Netflix vs Hulu

Netflix vs Hulu

Introduction

With over 200 million subscribers and numerous shows to watch every new week, Netflix is the obvious go-to for streaming content but Just like in every other normal life setting, there are competitors looking to takeover Netflix’s place and one of these well-known competitors is Hulu

Hulu is a worthy competition as it is able to offer even a lower cost than Netflix, making it alluring to consumers who want to save cost.

The real question is, can Hulu really come up against Netflix? Let’s take a look.

But first,

What is Netflix?

Netflix Inc is an American subscription-based streaming service and production company based in Los Gastos, California. It was founded on August 29, 1997, by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. It offers a film and television series library through distribution deals as well as its productions, known as Netflix Originals. It allows members to watch TV shows and movies without commercials on an internet-connected device.

Netflix can be accessed through web browsers or through an application software installed on Smart TVs, set-top boxes connected to televisions, tablet computers, smartphones, digital media players, Blu-ray players, video game consoles, and virtual reality headsets on the list of Netflix-compatible devices. It is also available in 4k resolution.

The company is ranked 115th on the Fortune 500 and 219th on the Forbes Global 2000. As of February 2022, It is the second largest entertainment-media company by market capitalization. In 2021, Netflix was ranked as the eighth-most trusted brand globally by Morning Consult.

What is Hulu?

Hulu is an American subscription streaming service that started as a platform for recently-aired TV shows but has since grown into a massive service with full movies, original programming, and Live TV options. It now offers a huge library of popular TV shows, movies, and on-demand channels. It is currently one of the leading movie and TV streaming services in the U.S.

It was launched on October 29 2007 and is majorly owned by The Walt Disney Company while Comcast’s NBC UNIVERSAL holds a minority stake. Its headquarters is located in Los Angeles, California, United States, and is almost exclusively available within the U.S.

Hulu can be accessed from various screens, and five other people can access your account with their profiles. Each profile is separate from the others, but they don’t cost any extra. All viewing history and recommendations are unique to each profile. Even kids can have their own Hulu profile to restrict their usage to kid-friendly content.

All of Hulu’s content is legal to stream because it has genuine deals with content providers, which gives Hulu permission to publish content from their networks.

Netflix Vs Hulu Comparison

Pricing

Netflix offers a variety of plans to meet every customer’s needs. The plan a customer chooses will determine the video quality and the number of screens you can watch on at the same time. With these plans, you can watch unlimited TV shows and movies, and also play mobile games. The bad news about Netflix pricing however is that its price hikes and raises seem inevitable.

Netflix offers three plans; Basic ($9.99 per month), Standard ($15.49 per month), and Premium ($19.99 per month). Netflix’s most popular plan is the standard tier because people have trained their eyes to see the difference between SD (480p) and Full HD (1080p). Also, people may just not need the four simultaneous streams and 4K HDR quality in the premium plan. The proliferation of 4K TVs and 4K content isn’t going as fast as some may want.

Additionally, each Netflix plan lets you download movies and shows onto your device to watch when you don’t have internet.

In the U.S, Netflix still offers discs by mail at dvd.netflix.com. It has two pricing plans for this; Standard ($9.99 for DVDs and Blu-rays for one disc) and Premier ($14.99 for DVDs and Blu-rays for two discs).  With both pricing plans, Netflix sends you discs that you can keep for as long as you want. As soon as you return that disc, Netflix immediately sends you the next disc listed in your queue. There is however a limit on the pace at which you receive and return

As a Netflix member, you are automatically charged once a month on the date you signed up. You also have the freedom to change your plan or cancel online at any time.

Just like Netflix, streaming from Hulu isn’t free, so you must first purchase a plan. However, unlike Netflix, some of the content isn’t included in the plan by default but can be added, which comes at an additional cost. If you want to remove ads on Hulu, there is an additional fee as well.

Hulu has four plans, all of which include access to Hulu’s full library of movies and shows. Plans can be customized for no ads, Live TV, premium channel add-ons, unlimited screens, and more.

STANDARD HULU PLANS: This plan can be purchased with or without ads. It costs $6.99 with ads a month and $12.99 without ads for a month.

HULU LIVE TV: This includes more content since it resembles a traditional cable subscription. There are live and on-demand channels covering news, sports, lifestyle, movies, kid-friendly, and entertainment, depending on your location.

This plan includes a variety of other benefits, including Cloud DVR that can house up to 50 hours of streamed content at any given time. You can also enjoy a Live Guide search option, showing you what’s on-air over the next two-week period. You can even set timers so you can enjoy shows at your leisure and never miss an episode. 

It costs $69.99 a month with ads and $75.99 without ads for a month.

HULU STUDENT ACCOUNTS: This includes not only Hulu (the ad-supported plan) but also ShowTime and Spotify Premium. A spirit and Hulu combo are also available for some spirit plans.

Some other streaming services, like HBO Max and Disney Plus, can also be bundled with these plans.

Just like Netflix, Hulu also offers a 30-day free trial for its plans, after which the monthly fee will kick in.

The use of ads is a controversial aspect that separates Hulu from most of its competitors. Just as seen above, the cheapest plans feature ads in the content just like what we see on regular network television. This is disappointing for some users especially due to the fact that Netflix offers its plans without ads.

When compared with Netflix, at first glance, Hulu has the cheapest plan. However, it is only worth it if you don’t mind an interruption during your binge-watching.

A big win for Hulu however is that beyond its package stacks that include the Disney Plus Bundle, you can also enjoy additional perks that you wouldn’t necessarily find on other platforms for the price. Some of these perks include Cloud DVR storage or channels, such as ESPN Deportes, the Sportsman Channel, and the Magnolia Network.

Quantity and Quality of Content

As important as prices are, getting the value for your money in both the quantity and quality of content is even more important.

As for Netflix, the number of movies/TV shows varies by country and changes from month to month as new titles are added or removed.

In the U.S, Netflix currently has over 4000 movies. It has also produced over 1500 original titles since it began producing original content in 2013. Hulu on the other hand plays over 70,000 movies and episodes of different shows, including Hulu originals and content from renowned networks like NBCUniversal, ABC, Fox, Disney, Discovery Networks, HBO, and more.

However, another more important consideration is based more on quality rather than quantity. With Hulu, you get HD-quality content by default, with up to 4K quality content available in a higher resolution. However, this is not the same with Netflix as you are stuck with SD quality when on a basic plan. To get HD, you need to upgrade to the standard plan and if you want to enjoy content in 4k, you need to upgrade to the Premium plan.

Hulu doesn’t have the extensive selection of original content as Netflix but it still has some binge-worthy content. Hulu offers some movies but is primarily known for TV shows, including related clips, trailers, and interviews.

Netflix is difficult to beat when it comes to the size of its library, especially with the way entire seasons drop at once and the dozens of titles it has in all genres.  It also features more TV shows and films, especially for children than Hulu.

However, when coming to a conclusion, there are specific advantages to both Hulu and Netflix. Hulu has recently-aired, on-demand content, While Netflix has more Original content and more content overall.

Also, both streaming services allow you to download content to watch offline, however, with Hulu, you can only download with the no-ad plans and are limited to 25 episodes or movies. With Hulu, your downloads can be spread across five supported devices, and you have 30 days to watch them, or 48 hours once you start playback.

On the other hand, with Netflix, you can download a lot more content with each plan allowed to download 100 titles.

Netflix definitely wins in this category, with more original content, more popular content, and even more options for streaming.

Accessible Locations

Currently, Netflix streams content in over thirty languages to 190 countries, and with 195 countries on the planet, this validates the company’s claim of worldwide status. The only countries Netflix is not currently available in are China, Crimea, Syria, and North Korea.

Hulu is only available to viewers in the US and Japan, which means that to access the site, you must be using an IP address from one of those countries. Also, you’ll need a separate account for both versions because a Hulu US account can’t access Hulu Japan. You can get around these with a premium VPN.

This limits Hulu’s reach to a certain community of people and if it goes on like this, it would not be able to grow to great heights like its competitors who stream in almost every country in the world.

When it comes to availability, Netflix beats every other streaming service, including Hulu. If you live in any other country outside the U.S, Netflix is your best bet. Despite the fact that there are ways to get access to Hulu in other locations, to most people, it is probably not worth the hassle. Most people like things that are easily accessible to them.

Number of Subscribers

As of the third quarter of 2021, Netflix had roughly 214 million global paid memberships, an increase of more than 16 million subscribers from the same period the year before. Worldwide, Netflix viewership continues to grow. By the second quarter of 2022, Netflix approximately had 220.67 million paid subscribers worldwide. By 2024, the figure is expected to reach 670.7 million which is 8.4% of the population.

On the other hand, in the third quarter of 2022, the Walt Disney Company reported that Hulu had 46.2 million paid subscribers, up from 42.8 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Compared to Netflix, Hulu is still little in subscriber count so Netflix also easily wins this category. This could also be highly due to the fact that Netflix is a lot more popular than Hulu.

Finances

In 2020, Netflix generated $24.996 billion in revenue, a 24.01% increase from 2019. Netflix’s total assets for 2020 were $39.28 Billion, a 15.61% increase from 2019. Netflix has been spending aggressively on building its original show portfolio. This is helping it sustain its leading position despite the launch of new services like Disney and Apple TV as well as the existing services like Amazon prime video.

In 2021, Hulu generated approximately $9.6 Billion in revenue and most of it came from its streaming platform. As of 2019, Disney valued the app at 15.8 Billion when it agreed to acquire the rest of It from Comcast.

Conclusion

When compared at face value, Netflix easily beats Hulu. However, on personal opinion, preference would play a big role in determining which one is a person’s personal best. For people who hate to be left out of the loop, they would see Netflix as the best because it keeps them up to date with trendy shows and movies. On the other hand, for people who love watching new shows every day, Hulu would be their best.

Also, for people who reside outside the U.S and Japan, it is obvious who their personal best would be.