making – half of what it releases is worth watching, and you can’t say that about almost anyone else. Perfect for discerning viewers who are happy to have a couple of shows going at once at a manageable pace of weekly drops.

Get rid of it: It didn’t buy an archive when it launched and it still only has its own originals, dating back to 2019, so there’s not much depth to its library. If you’re a heavy user who needs old movies, reality shows or many seasons of former broadcast series to play in the background, you won’t find it here.

PRIME VIDEO

Cost: $9.99 monthly/$79 annually/extra $2.95 monthly to get rid of the ads

Unmissable title: Overcompensating. This snappy and smart comedy set at a fictional American university is centred on a young man trying to hide his sexuality by performing alpha male behaviours.

Honourable mentions: Heads of State, Narrow Road to the Deep North, Reacher, Invincible, Cross

Keep it: If you love either dad TV or young adult dramas, they seem to be Prime Video’s two specialities right now. Shows with relatable, action-driven but non-threatening male leads include Reacher, Cross and Jack Ryan, while the many iterations of My Fault or The Summer I Turned Pretty will keep younger viewers gripped. Also, if you like international test cricket or free delivery.

Get rid of it: Most of its originals are underwhelming, even when it’s really expensive, such as Rings of Power and Citadel. Maybe mid-tier isn’t good enough for you.

STAN

Cost: $12 monthly for basic/$17 monthly for standard/$22 monthly for premium/extra $20 monthly for sport

Unmissable title: Poker Face. Created by Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne is a winning mystery-of-the-week crime comedy that has edge and darkness but lots of quirky characters played by wonderful guest stars.

Honourable mentions: Such Brave Girls, Hacks, Good Cop/Bad Cop

Keep it: Stan has a commitment to Australian drama and commissions quite a few every year. It also has popular, if not always amazing, shows such as Yellowstone, Gangs of London and Power. Actually, if you like crime dramas, there’s a lot of it on Stan. Plus, with Optus Sport winding down, Stan picked up the rights to the English Premier League to side alongside its rugby and tennis coverage. No ads.

Get rid of it: On the flipside, the majority of its Australian scripted series aren’t great, inoffensive to be sure, but not memorable. Most of its output deals are with smaller studios, so it often struggles to have many truly break-out shows.

HBO MAX

Cost: $11.99 monthly or $119.99 annually for ads/$15.99 monthly or $159.99 annually for standard/$21.99 monthly or $219.99 annually for premium

Unmissable title: The Pitt. The Noah Wyle-led medical drama has been one of the greatest surprises of 2025 in TV. The thoughtfully plotted show emphasises character within its structure of a 15-hour shift in an emergency room, set across 15 episodes.

Honourable mentions: The Last of Us, The Rehearsal, Rick & Morty, The Penguin, Industry

Keep it: HBO has been synonymous with premium TV for a quarter of a century and you will find almost all of those eminently rewatchable shows here and only here, everything from The Sopranos and Six Feet Under to Silicon Valley and Succession. No one else’s back catalogue is this consistently good.

Get rid of it: When it launched, HBO Max didn’t have the full Warner Bros library. For a movie studio with a century-long history, it’s surprisingly light in what it pulled from its archives.

PARAMOUNT+

Cost: $6.99 monthly or $61.99 annually for ads/$9.99 monthly or $89.99 annually for standard/$13.99 monthly or $124.99 annually for premium

Unmissable title: The Agency. With a premium cast including Richard Gere, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith and Michael Fassbender, the moody spy thriller is very well made, adapted from the excellent French series Le Bureau des Legendes, which is also on the service.

Honourable mentions: The Gilded Age, Matlock, Elsbeth

Keep it: Crime procedurals is the game here, especially if you like series such as NCIS, of which all the various spin-offs could keep you going for about two years. Paramount+ is also the home of Taylor Sheridan and all his manly men shows such as Tulsa King, Landman, Mayor of Kingstown and Yellowstone spin-offs. Oh! Cheers is finally back on the service.

Get rid of it: If you have no need for the above NCIS and Taylor Sheridan shows. It’s a relatively limited field of interest that doesn’t expand too far beyond SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer and Star Trek shows.

BINGE

Cost: $10 monthly for ads/$19 monthly for standard/$22 monthly for premium/$5 a month for five months for ad tier promo until July 15

Unmissable title: Day of the Jackal. The Eddie Redmayne-led remake of the classic 1973 espionage thriller was surprisingly good, fuelled by a great performance from the British actor. It’s been renewed for a second season

Honourable mentions: The Great North, The Great British Bake Off, Law & Order,

Keep it: Binge still has a deal with Universal so it has a library of favourites such as Parks & Recreation and The Office plus access to newer release movies such as Wicked. The Australian originals include Mix Tape and The Last Anniversary, both serviceable but not essential. There’s also a bunch of different Hallmark Channel romances if low stakes and low quality movies is your tune-out indulgence. Upcoming releases include the next season of The Twelve and a third of Colin From Accounts.

Get rid of it: Binge lost its shine when HBO Max launched as a separate service in Australia, taking all the Warner Bros titles with it. If you were subscriber mainly for shows such as The Last of Us and The White Lotus, there’s no reason to stay with Binge.