This post is by our regular contributor, Erin.
There are so many subscription services out there these days, it can be hard to choose who to give your money to!
From popular cable alternatives to beauty boxes and more, it seems like more and more businesses are changing to subscription based models.
Thankfully, many of these subscriptions offer cost-effective alternatives, which is great, but the number of subscriptions you’re signed up for may start to balloon.
It’s important to be mindful of how many subscriptions you’re signed up for, as you want to get the most use out of them as possible.
If you’re looking for some of the best subscriptions that are worth the money, we’ve rounded up several of the most popular in this guide.
Alternatives to a Cable Subscription
The most popular streaming subscription services are Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime. All are less than $10 per month and give you access to great shows and movies.
Netflix has three tiers of service (all without ads):
- Pay $7.99 for one screen at standard definition
- Pay $8.99 for two screens with HD access
- Pay $11.99 for four screens with HD and Ultra HD access
If you’re a fan of browsing slightly older content, movies, documentaries, and independent shows, Netflix may be your best bet. It’s pretty much everyone’s go-to for binge watching a series.
Hulu Plus is more known for being up-to-date on the latest shows and seasons. Many episodes release 24 hours after they air live. Its service is $7.99 per month and shows display in HD when available. The biggest downside to Hulu Plus is it still shows ads. However, a new plan (at $11.99 per month) is going to be released that takes ads out of the equation (for most shows).
Amazon Prime Instant Video comes ad-free, but it doesn’t offer a great current selection. It has a decent amount of movies, but not anything Netflix won’t have. Unfortunately, there’s no pay per month option – you must fork over $99 annually for Amazon Prime, but of course, you get a lot more than just streaming videos!
How can you stream these services? All of the above are compatible with Roku, and most work with tablets, PCs, and gaming consoles.
Which to go with? If you’re cutting cable completely and can’t decide, going with Hulu Plus and Netflix won’t break the bank. If you’re focusing on one, get Netflix if you prefer movies or binge watching old shows, get Hulu Plus if you want to watch new episodes of popular shows quickly, and get Amazon Prime if you want the awesome benefits of two-day shipping with bonus streaming.
Shaving Subscriptions
Did you know there are subscription based services for shaving? There are, and they’re a lot cheaper than getting razors in the store.
I only have experience with Dollar Shave Club (their cheapest razor is $1). You can choose from a dual blade and get 5 cartridges per month for $3 (includes shipping), a 4 blade razor with 4 cartridges at $6 per month, or a 6 blade razor with 4 cartridges at $9 per month.
I’ve used “The 4x” and it works perfectly fine (it’s not just for men!). If you don’t need to replace the blades that often, they offer an option to receive new cartridges every other month, which is convenient. You’ll sometimes get free samples of their products, too.
Harry’s takes into account how often you shave and will send you deliveries based on your answer. However, you can completely customize your order, changing how many blades are delivered (4 – 16) and on what schedule (1 – 6 months). You also get to pick out your razor handle which comes in 4 colors. Sadly, they don’t offer multiple razors, though it looks like the default is 4 blades. You can also order bundles of its razors and products.
Wet Shave Club actually markets to men and women and advertises shaving products for less than a dollar per day. This is a true subscription box – it comes with a bunch of shaving goodies each month. Depending on the length you sign up for, boxes run from $22 to $29 per month. Shipping is free in the US.
Which to go with? If you’re just looking for blades, take a look at Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s. If you want to sample new shaving products every month, go with Wet Shave Club.
Clothing Subscriptions
There are a number of subscription services out there for clothing, and they mainly try and sell you on the convenience factor since a stylist picks out your outfits and you don’t need to go to the store.
The Ms. Collection is a monthly subscription service that sends clothes to subscribers on the 15th of every month. You have 3 collections to choose from – casual ($39 per month), business ($45 per month), and a combination of both ($85 per month). The unique thing about this service is that you rent the clothes. You can send back the items you received for another pack of clothes the following month, keep renting the clothes you received, or buy the pieces you want (at a 40% discount). You’ll receive 3 to 5 items per pack.
There’s also The Mr. Collection for guys interested in the same service.
Stitch Fix is another service for women where you receive 5 pieces per month. Instead of renting items, you can buy what you like, and send back the rest (you have 3 days to decide). You can choose to receive shipments on a regular basis, but you don’t have to. When items ship, you’ll be charged a $20 styling fee that’s applied as a credit toward whatever you decide to order (it’s not refunded in the event you don’t find anything you like). They’ll tailor clothes to your style as well as your budget! According to the site, the average price point is $55 per item.
A similar service for men is Bombfell. You have 10 days to decide what items you want to keep, and their average price point is $69. There’s no shipping, styling, or return fees. You actually get a preview of what’s in your box 48 hours before it’s shipped, so you can decide if you want to skip the month or not. You can also set your budget for items so you don’t receive something wildly out of your price range.
Which to go with? If you get bored of wearing the same clothes every month, go with The Ms. or Mr. Collection, as you’ll be able to vary up your clothing a bit without paying the high price to overhaul your wardrobe. The cheapest option is $468 per year – that’s a lot less than most people spend on clothing. If new outfits are your guilty pleasure, this will hurt your wallet less.
If, instead, you’d rather actually shop and keep your clothes, go with Stitch Fix or Bombfell. Personal stylists make it so you don’t have to waste time shopping around online or in stores for the best outfits. This is a great option for those that are stylistically challenged or don’t want to put in the effort.
Beauty Boxes
There are so many beauty subscription boxes out there, I can’t even begin to name them all. Some have great value, others not so much. These can be hit or miss every month, but on the bright side, they often contain items that make for great gifts.
Birchbox: At $10 per month, it’s a very affordable option if you want a little treat. You get 5 beauty samples with the box. The best part? It’s for guys, too! You can select “the grooming box” instead of “the beauty box.”
Glossybox: This is a bit of a splurge at $21 per month, but the upside is you get deluxe-sized high-end products from around the globe. It includes beauty, skin, and hair care items.
Ipsy Glam Bag: Another at $10 per month, you get a mix of 5 full-sized beauty, skincare, and hair care products. Plus, the bag it comes in is yours to keep.
Beauty Box 5: This is $12 per month and includes prestige brands as well as drugstore brands. You’ll get full-sized or deluxe-sized products. As the name implies, you’ll receive 5 items per box.
Which to go with? You really can’t go wrong with any of these. If you enjoy high-end brands more, you might want to go with Glossybox to ensure you’re getting top of the line products. Otherwise, they all offer a great selection if you’re looking for new products to add to your beauty routine.
Food Subscriptions
Could you use a little help with your grocery budget? Opting into a subscription based service may save you some money, as you won’t have to make frequent trips to the store, or deviate from your shopping list.
NatureBox is a great alternative if you’re looking to cut out junk food. Let’s face it, most of us know processed food is more expensive, and buying snacks can really add up. Yet, “healthier” snacks can easily be $2 to $3 more than what we’re used to paying. NatureBox is quite affordable – you get 3 or 5 bags (you pick your snacks) for $14 or $20 per delivery (once a week, every other week, or once a month). That comes to around $4 per snack, but that’s probably what you’d be paying for a bag of chips or a package of cookies at full price. They have a selection of over 100 snacks, and you can do a trial run before committing. It’s a good way to commit to healthier snacking without going overboard.
Blue Apron provides you with meals based on the number of people in your household – you can go the couple or family route. The caveat is they only give you the ingredients for three meals, which might not last you an entire week (if you don’t have anything leftover). The service is around $60 per week for 2 ($10 per meal), or $140 for a family of 4 ($9 per meal). That’s not horrible, but don’t forget, that only accounts for dinner! This is only a good option if you’re looking for a convenient way to get yourself to cook from home and have been spending an excessive amount of money on dining out. The downside is you can’t handpick the meals that get delivered to you, but you can customize your dietary preferences.
There are a few other food services like Plated and Hello Fresh, but these are on the pricey side at $12 per meal.
Books
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that going to a library (or checking out ebooks/audiobooks online) is going to be your cheapest option. However, if your library doesn’t have a great selection or doesn’t offer this service, these subscriptions will have you reading in no time.
Audible has an extensive selection of audiobooks and is owned by Amazon. There are four membership options to choose from:
- Gold: $14.95 per month gets you 1 credit; $149.50 per year gets you 12 credits
- Platinum: $22.95 per month gets you 2 credits; $229.50 per year gets you 24 credits
A membership also gets you 30% off audiobooks and exclusive promotions. Be aware some books are more than one credit, but you can buy extra credits. You can sign up using your Amazon login.
There’s also Amazon Kindle Unlimited, which has a much simpler price model at $9.99 per month. You get unlimited reading and listening on any device with over a million titles to choose from (and thousands of audiobooks).
Oyster is similar to Kindle Unlimited, as it’s $9.95 per month and offers access to around a million books. Scribd is $8.99 per month and gives you unlimited access to books, audiobooks, and comics.
Which to go with? I would only recommend Audible if you exclusively listen to audiobooks. Otherwise, all the other services are more affordable and offer unlimited reading.
Music Streaming Services
Subscription services are much cheaper than buying individual songs (at $1 a pop) or albums. Plus, streaming services offer a variety of music, letting you discover new genres. If you’re a huge music-lover, subscriptions could be worth the money.
Spotify: If you pay $10 per month, you don’t have to deal with ads, you get unlimited skips, you can listen offline, select any tracks to play, and get access to high quality audio. Otherwise, you can choose the free plan!
Pandora One: The premium version of Pandora is $5 per month. There are no ads, but it only gives you access to more skips and allows you to listen longer without pauses. You can get premium quality audio while listening on the web as well as custom skins.
Listen to music in your car? Sirius XM is the most popular subscription service, with plans ranging from $11-$20 per month. All channels are commercial free and the cheapest plan offers 80+ channels. The premium plans offer access to sports channels and popular talk shows. SiriusXM also has a streaming service for your PC at $14.99 per month. While it offers a huge selection, it’s probably not worth it compared to Spotify and Pandora, but it does come included with the premium plans.
Other honorable mentions: Slacker, with a free plan, or $3.99 or $9.99 per month. Google Play Music at free or $10 per month. Rhapsody’s “unRadio” for $4.99 per month, or its premium service for $9.99 per month.
Which to go with? There are so many music streaming services available, it’s all about what’s convenient and has the best selection for you. Most of these have free versions in addition to free trials of the premium services, so sample genres from each to see what fits your tastes.
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At the end of the day, a majority of these subscription services offer free trials. Take advantage and see which are worth the money for you. Just remember to set a reminder to cancel before the free trial runs out to avoid being charged!
Which subscription services do you pay for? Share your experiences and thoughts on some of the most popular ones! Are there any you wouldn’t pay for?
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Great breakdown. Personally, I subscribe to Hulu and my brother does Netflix and we swap. It works out nicely. :)
I can’t get on board with most subscriptions. I just hate the idea of automatically handing money over every month for a service I don’t absolutely need. I used to get magazines and had Netflix for a few months but I felt like it was a waste of money for me. The clothing service would be awesome if the pieces were cheaper.
We subscribe to streaming television. Considering how much my kids watch it, the $8 we spend is totally worth it!
Great breakdown Erin! We did an audit of what magazines we were getting ( I think we were getting 4) and cut all but one of them as we just don’t have the time to read them. The other we make time to read and could justify that, but we cut the rest and put it towards another area of our budget we’ll get more use out of.
There is actually quite a bit of current stuff on Amazon Prime, but it’s more TV shows than movies. We do that and Netflix and sometimes Hulu. The nice thing is you can suspend Hulu and Netflix if you aren’t watching them and restart when there is a show you want to see. I’ve never considered any of the other subscription services, but the food ones sound interesting.
We pay for no subscriptions, with the exception of Netflix. I just can’t stomach the expense, but for the Netflix subscription which helps us get through the extraordinarily long winters here. :-)
Last year, I bought my mom a subscription to E-meals (a recipe and meal planning site), that’s pretty awesome for her. I love meal planning, so its not really my thing. I really love Netflix- I’ve managed to get my husband into documentaries.
We have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime instead of cable. Unfortunately we haven’t used the benefits of Amazon Prime aside from the free two-day shipping. After the holidays, we may consider getting rid of it. I’ve never tried Beauty box subscriptions but some of these sound like they would be worth it. Sirius XM radio wasn’t worth it for me and I discontinued if after my trial because I only listed to 2 or 3 channels. For someone who drives a lot and listens to sports and the news it may by worth it since they offer a ton of variety.
I am a HUGE fan of Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Pandora. I use them all regularly and those are fees that I gladly pay. I have a few clients who have Stitchfix and my only issue is that it makes it much easier to spend money on clothes when you have someone sending them to you and they tend to be the perfect solution which makes it difficult to return them.
Financegirl Best of both worlds!
Pretend to Be Poor Honestly, I’m mostly with you – I’m not the biggest fan of subscription services for myself as I just don’t use most of them. I barely have time to watch TV, so I get most of my entertainment from YouTube. =)
holly@clubthrifty.com I can definitely see it being worthwhile to keep the kids entertained!
FrugalRules Awesome! It pays to be mindful of what we’re paying for, especially if it’s on automatic renewal. We tend to “set it and forget it” a bit too much.
Eyesonthedollar Exactly! It’s great that you can cancel Netflix and Hulu Plus at any time so you’re not paying for it when you don’t need it. I was surprised at the amount of subscription services out there when researching for the post. They’re never ending!
Laurie TheFrugalFarmer I hear you, Laurie (and it sounds like Netflix is well worth it for you!). I’m not really the target demographic for most of these, as I just prefer to do things myself and save money in other ways, but I think they can be beneficial for a lot of young adults who are “too busy” and take the more expensive route with some things.
Hannah UnplannedFinance Nice, thanks for mentioning that one! It seems like quite a few people like sites that give them meal plans- less to think about during the week. Documentaries are something I’d like to make more time for, there seem to be some really insightful and interesting ones out there!
Chonce I’ve gone back and forth on Amazon Prime as we don’t order much from there anymore. Thankfully my parents have it and we’re on their plan, but they’re also thinking of getting rid of it.
My ex had a free trial of SiriusXM when he got his car and I just found it to be overwhelming – there are so many choices! I always listen to podcasts in the car. Mostly the same thing, just free!
blonde_finance Clothing is always tricky, especially if you have a penchant for new clothes. It really depends on the type of shopper you are. Thankfully, it’s not a “true” subscription service and you can choose not to receive a shipment if it’s not in the budget, but I know it can still be hard to say no.
I have a love/hate relationship with subscription services. On the one hand, I don’t know what I’d do without Netflix. On the other, I hate having recurring monthly bills. Therefore I try to avoid subscription services if at all possible, and I use free versions of things like Pandora and Spotify. I am thinking of trying Stitch Fix, though I’m not sure I’d use it for regularly delivery.
Ali_AnythingYouWant Sounds like we’re on the same page! I don’t really like adding more monthly bills to the pile, either. Using Stitch Fix irregularly seems to be the best thing to do- or at least, using it only when you need certain clothing.
I have Amazon Prime, which I do love. We use it more for the free 2-day shipping, than streaming movies and shows. However, when we travel, it can be a real life saver and help keep a road trip peaceful! Otherwise we don’t utilize a lot of subscription services. The clothing ones sound interesting, but I’m afraid I’d get busy and forget to send back things I didn’t want or didn’t fit and get stuck with them. :)
Love this in-depth look at different subscription services. We really love our Amazon Prime for various reasons, but don’t really have other subscriptions. I’ve never been interested in beauty boxes but I could really get down with a Nature Box or Blue Apron as a fun treat!
ShannonRyan Setting reminders and being organized is definitely a must with some subscription services! Amazon Prime is pretty nice in that it’s a full-package deal. I’m sure most people use it for the shipping perks; everything else can be seen as a nice bonus!
Christina@EmbracingSimple I’ve been meaning to try NatureBox, especially as the first one is free. They have so many snacks to choose from, and it’d force me to get rid of all the “junk” snacks in the house in favor of these.
I must be doing something right because I don’t have any of those subscriptions. I do have cable and as soon as I can find an alternative that has the sports channels I will be signing up for hulu. I’m also thinking about signing up for pandora because youtube doesn’t have everything.
Jason @ The Butler Journal It is a bummer there’s not an amazing solution for sports yet. I tend to like less mainstream music and I’ve had luck using Spotify!
I’ve heard great things about Stitch Fix. I definitely plan on checking that one out!
I don’t know that I get the clothing subscription thing, but I do love my netflix and hbo go.
The only subscription I have is Netflix. The beauty boxes sound like a fun item to receive in the mail but I can’t imagine paying for something that might not work for me. I’m also absolutely fascinated by the food subscriptions and would definitely have that going on if these were in any way cost effective. So it’s a no go for me!
thatdangvegan If you do, let us know how it goes!
brokeandbeau Ah, I forgot about HBO Go, thanks for mentioning it!
Mrs Crackin the Whip That is the downside of the beauty boxes (plus you might start collecting a lot of samples!). I don’t think the food subscriptions are going to be as attractive to people already mindful with their grocery shopping, but for the more average shopper, they could be useful.
Erin @ Journey to Saving Mrs Crackin the Whip I wouldn’t mind the food boxes, but not while I’m paying down student loans. I wouldn’t mind a little lifestyle inflation down the road ;)