The Top 6 Streaming Apps For Kids: Which One Is Best?

The lowdown: Fuhu, maker of kid-friendly Nabi tablets, has come out with its own subscription service that includes movies, TV, educational games, and music—all designed exclusively for kids. Content is refreshed regularly, and includes the hard-to-find Disney stuff young ones generally crave. An added bonus is its “Wings Unlimited” program, which acts as a supplemental educational tool based on your child’s age and grade level, and provides lessons, tutoring, and a parental tool that shows you how your child is doing in various subjects.

Cons: Like Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, this service is only available on Nabi devices, so if you want this service and you don’t have one of their tablets, you’ll have to buy one—and they usually cost nearly as much as a tablet you’d buy for yourself!

The lowdown: If you want your child to be watching primarily educational content, then you should consider this free service from PBS. Available on the web or as an app, PBS Kids Video lets kids watch clips and full episodes from their favorite PBS shows, like Curious George, Sesame Street, and more, by simply browsing the tab on the side of the screen and selecting a character to start watching. Parents can get information on the show’s educational offerings (like what skills are being taught in an episode). If you’re interested in having your child watch videos on a particular subject, you can search by educational category and find all the shows that will teach you about math, sharing, etc.

Cons: Common Sense Media points out that PBS Kids Video is set up so that videos automatically play one after the other without any kind of break, so a kid could burn through a lot of screen time without your realizing it.

The lowdown: This subscription service harnesses the crazy amounts of content available on Amazon for kids, including TV, movies, books, games, and apps, and puts it into one kid-friendly service. There are no ads, and no in-app purchases, so you don’t have to worry about kids randomly buying things on your dime. The service also allows parents to set time limits, block access to certain kinds of content at certain times, and prevent kids from accessing social media or the internet while in use. All content is especially curated for kids ages 3-10.

Cons: Only available on Amazon products (Kindle Fire, Amazon Fire TV, etc), so if you use any other kind of device, you’re out of luck. Plus, if you have a Prime account, you still have to pay extra for FreeTime Unlimited (it’s not included in the steep membership fee, although Prime members apparently get a discount).

The lowdown: Like Netflix Kids, Hulu Kids is included in your monthly subscription and compiles all of their kid-friendly content in one place. (There is some free stuff if you don’t have a Hulu Plus account, but it’s VERY limited). Expect to see newer releases of current shows, as opposed to Netflix’s older offerings. Plus, Hulu Kids is the only place on the Hulu site without ads. As far as content, they carry a variety of shows, including the essentials (Hey Arnold, anyone?) as well as some original content by Hulu made just for kids.

Cons: Content is only exclusively for kids if you’re accessing with your Hulu Plus subscription (as in, there’s no way to restrict certain kinds of shows if you don’t have an account).

The lowdown: Netflix Kids is a subsection of the Netflix site and app that is just part of your normal Netflix subscription—which means there’s no extra fee to access kids’ content all compiled in one place. After opening the site or app and logging in, select “Kids” upon seeing the question “Who’s Watching.” Kids can then browse by their favorite characters and series, as well as by interest (“Girl Power,” “Talking Animals,” “Based on Books”).

Cons: While the Kids subsection is relatively self-contained, the controls are probably “crackable” by older kids—it’s not super hard to switch between the main account and the Kids section. However, if you’re worried about young ones wandering around and watching what they shouldn’t, Netflix recommends making your child a separate profile that can ONLY access kids’ content. Another con (or pro, depending on your point of view) is the service’s auto-play feature, which automatically starts another related cartoon or movie within 15 seconds after the current episode or movie ends. Binge-watching Curious George probably shouldn’t be this easy.

The lowdown: Disney movies can be hard to find on most traditional streaming services (a major bummer for anyone as obsessed with Beauty and the Beast as me). Thankfully there's a solution: Disney Movies Anywhere, a streaming service exclusively for Disney, Marvel, and Pixar films. Buy your movies digitally through the site (or free app) à la carte, which you can then access from any of your devices. Your purchases will accrue Disney Rewards Points, and obviously all the content is kid-friendly.

Cons: You literally get what you pay for—there's no subscription fee, but that also means your collection is only as good as what you buy.

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