Anime like netflix

[Zeke365]

I was wondering what would be a good anime site that I could pay and support anime since I have been viewing most anime on watchcartoonsonline and gogoanime and is crunchroll worth it?
I most like watching both dubbed and subbed anime but I would like to know a website that streams like netflix but just for anime both dubbed and subbed? Thanks

[FourFourSeven]

Usually, Crunchyroll gets first mention. However, I discovered that HuluPlus has a rivaling selection in their catalog.

[Mullet Death]

Funimation EVS is another viable solution, but obviously, only Funimation titles.

[Vii]

Errr, isn't there something in the forum rules about not mentioning illegal streaming sites by name?

Anyway, legal streaming sites:

~ Crunchyroll: Great for simulcasts, doesn't have dubs. Good selection although it can change suddenly (some of the good anime from a few years ago get taken off which I guess is due to only being licensed to stream certain anime for a certain amount of time.)
~ Hulu: Lots of selection. Don't know how good they are about releasing simulcasts on schedule. Subs and dubs. Subscribing doesn't remove the ads like Crunchy and Funi though, it just allows certain shows to be watched right after they air or access to the full season (don't know how much this applies to anime) and streaming on non-computer devices.
~ Funimation: Subs and dubs. Funimation titles only but they license a LOT of a titles. Good about simulcast releases I think. I've heard some people have issues with the video player but that may have changed.
~ The Anime Network: Who even uses this.
~ Crackle: Launched a year or two ago and has a small selection of dub anime. Dunno if there's a subscription option or not but the selection is so limited I wouldn't drop money on it.

[FourFourSeven]

Errr, isn't there something in the forum rules about not mentioning illegal streaming sites by name?

Anyway, legal streaming sites:

~ Crunchyroll: Great for simulcasts, doesn't have dubs. Good selection although it can change suddenly (some of the good anime from a few years ago get taken off which I guess is due to only being licensed to stream certain anime for a certain amount of time.)
~ Hulu: Lots of selection. Don't know how good they are about releasing simulcasts on schedule. Subs and dubs. Subscribing doesn't remove the ads like Crunchy and Funi though, it just allows certain shows to be watched right after they air or access to the full season (don't know how much this applies to anime) and streaming on non-computer devices.
~ Funimation: Subs and dubs. Funimation titles only but they license a LOT of a titles. Good about simulcast releases I think. I've heard some people have issues with the video player but that may have changed.
~ The Anime Network: Who even uses this.
~ Crackle: Launched a year or two ago and has a small selection of dub anime. Dunno if there's a subscription option or not but the selection is so limited I wouldn't drop money on it.

No subscription for Crackle, but yeah, their anime catalog is pretty lacking. Plus, they barely rotate any titles.

Anime Network may carry some titles, but Crunchyroll is 2nd in rank to Hulu when it comes to the variety of available titles.

[MomentOfInertia]

Hulu+:
+Subs & Dubs on many titles
-Thinner coverage on recent shows
+Lots of older shows
+Lots of non anime stuff

CrunchyRoll membership:
-Sub only
+Streams most of the stuff coming out any given season
+Just about anything that came out in recent years
+Manga section (somebody else should talk about this)

[Nate]

Another huge negative for official sites is that some of them don't like to play well with people who live outside of the United States, so if you live in Canada or the UK your options are gonna be severely limited when it comes to streaming anime.

[Mullet Death]

Another huge negative for official sites is that some of them don't like to play well with people who live outside of the United States, so if you live in Canada or the UK your options are gonna be severely limited when it comes to streaming anime.

As far as I know, Hulu+ is the only official streaming site which blocks VPN access, so anyone living outside of the US can just use a VPN service with US servers to access region-locked content, as long as it isn't Hulu...stupid Hulu. Just FYI if you hadn't thought of that before, non-American folk.

[Nate]

That is an option but I honestly am not sure of the legality of doing that. I mean I assume if companies had an issue with it they would block VPNs (like you said, Hulu does). I know that a lot of sports fans use VPNs to access the far superior NFL streaming options outside of the US since in the US options to watch NFL games are severely limited, and the NFL doesn't really care too much because they're getting paid either way. Still, it is in effect lying, since you're saying to the server "Yeah I totally live in the US" when you actually don't, and I can see some people feeling that's a bit immoral.

[Psycho Molos]

What's vpn?

[Davidizer13]

What's vpn?

It stands for Virtual Private Network - using the example of Hulu, what you're doing is connecting to a server located in the United States, known as a proxy server. You then connect to Hulu through the proxy server's setup, the website thinks you're in the US, and so it won't lock you out when it checks for your location. I'm not encouraging this at all, and I don't know how you would actually go about doing this, I'm just telling you how it works.

[Vii]

CrunchyRoll membership:
[...]
+Manga section (somebody else should talk about this)

The manga so far is fairly limited, although it does contain a mix of really good titles (Attack on Titan, Koe no Katachi, Hoshi no Samidare, orange...) as well as mediocre titles I haven't heard much about/don't look that great.

My main issue with it is that the manga can't be tracked in any way, like you can't have a queue for manga like anime simulcasts; you have to manually check each title to see when/if a new chapter came out. Also, you can only view the latest chapter of ongoing manga on a free account, as opposed to simulcasts where you have ads but are able to watch the entirety of most anime (obviously this wouldn't come into play in a subscription.)

Other than that, I do follow a few manga series on there pretty happily and I haven't had problems with the reader itself.

[GeneD]

As someone outside the US, I think Crunchyroll is doing a great job catering to non-US regions. Sure not everything gets licensed everywhere, but they're actively licensing for non-US regions and making a point of letting you know which regions are covered for which shows. (Tip: Crunchy's A-Z list of anime is customised so that anything you can see listed is (should be) licensed for your region. The names of shows not licensed for you will not show up on the list. Although they might on other parts of the site.)
7 out of the 12 shows I watched last season I could watch on Crunchyroll, so while it could be better, it could be a whole lot worse and is leagues better than what we had only a few years ago. Of course not all non-US regions are equal either so it all depends where in the world you actually are.

I know that there are some things available in non-US regions on Funi's site and their youtube, but there's no way that I know of that you can check which shows are licensed where. So you have to just pick a show and see if the video will play or not.

I'm pretty happy with Crunchyroll Manga so far, just wish they had a bigger selection, but it's still relatively new so hopefully it will keep growing. The fact that free users can only view the first (I think) and latest chapter is a big weakness and like Vii mentioned there's no notification or queue system for new chapters. I'm not particularly fond of their reader for computers, I stick to the phone app.

Another problem is that for newly licensed manga that already have many volumes out, they don't always add the "backlog" all at once. I don't know how extensive a problem this is, but for example Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (which I rather like) you can read all the way through till chapter 98 but then there's a gap until chapter 108. Now that particular series is pretty episodic so it doesn't make that much of a difference, but it's still annoying and would be worse for anything with a "continuous" storyline. I don't know anything about region restrictions on manga, so far I haven't noticed any.