I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime, but I still spend most of my time watching free streaming services. We keep Netflix largely because my wife despises commercials, while I use the other benefits of Amazon Prime throughout the year and treat Prime Video as a bonus. The bottom line, however, is that when I’m choosing something for myself, I usually end up opening Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, or Tubi.

I’m no Apple fanboy, but I’m not afraid to admit that when it comes to streaming devices, Apple TV has been my go-to for years. One sits under the TV in my main home theater; my family uses iPhones and iPads, and it's the hub of our entertainment at home. But when I needed streaming devices for the older TV at our family cottage and for a second TV at home, the math got ugly — Apple's box currently costs over $200 new, and multiplying that across rooms that will mostly run rainy-day movies and the occasional Netflix binge felt like overkill.