10 Movie Rental Alternatives to Netflix

October 31st, 2011

Thousands of angry consumers recently canceled their Netflix subscriptions over price and policy changes. But what alternatives do they really have? We’ve rounded up the facts about ten other available options for you to consider, and you may soon learn that it’s harder to find a suitable and cheap alternative than first thought. The best choice for you will depend on your preference for media (disks versus streaming video) or selection (movies,TV programming, or independent films), and convenience (whether you like mailed disks or kiosks).

Few of these services can match the Netflix price or selection. Only Hulu Plus offers unlimited streaming for $8 per month, and only Blockbuster provides mailed disks. See more details about each after this table summary.

	Streaming	Video Purchase	DVD Rental
Amazon Instant Video	$1-$4 ea	$15-$20	No
Amazon Prime	Free ($79)		No
Apple TV	$1-$5 ea		No
Blockbuster	$4 ea	$15-$20	$10/mo
Cinema Now (Best Buy)	$4 ea	$15-$20	No
Crackle (Sony)	Free		No
GreenCine	$2-$5 ea		$10/mo
Hulu Plus	$8/mo		No
Netflix	$8/mo		$8/mo
Redbox Kiosks	No		$1 ea
Walmart Vudu	$1-$6 ea	$5-$20	No
YouTube Movies	$2-$4 ea		No

• Amazon’s Instant Video boasts 100,000 top movies and tv shows to rent or buy, with over 10,000 of them available to you for free if you sign up for Prime free shipping for $79 a year. That’s a pretty valuable perk if you shop on Amazon a lot.
• To access Apple content via iTunes, you have to buy their $99 Apple TV device and an HDMI cable to connect to your widescreen TV. Then you can purchase commercial-free programming and share music and photos by storing them on iCloud. This is the only option that requires a hardware purchase.
• Blockbuster Total Access offers 100,000 titles for renting or buying disks and games, singly or by subscription. Plans starting at $9.99 per month offer unlimited rentals by mail, unlimited in-store exchanges, with games and Blu-ray included. Sign up for a free 30-day trial here. This is one of the few ways to still get DVD rentals by mail. The choices available for their streaming on demand are too poor to consider as a viable option.
• Hulu Plus is the best place to find streaming TV episodes. Many movies are free with the basic Hulu, and while you can access more titles with the $8 monthly plan the choices are far less than Netflix unlimited streaming for the same cost. The content can be viewed on many devices, but still contain commercials. Sign up for a 1-week free trial here, it’s 1 month for students with .edu email address.
• Redbox kiosks offer the cheapest option for DVD and Blu-ray movies that can be picked up easily on the way home or at convenient locations like the grocery store. There’s no streaming, no mail delivery, and free rental codes posted at Inside Redbox.
• Walmart entered the streaming market when they purchased VUDU a few years ago. There are options to rent a la carte for $1-$6 or buy movies; the choice is small, but growing and they offer new releases quickly. There’s no monthly subscription plan.
• Cinema Now from Best Buy, Crackle from Sony, and YouTube movies don’t have enough of a selection to be considered as viable alternatives yet. GreenCine does offer DVD-by-mail in addition to streaming for 50,000 titles, but they are independent, anime, artsy, and foreign films.

Even at the new Netflix prices, there’s not another service that provides all that Netflix has to offer, although their streaming-only selections don’t compare to their extensive DVD catalog. If you enjoyed your Netflix subscription in the past, you may just have to swallow the price increase and go back to them. They’ll give you a free month. Otherwise, the only choice remaining that we haven’t mentioned is the limited selection at your local public library. At least those are still free.

Entry Filed under: Shopping