Do You Need More Than One Streaming Service for Anime?

Anime fans run into the same problem every streaming household eventually hits: the show you want isn't on the service you already pay for. Crunchyroll built its entire business around anime and carries the deepest library, with new episodes landing the fastest of any service. Netflix funds its own anime originals and licenses a rotating set of titles that never show up on Crunchyroll at all.

Neither one covers everything, and the two libraries split unevenly enough that a lot of fans end up paying for both without ever checking whether that's the cheapest way to get the shows they watch.

Here's what each one covers, what it costs right now, and when paying for a second subscription is the right call instead of a habit nobody's questioned.

What does Crunchyroll cover that Netflix doesn't?

Crunchyroll is a dedicated anime streaming subscription, and that focus shows up in two places: speed and depth. New episodes of ongoing series land on Crunchyroll within hours of airing in Japan, which matters if you're following a currently running show every week. Its streaming catalog also runs deeper into niche and older titles than any general entertainment platform bothers to license.

What it doesn't have is flexibility on price.

Crunchyroll got rid of its free, ad-supported plan in early 2026, so every plan now costs money but none of them show ads. The cheapest option, Fan, costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 annually, which works out to about $8.33 a month if you commit upfront. Mega Fan is $13.99 a month ($139.99 a year) and increases simultaneous streams from one to four, plus access to Crunchyroll's Game Vault. Ultimate Fan is $17.99 a month ($179.99 a year), raises simultaneous streams to six, and throws in access to Crunchyroll's manga library.

Crunchyroll also doesn't support pausing a subscription. Canceling and resubscribing later is the only way to stop paying temporarily, and you lose the plan discount from any active offer when you do.

What does Netflix have that Crunchyroll doesn't?

Netflix isn't an anime-first subscription, but it's not a minor player in the genre either.

It funds its own anime originals and licenses exclusive content that never makes it to Crunchyroll, which is the main reason committed fans end up keeping both rather than picking one.

Netflix also gives you an ad-supported plan option that Crunchyroll doesn't offer: Standard with Ads is $8.99 a month, ad-free Standard is $19.99 with 2 streaming devices, and Premium is $26.99 with 4 simultaneous streams and the highest video quality.

None of Netflix's tiers offer annual billing. It's month to month across the board.

The bigger practical difference is pause support. Netflix lets you pause a subscription for up to a month at a time, up to 3 months total, without losing your profile or watch history. That flexibility only exists on the Netflix side of this comparison, which matters more than it sounds like once you're deciding how to structure two subscriptions instead of one.

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So do you need both?

If you follow one or two ongoing series every week and care about watching new episodes as close to their Japan air date as possible, Crunchyroll isn't optional. Nothing else matches that speed on new episodes or the depth of its niche and older-title catalog.

A casual fan who mostly wants a handful of well-known series or Netflix's own anime originals can often get by on Netflix alone, especially at the $8.99 ad-supported price, and skip Crunchyroll entirely, particularly if Netflix is already earning its keep in your household from its other content. Our Netflix vs. Disney+ comparison covers how much overlap Netflix has with the rest of a typical lineup, a useful check before adding Crunchyroll on top of it.

Paying for both starts to make sense if you want new episodes as they air and Netflix's exclusive originals at the same time. Taking the cheapest plans on each side, Crunchyroll Fan plus Netflix Standard with Ads comes to $18.98 a month combined, which is close to what a single mid-tier ad-free service costs on its own elsewhere.

If your anime watching is seasonal rather than year-round, the pause difference above matters. Netflix can go on pause for up to 3 months without losing anything, so it's the half of this pairing you can put on hold during a slow stretch.

Crunchyroll can't be paused, so keeping it running through a gap in new episodes means either eating the cost or canceling outright and starting over later, which can mean losing whatever promotional rate you'd locked in. Pausing instead of canceling breaks down which services support that option and which ones force an all-or-nothing decision, the same tradeoff playing out here between these two.

Weighing a second subscription against the rest of your household's bill instead of adding it in isolation is exactly what a Stream Engine Planner report does. Run your free optimization and it'll check whether a service like Crunchyroll or Netflix is pulling its weight against everything else you're already paying for, not just against each other.

The bottom line

Start with Crunchyroll if fast new-episode releases and depth of catalog are the point.

Start with Netflix, likely on the ad-supported plan, if anime is one part of a broader viewing habit rather than the reason you're subscribing at all. Add the second service only once you can name a specific show or exclusive it covers that the other one doesn't, rather than defaulting to both.

That's the same overlap check that applies whenever a household is weighing two paid services built around one type of content, anime or otherwise.

None of that has to be a decision you make once and never revisit. A free Stream Engine Planner report checks a subscription like this against your full household lineup as your watching habits change, instead of leaving last year's choice running on autopilot. Run your free optimization and see how Crunchyroll or Netflix fits against everything else you're paying for.

Frequently asked questions

Does Crunchyroll have an ad-supported plan?

No, Crunchyroll dropped its free, ad-supported plan in early 2026, and all three current plans: Fan, Mega Fan, and Ultimate Fan, are ad-free and require payment. There's no way to watch on Crunchyroll without a paid subscription anymore.

Can I pause a Crunchyroll subscription?

No, Crunchyroll doesn't support pausing at all, so the only way to stop paying temporarily is to cancel and resubscribe later, which can mean losing any promotional or annual-plan rate you'd had. Netflix, by comparison, allows pausing for up to 3 months.

Is Netflix good enough for anime on its own?

For a casual fan, often yes. Netflix funds real anime originals and licenses a set of exclusives, and its $8.99 ad-supported plan is the cheapest paid entry point into anime on either service. For someone following multiple ongoing series with new episodes every week, it doesn't come close to Crunchyroll's speed on new episodes or catalog depth on its own.

What's the cheapest way to get both Crunchyroll and Netflix?

Crunchyroll's Fan plan at $9.99 a month paired with Netflix's Standard with Ads plan at $8.99 a month comes to $18.98 combined. Paying for Crunchyroll Fan annually at $99.99 a year brings its effective cost down to about $8.33 a month, which lowers the combined total further if you can pay the year upfront.