Discovery Plus Review 2024: Cost, Plans, Shows, and More

Is Discovery+ good?

At first glance, streaming service Discovery+ looks like a cable killer: “90 Day Fiancé, Property Brothers, Home Town, and more all on one service for under $10 a month? Consider that cord Chopped!” But, like a widower’s alibi on Fatal Vows, Discovery+ seems too good to be true. . . (dun-dun!) because it is.

The basics: Discovery+ hosts over 55,000 hours of classic and exclusive content from the Discovery collective of cable TV channels. Besides Discovery Channel, those include (deep breath) HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery (ID), Animal Planet, OWN, A&E, Lifetime, History, Travel Channel, and Science Channel.

While it does have enough background reality TV to fold your laundry to for days, most of the Discovery+ catalog is previously aired content. The latest episodes and seasons of your favorite shows aren’t on Discovery+; they’re still on cable. Discovery+ doesn’t do next-day cable-to-streaming drops as you might expect. You’ll have to wait for the season to conclude, and maybe months after that.

But Discovery+ does have several exclusive shows to reel in fans of the Discovery Cinematic Universe, including three new 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs, and the monthly subscription rate ($4.99–$8.99/mo.) won’t eat much out of your deconstructed crudité budget.

• Low pricing
• 55,000+ hours of content

• No latest seasons of hit shows
• Limited offline downloads

Jump to:

• Plans and pricing
• Discovery+ vs. the competition
• Discovery+ shows
• Specs and features

Discovery+ free trials and deals

Discovery+ free trial

Discovery+ offers a seven-day free trial to sample the service. You’ll be able to watch all of the available content on any supported device.

Discovery+ deals and promotions

Verizon Unlimited mobile customers, new and current, are eligible for six free months of Discovery+.

Discovery+ plans and pricing

Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

While viewing Discovery+, we counted an average of three short blocks of ads per hour-long episode—not too annoying, and less than what you get with cable or satellite TV. But, if your tolerance for commercials is lower than Guy Fieri’s cargo shorts, spend the extra $2 on the Ad-Free plan.

Discovery+ vs. the competition

Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Discovery+ skews lower on the price scale than most other on-demand streaming services, and it’s also one of the few to offer a cheaper, ad-supported tier (along with Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock). Even one of those House Hunters couples who can’t properly valuate a penthouse loft in the boho district could probably budget for a Discovery+ subscription.

Shows on Discovery+

Discovery+ live channels

Like most on-demand streaming TV services, Discovery+ has no live channels. If you want to watch live content from Discovery Channel or any of the other networks under the Discovery+ umbrella, you’ll need to subscribe to a cable or satellite TV provider or a live TV streaming service.

Discovery+ on-demand shows

The Discovery+ library includes past seasons of over 2,500 shows from Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery (ID), Animal Planet, OWN, Travel Channel, and Science Channel. Outside of Discovery’s networks, there’s also licensed content from A&E, Lifetime, History, and animal-centric digital media brands The Dodo, Seeker, POPSUGAR, and NowThis News.

Also, Discovery+ has plenty of spinoffs featuring your favorite Discovery networks stars. Hint: they’re usually the ones with a colon in the title.

For more detailed information on the Discovery+ library, check out our Discovery Plus Channels guide.

Shows on Discovery+ (partial list):

• 90-Day Fiancé
• Beat Bobby Flay
• Buddy vs. Duff
• Celebrity IOU
• Chopped
• Chopped Jr.
• Deadliest Catch
• Diesel Brothers
• Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
• Dirty Jobs
• Dr. Pimple Popper
• Expedition Unknown
• Fixer Upper

• Food Star: Kids
• Ghost Adventures
• Gold Rush
• Home Town
• House Hunters
• Iron Chef
• Love It or List It
• Mythbusters
• On the Case with Paula Zahn
• Planet Earth II
• Property Brothers
• Say Yes to the Dress
• Worst Cooks in America

Discovery+ original shows

Discovery+ launched with several exclusive original series, a mix of spinoffs, talk shows, and new shows from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ soon-to-launch Magnolia Network.

One even addresses the national pastime of mocking House Hunters: Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek) and Natasha Leggero (Another Period) host House Hunters: Comedians on Couches Unfiltered, bringing those catty internet memes to life.

There are also exclusive new—of course—murder shows (including one starring Investigation Discovery vet Joe Kenda), bolstering Discovery+’s claim of having “the biggest library of true crime content on any streaming service,” and four 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs.

If Discovery+’s main library is the entree, then its originals are the fan-service dessert.

Original shows on Discovery+ (partial list)

• 90 Days Bares All
• 90 Day Diaries
• 90 Day Journey
• 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Strikes Back!
• Amy Schumer Learns to Cook: Uncensored
• Cakealikes
• Chopped Challenge
• Lovely Bites with Chef Lovely
• Tregaye’s Way in the Kitchen
• American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda

• Onison: In Real Life
• Frozen in Time
• House Hunters: Comedians on Couches Unfiltered
• Home Town: Ben’s Workshop
• HGTV’s House Party
• Tarek’s Flip Side
• Bobby & Giada in Rome
• Fixer Upper: Welcome Home
• Tarek’s Flip Side
• Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines

Discovery+ specs and features

Anyone who’s ever used Discovery networks apps like HGTV Go and TLC Go will notice that Discovery+ is a major step up, both in functionality and aesthetics. It works well and it looks cool—good on Discovery+, because not every company gets an app right even after several tries (right, Prime Video and Disney+?).

Multiple streams

Four streams—not bad, Discovery+. You can also create up to five separate user profiles and choose from nine channel-related avatars (donut, alien, shark, astronaut, classic car, crime scene, hot air balloon, or—yup—sasquatch). This is great for identifying your profile quickly, but Discovery+ doesn’t allow for uploading your own avatar photo like most other services.

Compatible devices

Data effective as of post date.

See how easy that was, Disney+ and Max? Discovery+ is available on all the major streaming platforms right out of the gate. Well, except for PlayStation and Nintendo—sorry, gamers.

Discovery+ video and audio quality

Discovery+ streams at 1080p resolution, with some shows (like Planet Earth) in 4K. Likewise, the audio is standard stereo 2.0 with select content streaming in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. You’ll be able to see and hear every spectral movement on Ghost Adventures—or not, depending on your skepticism level.

The Discovery+ home screen features a top menu of topics: “Relationships,” “Food,” “Paranormal & Unexplained,” and more “Home” could be confusing because it refers to house shows, not the home screen. You can also collect your favorites in “My List” for quick access, or browse by network.

Final take: Is Discovery+ worth it?

Discovery+ gives a lot for a little. For five or seven bucks a month, 55,000 hours of content ain’t bad (that’s about six years of continuous viewing, BTW).

But if you thought Discovery+ would completely replace your cable or satellite subscription, no such luck. Because of licensing agreements, the latest Discovery networks seasons are still embedded deep in old-school TV; not even Dr. Pimple Popper could extract them.

But, even without the newest seasons, Discovery+ could still be essential to Discovery superfans who want to keep up on the exclusive spinoffs or newbies looking to discover all 55,000 hours of content.

Discovery+ FAQ

Methodology

Our experts employed hours of hands-on testing with Discovery+, rating the streaming service on bang for your buck, reliability, and features. Then we matched up Discovery+ with other on-demand streaming services head to head to give a clearer picture of its strengths and weaknesses. For more information on our methodology, check out our How We Rank page.