Infographic: Hulu Plus v. Netflix on Twitter – Fight

Based on the Twitter conversations half of the users have both services and are going to “cut the cord” meaning they will be getting rid of their cable or satellite tv service. Those who have only Hulu and say they don’t need Netflix are 20% while Netflix only users number 29% of the Twitter talkers. Reasons for their preferences on the Netflix side are:

1. Cheaper
2. Commercial Free
3. Lag-free streaming

The Hulu Plus only users like the service for the following reasons:

1. Better mobile apps
2. Better catalog
3. Higher quality

The Netflix users who think that it is cheaper than Hulu don’t know the facts. Netflix offers a $7.99 streaming only service, but Hulu is just $7.95. A four cent difference means there is no difference. In fact Netflix is more expensive since many users pay extra for the ability to also have old-fashioned discs delivered in addition to the streaming service. Recent Netflix price changes don’t do anything to help.

I do prefer the commercial free nature of Netflix, but cannot get some of the shows on Netflix that are available on Hulu Plus. You often have to wait an entire year before seasons of many shows will be available on Netflix.

My experience on the computer, the mobile apps, and my Roku box is that there is little noticeable difference between the services in terms of video quality. Sometimes I have trouble with Netflix scaling back the streaming quality because at the very moment that I start a video and it measures my bandwidth there is a spike in Internet traffic on my home network or on the shared cable network in my area. As a result I get a lower quality stream. Stopping the video and restarting almost always fixes this.

Users of Hulu Plus said it had a better catalog of shows. I would say it has a different catalog of shows and it is better or worse depending on your tastes. When Hulu released its Android app, there was a tremendous spike in conversations about the service. June 22 saw a 4180% increase with 91% of those Hulu/Netflix Tweets being about the new app and why they were going to “cut the cord” as a result.

There were a number of Tweets saying they couldn’t pick one over the other with 3,188 undecideds. Fifty-two percent of them have tried both. Forty-eight percent haven even tried Hulu Plus yet. If you don’t mind paying the extra $8 I would suggest getting both as they will offer different content. Some content is duplicated, but much more is unique to each service.