If you were to ask any American household in 2015 what their most frequently used streaming service was, the response that you probably would’ve gotten was Netflix. For just $11.99 a month, households across the world could access almost, all of their favorite shows and movies with just the click of a button.

However, we now pay $19.99 for virtually nothing. 

Over the years, households have faced a sharp incline in pricing for the service and in return, Netflix is seeing a drastic decline in subscription rates. 

A huge part of this is the shows and movies that Netflix isn’t adding, but removing from their service. 

Over the past year, Netflix has removed popular shows like The Vampire Diaries, American Horror Story, and Glee. They’ve also taken away movies like The Amazing Spider-Man and The Notebook. All of these shows and films have been large parts of pop culture and are overall fan favorites, making it even harder to believe that they’re being taken off of the platform. 

Although we’ve seen a decrease in fan-favorite shows, there has been a sharp increase in Netflix original shows and movies that seemingly no one asked for. 

Netflix original shows like Never Have I Ever and Netflix-created movies like Do Revenge have been taking the streaming service by storm while simultaneously pushing out other fan-favorite films. 

This is not to say that all Netflix shows and films are undeserving of the same attention as the classics. Netflix has produced some of the best shows including You, Bridgerton, and The Crown, but are these arguably great shows worth the removal of the classics we all know and love? 

The removal of these shows and movies brings up another very important question; Where can you watch them besides Netflix?

Well, the answer to this question is actually quite simple. Just go to Netflix’s arguably superior competitors HBO Max, Hulu, or Disney+.

These three streaming platforms have made a huge impact on the world of streaming services, offering tons of fan-favorite shows and movies as well as new things that streamers can dive into.

And more importantly so, they do it for a fraction of the cost. 

At its current rate, Netflix is $19.99 a month which includes the ability to watch on four different screens at once and minimal entertainment. Disney+, however, is $11 a month with no ads and unlimited screens. HBO Max is $14.99, again with no ads and unlimited screens and Hulu is right in the middle at $13 a month with the same benefits. 

This is not even mentioning the streaming bundles that you can also get with each of these services. Starting December 8th, Disney+ is offering a bundle that includes ad-free Hulu and ESPN+ for only $20 a month, virtually the same as Netflix’s current price. 

So why pay more to get less? 

Over the past decade, Netflix has gone from one of the best streaming services, to ultimately one of the worst. If you’re ever in the market for a new streaming service, Netflix should definitely be a last resort.