If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you’ve probably grown tired of the flood of middling original content and frequent price increases. I decided to check out three of the competitors of Netflix to see if I’d be better off taking my binge-watching business elsewhere.

I chose my Netflix-killer candidates based on a few things: the service had to allow me to cancel my subscription without paying when I was finished this review, the service had to have an Apple TV app, and the service had to offer a substantial amount of content that wasn’t included in a Netflix subscription. With all this in mind, I subscribed to CraveTV, MUBI and Shudder. 

CraveTV is Bell’s answer to American streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu. It managed to come out on top against Shomi by Rogers in the bloodbath competition for Canadian eyes and dollars. What started as a strong library of content, bogged down by unusably buggy streaming, has become one of Canada’s most underrated providers of streaming content.

Even when compared to its American equivalents, CraveTV has an incredibly strong library of content. CraveTV features content from HBO, Hulu, CBS All Access and a bunch of others. The service is also notable for having new episodes of Showtime series like Billions and Who is America ready to watch within hours of airing on cable.

CraveTV is almost exclusively comprised of TV shows, but the quality of the content is much higher than most of its competitors. The app performance has improved on all devices since I first used it three years ago, and while the monthly price has increased from $7.99 to $9.99, gaining access to the complete series of The Wire and The Sopranos is pretty much worth it alone.

In honor of Halloween, I decided to try AMC’s Shudder next. I initially liked the idea of a curated horror-only streaming service, although I doubted it would replace my Netflix for more than the month of October. Sadly, since the initial Canadian marketing push, Shudder has become a content graveyard.

Shudder offers an unappealing mix of movies, original content and foreign films all loosely based around a horror theme. The definition of horror has been stretched to its absolute limits to pad out the library with genre titles like Old Boy and Dogtooth. There are none of the expected horror classics, and the lesser-known films are of the straight-to-video variety.

If there’s one cool thing that Shudder does, it offers a unique take on channel surfing that drops you into the middle of themed horror marathons. It would be a better feature if the films on the service were actually worth watching, but at $4.99 per month, it’s not really a loss either way.

It’s hard for me to imagine what sort of audience Shudder is for, unless the goal was to build a streaming service for people who used to rent the direct-to-DVD sequels to The Butterfly Effect at Blockbuster. Shudder feels like it’s on its last legs, which is too bad because it’s a really interesting idea with some potential.

For art-house fans, MUBI offers a business model that is unique. MUBI only hosts 30 films at a time and adds a new film each day, pushing the oldest film off of the list. This affords the service the funds to buy rights to hard-to-find art films and new indie hits. It also means that, if the current lineup isn’t to your liking, you may prefer a film added in the future.

Currently, the service is hosting the 2015 biographical Amy Winehouse documentary, Amy, in addition to a crop of curator-selected foreign and independent features. If you take your film seriously, you could do a lot worse than MUBI — although, it comes at a steep monthly price tag of $9.99 and impermanent selections may be off-putting for many.

Of the three services I looked at, I would recommend CraveTV as either an add-on to expand your streaming options or as a replacement for a Netflix subscription if you have to choose between the two. CraveTV offers top-tier content, clear streaming and comparable pricing options that make it a real contender for your streaming money.

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Cole Chretien / Culture Editor

Graphic: Wikimedia Commons / Supplied