Frndly TV and Philo both offer access to cheap live TV packages, making either a good option for homes looking to save on the cost of live TV. Both services also come with their own limitations, and these differences can help in deciding which of these cheap live TV services is best for you.
Frndly TV first launched in 2019. At the time, the channel lineup was a little limited, but it has slowly grown over time. At the last count, Frndly TV was understood to be delivering live TV to more than 700,000 homes.
Philo has been around for a few years now and its first live TV streaming service officially launched in 2017. Similar to Frndly TV, Philo’s channel lineup was a little limited to begin with, but has steadily improved over the years. At last count, Philo had more than 800,000 subscribers.
Frndly TV is cheaper than Philo
With plans starting at just $7.99 per month, Frndly TV is purpose-designed to be a highly affordable live TV service. Frndly TV also offers more than one live TV plan to choose from, making it possible for homes to choose the one that best suits their needs. While Philo is also designed to be an affordable solution for streaming live TV over the internet, Frndly TV is the cheaper option overall.
Philo only offers one main base plan to choose from and it is priced at $28 per month. Considering Frndly TV’s cheapest package costs $7.99 a month, it is a considerably cheaper option. Even though Frndly TV also offers more expensive plans, they are also much cheaper than Philo’s base package.
Frndly TV’s Classic plan costs $9.99 per month and not only adds an unlimited DVR, but also increases the video quality (to HD) and increases the number of devices that can stream at the same time. The Premium plan further increases the number of simultaneous streams (beyond Philo’s limit) and increases how long recordings can be kept for.
| Frndly TV | Philo | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost p/m | $7.99 (Basic) $9.99 (Classic) $11.99 (Premium) | $28 |
| DVR | None (Basic) Unlimited (Classic) Unlimited (Premium) | Unlimited |
| Streams | 1 (Basic) 3 (Classic) 4 (Premium) | 3 |
With the Premium plan priced at $11.99 a month, Frndly TV’s most expensive package is still less than half the cost of Philo’s base plan. Overall, this makes Frndly TV the better choice for any homes looking to save as much as possible on live TV.
For reference, Frndly TV also offers an annual plan (unlike Philo), which can help to reduce the cost of a live TV plan even more over a 12-month period.
Philo offers more channels (and a better selection)
One of the areas that directly affects how much a service costs is the selection of channels, and with Frndly TV so much more cheaper, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that its channel lineup doesn’t compare to Philo’s.
In total, Frndly TV offers access to more than 50 live TV channels. One of the good things about Frndly TV is that there are no channel differences between its packages. Whether you subscribe to the cheapest or most expensive plan, you still get access to the same channel lineup.
In contrast, Philo offers access to more than 70 live TV channels. In addition to these 70+ paid channels, Philo subscribers also get access to another 70+ FAST channels. As Philo only offers one base plan, there are no other packages or channel lineups to worry about.
Not only does Philo offer more channels overall, but it also offers a better selection as well. More specifically, it offers mostly every channel that Frndly TV does and more.
Frndly TV and Philo channel comparison
| Channel | Frndly TV | Philo |
|---|---|---|
| A&E | ✔ | ✔ |
| AccuWeather Network | ✔ | |
| AMC | ✔ | |
| American Heroes Channel | ✔ | |
| Animal Planet | ✔ | |
| aspireTV | ✔ | |
| AXS TV | ✔ | |
| BabyFirst | ✔ | |
| BBC America | ✔ | |
| BBC World News | ✔ | |
| BET | ✔ | |
| BET Her | ✔ | |
| The Bob Ross Channel | ✔ | |
| BYUtv | ✔ | |
| Catchy Comedy | ✔ | ✔ |
| Cheddar News | ✔ | |
| Chicken Soup for the Soul. | ✔ | |
| Circle | ✔ | |
| CLEO TV | ✔ | |
| CMT | ✔ | |
| Comedy Central | ✔ | |
| Comedy Dynamics | ✔ | |
| Cooking Channel | ✔ | |
| Cowboy Way | ✔ | ✔ |
| Crackle | ✔ | |
| Crime + Investigation | ✔ | ✔ |
| CuriosityStream | ✔ | |
| Deck the Hallmark | ✔ | |
| Destination America | ✔ | |
| Discovery Channel | ✔ | |
| Discovery Family | ✔ | |
| Discovery Life | ✔ | |
| Dove Channel | ✔ | |
| Dove Family Movies | ✔ | |
| Drag Race Universe | ✔ | |
| Dove Kids | ✔ | |
| FailArmy | ✔ | |
| FETV | ✔ | ✔ |
| FMC | ✔ | |
| Food Network | ✔ | |
| FYI | ✔ | ✔ |
| Game Show Network | ✔ | ✔ |
| getTV | ✔ | ✔ |
| Great American Family | ✔ | ✔ |
| Great American Living | ✔ | ✔ |
| Grit | ✔ | |
| Gusto TV | ✔ | |
| Hallmark Channel | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hallmark Drama | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hallmark Movies & Mysteries | ✔ | ✔ |
| Heartland TV | ✔ | |
| Heroes & Icons | ✔ | ✔ |
| HGTV | ✔ | |
| History | ✔ | ✔ |
| IFC | ✔ | |
| INFAST | ✔ | |
| INTROUBLE | ✔ | |
| INWONDER | ✔ | |
| INSP | ✔ | ✔ |
| Investigation Discovery | ✔ | |
| ION | ✔ | |
| ION Mystery | ✔ | |
| Kin | ✔ | |
| Law&Crime | ✔ | |
| Lifetime | ✔ | ✔ |
| LMN | ✔ | ✔ |
| Local Now | ✔ | |
| Logo | ✔ | |
| Magnolia Network | ✔ | |
| MeTV | ✔ | ✔ |
| Military HISTORY | ✔ | |
| Motor Trend | ✔ | |
| Movies! | ✔ | |
| MTV | ✔ | |
| MTV Classic | ✔ | |
| MTV Live | ✔ | |
| MTV2 | ✔ | |
| Nick Jr. | ✔ | |
| Nickelodeon | ✔ | |
| Nicktoons | ✔ | |
| Oprah Winfrey Network | ✔ | |
| Outdoor Channel | ✔ | ✔ |
| Paramount Network | ✔ | |
| People Are Awesome | ✔ | |
| The Pet Collective | ✔ | |
| Pixl | ✔ | |
| PlayersTV | ✔ | |
| pocket.watch | ✔ | |
| Pop TV | ✔ | |
| QVC | ✔ | |
| Recipe.TV | ✔ | |
| RetroCrush | ✔ | |
| REVOLT | ✔ | |
| Revry | ✔ | |
| Ryan and Friends | ✔ | |
| Science Channel | ✔ | |
| Screambox TV | ✔ | |
| Smithsonian Channel | ✔ | |
| Sportsman Channel | ✔ | |
| Start TV | ✔ | ✔ |
| StoryTV | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sundance TV | ✔ | |
| Tastemade | ✔ | |
| TeenNick | ✔ | |
| TLC | ✔ | |
| Travel Channel | ✔ | |
| TV Land | ✔ | |
| TV One | ✔ | |
| UPtv | ✔ | ✔ |
| USA TODAY | ✔ | |
| Vevo ’80s | ✔ | |
| Vevo ’90s | ✔ | |
| Vevo Country | ✔ | |
| Vevo Hip-Hop | ✔ | |
| Vevo Pop | ||
| VH1 | ✔ | |
| Vice | ✔ | ✔ |
| WE tv | ✔ | |
| The Weather Channel | ✔ | |
| World Fishing Network | ✔ |
Some of the popular channels you get with Philo that you don’t get with Frndly TV include AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Destination America, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, ID, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TLC, Travel Channel, and VH1.
Even though Frndly TV offers access to fewer channels overall, a subscription does include some channels you won’t find on Philo. For example, Dove Channel, Grit, ION, Local Now, Military History, Outdoor Channel, QVC, and The Weather Channel.
When it comes to add-ons, this is another win for Philo. While Frndly TV subscribers can only add Hallmark Movies Now to their live TV plan, Philo subscribers can add MGM+, Starz, and Movies & More. The latter of which unlocks access to HDNet Movies, REELZ, Sony Movies, and FMC.
One area where both of these services suffer is live news. If you are looking for access to live news channels, then you may want to consider also subscribing to Level News at the same time as Frndly TV or Philo.
The same is also true of live sports. If you want access to live sports content and channels, neither of these live TV services are going to be the right choice for you.
Both Frndly TV and Philo offer good value overall
Regardless whether you sign up to Frndly TV or Philo, you do get a lot of value for your money, as both offer somewhat of a premium experience in spite of their cheaper prices.
Both Frndly TV and Philo provide subscribers with an unlimited cloud DVR. Technically, Frndly TV only provides a DVR with its Classic and Premium plans, so those subscribed to the cheapest package won’t have access to any recording options.
In addition, Frndly TV is more limited in terms of how long recordings can be stored for. Classic subscribers can keep recordings for up to three months and Premium subscribers can keep recordings for up to nine months. In contrast, Philo subscribers get to keep their recordings for up to a year.
Differences aside, both DVRs are unlimited so subscribers do have the option of recording as much content as they want. In our testing, we also found both recording experiences to be easy to use and manage.
Even though Philo has the upper hand in the DVR department, Frndly TV does offer a Look Back feature that Philo doesn’t.
With Look Back, subscribers are able to go back through the guide and watch programs that have already been shown live. Look Back can be used to watch anything that was shown up to 72 hours before.
As there are very few limitations with Look Back, we found this to be a very useful feature overall, and a great way to avoid being so reliant on the DVR.
Is Frndly TV or Philo the best budget live TV service?
If picking between these services, we prefer Philo. The wider selection of channels, better DVR, and more premium app experience suited our needs better. However, Philo is significantly more expensive and that’s something that cannot be overlooked.
If you are looking for the absolute cheapest live TV package, and the channel lineup meets your needs, we would happily recommend Frndly TV.
If Frndly TV’s channel lineup is a little too limited, and you don’t want to spend as much as Sling TV charges, then we would suggest giving Philo a try.
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