There's lots to love about Amazon Prime Video. If you get it included with Amazon Prime, it's a certified bargain. However, there's also many negatives that bring the Prime Video experience down—enough that you might want to not subscribe.
If you're trying to decide which streaming service is worthy of your money, here are all the reasons to save your cash and not subscribe to Amazon Prime Video.
1. Seasons Aren't Grouped Together
Amazon Prime Video's interface is bad in many ways—more on that later—but perhaps its worst offense is how it organizes TV show seasons. Every season of a show is filed as its own entity, which makes search results confusing and messy.
For example, search for "The Walking Dead" and you'll find the main show and its spin-off seemingly randomly ordered. Season nine is followed by three, eight, and two. Why isn't the show just contained as a single search result?
The problem also continues when watching the show. Once you reach the end of the season, Prime Video doesn't automatically take you to the next. You have to manually seek it out.
2. Paid Content Is Mixed With Free Content
It's handy that Amazon Prime Video lets you rent and buy content. It's one of the great things about Prime Video because it gives you more choice. What isn't so great, however, is how the interface bundles all of this content together.
The home screen of Prime Video shows you "free" and paid content listed alongside each other without rhyme or reason. Although you can switch to the Free to me section, you can't make this the default, so you have to do it every time. The same goes for searches.
Chances are, you'll find something that you want to watch, only to be disappointed to discover that it isn't included in your Prime Video subscription.
3. Pre-Roll Commercials
You subscribe to a streaming service, you don't expect adverts. While Hulu gets away with it by offering differently priced tiers, some with ads, Amazon Prime Video is a single price. There are no levels to the subscription. You're either a member or not.
Related: How Does Hulu Work and What Does It Offer for Subscribers?
That's why it's so off-putting that Prime Video will occasionally run a pre-roll ad before you start watching something. While it's always a trailer for Amazon's own programming, and you can skip it, it's an unnecessary intrusion and could lead to more sneaky advertising down the line.
4. Content of Questionable Quality
Every streaming service has its fair share of duds, but Amazon Prime Video takes the lead when it comes to movies and TV shows of questionable quality. While it has some excellent, award-winning productions, it's also got lots of trash: Crisis in Six Scenes, Hand of God, The Voyeurs... the list goes on.
It sometimes feels like Prime Video favors quantity over quality, especially when you have to wade through the endless sea of B-movies to find something worth watching.
5. Limited Time to Watch Rentals
When you rent something on Prime Video, you have 30 days to start watching it. That seems reasonable and fair. What isn't so fair is that, once you press play, you have 48 hours to finish it.
That's fine if you're able to watch it all in a single sitting. But if you have life commitments like an unpredictable job or children, nailing down hours to watch something over two days might be tricky. If you wanted to watch a three-hour epic over three nights, for example, you're out of luck.
Is Netflix Better Than Amazon Prime Video?
Perhaps you think these reasons aren't strong enough to stop you from subscribing to Amazon Prime Video. Fair enough! The service certainly has lots of great factors, so don't be put off if you want to subscribe.
If it has made you reconsider, you might want to think about subscribing to an alternative service like Netflix. It's more renowned for its quality original content and smooth user interface.
