14 Best Streaming Service Free Trials in the UK

uk-tv › best free trials • July 12, 2024 • Staff

Free trials are a great opportunity to test a streaming service at no additional cost. Sure, reading reviews and hearing out advice can help you make an informed decision, but nothing beats firsthand experience. You can see for yourself whether the reviews hold up, the interface feels right, and the overall functions and features fit your needs. Most free trials last for a week, but plenty of services also offer them for 14 to 30 days.

With all the streaming apps and bundles out there (not to mention their rising costs), it's best to err on the side of caution and test everything out before making a subscription commitment. So to help you in this regard, we round up the best streaming services that offer free trials below.

Shudder

If Netflix, Amazon, or Disney’s vast catalog of films never really met your needs as an avid horror fan, then Shudder just might be the streaming service for you. It’s dedicated to the most thrilling, hair-raising, and frightening titles available, both from Hollywood and around the world. Although a number of popular and classic titles are missing from its catalog, you’ll be sure to find newer and fresher horror fare here, such as Let the Right One In and The Ring. Shudder has also recently invested in original content, which most notably includes Deadstream, Mad God, and Dragula Titans.

If you’re looking to test the waters before diving headfirst, Shudder offers a seven-day free trial, after which you’ll have to pay £3.99/month to continue streaming. Given its careful curation and affordable price point, Shudder is worth checking out especially if you’re a big fan of the genre.

Paramount+

Paramount+ is a streaming service that brings together thousands of titles from Paramount Studios, CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and MTV all in one place. You can find blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick here, as well as beloved series like Yellowstone, Star Trek, and Yellowjackets. It even has UK-exclusive shows like The Flatshare up its sleeve.

A subscription costs £6.99/month, and it offers much of the same features you'd expect from on-demand streaming services like offline viewing, multiple user profiles, and simultaneous streams. It even has parental controls for those with young ones hoping to tune into kid shows from Nick. If you're not quite satisfied with your Netflix and Prime offerings and don't mind shelling out a few extra pounds, then Paramount+ is certainly worth considering.

Mubi

With carefully selected titles from around the globe, Mubi is a streaming service made for and by dedicated movie lovers. It was founded in 2007 as a small streaming service based in the UK, but it has since expanded into film distribution, production, and even criticism. Mubi is where you’ll find acclaimed indie darlings and beloved global gems, making it a staple among cinephiles.

Mubi offers a week-long trial upon subscription, after which you’ll have to pay £9.99/month. You can also choose to pay £95.88/year (or £7.99/month). It’s compatible with almost all devices, making it user-friendly even for cord-cutting beginners.

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Magellan TV

Magellan TV is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to educational non-fiction content, making it a worthy option for lifelong learners and documentary lovers. What sets it apart from other docu-heavy streaming sites is its careful curation and broad range. It's also a great choice if you're into history and science more than any other topic.

While Magellan TV is available in most parts of the world, it does charge USD— $5.99/month in particular. That works out to be £4.99/month in the UK, more or less. If you're still not sure it's a worthy addition to your streaming lineup, you can try the service out for free for seven days.

Hayu

You can say what you want about reality TV, but it’s hard to beat the fact that no other type of show can satisfy your drama cravings quite like it. Whether you’re watching a cooking competition or a dating series, there’s something addictively thrilling about the outbursts and meltdowns that go down in these shows.

Hayu is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to all things reality TV. It features up to 300 shows, most of which stream on the same day as the US and all of which you can access on major streaming devices. Here, you'll find all 20 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, as well as multiple iterations of The Real Housewives, Vanderpump Rules, and Top Chef. It’s not bad at £4.99/month, but if you’re still not sure whether it warrants a monthly subscription, you can try their seven-day free trial to test it out.

Flix Premiere

Flix Premiere is a British on-demand streaming service that brings together the best of independent cinema into one place. It partners with premier film festivals like TIFF, SXSW, Cannes, and Berlinale and selects the best of the bunch—the most beloved and awarded in the circuit—to stream on the platform.

Perhaps the best thing about it is that, unlike mainstream streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Flix does not use algorithms at all. Everything is proudly hand-curated by a team of film lovers, so you know it comes from a place of passion. Though, like mainstream streamers, Flix does allow offline viewing and is reasonably priced. A subscription costs £5.99/month, but if you're still on the fence about its offerings, you can test the service out for free for 30 days.

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docsville

Docsville is a great resource for global documentaries. Founded in London, it's an on-demand streaming service set up by former BBC executives who wanted to bring together eye-opening stories from around the world.

What sets Docsville apart is it gives a special emphasis on up-and-coming filmmakers, so in addition to learning from their content, you get to support emerging storytellers as well.

Docsville is accessible via multiple streaming devices and it costs £3.99/month or £39.99/ year after a seven-day free trial. It's also available as an Amazon Prime add-on for the same price.

Discovery Plus

Discovery Plus is a streaming service that offers a mix of on-demand content and live TV channels. With its reserve of documentaries, educational programs, reality shows, and competitive games, as well as its lineup of channels like TLC, Quest, and Animal Planet, it's the go-to streaming service for non-fiction aficionados.

Discovery Plus has a free tier that gives users access to some of its channels (namely Quest, Quest Red, Really, HGTV, Food Network, and DMAX), but if you're after the true-blue Discovery Plus experience, then you might want to look at its Entertainment pass, which costs £3.99/month, and its Entertainment & Sports Pass, which costs £ 6.99/month. Apart from having more channels on your lineup (including Eurosport 1 and 2 on the Sports Pass) you also get access to Discovery Plus originals with these paid subscriptions.

Dekkoo

There's no shortage of queer-centric streaming services out there, but Dekkoo stands out by centering exclusively on gay men. Boasting the largest collection of gay content online, Dekkoo is a subscription-based streaming service that carries hundreds of queer films, TV shows, and documentaries, a number of which happen to be Dekkoo originals. Most of these titles are American, but there are some sourced from different parts of the world. Along with its international collection, Dekkoo has other curated lists that span all sorts of genres and formats.

Dekkoo is available on most streaming devices, and plans start at £7.28/month or £61.09/year.f

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Crunchyroll

Ever since it merged with its closest competitor, Funimation, Crunchyroll has been the ultimate streaming service for anime fans. It has over a thousand shows, many episodes of which are available to stream just an hour after they’re released in Japan, as well as a manga collection and an apparel store you can browse through. Oh, and bonus, all of its subscription plans offer HD viewing.

Crunchyroll has two main tiers, both of which offer a 14-day trial: £4.99/month and £5.99/month. The main difference between the two is that the latter plan allows you to stream on four devices, not just one, and gives you access to offline viewing. If you're a "mega-fan," as the streamer puts it, you can also choose to pay £59.99/year, which essentially shaves 16% off the monthly £5.99 payment.

Channel 4

Previously known as All 4, Channel 4 is the official streaming service of the TV channel it names. Here you'll find everything the channel offers, including local gems that have skyrocketed to international fame like Derry Girls and Skins as well as Hollywood hits like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 10 Cloverfield Lane.

You can watch all these either for free (with ads) or for a fee (without ads). The premium, ad-free subscription starts at £3.99, but if you're not so sure yet about subscribing, you can test the platform with a 14-day free trial. Channel 4 is also available on most devices, including PC, TVs, and smartphones.

BFI Player

Home to an eclectic mix of local indies and international gems, BFI Player is one of the best movie streaming services out there. Its highly-curated film lists, which range from current to classic, are comparable to those of Criterion and Mubi. They're bound to tickle any cinephile’s fancy, so spending time scrolling through titles won’t feel as much of a drag as it would on other platforms.

A number of films can be accessed for free on the service—you wouldn’t even need to register—but most of them are reserved for paid subscribers only. The subscription plans come at a surprisingly fair £4.99/month or £49/year, but if you’re on the fence about another making another subscription, you can try the service for free for 2 weeks. Some of the newer and more highly acclaimed movies—especially those still screening in physical theaters—will only be available to rent, which usually starts at £2.50.

As a new and homegrown service, BFI Player is impressively competitive and worth checking out if you’re tired of the usual titles on bigger platforms.

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Amazon Prime Video

Thanks to its ubiquity and near-unlimited budget, Amazon Prime Video has the biggest media library in the streaming world, making it an alluring option for cord-cutters. It has everything from b-movies to blockbusters, not to mention an in-house catalog that boasts, among others, award-winning shows like The Boys, Fleabag, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

It’s convenient to access, too, since you can subscribe to it as a standalone service for £5.99/month, or pay £8.99/month for the entire Amazon Prime package, which includes access to Amazon music and books, as well as their one-day delivery feature.

The only drawback might have to be its interface, which isn’t as sleek as, say, Netflix or Disney+, although its 4k viewing and download options more than make up for that. Overall, Amazon Prime Video is a neat service that’s well-worth subscribing to especially if you’re a fan of having plenty of things to choose from.

Acorn TV

Acorn TV is an on-demand streaming service dedicated to showcasing programs from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other parts of the Commonwealth. It has a good mix of original series like Agatha Raisin and Loch Ness as well as licensed series from channels ITV, Channel 4, and BBC Studios.

Originally created for expats and British TV fans living in America, Acorn TV was made available in the UK in 2020, where it's since been known to release murder mysteries, endearing sitcoms, and pleasant period dramas, among other formats. You can watch Acorn TV for free for 14 days, after which you'll have to pay £4.99/month or £24.99/year. It's available on most streaming devices, including smart TVs, and most titles can be downloaded and viewed offline.

Shudder

Paramount+

Mubi

Magellan TV

Hayu

Flix Premiere

docsville

Discovery Plus

Dekkoo

Crunchyroll

Channel 4

BFI Player

Amazon Prime Video

Acorn TV

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