In the battle of the best streaming services, Prime Video comes second only to Netflix in market share: it's one of the most comprehensive streaming services around. But how does it compare to other rival paid-for rivals?
Paramount Plus isn't quite so popular, but it has more than its fair share of great shows from genres including animation, sci-fi and comedy. So which service deserves your cash the most? Let's find out.
Prime Video vs Paramount Plus: Price and plans
In the US and Australia, Paramount Plus' price is very slightly cheaper than Prime Video's.
In the US, there are two Paramount Plus plans: Paramount Plus Essential, which is $7.99 per month, and Paramount Plus with Showtime, which is $12.99 per month after the service hiked up prices in June 2024. Paramount Plus Essential is ad-supported.
In Australia, there are four plans: the AU$6.99 Essential plan, which is ad-supported; the AU$9.99 Standard plan, which removes the ads; the AU$13.99 Premium plan, which upgrades the quality to 4K rather than HD; and the AU$12.99 Paramount Plus with Showtime.
In the UK, there's just one Paramount Plus plan for £6.99 per month. But no matter where you're based, it's worth checking if there are Paramount Plus coupon codes available as the service is known to offer more discounts than rivals.
On the other hand, Prime Video is $8.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 per month or free with a $14.99 / £8.99 ($7.49/£4.49 for students) Amazon Prime subscription. That's for the ad-supported version.
Meanwhile, starting from January 2024, subscribers were made to pay extra for ad-free viewing. This costs $11.98 / £8.98 / $12.98 per month for Prime Video or $17.98 / £11.98 per month if you're upgrading a full Amazon Prime membership.
Prime Video vs Paramount Plus: What can you watch?
Check out our guides to the best Paramount Plus shows and best Paramount Plus movies to see what content is on offer.
Paramount is one of the best-known names in Hollywood, and its online service has access to tons of classic TV series – mostly from its parent, CBS, with brands such as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. as well as the Smithsonian Channel.
The selection is particularly good for classic TV such as the original Star Trek, Cheers and Frasier, and while the movie selection is much smaller than Prime Video's there are still plenty of classic movies and kids' movies. Paramount also streams some much more recent hits such as one of our current favorite shows, Yellowjackets, and the critically acclaimed comedy Colin From Accounts.
With the Paramount Plus Showtime plan, you also get access to your local TV station and to sports including NFL. Paramount says it has more than 40,000 episodes of on-demand TV.
Check out our guides to the best Prime Video shows, the best Prime Video movies and the best new Prime Video movies.
In addition to its huge catalog of TV shows and movies, a catalog that's been enhanced by Amazon's 2022 purchase of MGM Studios, Prime Video also has live sports streaming including Major League Baseball and Thursday Night Football.
It also offers Prime Video Originals including gross but funny superhero series The Boys and its spin-off Gen V, vigilante drama Reacher, animated series Invincible, hilarious Australian crime drama Deadloch and the hack-and-slash epic Vikings. Arguably Prime Video's biggest show right now is The Rings of Power, Amazon's eye-popping prequel to The Lord of The Rings is its most popular show to date.
Both streamers are constantly adding new content, typically with a big collection at the beginning of the month and then more titles as the month progresses. But Prime Video adds considerably more content each month.
How often do Prime Video and Paramount Plus refresh content?
Paramount Plus
- 100 movies and 9 TV shows in August (including Showtime catalog additions)
- 178 movies and 17 TV shows in September
- 172 movies and 30 TV shows in October
Prime Video vs Paramount Plus: Features
Both services are widely available for mobile devices, games consoles, TV sticks and many smart TVs too.
The Paramount Plus Essential plan is ad-supported and doesn't include downloads, live sports, your local live CBS station or Showtime originals and movies. For those features you'll need Paramount Plus with Showtime.
The big reason to upgrade Paramount Plus is video quality, which is HD only for the Essential plan. The Showtime plan gives you 4K, Dolby Vision and HDR10 where programs or movies support it, along with Dolby Atmos audio.
Prime Video delivers up to 4K but Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are exclusive to the ad-free plan. It allows three simultaneous streams on the same Amazon account and downloads to two different devices. There are quality differences depending on which device you use: for example the iOS app only supports HD video while the Android app and the Fire TV/Fire TV Stick app is 4K.
Prime Video vs Paramount Plus: Design
While both streamers follow the same basic template and look much the same as any other streamer, we find Prime Video more confusing because it's also packed with content that isn't from Prime Video: not just Amazon's free ad-supported Amazon Freevee channel, but also paid rentals and purchases from Amazon's digital wing and additional subscription channels such as Max and Paramount Plus.
That makes for a cornucopia of content but it's also quite annoying, because Prime rentals and purchases also have the Prime logo in their thumbnails; it's easy to miss the little yellow shopping bag icon that denotes a paid-for product.
Prime Video vs Paramount Plus: Verdict
The ad-free services from the two streamers cost much the same in the US: $12.99 for Paramount Plus with Showtime and $11.98 for ad-free Prime Video if you don't also take out an Amazon Prime membership.
We think Prime Video is the better service when it comes to movies, while Paramount Plus is better for classic TV. It's particularly good for crime dramas, sci-fi and kids' content but its content tends to be more static than Prime Video, which adds dozens of new titles every month.
If you want to watch Star Trek, the Mission Impossible movies or 14 seasons of Spongebob Squarepants, then Paramount Plus is the streamer for you; if you're more interested in The Boys or Reacher, music documentaries and recent blockbusters, Prime Video is the service to subscribe to.
Ready to switch streaming services? Here's how to sign up to Netflix, or if you've decided you'd rather wait till Stranger Things returns next year, then here's how to cancel Netflix. Alternatively, if you'd like to try it out before signing up, here's how to get a Hulu free trial.
