YouTubevs
Spotify
Spotify: Music for everyone
YouTube
Video sharing and streaming platform
As of 30 August 2026, YouTube has a free plan and paid plans start at $11.99/month. YouTube is a free video sharing website that allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other user. Softwr lists it under Entertainment. YouTube is made by Google LLC, launched in 2005, available on Web, iOS, Android, TV and console.
Overview
What YouTube does
YouTube is a free video sharing website that allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. It's the world's largest video platform with billions of hours of content consumed daily across entertainment, education, and business.
What people use it for
- Video sharing
- Content marketing
- Education
- Entertainment
- Live streaming
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about YouTube.
- YouTube Premium/Music subscriptions bill through the App Store with a stated auto-renewal clause: renewal charges are applied within 24 hours of the current period ending unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before that point, and no price figure is disclosed in the listing itself.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of YouTube
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- YouTubevsTikTok
TikTok: Make Your Day
- YouTubevsAmazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video: Watch anywhere. Cancel anytime
- YouTubevsApple Music
Apple Music: All the ways you love music. All in one place
Pricing
What YouTube costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Unlimited video watching
- Basic video uploads
- Community features
- Ad-supported
YouTube Premium
$11.99 /mo
- Ad-free videos
- Background play
- YouTube Music included
- Offline downloads
Capabilities
Features
Video hosting
Live streaming
Content discovery
Creator tools
Analytics
Google services
Integration with Google services
Social media
Integration with Social media
Creator tools
Integration with Creator tools
Third-party apps
Integration with Third-party apps
Content ID
Content ID security feature
Community guidelines
Community guidelines security feature
Privacy controls
Privacy controls security feature
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does YouTube offer a Premium subscription?
Yes. YouTube offers a Premium subscription tier, but specific pricing details are not available in the main website footer and require visiting YouTube's dedicated Premium page.
SourceBehind it
Who makes YouTube
- Company
- Google LLC
- Based in
- San Bruno, California, USA
- Founders
- Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim
Timeline
YouTube over time
Keep looking
Where to go from YouTube
- YouTube alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- YouTube pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- YouTube badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Entertainment softwareThe full category
- Best Entertainment softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Entertainment software for
Compare YouTube with
- Spotify
- TikTok
- Amazon Prime Video
- Apple Music
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Kodi
- HBO Max
- Peacock
- Dailymotion
- Jellyfin
- Roku
- Unreal Engine
- BritBox
- Criterion Channel
- Audible
- Apple TV+
- Netflix
Other Entertainment software
The world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool
Free plan8 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for YouTube, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on YouTube
YouTube alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
YouTube pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare YouTube
Put it head to head with anything we hold
YouTube badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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