Netflix review (2026): Perpetual price hikes and misguided interface changes are making this service harder to love

To quote a beloved spinach-eating sailor: I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more . Last month, the single most expensive streaming service (still considered the best streaming service by many) decided to jack up prices yet again , and it has changed my thinking irrevocably. What I once thought of as a necessity is now very much a luxury; I’m cancelling my subscription in protest.

(Care to join me? Here’s how to cancel your Netflix subscription .)

I was already teetering on the brink of this; Netflix ’s previous price-hike and late-2025 interface changes had me feeling sour. Meanwhile, the service offers scant live content, whereas others ( Amazon Prime , HBO Max , etc.) seem to be expanding that offering.

Yes, there are other value-adds here, including a generous helping of standup comedy and some entertaining mobile and co-op games. What’s more, if you’re willing to sit through ads, Netflix is still an affordable $9/month.

On the fence? Let’s take a deeper dive into the world’s most popular streaming service. Here’s my Netflix review for 2026.

Is Netflix worth it right now? A full value breakdown

Like cable TV before it, streaming was supposed to save us from commercials. But here we are, with Netflix, HBO Max , Hulu and most other services now charging extra if you want ad-free viewing. If you don't, Netflix Basic with Ads costs $8.99 per month (up $1 from 2025). It's the big jump to the first ad-free tier, Standard, that feels egregious: $19.99 per month, a 125% spike. And then there's Premium at a jaw-dropping $26.99. (Both of these went up $2 in 2026.)

Unfortunately, you can't get a price break by prepaying annually, and if you want to share your account with someone not at your address — a kid away at college, for example — it's $7.99 extra (also up $1). You can do this only with the Standard and Premium plans; there’s no longer an option for account-sharing on Netflix Basic.

There's also an unexpected gotcha with the Basic plan: It includes only "most" movies and TV shows. In other words, some content will be locked out. According to What's on Netflix , the missing programming comprises only about 2% of the library, but that includes notables like House of Cards (Netflix's first breakout hit, ironically), Peaky Blinders , 28 Years Later and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire .

It's also worth noting that if you want 4K streaming, you'll need the Premium plan; the other two tiers top out at 1080p. Check out Netflix's plans and pricing page to learn more about what's included (or not) in each plan.

The unexpected benefit of a Netflix subscription

Here's one unusual perk to being a Netflix subscriber: free-to-play mobile and co-op games. At any tier (including Basic), you get full access to around 80 premium ad-free titles, most of them available for both Android and iOS phones and tablets. (Some can be played on PC as well, and about a dozen work on Roku devices, with your phone serving as the controller.)

It's a pretty impressive roster across all the major categories: action, strategy, puzzle, arcade and so on. A few examples: Red Dead Redemption, Exploding Kittens, Heads Up! and Paw Patrol Academy. To get them, just look for the Mobile Games row in the Netflix app on your device.

Newer to the service: party games, accessible on your TV via the Games tab. These include favorites like Boggle, Tetris and Pictionary, but I was also excited by the recent addition of Jackbox classics like Drawful 2, Fibbage 4 and Quiplash 3 — all great fun with a group of friends or family.

Now for the bad news: If you use an Apple TV streaming device, no games for you. I believe this is due to Apple restrictions; I’ve reached out to Netflix for comment.

While there’s a lot to enjoy here, I didn’t subscribe for games. Am I alone in thinking I'd gladly trade them for lower subscription prices?

Netflix: What's on?

Where to start? Netflix is arguably most famous for its original shows, starting with massive hits like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black , leading to the buzzworthy likes of Stranger Things , Black Mirror and Bridgerton , and more recently followed by The Diplomat , A Man on the Inside and plenty more.

That's a remarkable pedigree, but these days it seems like breakout hits are fewer and farther between. Thankfully, there’s plenty to watch, including some personal favorites available only on Netflix: Atypical , Beef , Black Rabbit , BoJack Horseman , Dead to Me , Derry Girls , Fisk , Kim's Convenience , Murderville , The Kominsky Method, Travelers and the aforementioned Strangers Things and The Diplomat . Wow, I did not set out to make a list that long, but it also reinforces my point: The majority of those shows are at least a few years old. Very little from 2024 or 2025 has made my must-watch list.

Of course, a lot of this comes down to personal preference. You might be rabidly in love with newer content like K-Pop Demon Hunters and House of Guiness . To each their own. And of course Netflix is home to much more than just originals: There's a rotating selection of movies and TV shows across all genres. Just don't expect a lot of classics; at this writing, one of the oldest movies here is 1973's High Plains Drifter .

If you're into stand-up comedy, Netflix offers plenty, having hosted two Netflix is a Joke festivals , and it's currently home to dozens of comedians' stand-up specials.

However, you won't find any live channels, though the service has been dipping toes into live content: talk show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney , for example, and the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast. As for sports, for now it's limited to WWE Raw, which airs weekly on Mondays, and the occasional boxing match.

All told, it's impossible to declare Netflix has "better" content than, say, HBO Max or Paramount+. It's up to you to decide whether you like what's on the menu. And speaking of menus...

How easy is Netflix to use? An interface and experience review

As with other streaming services I've reviewed (see a full list below), I tested both the Google TV and Roku versions of the Netflix app. They're nearly identical, starting with your sign-in options, which include a QR code you can scan with your phone. Very quick, very easy, especially if you have the Netflix mobile app installed. A couple taps and you're in.

But in 2025, Netflix rolled out a fairly substantial interface update, and I'm not alone in saying I hate it . While it's still visually appealing, it all but ruins the browsing experience. That's because the preview tiles are now significantly larger, with only one row visible at a time. What's more, the selected tile automatically expands to fill half the width of that row, meaning wherever you scroll on the Home page, you can see only four preview tiles: the huge selected one and three to the right of it.

The result is that you have to do a lot more scrolling to find something you might want to watch. This new design might make sense if TV screens were small; you'd want larger tiles so you could see them better from the couch. But aren't most of us watching 55- or 65-inch TVs, if not bigger? To my thinking there's no value to this change; quite the opposite.

Meanwhile, the Amazon Fire TV and Google TV versions have developed a major oddity: Whenever you select a movie from one of the various carousels, it starts playing immediately. There's no landing page, no way to get information about it, add it to your watchlist or the like. Same goes for TV shows, but at least there you can pause and then select Episodes to reach the landing page. No such option in movies.

Exceptions: If it's in your Continue Watching carousel, you still hit the landing page. And if it's the featured movie at the top of the UI, there's a More Info button that'll take you there. The way this makes zero sense, I don't even have the words. Thankfully, the Roku version doesn't work this way.

Netflix also relocated its navigation menu to the top of the screen from the side, which is where it used to live and where it lives on nearly every other streaming service. Know why? Because it's much easier to access when it's on the side. While I appreciate that the menu is now text (Home, Shows, Movies, etc.) instead of icons, it makes overall navigation more difficult.

For example, when you're scrolling your way down the Home page, there's no way to quickly jump back to the top. You can press the Back (aka left-arrow) button on your remote, but that actually moves your selection cursor to that top navigation menu. I guess that's a shortcut of sorts, but it irritates me that the only way back to the top of any given page is to manually press the up arrow over and over.

And it's less intuitive overall: You're pressing a left arrow to access a menu that's at the top of the screen. It made sense when the menu was, ahem, on the left.

Just as maddening, Netflix still hasn't addressed a longstanding complaint: The My List row (i.e. the one with all the stuff you've bookmarked for future viewing) often relocates itself. Sometimes it's the third one down, sometimes it's 26 rows down or somewhere in between. Yes, you can access this list directly under the My Netflix menu, but I typically navigate via Home and just wish it was consistent. This is true of the Continue Watching row as well, and on occasion I've noticed that that one has disappeared altogether (only to return the next time I open the app).

I like the Netflix screensaver (which kicks in after five minutes of inactivity) that's basically a slideshow of other available content — though it would be nice if it included a "watch now" or "add to my list" button so you could easily check out something that looks interesting.

It's weird that there's no Settings menu. If you want to disable, for example, the annoying auto-play feature that shows previews while you browse, you have to do it in a web browser. Same goes for accessing parental controls. And if you decide you don't like that screensaver, the only way to turn it off is via a very obscure setting ("Test participation") buried in the Security menu.

Want to log out of your account? Again, with no Settings menu, there's no obvious way to do so. You have to visit the Get Help menu, which I find confusing; I'm not looking for help, I'm looking to sign out. (Weirdly, this lengthy menu of mostly informational items does contain one actual setting: an on/off toggle for HDR.)

Finally, Netflix's search function works very quickly, displaying results dynamically as you click letters, but it doesn't indicate what you can actually search for. Just movie and TV titles? Actors as well? Genres?

Turns out it supports all those parameters and more, including languages and things like "Atmos" (as in Dolby) and "UHD" (Ultra High-Def). But how would you know that?

Final verdict: Is Netflix the best streaming service in 2026?

Not to my thinking, no. Netflix has lost some luster over the years, in part due to increased competition and in part because the blockbuster well seems a bit dry. There's also the matter of seemingly endless price increases, which make the service harder and harder to afford (unless you're willing to sit through commercials). And if it wasn't abundantly clear, I am not happy with the interface.

On the other hand, Netflix has a ton of content — most of it good, some of it great. Will I forgive the cancellations of The OA and Travelers after just two and three seasons, respectively? No. Did I love the latest seasons of Stranger Things and The Diplomat ? Absolutely. As with so many streaming services, this one really depends on what you like to watch. And there's no shame in subscribing in binge-spurts, which is how I'm doing it these days. (I might reconsider if there was an annual discount. Anyone listening, Netflix?)