Zattoo

Zattoo does something none of the other services here do: it streams live linear TV channels over the internet with cloud recording and multi-day replay, aimed squarely at replacing an aerial, satellite dish or cable box rather than building a film library. It carries channels from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and further afield, and — unusually for this category — offers a genuinely free ad-supported tier with no subscription needed at all, alongside paid tiers with more channels and recording.

Zattoo AG is registered in Zürich, active in the Swiss central commercial register under UID CHE-113.854.561. Paid tiers run from about €6.99 a month for Smart HD, €9.99 for HiQ and €13.99 for Ultimate, each with a 30-day free trial before billing starts, and monthly cancellation throughout.

The honest caveat is jurisdiction: Switzerland sits outside both the EU and the EEA, covered by an adequacy decision rather than membership, which matters if that distinction is the point of shortlisting European services. The free tier is also capped at 30 hours a month, and because Zattoo is a channel replacement rather than a curated library, it carries little original content of its own — the opposite trade-off to MUBI or Filmin.

What Zattoo does well

• Free ad-supported tier with no subscription required
• Live channels from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and more
• Cloud recording and multi-day replay on paid tiers
• 30-day free trial on every paid subscription
• Independent Swiss company, active in the Zürich commercial register

Where Zattoo falls short

• Switzerland sits outside the EU and EEA, though GDPR-adequate
• Free tier capped at 30 hours of viewing a month
• Little original content — a channel replacement, not a library
• Channel line-up varies by country

Standout feature. Zattoo's free tier needs no subscription at all: 30 hours of live European television a month at no cost.