Best European Alternatives to Netflix

Looking for a European alternative to Netflix? Netflix is a US company whose European catalogue is a fraction of its American one, whose licensing rotates titles out without warning, and whose recommendation profiling sits under US jurisdiction.

European streaming services carry the arthouse cinema, national productions and public-broadcaster archives that global platforms never license — several of them free, and most of them cheaper.

7 Alternatives
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7 European Alternatives to Netflix

MUBI

Hand-picked cinema, one new film every day

#1 for replacing Netflix
United Kingdom

ARTE

Free public-service culture, documentaries and concerts

#2 for replacing Netflix
France / Germany

Filmin

Independent and European cinema on demand

#3 for replacing Netflix
Spain

Viaplay

Nordic originals plus live football and motorsport

#4 for replacing Netflix
Sweden

Videoland

Dutch series, films and RTL originals

#5 for replacing Netflix
Netherlands

Rakuten TV

Free ad-supported channels plus new-release rentals

#6 for replacing Netflix
Spain

Pantaflix

German pay-per-view platform with no subscription

#7 for replacing Netflix
Germany

Key takeaways

  • Not one of these seven services is a replacement for Netflix, and any page that suggests otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
  • Netflix already meets the EU requirement that 30% of an on-demand catalogue be European works, so "no European content" is not the reason to move.
  • Netflix International B.V. in Amsterdam is the EU controller and the Dutch regulator fined it €4.75 million in December 2024, so this incumbent is neither out of reach nor unsupervised.
  • Rakuten TV and Pantaflix charge per film, which for a household that watches twice a month costs less than any subscription on this page.
  • ARTE is free, carries no advertising and needs no account for most of what it shows, so it costs nothing to test before you cancel anything.

Why people leave Netflix

Begin with the part most comparison pages skip: none of the seven services below replaces Netflix, and anyone who switches expecting the same thing in a European accent will be back within a month. Netflix has the largest catalogue, the best apps and the deepest slate of original drama, and nothing made in Europe competes with that on volume.

People leave anyway, and almost always over the invoice. In Germany the September 2026 increase took the ad-supported plan from €4.99 to €6.99, the ad-free Standard plan from €13.99 to €15.99 and Premium from €19.99 to €21.99, with the ad-supported extra member going from €3.99 to €4.99 and the ad-free one from €4.99 to €5.99.

The ad-free Basic tier, long unavailable to new customers, is being phased out rather than repriced. It was the first German increase since April 2024, and nothing was added in exchange: resolution, simultaneous streams and download limits are all unchanged.

The second reason is quieter and harder to argue with: a household paying every month for something it opens twice. That is not a complaint about Netflix, it is a complaint about subscriptions, and two of the services here answer it by not selling one.

  • The price goes up and the product does not change The German increase of September 2026 arrived with no new tier, no extra resolution and no added feature: the maximum resolution, the number of simultaneous streams and the download allowances are all exactly what they were. The ad-free Basic plan, which was the cheap way to watch without advertising, is being phased out rather than repriced — so the only route below €15.99 in Germany now has advertisements in it. When a service charges more for the same thing, the question stops being whether it is good and becomes whether you watch it enough.
  • A recommendation engine is not a programmer Netflix decides what you see next by predicting what will keep you watching, which is an honest description of the business rather than an accusation. The consequence is that the interface is optimised for the next thirty seconds rather than for the next two hours. MUBI and Filmin both start from the opposite premise, that somebody should have chosen the film on editorial grounds, and for a certain kind of viewer that single difference is worth more than ten thousand extra titles.
  • The European quota is met by licensing, not by commissioning Article 13 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive requires on-demand catalogues in the EU to be at least 30% European works, and Netflix reached that in almost every European market by April 2022. That obligation is about shelf space, not about what gets made: it can be satisfied with licensed back catalogue. If what you want is Nordic drama commissioned in Nordic languages, or Dutch television made for Dutch viewers, a shelf-space rule does not produce it and a national broadcaster does.
  • Live rights are simply not for sale to a catalogue Football, motorsport and ice hockey are licensed country by country to whoever bid, and no amount of catalogue depth substitutes for a match that happens once. This is the one gap on this page that Netflix cannot close by spending more, and it is why Viaplay exists in northern Europe rather than being competed away.

What you have to replace, not just match

Work out which Netflix you are actually cancelling, because the label covers at least four different habits and each one has a different answer.

There is background television, the thing that goes on at nine in the evening because something has to. There is appointment viewing, a series everybody is following. There is the film you deliberately chose. And there is the documentary you meant to watch and never did. Only the second of these genuinely depends on a large catalogue.

Most households that leave successfully end up with two things rather than one: ARTE, which costs nothing at all, plus one paid service matched to the habit that actually survived the cancellation. A household that replaces a €15.99 subscription with three €8 subscriptions has not left Netflix, it has bought more of it.

The alternatives compared

European Netflix alternatives, in the order this page ranks them, compared on headquarters, pricing and jurisdiction
PositionToolHeadquartersPricingJurisdiction
#1 MUBI London, United Kingdom From about €12/month; MUBI Go tier higher United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA)
#2 ARTE Strasbourg, France Free, funded by French and German public broadcasting EU (France and Germany)
#3 Filmin Barcelona, Spain From about €8/month EU (Spain)
#4 Viaplay Stockholm, Sweden From about €10/month; sport tiers higher EU (Sweden)
#5 Videoland Hilversum, Netherlands From about €8/month EU (Netherlands)
#6 Rakuten TV Barcelona, Spain Free with ads; rentals from about €3 EU (Spain), Japanese parent company
#7 Pantaflix Munich, Germany Per title, typically from about €3 EU (Germany)

How each alternative compares to Netflix

#1

MUBI

the one that chooses for you on editorial grounds

London, United KingdomFrom about €12/month; MUBI Go tier higher#1 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. UK/EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Viewers whose real complaint is the twenty minutes spent scrolling

MUBI attacks the part of Netflix that people complain about without naming it: the moment where the catalogue is enormous and nothing gets watched. Its selection is small, hand-picked by programmers and changed regularly, and the interface has no infinite feed to fall into. Where Netflix predicts what will hold your attention, MUBI publishes what someone decided was worth your evening.

It also does two things Netflix has no equivalent for. The Notebook is a film journal with actual criticism rather than promotional copy, so a film arrives with context attached. And MUBI Go hands you a cinema ticket every week for a chosen release, which makes it the only subscription on this page that gets you out of the house — assuming you live near a participating cinema, which is a real condition rather than a footnote.

From about €12 a month, MUBI Ltd has run this from London since 2007. Against Netflix the arithmetic is awkward: you pay nearly the same as ad-free Standard in Germany for a fraction of the titles, and the ones you did not get to leave. It works as the subscription beside a free service, not as the only one in the house.

What MUBI does better than Netflix

  • Films chosen by programmers rather than ranked by a retention model
  • A weekly cinema ticket through MUBI Go, which no streaming service offers
  • Real film criticism in The Notebook rather than marketing copy around each title
  • A production and distribution arm of its own, so part of the catalogue is work MUBI released itself
  • No endless feed engineered to keep the evening going

Where MUBI is a step down from Netflix

  • A tiny rotating catalogue where Netflix has tens of thousands of titles
  • Nothing for a family evening and no big-budget series at all
  • About €12 a month for far less content than Netflix at a similar price
  • A London company, so outside the EEA under an adequacy decision

Standout against Netflix. It is the only service here that sends you to a cinema rather than competing for the sofa Netflix already owns.

mubi.com Visit MUBI
#2

ARTE

the free one to try before you cancel anything

Strasbourg, FranceFree, funded by French and German public broadcasting#2 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (France and Germany). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Households whose Netflix is mostly documentaries they meant to watch

ARTE costs nothing, carries no advertising, and for documentary, investigative journalism, concerts and European cinema it routinely beats what Netflix charges for. Two public broadcasters pay for it, so nothing is commissioned against a retention target and nobody is building a profile of you while it plays.

Most of it plays without an account, in six European languages, from ARTE G.E.I.E. in Strasbourg. Against a €15.99 Netflix bill the comparison is not close for this specific category of viewing, and testing it costs nothing but an evening — which is why it belongs first in any plan to leave rather than last.

The limits are about rights rather than ambition. Titles are available for a window and then go; parts of the catalogue are locked by country; and drama series and children's programming barely exist here. ARTE is the free half of a two-part answer, never the whole one.

What ARTE does better than Netflix

  • Free with no advertising, where Netflix now charges €15.99 in Germany for its cheapest ad-free plan
  • Publicly funded, so nothing is commissioned to maximise watch time
  • No account required for most programmes, and no profile built while you watch
  • Documentary, investigation and concert output that Netflix does not commission at this depth
  • Six European languages rather than a localised global catalogue

Where ARTE is a step down from Netflix

  • Rolling availability windows, so programmes expire instead of staying
  • No drama series and no children's content, which is half of what a household uses Netflix for
  • Some titles geo-restricted by rights even within Europe
  • Not an entertainment service, and never claimed to be

Standout against Netflix. It is the only thing on this page you can test tonight without paying or cancelling anything, which makes it the sensible first step.

arte.tv Visit ARTE
#3

Filmin

the one with a catalogue that stays put

Barcelona, SpainFrom about €8/month#3 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (Spain). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: People working through a director, a country or a list

Filmin holds thousands of European and independent titles and, crucially, keeps them. That is the difference between it and MUBI, and against Netflix it matters for a specific reason: Netflix licences expire, so a film you were saving vanishes with no notice and no explanation. On Filmin the thing you added to a list is still there when you get to it.

Independent distributors set it up in Barcelona in 2007, and what gets bought still reflects that: subtitles rather than dubbing, collections put together by people who have seen the films, and online editions of festivals including Atlántida for viewers who cannot travel to one. From about €8 a month with EU processing.

The honest constraints are geographic and practical. Availability is strongest in Spain and Portugal and much thinner elsewhere, the interface is primarily in Spanish, the apps are less polished than Netflix's, and there is very little mainstream or family viewing. This is a serious film service, not a household one.

What Filmin does better than Netflix

  • A permanent catalogue, where Netflix licences lapse and titles disappear without warning
  • Thousands of European and independent films rather than a 30% quota filled with licensed back catalogue
  • Original language with subtitles as the default rather than dubbed versions
  • Online film festivals including Atlántida, which has no Netflix equivalent
  • About €8 a month against €15.99 for ad-free Netflix in Germany

Where Filmin is a step down from Netflix

  • Availability limited outside Spain and Portugal
  • Interface primarily in Spanish, which is a real barrier elsewhere
  • Apps noticeably less polished than Netflix's
  • Almost nothing mainstream and nothing for children

Standout against Netflix. It is the only service here that guarantees the film is still there next month, which is the quiet frustration of every Netflix watchlist.

filmin.es Visit Filmin
#4

Viaplay

the one holding something Netflix cannot buy

Stockholm, SwedenFrom about €10/month; sport tiers higher#4 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (Sweden). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Northern European households that watch live sport or Nordic drama

Viaplay owns national rights to football, motorsport and ice hockey, and that is a category Netflix cannot reach by spending more on originals. A match is not content, it is an event, and rights are sold market by market to whoever bid. If live sport is part of why the television is on, no catalogue anywhere replaces this.

The drama half is the other thing a global commissioner structurally cannot do. Viaplay commissions original series in Nordic languages and holds the crime drama that first carried the region's television abroad, across four of them. Viaplay Group AB operates from Stockholm, from about €10 a month with sport in higher tiers, with downloads, profiles and live channels.

Two warnings belong in front rather than in a footnote. Rights and catalogue differ sharply between countries, so a Swedish subscription and a Danish one are genuinely different purchases. And Viaplay went through a financial restructuring and pulled out of several countries, which belongs in the decision before you sign for twelve months.

What Viaplay does better than Netflix

  • National rights to live football, motorsport and ice hockey, a category Netflix simply does not sell
  • Nordic original drama commissioned in Nordic languages rather than localised afterwards
  • Swedish company under EU jurisdiction, with content across four Nordic languages
  • Live channels alongside on-demand, which is a different product from a catalogue
  • From about €10 a month for the entry tier

Where Viaplay is a step down from Netflix

  • Catalogue and rights vary sharply by country, so it is not one product
  • A recent financial restructuring and exits from several markets
  • Thin outside the Nordics, where Netflix is the same everywhere
  • Sport tiers push the monthly cost well past Netflix Premium

Standout against Netflix. It is the only service on this page selling something that happens once, which is the one thing a bigger catalogue can never answer.

viaplay.com Visit Viaplay
#5

Videoland

the one making television in the language people speak at home

Hilversum, NetherlandsFrom about €8/month#5 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (Netherlands). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Dutch households that want programmes rather than a catalogue

Videoland exists because a worldwide commissioner makes programmes for a worldwide audience and localises them afterwards, and that is not the same product as television written in Dutch for a Dutch audience. Netflix satisfies its European obligation without commissioning much of that; RTL Nederland commissions it because that is the whole business.

The broadcaster and the platform are the same company, operating from Hilversum, so RTL programming is available rather than licensed to somebody else. Household basics are covered properly: offline downloads, kids profiles and several simultaneous streams, from about €8 a month with EU processing. For a family that was paying Netflix mostly for the children's profile and the odd Dutch series, this replaces more than it looks like it would.

Outside Dutch-speaking markets almost none of that applies. The catalogue is a fraction of Netflix's, the international titles are padding rather than a draw, and in most households this ends up kept alongside something else rather than instead of it.

What Videoland does better than Netflix

  • Dutch original series and RTL programming that Netflix does not commission
  • The broadcaster owns the platform, so its own catalogue is not licensed away
  • Kids profiles and multiple simultaneous streams at about €8, half the German price of ad-free Netflix
  • Dutch company under EU jurisdiction with EU processing
  • Offline downloads for travelling, the same household feature people keep Netflix for

Where Videoland is a step down from Netflix

  • A much smaller catalogue than Netflix in every genre
  • Value collapses outside the Netherlands and Flanders
  • The international titles are padding; nobody signs up for them
  • Usually ends up beside another subscription rather than replacing one

Standout against Netflix. It is the only service here where the company that made the programme also runs the platform showing it.

videoland.com Visit Videoland
#6

Rakuten TV

the one that removes the monthly invoice entirely

Barcelona, SpainFree with ads; rentals from about €3#6 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (Spain), Japanese parent company. Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Households that watch a couple of films a month and resent paying twelve times a year

Rakuten TV attacks the subscription rather than the catalogue. New releases rent from about €3 in 4K and HDR, free advertising-supported channels cover the evenings when nothing was planned, and anything you buy stays in your library instead of expiring when a licence lapses — which is precisely what happens to a Netflix title you liked.

For occasional viewing the arithmetic settles it. Two rentals a month sits under €7 against €15.99 for ad-free Netflix in Germany, and there is no renewal date to forget. Coverage is unusually wide for a European service, running in more than forty European markets, so it survives moving house or working in another country.

One fact deserves the top of the entry rather than a footnote. The service is run out of Barcelona and processes within the EU; the group that owns it, Rakuten, is Japanese. Run in Europe, owned outside it — and if ownership is the reason you opened this page, that distinction is the whole answer. Rentals also stop being cheap once you watch weekly, and the free channels vary a great deal in quality.

What Rakuten TV does better than Netflix

  • No subscription at all, against a Netflix bill that went up again in September 2026 for an unchanged product
  • Purchases stay in your library permanently instead of disappearing when a licence ends
  • Recent films in 4K and HDR from roughly €3, frequently ahead of any subscription window
  • Free advertising-supported channels at no cost, where Netflix's cheap tier now costs €6.99 in Germany
  • Available in more than forty European markets, so it travels

Where Rakuten TV is a step down from Netflix

  • Japanese parent company, so European operation rather than European ownership
  • More expensive than Netflix for anyone who watches several times a week
  • No original commissioning, so nothing here exists only on Rakuten TV
  • Quality of the free channels varies considerably

Standout against Netflix. Buy a film here and it stays bought, which is a sentence no subscription service anywhere can produce.

rakuten.tv Visit Rakuten TV
#7

Pantaflix

the one with nothing to cancel

Munich, GermanyPer title, typically from about €3#7 in Video Streaming

  • Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Netflix is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
  • Where the data sits. EU.
  • Source code. Closed source, as Netflix is.

Best for: Viewers who arrive with the name of a German or independent film already in mind

There is no subscription, no tier and no renewal date. You pay for one film, usually from around €3, and nothing else happens. Against a service that has just put its monthly price up again, the appeal is not the catalogue but the absence of a recurring charge for something used four times a year.

Pantaflix AG runs from Munich and processes inside the EU, with a catalogue weighted towards German cinema and international titles offered in the original language. The other half of the platform is aimed at a different group altogether. Filmmakers can distribute through it directly, which for independent German cinema means not waiting on a distributor to rule on whether a film is commercial enough to exist.

This is a small platform and the page ranks it last for that reason. The catalogue is thin and patchy, so the film you came for may simply be absent; the commercial history behind it has been bumpy; and anyone watching weekly overtakes a subscription on per-title fees within a couple of months. Treat it as somewhere to check for a specific title, not as a destination.

What Pantaflix does better than Netflix

  • Nothing recurring, so there is no annual increase to absorb and nothing to cancel
  • Pay only for the films you actually watch rather than for a catalogue you do not open
  • German and independent cinema that a global catalogue has no reason to carry
  • A direct distribution route for filmmakers, which no subscription service offers
  • German company with EU processing

Where Pantaflix is a step down from Netflix

  • A small and uneven catalogue, so the title you want may simply be missing
  • More expensive than Netflix for anyone watching weekly
  • A turbulent commercial history, which matters if you buy rather than rent
  • No household features to speak of next to Netflix profiles and downloads

Standout against Netflix. There is no commitment of any kind to walk away from, because nothing recurring was ever set up.

pantaflix.com Visit Pantaflix

What actually breaks when you switch

The watchlist does not come with you, and neither does anything else. There is no export from Netflix that another service can read, so profiles, continue-watching positions and years of ratings end at cancellation. Write down the five things you were genuinely going to watch, because that list is the only part worth carrying across.

Expect the household argument rather than a technical one. Somebody in the house is mid-series, somebody else uses the children's profile daily, and neither is interested in jurisdiction or curation. Run the replacement in parallel for one billing month before cancelling, because a switch that is announced rather than tested usually gets reversed within a fortnight.

And check that the service is actually sold where you live before you pay for a year. Rights in this market are licensed country by country, so a Spanish or Nordic service can be excellent and still show you a much smaller catalogue from a different address. This is the most common way these switches disappoint, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the service.

Is there a privacy or jurisdiction reason to leave Netflix?

Much less than this directory usually finds, and it is worth saying plainly rather than stretching an argument to fit. Netflix runs its European operation from Amsterdam: Netflix International B.V. is the controller for personal data processed in the EU, which makes the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens its lead supervisory authority under the one-stop-shop mechanism.

That supervision is real rather than nominal. In December 2024 the Dutch regulator fined Netflix €4.75 million for failing to tell customers clearly enough, between 2018 and 2020, what it did with their data, who received it, how long it was kept and on what basis it left Europe. Netflix has since rewritten the privacy statement. A regulator that can investigate, fine and require a change is the opposite of a company being out of reach.

What you are handing over is also different in kind from a work account. A streaming service holds a viewing history and a payment method, not your client files. If your reason for reading this directory is corporate data sovereignty, this is not the page where that argument applies, and pretending otherwise would devalue the pages where it does.

Will cancelling actually save money?

Only if you resist replacing one subscription with three. A German household paying €15.99 for ad-free Standard that adds Filmin at about €8 and Viaplay at about €10 has increased its monthly spend by roughly €2 while losing the catalogue.

The versions that genuinely save money are the ones that break the monthly habit. Rakuten TV rents new releases from about €3 and runs free advertising-supported channels; Pantaflix charges per title from about €3 and has nothing to cancel because nothing recurs. Two rentals a month is under €7.

ARTE is the other honest saving, because it is funded by French and German public broadcasting and costs nothing. For documentary, concert and arts programming it is frequently better than what you were paying for, which makes it the first thing to try rather than the last.

Do these services work outside their home country?

Unevenly, and this is the detail that ruins more of these switches than catalogue size does. Filmin is strongest in Spain and Portugal and thinner elsewhere. Videoland is built for Dutch-speaking viewers and loses most of its point outside the Netherlands and Flanders. Viaplay varies sharply between Nordic markets, so a Swedish subscription and a Danish one are not the same product.

The exceptions are the ones designed to travel. Rakuten TV operates in more than forty European markets, ARTE runs in six languages and MUBI works across Europe, which is why those three end up in more households than the national services.

Check availability where you actually live before paying for anything annual. A service being European does not mean it is available in your part of Europe, and rights are sold country by country regardless of who owns the platform.

Is a curated catalogue genuinely better, or just smaller?

It is smaller, and whether that is better depends on a habit you can test in a week. If you open Netflix knowing what you want to watch, curation buys you nothing and you should keep the bigger catalogue. If you open it and scroll, a service where somebody already chose is solving your actual problem.

MUBI is the sharpest version: a small hand-picked selection that rotates, plus The Notebook for real criticism and, near a participating cinema, a weekly ticket through MUBI Go. Filmin is the version that keeps things — thousands of European and independent titles held permanently, so a film you added to a list is still there next month.

The trade is that rotation means loss. On MUBI something you meant to watch will disappear, which is the price of the selection being small enough to have been chosen at all.

Which one to pick

If you are leaving because the bill went up twice for the same product, the honest answer is not another subscription. Take ARTE, which is free, and add Rakuten TV or Pantaflix so you pay per film. For a household watching a few times a month that is a genuine saving rather than a rearrangement.

If you are leaving because scrolling has replaced watching, MUBI is the direct answer and Filmin is the patient one — MUBI chooses for you and lets the choice expire, Filmin keeps everything and expects you to know what you are after.

If you are in northern Europe and the television is on for a match, Viaplay is the only option here and the only one anywhere, because those rights were bought in your country and cannot be reached from a catalogue. Dutch households wanting programmes in Dutch should look at Videoland on exactly the same logic.

And if your household follows several big-budget series and has children who use the profile every day, keep Netflix. This page is not going to pretend that seven services between them add up to that, and the argument for leaving was never that Netflix broke a rule.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start with ARTE, because it is free and answers the documentary habit outright.

Then add one paid service chosen against what you actually watch: MUBI if you want someone to choose for you, Filmin if you want the deepest European film catalogue, Viaplay if you want Nordic drama or a live match, Videoland if you want Dutch programming, Rakuten TV or Pantaflix if paying per film suits you better than paying per month. Picking two is normal; picking four means you have not cancelled anything.

Yes, and it is legally required to. Article 13 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive obliges on-demand services in the EU to hold at least 30% European works in their catalogues and to give them prominence, and Netflix reached that threshold in almost all European markets by April 2022. Several member states go further: France imposes both a higher share and an investment obligation. So catalogue share is a poor reason to leave.

In Germany after the September 2026 increase: €6.99 a month for Standard with advertising, €15.99 for ad-free Standard and €21.99 for Premium, with extra members at €4.99 and €5.99. The ad-free Basic plan is being phased out rather than repriced, so the cheapest way to watch without advertisements is now the €15.99 tier. Prices differ by country, but the direction has been the same everywhere.

Fully. Netflix has its main European establishment in Amsterdam and Netflix International B.V. is the controller for EU personal data, which makes the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens the lead supervisory authority. In December 2024 that authority fined Netflix €4.75 million over transparency failures between 2018 and 2020. This is one incumbent in this directory where the regulator has already acted and the company has already changed the document.

Viaplay, and only Viaplay. It holds national rights to football, motorsport and ice hockey across northern Europe, and that is the one thing here a back catalogue cannot stand in for: the match is played once and then it is over. Rights vary sharply between countries and sport sits in higher-priced tiers, so check what is actually licensed where you live before subscribing.

ARTE costs nothing, carries no advertising whatsoever because two public broadcasters pay for it, and most of the catalogue starts playing without an account. Rakuten TV runs free advertising-supported channels alongside its rentals. Everything else here is paid, either monthly or per title.

Yes, on two of them. Rakuten TV rents new releases from about €3 in 4K and HDR and lets purchases stay in your library permanently, and Pantaflix sells access per title from about €3 with no account commitment at all. Two films a month works out below every subscription on this page, and no renewal date ever arrives to be forgotten.

Most, with two qualifications worth knowing. ARTE answers to Paris and Strasbourg, Filmin to Barcelona, Viaplay to Stockholm, Videoland to RTL in Hilversum, Pantaflix to Munich. MUBI is a London company, which since Brexit puts it beyond the EEA and reliant on an adequacy decision. And Rakuten TV runs from Barcelona and processes inside the EU while the group that owns it, Rakuten, is Japanese: run in Europe, owned outside it.

The big-budget original series, first. Nothing on this page commissions drama at that scale, and if your household is following three of them the honest answer is to stay. Second, family and children's programming, which ARTE does not carry and the film services barely touch. Third, downloads and profiles at Netflix's level of polish, though Viaplay and Videoland both cover the household basics well.

Who worked on this review

Three people touch every comparison page: one writes it, a second edits it, and a third checks the compliance and pricing claims against the vendor's own documentation.

Ingrid Halvorsen
Written by

Ingrid Halvorsen

Managing Editor · Oslo, Norway

Runs the review process and decides when a page is ready to publish or needs another pass.

Marta Kowalczyk
Edited by

Marta Kowalczyk

Senior Analyst, Infrastructure & Developer Tools · Warsaw, Poland

Covers hosting, developer tooling and the practical side of moving workloads to European providers.

Daniel Brandt
Fact-checked by

Daniel Brandt

Privacy & Compliance Researcher · Berlin, Germany

Checks the compliance claims: where the company is established, where the data sits, and what the DPA actually says.

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