Amazon Prime isn't worth it anymore

Key Takeaways

Price hikes contributing to dissatisfaction with Amazon Prime
Services stagnation affecting the overall value for consumers
Periodic subscription for specific services can offer cost savings.

Like it or not, Amazon has become a big part of our everyday life, and the days of it being just an online bookstore are long gone. While the storefront has its share of criticisms, many of them fair, it’s still a platform that thousands of people use each day. I’ve been a member of Prime for as long as I can remember thanks to free shipping. When Prime Video started being included, I just looked at it as a cherry on top.

Admittedly, I don’t watch a ton of what Prime Video has to offer these days, so it’s not really a main selling point for me. However, I did watch and enjoy Invincible along with a few of its movies, so it’s not like the service has been a total miss. Seeing things like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos locked behind the most expensive tier is an annoyance, and it ended up being a tipping point for me. Since I have a setup that gives me both Dolby Vision and Atmos, I like to watch things at the best quality I can when possible, so having to pay more didn’t sit well. Coupled with the fact that I’m trying to buy less from Amazon and not more, and I already don’t watch a lot of Prime Video shows or movies, I decided to cut Prime out of my life.

Amazon Prime Video

Simultaneous streams: 3
# of profiles: 6
Originals: Yes
Live TV: Limited (some add-on channels offer live TV)
Price: $8.99 per month by itself or $14.99 per month as a part of Prime
Free trial: 30 days (to Amazon Prime)
Ad plans: No

Canceling your Netflix, Adobe, and Prime is about to get a whole lot easier

The FTC has issued a new ruling called “Click-to-Cancel” which will require companies to make it easier for consumers to cancel their subscriptions.

I don’t even miss Amazon Prime anymore

A clean break

At first, I thought I would feel a big void in my life after getting rid of Prime. While I didn’t watch Prime Video often, I usually made a Prime Day Delivery each week filled with all sorts of strange findings. What I quickly noticed is that life goes on, and the biggest perk of free shipping is hardly a factor for me. My typical Amazon orders come in at more than $35, so I still find myself eligible for free shipping more times than not. While it hasn’t been a personal problem for me, I’ve seen numerous people complain about the two-day shipping turning into three, four, or even five-day shipping without an explanation. A big perk of Prime is the two-day shipping, and when it’s not working as intended it can obviously be frustrating.

Same day shipping isn’t available everywhere.

The biggest hit is when I notice I’m low on dog treats and need to get them for same-day or overnight delivery. I instead have to leave the house and head over to Pet Supplies Plus to pick up a new bag. As somebody who is fully work from home, getting out of the house for a few minutes like that isn’t all that bad, so it’s actually a hidden benefit in some ways. As is the case with many services of late, increasing prices played a big factor in me giving Prime the boot. It’s not that I can’t afford it, but having to pay $15 a month for every streaming service I have really adds up, and it forced me to make some decisions.

How I use Amazon price-history checkers to spot fake Prime Day deals

Check out how Camel Camel Camel and Keepa browser extensions can help you determine the best prices.

Price goes up while the value stays the same

A big price to pay

Amazon Prime Video on a TV on a colored background

Amazon/Pocket-lint

On the surface, $14.99 a month for Prime isn’t too crazy if you use it all the time. There are all sorts of things available, and the free book on Kindle each month was always a favorite of mine. Prime Gaming rewards are nice benefit if you’re aware of them, but my experience has been receiving a bunch of free games I already owned from years before or just things I’m not interested in. Perhaps the biggest of all is that many services started to increase in price around the same time, and in many cases, the price went up, but my experience stayed the same. Netflix, Max, and Prime Video all raised their prices for the ad-free tiers in 2024.

When Prime introduced an ad tier, the price of the service remained the same, but the experience just got worse. Let’s face it, nobody likes ads, and suddenly have to spring for a more expensive tier to ditch ads on a service isn’t great. The jump was $2.99, and when you couple that with a service I don’t use every day, it made it easy for me to leave the service completely. I’m not saying Amazon Prime is a terrible service, because it’s not, but I’m saying the value isn’t the same as it was just a few years ago.

I’ve seen numerous people complain about the two-day shipping turning into three, four, or even five-day shipping without an explanation.

As for Prime on its own, it feels like the service has been stagnant for years. Even Prime Day doesn’t feel the same as it used to, and the sales you frequently see are the same products that go on sale throughout the year. This is bound to happen with sales, and it’s a similar feeling gamers have with the Steam sales no longer being as big as they once were. The world changes, and over time you have to ask yourself if what you’re paying for is worth it too. For me, Amazon Prime is no longer worth the monthly payment. Does it mean I’ll no longer use Amazon? No, but it does mean I’ll use it a lot less than I did.

Can you get any free Kindle books free with Amazon Prime?

Not too surprisingly, Amazon wants to give you every excuse to get hooked.

How Amazon Prime can win me back again

Simple, but unlikely

Amazon

Price is the biggest factor I have in how I determine the value of a service. If the prices keep going up and the service stays the same, it’s hard for me to justify sticking around. With Prime Day deals not being as good as they used to be and the content on Prime Video overall not interesting me, it’s an easy choice for me to leave the service. A price decrease is the easy way to win me back, but I fear that the ship has sailed. There are some bright sides to this, however.

Instead of staying on as a long-term subscriber, I could simply re-up my subscription for a month when Prime Day comes around, and I see a deal I don’t want to pass up. In some cases, Amazon throws you a bone and offers a free trial or discounted price to return for a week, and that’s never a bad thing. For the most part, though, I’ll stay unsubscribed from the service and carry on with my life without missing it a whole lot. Truthfully, you can do the same thing with most streaming services, and that’s how I started to treat many of them. If you see a show or movie you want to watch on Prime Video, subscribe for a month once the whole series is available, and just binge it. Doing this with all the streamers saves a big chunk of money over the course of a year, and you can still keep up with all the most popular shows on the service like Hazbin Hotel or The Boys.