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The company is notorious for frequent price hikes.
Movie fans of a certain age may vividly remember the sad, somewhat rapid decline of the old video store. Whether your store of choice was the nearest Blockbuster or an independent shop, you probably smile at the nostalgia of heading to the video store on a Friday or Saturday night, anxiously hoping that a copy of the hottest new release was in stock. Or, better yet, just returned by another renter so you could swoop in and snag the last one.
Then streaming came along, and video stores around the world began fading into irrelevance, with locations closing as streaming services continued to grow in popularity. In 2006, Blockbuster — the undisputed king of video rental stores — made a last-ditch effort to stay current by offering Total Access, which allowed customers to exchange their mail-ordered DVD rentals in physical stores.
If you've only ever known Netflix as a streaming service on your smart TV, tablet or phone, you might find it interesting that, in 2007, Netflix could only be streamed on a Windows PC with Internet Explorer. And the video quality wasn't great. After all, high-definition (720p and 1080i) was just starting to take off as a mainstream viewing format in 2007. Netflix's streaming library of roughly 1,000 titles was pretty lean, as well. Its first original series was still five years away, and the first original Netflix movie didn't debut until 2015. But none of this stopped its prices from increasing — a true Netflix staple.
Over the next decade, Netflix added some new plans like Premium, Standard, Basic, Standard-definition-only, Basic with ads, Ad-Free and other iterations. And with those plans typically came annual price hikes, usually ranging from $1 to $3 more per month depending on the plan.
Today, Netflix offers three plans. Standard with ads costs $8.99 per month and includes ad-supported access to most (but not all) shows and movies in the Netflix catalog, with the ability to stream and download in 1080p HD on two supported devices at a time.
The Standard plan is $19.99 per month and includes everything in the Standard with ads package (minus the ads, of course), but with completely unlimited access to Netflix TV shows, movies and games. It also offers the option to add one extra member who doesn't live with you to the plan for another $7.99 per month to let them endure commercials, or $9.99 a month for the ad-free experience.
Finally, the Premium plan costs $26.99 monthly and offers unlimited access to the entire Netflix library, with video available in 4K Ultra HD + HDR with Netflix spatial audio, the ability to watch Netflix on four supported devices simultaneously and download on six supported devices, and the option to add up to two more members who don't reside with you for the same respective add-on prices per month as Standard.
Netflix has become notorious for its near-annual price hikes over the past 20 years. But if you really analyze what you get today compared to what you got in 2007, one could argue that today's plans give you better value for your money. Of course prices have increased since 2007. It's been 20 years, and our economy has been put through the wringer a number of times during that span.