Every live TV streaming service has its strengths and weaknesses and each household will favor some over others. However, there are plenty of ways to draw direct comparisons between different services, and these comparisons can help to decide which one is the best for you.
In general, the most popular options for streaming live TV over the internet include, in alphabetical order, DirecTV Stream, Frndly TV, Fubo, Hulu Live TV, Philo, Sling TV and YouTube TV.
After reviewing each of these services, and on more than one occasion, here’s how we currently rank them.
Best Live TV services, ranked
1. YouTube TV
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2. Hulu Live TV
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3. Philo
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4. Fubo
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5. Frndly TV
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6. Sling TV
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7. DirecTV Stream
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It is important to keep in mind that Streaming Better‘s rankings are based on our experience. As various aspects, including the experience, can be very subjective, some households may find our lowest-ranked service is a better option for them than our highest-ranked service.
What is less subjective is the price, channel lineups, recording limitations, and simultaneous streams. All of which can greatly impact the overall experience.
Best Live TV services — Based On price
The cost of a live TV subscription is evidently going to be one of the main selling points and hurdles. If price matters, Frndly TV and Philo are two of the best live TV services overall. Both are designed to be affordable, and while that does mean they compromise in certain respects, including the channel lineups, it’s hard to argue with the value they offer.
| Service | Price p/m | Free trial |
|---|---|---|
| DirecTV Stream | $79.99+ | 5 days |
| Fubo | $79.99+ | 7 days |
| Hulu Live TV | $76.99 | 3 days |
| YouTube TV | $72.99 | 7 days |
| Philo | $28 | 7 days |
| Sling TV | $40+ | X |
| Frndly TV | $8+ | 7 days |
Overall, Frndly TV is one of the cheapest options around. However, its channel lineup is considerably lighter than what’s available with other services, and this is likely to be the deciding factor in whether Frndly TV is the right service for you.
$8-$12/mo
- 50+ channels
- 1-4 streams
- Limited DVR
Deal: Save more with an annual plan.
There are also plenty of streaming services that provide access to some live TV content. For example, the Paramount+ with Showtime plan unlocks access to local CBS stations, while the Peacock Premium Plus plan unlocks access to a subscriber’s local NBC station.
While it is also possible to stream some live TV for free through services like Pluto TV and Tubi, the live experience offered by these services won’t be a direct replacement for a traditional live TV plan. Instead, these live TV experiences are primarily made up of show or genre-based channels that constantly repeat older episodes.
Pluto TV Vs Tubi
What’s The Difference & Which Is Best?
Best Live TV services — Based On channels
When removing price from the equation, there are some great channel lineups to choose from. Arguably, DirecTV Stream is one of the very best options overall. With DirecTV Stream largely a streaming version of DirecTV, it is possible to choose from a variety of packages, with the most expensive unlocking access to more than 185 channels.
$35-170/mo
- 25-185 channels
- Unlimited streams
- Unlimited DVR
Deal: Save up to $30
Fubo is another good choice. Similar to DirecTV Stream, Fubo also offers more than one plan for consumers to choose from, with the selection of channels increasing to over 260. Fubo also offers plenty of add-ons that can help to further increase the number of channels a subscriber has access to.
$85-95/mo
- 215-299 channels
- 10 streams
- Unlimited DVR
Deal: Save up to $20.
Speaking of add-ons, an honorable mention goes to Sling TV. Even though Sling TV is designed to be an affordable live TV service, it does offer plenty of customization options, making it possible to greatly increase the number of channels a subscriber has access to, albeit at a much higher monthly price.
$46-61/mo
- 35+ channels
- 1-3 streams
- 50-Hour DVR
Deal: First month starting at $23.
Best Live TV services — Based On DVR
One of the areas that has changed a lot during the streaming era is the DVR. While YouTube TV is a service that always understood the importance of recordings, most other live TV services have now caught up, and offer a very similar DVR experience.
| Service | Unlimited | Keep | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DirecTV Stream | ✔ | Up to 9 months | 30 eps (per show) |
| Frndly TV | ✔ | Up to 9 months | X |
| Fubo | ✔ | Up to 9 months | X |
| Hulu Live TV | ✔ | Up to 9 months | X |
| Philo | ✔ | Up to 12 months | X |
| Sling TV | 50 hours | Indefinite | Not all channels |
| YouTube TV | ✔ | 9 months | X |
In spite of offering a similar experience, we still consider YouTube TV’s DVR to be the best overall. Not only is it unlimited, but each subaccount (family member) gets access to their own unlimited DVR, making it a much better option for busier households where multiple people are likely to be sharing the same subscription.
$83/mo
- 100+ channels
- 3 streams
- Unlimited DVR
Deal: $60/mo for first 2 months
Although most services now offer an unlimited DVR, most do still limit how long recordings can be kept for, typically nine months. For those that do want the ability to just record and keep those recordings for as long as they want, Sling TV is the only service that currently allows recordings to be kept indefinitely.
Best Live TV services — Based On multiple Streams
Similar to the DVR, simultaneous streams (the ability to stream on multiple devices at the same time) is something many live TV services were slow to embrace. While that has changed over the years, allowances can still vary wildly between services.
DirecTV Stream offers the most, with its ‘unlimited’ supporting up to 20 devices at home. Fubo is another a good option, with support for up to 10 devices at the same time. In contrast, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV all offer considerable fewer simultaneous streams.
Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV do offer the option to upgrade to unlimited, but at an additional monthly cost.
| Service | Streams | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|
| DirecTV Stream | 20 (at home) | X |
| Fubo | 10 (at home) | X |
| Hulu Live TV | 2 | ✔ |
| Philo | 3 | X |
| Sling TV | 1 Orange, 3 Blue | X |
| YouTube TV | 3 | ✔ |
In spite of these services having improved their simultaneous streams policies, none have perfected their support and still apply limitations that can impact the experience. The most important one to be aware of is that the number of simultaneous streams is greatly reduced when watching outside the home area/network.
Best Live TV services —Summary
While we’ve ranked what we consider to be the best live TV services, according to our experience and by the factors we consider important, there are a lot of caveats that should be taken into consideration before signing up to any of these services.
Value is one we haven’t touched on much here and yet it is a very important one. For example, Hulu Live TV not only provides access to many of the same live TV channels as the other services, but the base package also includes access to basic Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ at no additional cost.
For any homes that already subscribe to these services, and especially all three, Hulu Live TV is likely to be the best live TV service overall.
$83/mo
- 95+ channels
- Basic Hulu
- Disney+
- ESPN+
The takeaway here is that while it is easy to compare these services on single factors like the price, DVR, channels and simultaneous streams, no one live TV service wins in all categories. In general, the best live TV streaming service is going to be the one that checks the most boxes for your needs and comes with the fewest limitations.
For us, YouTube TV is the best live TV service overall, as it checks the most boxes that we consider important. However, it is not a perfect live TV service, and while it should suit many households, there are likely to be just as many that will prefer the value offered by Hulu Live TV, the variety of plans offered by Fubo or DirecTV Stream, or the low cost of Frndly TV and Philo.
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