25 Cheapest Streaming Services in the UK

WOW Presents Plus is an on-demand streaming service that prides itself on its LGBTQ+ content, most of which comes in the form of vibrant reality and sketch shows. This is where you'll find the latest seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race as well as its many iterations and spin-offs.

The platform serves as a streaming arm of The World of Wonder, a production company that has been at the forefront of queer storytelling since 1991. 

The shows on WOW Presents Plus can be downloaded and viewed on most streaming devices (no TV provider required). A subscription costs £4.43/month or £43.38/year.

If Netflix, Amazon, or Disney’s vast catalog of films never really met your needs as an avid horror fan, then Shudder just might be the streaming service for you. It’s dedicated to the most thrilling, hair-raising, and frightening titles available, both from Hollywood and around the world. Although a number of popular and classic titles are missing from its catalog, you’ll be sure to find newer and fresher horror fare here, such as Let the Right One In and The Ring. Shudder has also recently invested in original content, which most notably includes Deadstream, Mad God, and Dragula Titans.

If you’re looking to test the waters before diving headfirst, Shudder offers a seven-day free trial, after which you’ll have to pay £3.99/month to continue streaming. Given its careful curation and affordable price point, Shudder is worth checking out especially if you’re a big fan of the genre. 

Paramount+ is a streaming service that brings together thousands of titles from Paramount Studios, CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and MTV all in one place. You can find blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick here, as well as beloved series like Yellowstone, Star Trek, and Yellowjackets. It even has UK-exclusive shows like The Flatshare up its sleeve.

A subscription costs £6.99/month, and it offers much of the same features you'd expect from on-demand streaming services like offline viewing, multiple user profiles, and simultaneous streams. It even has parental controls for those with young ones hoping to tune into kid shows from Nick. If you're not quite satisfied with your Netflix and Prime offerings and don't mind shelling out a few extra pounds, then Paramount+ is certainly worth considering.

Now TV (or simply Now) is Sky TV's standalone and contract-free streaming service. It features the best of the Sky Channel, but in specialized membership formats that you can choose according to your viewing needs. As of this writing, this includes a cinema pass for £9.99/month (perfect for cinephiles), an entertainment pass for £9.99/month (perfect for TV lovers), a Hayu pass for £4.99/month (perfect for reality show enthusiasts), and finally, a kids pass for £3.99/month (perfect for the little ones). You can subscribe to one of these passes or bundle them together and add extra channels like Sky Sports. 

If you prefer to have the fat trimmed off of your choices, you'll appreciate this specialized approach to streaming. But you have to be careful about the expenses, which can stack up via add-ons. You’ll also have to have what’s called a Boost upgrade if you want to unlock 1080p streaming (the standard is 720p) and access simultaneous streaming for up to three devices (the standard is two devices). 

It seems tricky, but once you get the hang of Now, it’s actually a top-notch service with quality programming. 

For the longest time, Netflix has remained undefeated in the streaming stratosphere. It solidified its top position by providing an endless catalog of original films and TV shows and by taking risky moves early on, like allowing offline viewing and releasing interactive games. 

However, amid rising competition, Netflix has had to make a few changes to its iconic viewing experience. For one, it now has an ad-supported tier, which cord-cutters on a budget can subscribe to for £4.99/month. Under this plan, you can expect to see four to five minutes of advertising per hour of viewing. But Netflix’s basic plan, which allows one device to watch ad-free at any given time, still costs £6.99. Meanwhile, the standard and premium plans are still priced at £10.99 and £15.99, respectively (the latter offers 4k quality for that extra crisp viewing experience). 

With an extensive media library and affordable price plans to boot, Netflix remains a great option for streaming and binging.

Magellan TV is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to educational non-fiction content, making it a worthy option for lifelong learners and documentary lovers. What sets it apart from other docu-heavy streaming sites is its careful curation and broad range. It's also a great choice if you're into history and science more than any other topic. 

While Magellan TV is available in most parts of the world, it does charge USD— $5.99/month in particular. That works out to be £4.99/month in the UK, more or less. If you're still not sure it's a worthy addition to your streaming lineup, you can try the service out for free for seven days.

Previously known as Starzplay, Lionsgate+ is an on-demand streaming service that can be accessed as a standalone service or as a subscription add-on to existing platforms like Amazon Prime, Roku, and Virgin TV. Either way, it's available to try for free across multiple devices.

While Lionsgate doesn’t quite have the breadth of options that Netflix and Amazon Prime have, it offers quality titles from many studios around the world (but particularly from America) and if often does so exclusively. It’s home to the critically acclaimed series Gaslit and Outlander from Starz, as well as Station Eleven and Tokyo Vice from HBO. At £5.99 a month, Lionsgate is certainly worth checking out if you're a fan of popular and well-received TV shows and films, especially those coming from the other side of the pond.

ITVX is ITV’s official streaming service. It’s the cordless home of the network’s deep reserve of shows, which includes reality hits like Love Island and Big Brother, as well as imported titles like Freaks and Geeks and The Sex Lives of College Girls. It also has licensed films from the US and original content on the way, making it a hefty rival against the likes of Now, BBC iPlayer, and even Netflix. 

Since ITVX is ad-supported, you can watch all of its channels and select titles for free. But if you do opt to go premium and pay £5.99/month (or £59.99/year), then you will have access to offline viewing and ITV’s Britbox selection, which has significantly more titles as it also sources from the BBC and Channel 4, among others. 

It may be relatively new to the streaming world, but because it gives viewers free and premium options, ITVX already packs a mighty punch.

You can say what you want about reality TV, but it’s hard to beat the fact that no other type of show can satisfy your drama cravings quite like it. Whether you’re watching a cooking competition or a dating series, there’s something addictively thrilling about the outbursts and meltdowns that go down in these shows. 

Hayu is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to all things reality TV. It features up to 300 shows, most of which stream on the same day as the US and all of which you can access on major streaming devices. Here, you'll find all 20 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, as well as multiple iterations of The Real Housewives, Vanderpump Rules, and Top Chef. It’s not bad at £4.99/month, but if you’re still not sure whether it warrants a monthly subscription, you can try their seven-day free trial to test it out.

Flix Premiere is a British on-demand streaming service that brings together the best of independent cinema into one place. It partners with premier film festivals like TIFF, SXSW, Cannes, and Berlinale and selects the best of the bunch—the most beloved and awarded in the circuit—to stream on the platform. 

Perhaps the best thing about it is that, unlike mainstream streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Flix does not use algorithms at all. Everything is proudly hand-curated by a team of film lovers, so you know it comes from a place of passion. Though, like mainstream streamers, Flix does allow offline viewing and is reasonably priced. A subscription costs £5.99/month, but if you're still on the fence about its offerings, you can test the service out for free for 30 days.

Home to various international sporting events, including the Olympic Games in some areas, Eurosport is one of the premier sports networks in the UK. Its coverage is vast and includes the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, as well as snooker, cycling, and motorsports competitions. 

For cord-cutters, Eurosport is available as an add-on to Discovery Plus, Amazon Prime Video, BT Sports, Sky Sports, and Virgin Media. If your streaming device is already linked to either of these platforms, then Eurosport comes as a convenient option for you. Across platforms, the price is a consistent £6.99/month, but yearly costs may vary and reach up to £59.99/year. It's worth checking out if you're a sports fanatic who can't get enough of the games.

Based in Mumbai, DocuBay is an on-demand streaming service that features documentaries from around the world. Like Mubi, it spotlights a different film each day to save you the trouble of endless scrolling. The films span multiple genres, from health and wellness to news and politics, and some of them are actually free to watch. But most titles are locked and available via a subscription. 

The plans start at £3.99/month, but they don't automatically renew so you can test it first within the allotted time to see whether it's for you. If you're not too keen on adding yet another streaming service to your lineup, you can purchase DocuBay as a channel add-on to your existing Amazon Prime membership. 

Docsville is a great resource for global documentaries. Founded in London, it's an on-demand streaming service set up by former BBC executives who wanted to bring together eye-opening stories from around the world. 

What sets Docsville apart is it gives a special emphasis on up-and-coming filmmakers, so in addition to learning from their content, you get to support emerging storytellers as well. 

Docsville is accessible via multiple streaming devices and it costs £3.99/month or £39.99/ year after a seven-day free trial. It's also available as an Amazon Prime add-on for the same price.

DocAlliance Films is a streaming service that works together with film festivals around Europe to bring together remarkable movies in one place. Along with traditional documentaries (its forte), DocAlliance mainly features festival hits, indie darlings, and arthouse films. 

What's interesting about the platform is that you don't need to subscribe to access it. You can rent or download some of its titles for a one-time fee ranging from £1.50 for shorts to £4.00 for full-length features. A limited number of films are also free to watch. 

But if you decide you want to make the most out of DocAlliance's selective and curated lineup, then you can subscribe and pay £6.99/month or £60/year. This gives you access to more than 2,000 films, constant discounts, and download privileges. If you're looking to go beyond mainstream cinema and engage in thoughtful narratives, then DocAlliance is certainly worth considering. 

When it comes to content, Disney is pretty hard to beat. As the media parent of American studios like Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century, and Searchlight Pictures, it’s home to everything from intimate sitcoms to major blockbusters. British TV aficionados will also be glad to know that the best properties from Hulu (that exclusively American streaming service) can also be found here. That’s right, on this side of the pond, titles like The Dropout, Atlanta, and Abbott Elementary belong to the House of Mouse.

For all this, Disney+ charges £7.99/month or £79.90/year. Given this wealth of content, plus the option to watch offline, stream on four screens at once, and set up parental controls, it seems like a worthy service to add to your streaming lineup. 

Discovery Plus is a streaming service that offers a mix of on-demand content and live TV channels. With its reserve of documentaries, educational programs, reality shows, and competitive games, as well as its lineup of channels like TLC, Quest, and Animal Planet, it's the go-to streaming service for non-fiction aficionados. 

Discovery Plus has a free tier that gives users access to some of its channels (namely Quest, Quest Red, Really, HGTV, Food Network, and DMAX), but if you're after the true-blue Discovery Plus experience, then you might want to look at its Entertainment pass, which costs £3.99/month, and its Entertainment & Sports Pass, which costs £ 6.99/month. Apart from having more channels on your lineup (including Eurosport 1 and 2 on the Sports Pass) you also get access to Discovery Plus originals with these paid subscriptions. 

There's no shortage of queer-centric streaming services out there, but Dekkoo stands out by centering exclusively on gay men. Boasting the largest collection of gay content online, Dekkoo is a subscription-based streaming service that carries hundreds of queer films, TV shows, and documentaries, a number of which happen to be Dekkoo originals. Most of these titles are American, but there are some sourced from different parts of the world. Along with its international collection, Dekkoo has other curated lists that span all sorts of genres and formats. 

Dekkoo is available on most streaming devices, and plans start at £7.28/month or £61.09/year.f

True to its name, CuriosityStream is an on-demand streaming service made for curious viewers with a thirst for knowledge. It has thousands of documentaries about science, nature, history, and the arts, many of which are originals on the platform. 

If you already have an Amazon Prime Video subscription, CuriosityStream is available as an add-on channel for £2.79/month. You can also subscribe to it as a standalone, although do note that it charges USD on your card. A standalone subscription costs $2.99 (more or less £2.50) a month for HD streaming or $9.99 (more or less £8.30) a month for 4k viewing. CuriosityStream accepts Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express debit and credit cards. 

Ever since it merged with its closest competitor, Funimation, Crunchyroll has been the ultimate streaming service for anime fans. It has over a thousand shows, many episodes of which are available to stream just an hour after they’re released in Japan, as well as a manga collection and an apparel store you can browse through. Oh, and bonus, all of its subscription plans offer HD viewing.

Crunchyroll has two main tiers, both of which offer a 14-day trial: £4.99/month and £5.99/month. The main difference between the two is that the latter plan allows you to stream on four devices, not just one, and gives you access to offline viewing. If you're a "mega-fan," as the streamer puts it, you can also choose to pay £59.99/year, which essentially shaves 16% off the monthly £5.99 payment.

Previously known as All 4, Channel 4 is the official streaming service of the TV channel it names. Here you'll find everything the channel offers, including local gems that have skyrocketed to international fame like Derry Girls and Skins as well as Hollywood hits like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 10 Cloverfield Lane. 

You can watch all these either for free (with ads) or for a fee (without ads). The premium, ad-free subscription starts at £3.99, but if you're not so sure yet about subscribing, you can test the platform with a 14-day free trial. Channel 4 is also available on most devices, including PC, TVs, and smartphones. 

Backed by ITV and the BBC, BritBox is an on-demand streaming service made for and by British (and British-loving) folk. True to its name, it’s a specialized service that prides itself on its local content from channels all around the country. However, if you’re looking for the most popular or recent titles, this might not be your best bet (for that, you’ll want to look at the BBC iPlayer). 

BritBox’s claim to fame, aside from housing all-British titles, is its deep-seated archives of shows and movies past. Here you’ll find Doctor Who episodes dating back to the 1960s and niche movies from an even earlier time period. It also has original titles up its sleeve, so at £5.99, it’s not a bad option if you’re looking for a homegrown service with a handful of classics to its name. 

Home to an eclectic mix of local indies and international gems, BFI Player is one of the best movie streaming services out there. Its highly-curated film lists, which range from current to classic, are comparable to those of Criterion and Mubi. They're bound to tickle any cinephile’s fancy, so spending time scrolling through titles won’t feel as much of a drag as it would on other platforms.  

A number of films can be accessed for free on the service—you wouldn’t even need to register—but most of them are reserved for paid subscribers only. The subscription plans come at a surprisingly fair £4.99/month or £49/year, but if you’re on the fence about another making another subscription, you can try the service for free for 2 weeks. Some of the newer and more highly acclaimed movies—especially those still screening in physical theaters—will only be available to rent, which usually starts at £2.50. 

As a new and homegrown service, BFI Player is impressively competitive and worth checking out if you’re tired of the usual titles on bigger platforms.

Apple TV+ has one simple philosophy: quality over quantity. It may not have nearly as much as its competitors, but it makes sure that every title it has is worth seeing. Ted Lasso, Severance, Pachinko, Little America, Slow Horses…the list of must-watch shows here goes on and on, and it’s not stopping anytime soon. 

The streaming service costs £6.99 a month, and it’s compatible to watch on any phone, tablet, smart TV, or streaming device available (and not just Apple-branded ones, mind you). Just make sure you have the app downloaded, and you’re good to go. 

Thanks to its ubiquity and near-unlimited budget, Amazon Prime Video has the biggest media library in the streaming world, making it an alluring option for cord-cutters. It has everything from b-movies to blockbusters, not to mention an in-house catalog that boasts, among others, award-winning shows like The Boys, Fleabag, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. 

It’s convenient to access, too, since you can subscribe to it as a standalone service for £5.99/month, or pay £8.99/month for the entire Amazon Prime package, which includes access to Amazon music and books, as well as their one-day delivery feature. 

The only drawback might have to be its interface, which isn’t as sleek as, say, Netflix or Disney+, although its 4k viewing and download options more than make up for that. Overall, Amazon Prime Video is a neat service that’s well-worth subscribing to especially if you’re a fan of having plenty of things to choose from.

Acorn TV is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to showcasing programs from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other parts of the Commonwealth. It has a good mix of original series like Agatha Raisin and Loch Ness as well as licensed series from channels ITV, Channel 4, and BBC Studios. 

Originally created for expats and British TV fans living in America, Acorn TV was made available in the UK in 2020, where it's since been known to release murder mysteries, endearing sitcoms, and pleasant period dramas, among other formats. You can watch Acorn TV for free for 14 days, after which you'll have to pay £4.99/month or £24.99/year. It's available on most streaming devices, including smart TVs, and most titles can be downloaded and viewed offline.