Hulu Review: Ad-Free Streaming & Originals On-Demand, But At What Cost?

As I browse through Hulu’s classic on-demand streaming library, I can access more than 2,500 titles and enjoy picture-in-picture viewing. I particularly value being able to watch certain shows within 24 hours of their live broadcast, a feature that sets this service apart from most other streaming platforms.

The list of Hulu original series and movies is growing, and there’s plenty of choice. Still, Hulu’s on-demand plan for $7.99/month has competition, so in this review, we compare what other streaming services offer in a similar price range. We also explore Hulu’s user interface for on-demand users and see what it’s like to use.

If you want to get rid of advertisements, Hulu offers an ad-free version of its on-demand plan for $17.99/month. (If you want live TV, local channels and streaming sports — you’ll want to looking to the Hulu + Live TV package.)

And for students, Hulu offers a 65% discount. This makes Hulu with ads only $1.99 per month.

Pros and Cons Of Hulu

Hulu On-Demand Overview

Hulu’s classic on-demand plan is available for $7.99/month with commercials, or as an ad-free plan for $17.99/month. There are over 2,500 titles that include TV shows, movies, and documentaries.

As an established streaming service, Hulu has original titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, and other recent popular titles like Little Fires Everywhere. Hulu also uploads most episodes in less than 24-hours after they air on live TV. Not many content libraries do this.

One unique feature of Hulu is that you can buy premium movie network bundles without paying for the Live TV plan — this includes HBO Max, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, and ESPN+. You can also watch content from Hulu’s streaming library picture-in-picture, meaning you can browse and watch at the same time.

The plan also offers plenty of kids’ content and cartoons on-demand.

Hulu’s main competitors by price and value include Netflix, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. We compared the basic plans for each service, though you can access a free trial with all of them and see for yourself.

Is Hulu Ad-Free Worth It For $10 Extra?

Streaming services may have ads, and nobody pays to see them. Hulu’s on-demand library is available ad-free for an additional $10 per month, though some titles may still have ads, depending on Hulu’s contractual rights with the content provider.

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At this moment, Hulu states that Grey’s Anatomy is the only show excluded from the no-ad feature in the on-demand library. You can visit Hulu’s website for up-to-date information.

Whether it’s worth paying extra for ad-free streaming depends on what other service we compare it to. Netflix offers ad-free on-demand streaming from $15.49, though this basic plan can only be viewed on one device at a time.

Hulu’s ad-free plan also allows you to download and watch content, something you can’t do with the basic $7.99/month no-ad plan.

With Hulu, you can buy premium movie network add-ons, but these may still include promotional content, so ad-free isn’t completely ad-free. However, you get access to dozens of exclusive Hulu Originals titles without ads for $17.99/month. If you want to see these shows and movies, the $10 extra may be worth it for you.

Here’s a comparison of what you can and can’t do with Hulu plans:

Which Add-Ons Are Available On-Demand?

There are a total of five available add-ons with the Hulu on-demand plan. This doesn’t include the ad-free option, since that’s considered a separate on-demand plan.

You can get:

• HBO Max for $14.99/mo
• Cinemax for $9.99/mo
• Starz for $8.99/mo
• Showtime for $12.99/month
• ESPN+ for $10.99/mo (also available with the Hulu Disney+ and ESPN+ bundle and is included with Hulu Live).

What’s cool about these add-ons is that you get access to live TV channels’ content libraries without having to pay for live TV. Plus, you can pick and choose without making a huge financial commitment to dozens of other channels you never watch.

Disney+ is not available as a single add-on, we cover this in the bundles’ review below.

The following add-ons are NOT available with on-demand Hulu plans:

• Unlimited Screens — you can only watch Hulu on two screens at once on-demand
• Enhanced DVR — on-demand plans come with a maximum storage of 50 hours with the ad-free plan
• Entertainment Add-On
• Espanol Add-On

Hulu On-Demand Bundles

If you want to get Hulu on-demand, you can also bundle it with Disney+ and ESPN+ content libraries for $14.99/month. The ad-free version of this bundle costs $24.99 per month.

This is a good deal considering that the combined price of the Disney+ and ESPN+ add-ons is as much as the whole bundle. Families with cartoon and sports fans who want to avoid large TV bills may find this bundle wallet-friendly.

Disney+ can also be added as a single bundle add-on to Hulu (No Ads) and Hulu + Live TV (Ads or No Ads).

Other bundles include Hulu (with ads) + Spotify Premium for students, and some eligible Sprint mobile plans also get Hulu (with ads) included in their mobile plans.

What Can I Watch On Hulu?

Aside from the mega list of shows and movies, the “Hub” in Hulu has some of this premium content. Hulu also has international movies like the award-winning Parasite in the content library.

Hulu Originals

People and reviews say that Hulu’s most successful original series was the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. There are plenty of other well-regarded Hulu Original titles available, however.

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When we checked out Hulu’s content library, we saw Original crime series like Sasquatch, freaky thrillers like Tentacles, and newly released dramas like Little Fires Everywhere. Hulu Original comedy titles include The Binge, Solar Opposites, and dozens more.

There are 12 family and kid-friendly original shows and 30 documentaries too. The Hulu Originals library can be browsed A to Z.

FX On Hulu

This plan costs $7.99/month if you buy it separately from FX, but it’s included with Hulu on-demand. Some FX originals shows you can catch include The Bridge, Hysterical, Breeders, Dave, and A Teacher.

There are also several docuseries available on FX on Hulu, along with award-winning comedy-dramas like Donald Glover’s Atlanta.

Anime on Hulu

Hulu has one of the best anime selections of any streaming service. They offer everything from classics to the newest stuff. They’ve got old-school titles like the original Dragon Ball. And new anime like the recent Fruits Basket.

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In total, Hulu has well over 200 anime movies and series. And they are constantly adding new ones.

Kids Entertainment On Hulu

Aside from the 12 Hulu Originals kids titles like Trolls, Madagascar, and Animaniacs, kids can watch on-demand movies in a content library for kids, categorized by age: 2 to 4, 5 to 7, 8 to 12, as well as one for babies.

Parental controls are easy to turn on. You need to go to Account > Profiles and create a new profile. When you fill out the profile information, switch on the parental control toggle.

Can I Stream Sports On Hulu?

Since Hulu on-demand is not a live TV service, you can’t watch live sports TV. That said, Hulu is one of the few services that offer ESPN+ as an add-on with the on-demand plan.

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When you buy the Disney+ and ESPN+ bundle with Hulu (Ads) for $14.99/month, you get access to thousands of pre-recorded sporting event streams.

This means that you can watch major league baseball without cable on-demand, as well as NHL and NFL games on occasion.

If you want to know exactly what you’re getting with the ESPN+ bundle, you can sign up for the free 7-day ESPN+ trial and do a test run.

Is Hulu Simple and Practical? Here’s a Test

You might’ve already seen our Hulu + Live TV user experience review. This section is similar, except for the live TV features. The on-demand library is practically the same, minus the ‘Live’ tab and the occasionally featured rows of live TV programs.

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What’s important with a streaming service like Hulu on-demand is how you can browse and find interesting stuff to watch, and what the media player is like. So here are a few points we chose to review Hulu’s on-demand streaming experience on:

• Navigation and Browsing: There are several tabs on the home dashboard, one of which stores your saved titles and warns you when your favorite movies or TV shows are about to expire. Otherwise, TV content, movies, and sports (for ESPN+ bundle holders) are in separate tabs. There’s also a ‘Hub’ where you can watch Hulu Originals and FX on Hulu.
• Preview and Title Landing Page: When you hover over a title, there is no trailer or preview. Netflix users will find this weird. When you click on a show’s title, you can find the trailer under the ‘Details’ sub-tab, if there is one. You will also see the options to select an episode, start a watch party, add it to your favorites, record it, or like or dislike it. This is the same for movies, apart from the episode guide.
• Continue Where You Left Off: The Home tab shows you any TV shows or movies you didn’t finish under a slider called “Keep Watching.”

• Picture-In-Picture: Once you begin a stream, you can select the ‘Minimize’ option in the media player. This gives you a smaller picture-in-picture stream in the corner of the page so you can browse freely while you watch something on Hulu.
• In-Stream Settings: You can stream in three different screen sizes, two of them being picture-in-picture and full screen. The third is a browser window-sized screen. Subtitles and audio can be changed on the go, while the stream quality can be toggled between the best available quality and a data-saver mode. Autoplay can also be switched on or off by preference.

• Geo-Restrictions: Hulu is only available for US customers. If any titles are unavailable in certain states, that’s due to Hulu’s contractual agreement with the content provider of that specific production.
• Profile Customization: You can add titles to your favorites, though you need to open the preview tab for each one to do this. If you’re browsing TV shows, you can’t hover and click it. This can be annoying if you like to build playlists. If you don’t, it’s not a deal-breaker. Otherwise, Hulu on-demand also offers subtitle style customization and the ability to create separate kid-friendly user profiles.

Hulu On-Demand Experience: A Summary

There are plenty of titles to choose from on Hulu and the dashboard is designed for more than just click-and-watch. The picture-in-picture feature allows you to browse while something is on in the background, and there are numerous add-ons available in just a few clicks. If you don’t mind ads, it’s also a bonus to have a cheaper base plan with the option of an ad-free plan.

Before you jump into a Hulu subscription, you might want to check out our comparison below.

Hulu vs Netflix vs Prime vs Peacock

All of these streaming services offer similar categories of on-demand content: movies, TV shows, originals, documentaries, and kids shows.

The main differences are selection, advertisements, simultaneous streaming on devices, streaming resolutions, and price.

Netflix offers more than six times as many titles as Hulu for just $1 less, without ads. Amazon has as many, if not more, but not much content in terms of TV shows. Peacock only has 1,000, but it’s free.

Hulu’s 2,500+ on-demand titles come with a two-device stream allowance, and to get that with Netflix you need to pay more. Amazon has a non-upgradable two-screen allowance. Peacock has the highest multi-screen allowance for three devices for free. Despite the lack of choice, it’s a no-brainer to try out Peacock.

Both Hulu and Peacock have ad-free add-ons. If you want a huge selection of streamable on-demand content without ads, your best bet is probably Netflix. If you want to watch some programs in 4K, then Hulu is one to consider with the ad-free plan at $10 extra.

Disney+ as an on-demand service costs $7.99 per month, while HBO Max costs $15. Hulu subscribers can get HBO as an add-on for the same price, and Disney+ bundled at a discounted rate with ESPN+ as a premium network add-on. That’s a big advantage if you’re considering Hulu and want to watch those networks.

All four on-demand plans are kid-friendly and allow you to download content to your devices. With Hulu, these on-demand downloads also come with an ad-free plan for $17.99/month and some shows are online less than 24-hours after they air.

FAQs

Can you get Hulu in UK?

Hulu is currently only available in the US. Users can only register, log in, and stream content on Hulu when located in the US and browsing with a US-based IP address. For now, Hulu has not made any announcements to extend its services to the United Kingdom.

Can you share a Hulu account?

All Hulu accounts, including the $7.99/month on-demand account with ads, come with six profiles and two-screen access. This means that six different people can share a Hulu account, and two people can stream from the account simultaneously. The unlimited multi-screen option is only available as an upgrade with Hulu + Live TV.

Can you set parental controls on Hulu?

To add parental controls on Hulu, you need to create a new user profile and set it up as child-friendly. When you head over to the Manage Profiles menu and select the Add Profile option, you just need to give the profile a name and switch on the on/off toggle under the Kids label.

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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com, specializing in sports streaming and regional programming issues. With a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and extensive experience in remote sensing technology, including early video streaming, I bring a unique technical perspective to the streaming industry.

My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.

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