With the annual price of Prime having gone up to $119 on May 11, and the renewal price increasing to the same amount on June 16, I thought now would be a good time to go over each Prime benefit and discuss their free alternatives. I'd also like suggestions from the r/frugal community where I'm not sure of a good substitute. I'm pulling the list of Prime benefits from Amazon's website, please comment with any benefits they don't call out that I may have missed.
2-day or faster shipping
- Walmart.com offers 2-day shipping for free on eligible items and orders over $35.
- Target Restock offers 1-day shipping for consumable products in certain locations. Even for people who keep Amazon Prime, this may be a superior service.
- Jet.com - $35 order and free 2-day shipping. Thanks u/somethingtosay2333
- Amazon.com without Prime - lots of sellers support free 2-day shipping with a minimum order total. Thanks u/SaraAB87
Doing a quick price comparison (for shampoo), I found Walmart and Target's pricing to be lower. However, doing a quick product selection comparison (for a Thomas the Tank Engine board book), I found Amazon to be superior.
Alternatives you may already be paying for: Shoprunner, etc.
Prime Video
- r/cordcutters has a GREAT list you should check out.
Here are some common favorites: Crackle.com, PBS.org, thecw.com, tubitv.com, vudu.com, Hoopla (thanks u/evanrooty), and Kanopy (thanks u/FicklePlate).
One nice benefit of Prime Video is being able to cache shows to play without an internet connection.
Alternatives you may already be paying for: Netflix, Hulu, etc. However, if there is a Prime Video show you can't live without (like Grand Tour), then perhaps Prime Video is still important to you.
Prime Photos
- Google Photos - the downside of Google Photos vs. Prime Photos is that it saves your content in a proprietary format and videos are NOT unlimited. I think for most people it is a suitable replacement, however.
I'm not as familiar with iCloud, OneDrive, DropBox, and others, but I believe they all have a cap on their free tier regardless of content type (including photos) which is why I think Google Photos is superior.
Prime Music
- Spotify.com has a free tier that lets you select songs in a playlist but shuffles the order when you play
- Hoopla - a service your local library may support for music. Thanks u/evanrooty
Alternatives you may already be paying for: Spotify Premium, Google Play Music, Apple Music, etc.
Prime Reading / Amazon First Reads
- Libby/Overdrive, Hoopla - a service your local library may support for ebooks. Thanks u/Cosmoguyral and u/evanrooty
- Bookbub - thanks u/midorimoo
- Lifehacker's list of best sites to download free books - thanks u/katballen
Audible Channels
- Hoopla - a service your local library may support for audiobooks. Thanks u/evanrooty
Alexa Voice Shopping
- Google Assistant for Android or Siri for iPhone - if you can live with pulling your phone out of your pocket, these are pretty suitable.
- Google Home - if you don't have an Echo but are in the market for a smart speaker, then Google Home products let you shop on them for free.
Just with Prime Deals
- Slickdeals.net - this is a personal favorite, but there are many other deals sites that offer equal promotions to Amazon, in my experience.
Prime Credit and Debit Cards
- Nerdwallet.com - there are so many great credit cards outside of Amazon's, this site allows you to compare.
Twitch Prime
r/frugal - what free alternatives would you recommend? I'm not a PC gamer.
Alternatives you may already be paying for: Xbox Live, PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass, EA Access, Humble Monthly Bundle, etc.
Amazon Family
r/frugal - what free alternatives would you recommend? For the unaware, this is a price reduction when you subscribe to regularly receive 5 or more family products.
Prime at Whole Foods
Given how expensive Whole Foods is, and how this perk isn't available nationwide, I'm not sure this one needs to be addressed.
June 01, 2018 at 02:37PM
