Are you looking to add another streaming service to your household’s lineup? Maybe you’re wondering what the best option is for you and your family. Should you go with Crunchyroll’s lineup of anime, or Max’s prestige TV shows and top WarnerMedia movies? In this guide, we’ll compare Crunchyroll vs. HBO Max and help you figure out the best option for your needs.
Here’s a quick overview of Crunchyroll vs Max
Crunchyroll has been around since 2006, and remains the most popular anime streaming service in the US, with more than 5 million subscribers as of the most recently-available data. It’s home to tons of the best anime shows from Japan, and a must-have for any serious manga and anime enthusiast.
Max, on the other hand, is newer on the streaming scene. It launched in summer of 2020 as HBO Max, combining HBO’s prestige shows and movies with nearly the entire WarnerMedia back catalog. It was been a huge success, too, with nearly 75 million people worldwide subscribing to HBO and HBO Max as of December 2021. It’s now rebranded as Max, folding in Discovery+’s reality TV content. Let’s take a look at these services below and compare them.
| Crunchyroll | Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free: $0/mo, with ads | |
| Fan: $7.99/month | ||
| MegaFan: $9.99/month | ||
| Ultimate Fan: $14.99/month | With Ads: $9.99/mo or $99.99/year, | |
| Ad-Free: $15.99/mo or $149.99/year | ||
| Ultimate Ad-Free: $19.99/mo or $199.99/year | ||
| Free Trial Length | 14 days | No free trial |
| Popular Content | Attack On Titan, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime | Succession, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Dune, The Righteous Gemstones, The Batman |
| Original Content | Shenmue, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, The God Of High School | Love & Death, Peacemaker, The Sex Lives Of College Girls, Clone High |
| Home Theater Features | Up to 1080p, Stereo sound | Up to 4K Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby Digital Plus |
| Offline Viewing | Yes, with Mega Fan & Ultimate Fan | 30 Downloads with Ad-Free, 100 with Ultimate |
| Device Support | Web browsers, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox/Playstation | Web browsers, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox/PlayStation, select smart TVs |
| Simultaneous Streams | 1-6 | 2-4 |
Crunchyroll’s pricing is cheaper
Source: Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is cheaper than Max. In fact, while Max’s ad-supported plan is a fairly reasonable price, Crunchyroll’s ad-supported plan is completely free. However, there are some shows and episodes that free members can’t watch.
Crunchyroll Fan
Try 14 days free
- On demand content
- Stream on one device
- Access to digital manga in English
$7.99/month
Crunchyroll Mega Fan
Try 14 days free
- No ads
- On demand content
- Stream on four screens
- Offline viewing
- $15 off $100 purchase in the Crunchyroll store every 3 months
- Access to digital manga in English
$9.99/month
Crunchyroll Ultimate Fan
Try 14 days free
- No ads
- On demand content
- Stream on six screens
- Offline viewing
- Access to digital manga in English
- $25 off $100 purchase in the Crunchyroll Store every 3 months
- Annual swag bag
- Access to exclusive Nendoroid figures
$14.99/month
Even if you pay, Crunchyroll’s cheapest is plan is still cheaper than Max’s, so it’s a better bargain, particularly for anime fans. On a pure cost basis, Crunchyroll wins this category – though if you’re not into anime, it’s still not likely to be a better choice than Max.
Crunchyroll offers a free trial
Source: Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll wins this category, too. You can watch ad-supported for free, and you can also sign up and get a free 14-day trial of a premium, ad-free subscription with Crunchyroll. In contrast, Max doesn’t offer a free trial at all, though you can get a 7-day one if you sign up through Hulu.
However, you can still watch some select first episodes of Max Originals on their website for free. You can only watch the first episode of each show, though, so this is a lot more limited compared to Crunchyroll.
Max has a much broader content library
Max wins in this category. It has more overall content and a broader variety of titles compared to Crunchyroll, as Crunchyroll only focuses on anime. You can watch blockbuster movies, indie films, dramas, sitcoms, and tons of other content on Max, including the entire lineup of HBO shows from the last few decades.
When it comes to anime, though, Crunchyroll wins. Max’s anime catalog has dwindled significantly since it launched as HBO Max—though its Studio Ghibli library is a huge plus. Crunchyroll has 1,000+ top anime titles and movies. If you’re only looking to watch anime, Crunchyroll is a better option.
What to Watch on Crunchyroll
You’ll mostly only be able to watch anime series and shows on Crunchyroll, but it also has some Asian dramas like K-dramas, too. You can stream movies, full seasons of shows, and episodes as soon as 1 hour after they air in Japan, so it’s an ideal choice for big anime fans. It does have some original shows, but most of its shows are produced by top anime studios in Japan, then licensed for US broadcast. You can find some top titles like:
- Attack On Titan
- Demon Slayer
- One Piece
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- My Hero Academia
What to Watch on Max
Max has an enormous catalog of movies and shows from HBO and WarnerMedia, as well as a huge new section of reality TV from Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, and more. To satiate your anime appetite, Max has the rights to almost every Studio Ghibli title, which we see as a major win of the streamer.
You’ll find a lot of top movies and shows from the last few decades, and a surprisingly large media catalog overall. There are also some Max exclusive shows available, like Peacemaker with John Cena, and Mindy Kaling’s The Sex Lives of College Girls. Some of its top titles include:
- Euphoria
- Game of Thrones
- The Harry Potter franchise
- The Matrix franchise
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Max’s home theater features are more impressive
If you’re looking for a theatrical experience, Max is the clear winner here. It supports 4K UHD and HDR10/Dolby Vision on compatible titles, and is also supports Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital Plus.
On the other hand, Crunchyroll only offers 1080p streaming and stereo sound. This isn’t really that bad though. In fact, most anime titles in Japan air at 720p or 1080p, and only include stereo mixing – so these fancy features would be pretty much pointless while watching anime anyway.
Max lets you download titles for longer
Max wins this category, but Crunchyroll offers pretty similar downloadable content features. With Max, you will need the Ad-Free or Ultimate Ad-Free plans in order to download shows for offline viewing. This feature isn’t available for the cheaper ad-supported plan. The same is true of Crunchyroll. You need the Mega Fan or higher plan to download shows and movies.
Most Max shows and movies can be downloaded for later viewing. Just tap the download button while using the app. You can download up to 30 or 100 titles at once, depending on your plan, and they’ll be deleted after 30 days. Once you've started watching a show or an episode, you have 48 hours to finish watching it before it’s deleted.
Crunchyroll has similar restrictions. You can download up to 100 shows, but they'll be deleted after 7 days if you don't watch them, and in 48 hours if you start watching an episode but don't finish it.
Watch Max on your smart TVs
Overall, Max has slightly better device support than Crunchyroll. However, they both do support the most popular streaming devices out there, including:
- iOS and Android
- Web browsers
- Amazon Fire TV
- Apple TV
- Roku
- Google TV
- Android TV
- Chromecast
- PlayStation/Xbox consoles
However, Max supports some other smart TVs and a few other devices that Crunchyroll doesn’t support, so it squeaks out a win in this category, though Crunchyroll does have the benefit of being on Nintendo Switch consoles, which Max doesn’t support. Really, though, you won’t have any problem watching either service on your favorite devices.
Watch on more screens with Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll easily wins this category. While you can only stream on 1 device with its cheapest Fan plan, you’ll get four and six streams with the Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan, respectively.
With Max, you get 2 streams with the With-Ads and Ad-Free plans, and 4 streams with the Ultimate Ad-Free plan. While 4 is still a good amount of streams, you can get even more with Crunchyroll for a cheaper price, making it the winner here.
Our takeaway: It depends on what you’re looking for
Both streamers have their merits, but ultimate serve different purposes. Max is a better streaming service for cord-cutters who want to watch blockbuster movies, prestige dramas, and tons of other amazing shows and movies like The Sopranos or King Richard. It has something to offer everyone and the full Studio Ghibli catalog to make up for its lack of other anime series.
However, Crunchyroll is a better choice for anime fans. It has an unbeatable anime library. You probably couldn’t watch every anime on the service if you tried, and it has most of today’s top titles from Japan. If anime is what you’re into, this is the service for you.
Eric Liston • Author
Eric Liston is a content writer based in Columbus, Ohio. Since 2015, he’s been writing about technology, cord-cutting, and helping everyday people save money. He also has expertise writing about medicine, dentistry, insurance, and a variety of other industries. No matter what he’s writing, his focus is always on simplifying complex concepts and making them approachable for everyone. When he’s not slamming away on his keyboard at his home office, you’ll find Eric reading sci-fi novels, improving his disc golf game (he just hit his first 400-foot drive) and playing video games on his gaming PC.
Davan Hamilton • Editor
Davan Hamilton is an editor and writer based in Jacksonville, FL. Holding a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, her writing spans a wide range, from essays on film criticism and analysis to surreal poetry. Now, she works for Flixed as an editor, continuing to ignore the list of passion projects she’s accumulated. When she’s not glued to her computer, you can find her building endless amounts of Lego sets, binge-reading manga, or playing with (fighting) her cat.
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