Updated Feb. 22, 2024 7:00 p.m. PT
Written by
Alison DeNisco Rayome
Kourtnee Jackson
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Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
Expertise Home Tips, including cooking, cleaning and appliances hacks Credentials
- National Silver Azbee Award for Impact/Investigative Journalism; National Gold Azbee Award for Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team; National Bronze Azbee Award for Web Feature Series
Kourtnee Jackson Senior Editor
Kourtnee covers TV streaming services and home entertainment news and reviews at CNET. She previously worked as an entertainment reporter at Showbiz Cheat Sheet where she wrote about film, television, music, celebrities, and streaming platforms.
Expertise Kourtnee is a longtime cord-cutter who’s subscribed to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Crunchyroll, Sling, Spotify and more. As a real-life user of these services, she tracks the latest developments in streaming, the newest re Credentials
- Though Kourtnee hasn’t won any journalism awards yet, she’s been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes.
Why You Can Trust CNET
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Whether its the cost of household staples going up, or the fact that you have a bunch of subscriptions you’re not using, cancelling subscriptions may be a good way to save some dollars. If your subscriptions for streaming, groceries and other services are on the chopping block, you may need replacements. And what’s better than f-r-e-e?
A lot of subscription-based apps like Netflix are raising prices while offering new choices like a cheaper, ad-based tier. And Peloton raised its subscription prices back in June 2022 (while lowering the up-front cost of buying a bike). As this trend of increasing prices continues, it may be prudent to cut down on those services you may not be using to the maximum.
The good thing is, many of the services you’re paying for — including Hulu, Apple Music, Grubhub and DoorDash — can be swapped for free alternatives. You might not get the exact same experience, but you can often get pretty close. And it might be worth trying if it allows you to stretch your budget further.
There’s one downside, though — many of these free services are ad-supported, which is how they’re able to stay free. They also won’t let you download content to watch or listen to them offline. But some have deals and decent free trials that you can take advantage of now.
Here’s how to replace many of the services you pay for with the best free subscription services we’ve found.
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