Disney+ Vs Amazon Prime – Which One Is Better?
If you are on the fence about getting Disney+ or perhaps thinking do I need to cut back on some of my subscription services, now that I’ve got Disney+, I’m going to compare the two services.
Price
Disney+ offers a simple price of $6.99 a month, while Amazon Prime offers a few different options. Amazon Prime Video is priced at $8.99, which only includes their video on demand service. Amazon Prime is priced at $12.99, but also includes a selection of music, kindle ebooks, Twitch membership, photo storage and free same day shipping.
One of the major benefits of both streaming services is that they don’t lock you in to major contracts, if you don’t want. They both offer annual passes, which give a discount, but if you want, you can subscribe on a monthly basis.
Movies
Disney+ has launched with over 400 movies, including some major franchises, box office smashes and some obscure old titles from people’s childhood. Disney is one of the biggest movie studios in the world and having access to most of the content from that vast library is a major selling point.
Currently Amazon offers over 20,000 movies to its subscribers, which is an incredible amount of content, but some might argue its quantity over quality. Looking at the movies on Disney+, the majority of them are huge franchises that people know and love. When looking at the list of movies on Amazon, the majority of them are unknown, since Amazon have been securing rights to large numbers of international films.
For children and families, Disney+ has a superior movie library, but for adults, Amazon Prime offers far more choice. However with Disney putting its new movies on the service around 8 months after their theater release, the majority of Amazon’s more well known titles are a few years or more older.
TV Shows
Disney+ offers thousands of TV episodes, but the majority of them are Disney Channel shows, which might not be as useful for adult subscribers, but fantastic for younger viewers. There are lots of interesting documentary series from National Geographic, plus other major shows like The Simpsons and Star Wars: The Mandalorian. But when compared to the thousands of shows Amazon offers, which is much broader, Amazon Prime is superior.
Extras
Both Amazon and Disney+ offer many of their videos in HD and 4K at no additional costs, they also both offer downloadable content on to devices for offline viewing.
Future Issues
Amazon is also suffering from the same issues Netflix and Hulu are facing, as more studios are pulling back their own content for their own subscription services. While Amazon does have content from companies like Disney, BBC, Universal and Warner Brothers, those titles will eventually be removed, but right now, this is less of an issue. Disney+ will have less of these issues, since Disney owns the content on their platform, so contracts and expiry dates are less of an issue. Over time, Amazon’s back-catalog is going to look very different.
Originals
Disney+ launched with two cinema quality movies in “Noelle” and “Lady & The Tramp”, in addition to major shows like The Mandalorian, along with other original series like the Imagineering Story, Encore and more. This was a strong lineup to kick off Disney+ and Disney is spending millions on creating new shows, including new Marvel titles. But right now, Amazon has a bigger selection of Originals, with titles like The Marvelous Mrs Masiel, The Boys, Jack Ryan, Carnival Row and more. They are also investing heavily in new original content, but Disney is able to use its established franchises to make a faster connection with its audience.
Value
Amazon Prime’s value comes from its huge selection of benefits, beyond its video on demand service. There are millions of people who subscribe to Amazon Prime because it offers value for money. While Disney+ is the cheapest, Amazon Prime subscription offers incredible value, if you use other content such as music, books and more importantly purchase products from Amazon. If you make more than a few orders a month, the shipping costs alone make Amazon Prime worth it. And Amazon Prime members get extra discounts on products and much more.
Overall
Disney+ and Amazon Prime offer very different experiences, Disney+ is purely focused on delivering the best Disney content at an affordable cost, whereas Amazon Prime is not just about streaming video, it’s about being invested in the Amazon ecosystem. The majority of people are going to have multiple streaming services, Disney+ offers great choice for some, but it’s less appealing to adults, but if you were to solely look at an Amazon Prime Video membership, it doesn’t look as appealing.
For me personally, Amazon Prime is a great subscription service, but if I didn’t purchase anything from Amazon regularly, I wouldn’t be subscribed for their streaming video services, as they don’t update their original content that often and the library of older content is very hit and miss.
Ultimately it’s going to come down to how much you use each service, use the free trials to test if the platform is right for you.
Roger Palmer
Related Article
Disney+ To Take Part In Cannes Film Market’s Streamers Forum
Disney+ Theme To Be Released On A Tiny Vinyl For Record Store Day
To be honest, I've found Amazon Prime is much, MUCH better for the preschool age range. This surprised me, as I somehow expected better if Disney. Disney does have a few good preschool shows, but they are all either purely entertaining (like older Mickey mouse shorts) or have a social-learning aspect (like a moral of being a good friend). Amazon has many STEM and language arts shows. Umizoomi (math), Tumble Leaf (science), Word World (phonics) that are both educational and fun. And that's just scratching the surface! As a mother with a toddler and preschooler, I got Disney+ and actually felt a little let down at how little quality edutainment was available.