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I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I still spend most of my time watching free streaming services. We keep Netflix largely because my wife despises commercials, while I use the other benefits of Amazon Prime throughout the year and treat Prime Video as a bonus. The bottom line, however, is that when I’m choosing something for myself, I usually end up opening Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, or Tubi.
The three services may look similar on the surface, but after using them regularly, I’ve found that they’re better at different things. One is better when I want to browse for a movie, another comes closest to the experience of Netflix's streaming service, and another is what I open when I want to channel surf without making another decision. I do have a favorite, but that doesn’t make the others unnecessary. Once you understand what each service does best, choosing between them becomes much easier.
Most of these figures come from the platforms or their parent companies, but they aren't perfectly comparable. Tubi counts movies and individual TV episodes, Roku separates movies from shows, and Pluto TV doesn't publish a precise total for its on-demand library. Catalogs and channel lineups also change regularly.
Pluto TV is my favorite free streaming service
Nothing else comes as close to old-fashioned channel surfing
Pluto TV may not have the same on-demand depth as Tubi, but it's still the free streaming service I open most often. Its live guide comes closer than either Tubi or The Roku Channel to recreating the experience of flipping through cable channels and watching whatever happens to be on. There are channels built around movies, news, reality shows, classic television, sports, music videos, and even individual shows or franchises. When I don't have something specific in mind, Pluto TV makes it easy to start watching without spending 20 minutes scrolling through a wall of thumbnails.
Its on-demand section is also better than people sometimes give it credit for. It's easy to move between live channels, search, and on-demand programming, and there are plenty of older shows and familiar favorites that I'm always happy to watch again. I don't use the on-demand section as often as the live guide, but it gives Pluto TV more flexibility than a simple collection of streaming channels.
That doesn't mean the experience is perfect. Pluto TV can feel repetitive, especially when a channel cycles through the same seasons or the same small group of episodes, and the commercial repetition can be soul-crushing. Hearing the same ad over and over during a single evening is easily one of the platform's biggest weaknesses. Even so, those complaints matter less when I'm cooking dinner, doing something around the house, or just want something familiar playing in the background. Pluto TV may not offer the most control, but it asks the least from me, and that's a big reason it remains my favorite.
The Roku Channel feels the most like a paid streaming service
It's usually my next stop after Pluto TV
When Pluto TV doesn't have anything that catches my attention, The Roku Channel is usually where I go next. The Roku Channel is closest to the experience of a conventional paid streaming app, with movies and shows placed front and center in a clean, easy-to-browse interface. Cord Cutters News readers also voted it the best free ad-supported streaming service of last year in the annual Cordie Awards.
My Roku home screen also includes a Live TV tile that lets me skip The Roku Channel's main menu and jump directly into its guide, which Roku says includes more than 500 free channels. I still prefer Pluto TV for channel surfing, but Roku's combination of a large live guide and a stronger on-demand experience makes it feel like the most complete service of the three.
Tubi is where I go when I want to browse
Its deep catalog rewards a little patience
I open Tubi when I know I want to watch a movie or an older show but don't have a specific title in mind. Its biggest strength is the size and variety of its catalog. I can move through genres, decades, cult favorites, forgotten television shows, and movies I haven't thought about in years. It feels less like channel surfing and more like digging through an old video store, which is part of the appeal. I don't always find something immediately, but I usually come across a few titles that make me stop scrolling.
The downside is that Tubi can take more effort than Pluto TV or The Roku Channel. There's so much available that browsing can start to feel endless, and the interface doesn't always do a great job of separating the genuinely interesting finds from the filler. Some viewers also won't love the ads, although I find the experience easier to tolerate when I've chosen exactly what I want to watch. Tubi isn't the service I open when I want television playing in the background, but it's often the best of the three when I'm willing to spend a little time looking for a movie or show.
Free streaming is better when you use it on its own terms
The biggest advantage of free streaming isn't that one service can replace everything I pay for. It's that I can move between several platforms without adding another monthly bill. Once I stopped expecting each one to work like Netflix, their differences became much easier to appreciate.
