These Streaming Services Still Let You Share Passwords
Netflix has a subscriber problem to say the least. The entire damn internet is buzzing about the company’s plans to kill password sharing, and while it’s unclear how far they’ll actually go to enforce it, its newfound official policy is that if you want to stream Netflix, you need to pay for it yourself, or live with it. who pays. This attitude leaves many users with a sour anti-capitalist taste in their mouths, with some threatening to cancel the transition. Luckily, there are plenty of streaming services out there that aren’t too harsh on sharing passwords and will happily take your Netflix money. This doesn’t mean that these streaming services want you to share your password, and it’s actually in their best interest that you don’t. However, they are still on the list because they won’t prevent you from logging into someone else’s account from your home, and that’s functionally important, right?
HBO Max
While HBO Max may be making headlines lately due to its many sudden cancellations, the service remains a bastion for those of us who want to share accounts. A subscriber can live in Ohio, you are in New York, and another user is in Alaska, and the app will continue to work like clockwork. HBO Max doesn’t confirm how many streams you can have at the same time on their help page , but Decider says there can be up to three .
How much it costs: HBO Max has ad-supported plans for $9.99/month or $99.99/year and ad-free plans for $15.99/month or $149.99/year.
Hulu
Hulu works great when streaming from multiple locations, but its sequential streaming policy is pretty limited: the service only allows two streams at a time, so the more people who have access to an account, the more likely it is that someone won’t be able to watch ” Maid.” Story on demand.
There’s one caveat: Hulu+ Live TV is a lot like Netflix’s new rules . You will need to check “Home Network” every 30 days to avoid any issues with this more cabled service level.
How much it costs: Hulu starts at $7.99 a month with ads, or $14.99 for Hulu (no ads). There are also plenty of packages if you’re interested in pairing with services like Disney+ or EPSN+.
Disney+
Back in 2019, during the launch of Disney+ , Michael Poll, President of Disney Streaming Services, was interviewed by The Verge in which he talked about the streamers’ approach to sharing passwords. “We have created some internal technology that we will use to understand behavior… and when we see behavior that doesn’t make sense, we have mechanisms that we use to deal with it.”
Three years later, that backend technology seems to be pretty far behind because it’s pretty easy to stream Disney+ from multiple locations. According to Business Insider , Disney+ allows you to stream up to four devices at the same time, which is pretty darn generous considering it’s also one of the cheapest services. It also supports seven user profiles, so you can have multiple separate accounts without worrying about browsing history crossovers.
How much it costs: Disney+ starts at $7.99 for an ad-supported tier (although you can currently sign up for $6.99 for three months), $10.99 for an ad-free tier, or $12.99 USD for a Hulu and ESPN+ package.
Amazon Prime Video
According to Amazon, in order to share access to Prime Video with others, you’ll need to add them to your “Amazon Home Family,” which has other Prime benefits in addition to streaming, but to do so, you’ll need to link your accounts and combine your billing information. , and only two adults (and up to four teenagers and four children) can receive family allowance. However, the direct exchange of passwords is perfectly possible, provided that the person who has the password is willing to give others full access to their Amazon account, including their order history and access to their payments. (They’ll probably also have to send requests for two-factor authentication login codes if someone logs out.) But if you have someone’s password and manage to log in, it certainly works. Amazon Household lets you sign in without mixing your Amazon history with other members, but Prime Video also has a profile system so you can share a password without messing with anyone’s browsing history.
The only limitation is the number of streams: Amazon allows three simultaneous streams in one Amazon account and two simultaneous streams of the same content. So if I want to see Mad Men , someone else wants to see The Marvelous Mrs Maisel , and someone else wants to see The Boys , that’s fine. But only two of us can watch Fleabag at the same time.
How much it costs: Prime Video is free with an Amazon Prime account, which costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year. Prime has a 30 day free trial.
peacock
Peacock recently dropped the free tier for new users, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reset a paid user’s password if you need to fix The Office or want to know what Poker Face is. Peacock allows three people to watch at the same time , so there is some flexibility here too.
How much it costs: Peacock starts at $4.99 per month for Premium ($49.99 per year) or $9.99 per month for Premium Plus ($99.99 per year), but they also often offer discounts – at You can currently prepay for a year for $29.99 .
Paramount+
Paramount+ brings together shows from CBS, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTA, and the Smithsonian Channel and offers a range of original series, at least some of which have nothing to do with Star Trek or Taylor Sheridan . It also doesn’t mind if you give your password to other people. You can stream up to three devices at the same time , so go ahead.
How much it costs: Plans start at $4.99/month (Basic) or $9.99/month (Premium) with a one-week free trial. You can also link Paramount+ to SHOWTIME. Speaking of which…
SHOWTIME (coming soon Paramount+ with Showtime)
Later in 2023, SHOWTIME will be merged with Paramount+ and will be known as Paramount+ With Showtime. However, for now, it’s still SHOWTIME, and it’s still $10.99 a month if you want to subscribe to it and only it. In terms of sharing logins, SHOWTIME is a little different : you can register up to five devices at the same time and broadcast on three consecutively. To my knowledge, this is the only service on this list with a registry restriction.
drop out
Dropout is an independent streaming service developed by the creators of CollegeHumor. They produce fun original films like Dimension 20 , Game Changer and Um, in fact , and host over 1,500 CollegeHumor shorts from the past. They also made this list because of the perfect response to Netflix’s new password sharing rules: