This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase products or services linked from this page, Summit of Coin may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Summit of Coin does not have any financial connections to DirecTV Now, this is just an honest opinion by a guy who wants people to find the best live streaming service options for themselves.

Since cutting the cable cord, my wife and I have used 3 different companies for live streaming service. In the past we used Playstation Vue and Sling, but more recently we switched to DirecTV Now. This occurred last March, when DirecTV Now was offering a great deal for cord cutters.

Since then, we have not switched back to Playstation Vue, which was my original plan. Our plan was to enjoy the 3 month lower price on service and then head back to PS Vue. However, something happened. I began to enjoy the service offered by DirecTV Now better than the service that I received with PS Vue.

So, why did we choose to stay with DirecTV Now? Below is a list reasons we stayed with DirecTV Now, while also comparing this to the other live streaming services that we have tried.

Reason #1: Live Streaming TV Service is Clear and Does not Glitch

Initially, once we began our 3-month trial of DirecTV Now, both my wife and I couldn’t wait to switch back to PS Vue. In the first month, the streaming service was slow and glitchy. However, they have gone through multiple updates (honestly it seems like they update their technology platform weekly).

Since the updates, the live streaming service has been amazing and I have no complaints at all. This is important to me, because of the arrival of football season. I don’t like to miss a play of my beloved Huskers (even at 0-3) and a glitchy or freezing live streaming service would not work.

A glitchy experience is what we dealt with Sling TV. It really became an annoyance. We did not have these problems with either PS Vue and currently don’t have these problems with DirecTV Now. Thus, I would rank each service as following: (T1st - DirecTV Now and PS Vue; 3rd - Sling TV). My initial ranking would have been: (1st - PS Vue; 2nd - DirecTV Now; 3rd - Sling TV).

As you can see, I am much happier with DirecTV Now in September and continue to use their service.

Reason #2: Cost of Service and More Channels Offered

Just take a look at the difference between the companies:

Basic Packages (Package Name in parenthesis):

PS Vue (Access) - 48 channels offered at $44.99 per month
DirecTV Now (Live A Little) - 72 channels offered at $40 per month
Sling TV (Orange) - 28 channels offered at $25 per month
Sling TV (Blue) - 42 channels offered at $25 per month

When comparing all companies base packages, Sling TV offers the best deal. My wife and I definitely took advantage of this fact when we first moved into our house. However, their two lower priced options require you to pick between Disney channels (Orange) or Fox channels (Blue). To get both you must combine for their $40 package (which is comparable to both PS Vue and DirecTV Now.)

My wife’s favorite thing about DirecTV Now is the channel offerings and we can get those channel offerings at a lower price than PS Vue. This was our initial reason to stick with DirecTV Now after the trial period. More channels and less cost for the base package.

A Step Above Basic (Package Name in parenthesis):

PS Vue (Core) - 72 channels offered at $49.99 per month
DirecTV Now (Just Right) - 96 channels offered at $55 per month
Sling TV (Orange + Blue) - 48 channels offered at $40 per month

Most of the year, we use the basic package for our TV subscription. However, during football season we jump up to the second channel offering. Despite the added cost of DirecTV Now ($5 more than PS Vue), we get more channels that my wife likes and we get the sports channels that I like.

The Last Two Options (Package Name in parenthesis):

PS Vue (Elite) - 92 channels offered at $59.99 per month
PS Vue (Ultra) - 92 channels plus HBO and Showtime offered at $79.99 per month
DirecTV Now (Go Big) - 124 channels offered at $65 per month
DirecTV Now (Gotta Have It) - 135 channels offered at $75 per month

We have never subscribed to the Elite, Ultra, Go Big, or Gotta Have It plans. These plans add on channels that we don’t care to watch. However, somebody may be interested in the channel offerings.

When comparing just DirecTV Now and PS Vue, their prices are comparable, but you get so many more channels with DirecTV Now. One of the reasons we cut the cord was because we got so many channels we didn’t use. You could say the same thing with streaming subscription services.

I would have agreed, because I was mainly paying to watch sports, but DirecTV Now had a lot of channels that our family uses. Really, for our family DirecTV Now gives us more value than PS Vue ever did.

Reason #3: Easy to Use

I have some pretty amazing horror stories from my time as a subscriber with PS Vue. Our first experience was crazy, my account got hacked and somebody changed my password. I could no longer log into my account and the people on the Playstation side couldn't find my account.

Secondly, we were visiting my mom in Nebraska and I tried to log into PS Vue on her TV. I was not able to, because it wanted to change my home location to Nebraska and log me out of my location in Texas. I had never experienced this before and decided to just avoid logging into the account.

Oppositely, being a customer for less than a year of DirecTV Now, I have no complaints. I was able to login to my account in Nebraska while visiting family and there were no problems. It has just been a much smoother experience all around. I had a lot of headaches with PS Vue and none with DirecTV Now.

That may be the biggest compliment that you can give a company. There were no headaches in using your service! Along with everything else I mentioned, DirecTV Now is our choice for streaming service because of the channels offered and the ease of use!

Have you used DirecTV Now? What is your experience? Would you recommend them to your family and friends?