This article was published on March 20, 2020

So you want to try streaming services for free? Here are their trial times


So you want to try streaming services for free? Here are their trial times

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff.

In a time of enforced solitude and social distancing, there’s no better time than now to try streaming services, especially ones you might not otherwise try. But we also get that you’re not made of money. Luckily, almost every streaming service out there offers a free trial. So here are all the trial periods for the major streaming services.

For the most part, every single trial period is somewhere between a week and a month. There are a few outliers, but you can expect to get at least a week out of the major streaming services before you have to pony up the cash. Hopefully, if you can take every streaming service for a test drive, you can find the ones that work best for you and spend your money wisely.

Read: How to host an online Netflix binge with friends

Netflix is the obvious frontrunner, and it offers a generous one-month free trial. Considering the breadth of content available on the service, that’ll barely be enough time to scratch the surface, but you should be able to binge at least two seasons’ worth of the platform’s good content. Amazon Prime and Hulu, Netflix’s main rivals in terms of content, also have 30-day trial periods. After that, their monthly prices are $9, $13, and $6 a month, respectively.

Disney+, the House of Mouse’s service has, on the other hand, only 7-day trial. Personally, I think it’s more than enough to sample The Mandalorian and decide whether Disney nostalgia is worth the $7 a month price tag. Similarly, HBO NowHBO’s streaming service that doesn’t require a TV package — also offers a 7-day trial, after which it costs $15 a month. CBS All Access (which might eventually be replaced with another streaming service Viacom CBS are allegedly working on) also has a 7-day trial and costs $6 a month (for an ad-based subscription). Each of the more short-lived trials offer a pretty reasonable monthly price should you want to sample them for longer.

Apple TV+ also offers a 7-day trial, and a $5 monthly price tag, but you can get a year of it for free if you purchase a new Apple device. Showtime offers a 30-day trial and an $11 monthly price, but you can also subscribe with Amazon Prime.

SlingTV is unusual, in that its typical 7-day free trial can be difficult to find if you’re not signing up through an app. At the moment, it’s running a special promotion whereby some of its movies and shows are available for free, but that won’t be around forever. It’s price-per-month starts at $20 and increases depending on the number of channels you want. Another outlier is the new Criterion Channel, which exists for fans of classic film. It’s trial period is 14 days long, after which it costs $11 a month.

And there you go. Hopefully you’ll be able to give one or more of these a try, as the amount of content on even one of them is staggering. Good luck!

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