After spending the full trial amount of time with both Netflix and Hulu Plus (to be fair, Netflix gives you 1 month free trial, whilst Hulu Plus only gives you 7 days, so I had no time to use Netflix), I have to say that the winner is clearly Netflix.
First of all, there was more of what I wanted to see on Netflix, such as the first three seasons of the BBC show Merlin. The regular version of Hulu only has the first two seasons, and the shocker is Hulu Plus doesn't have any. That's right, the version of Hulu that you have to pay for has less content than the free version. Not only that, but the paid version has just as many commercials. One thing Hulu Plus promises is fewer commercials than the free version, and I found that to be untrue.
The only benefit of Hulu Plus is the ability to watch it on tablets and smartphones. Being able to watch it on TV via devices such as Apple TV, Roku, and game consoles is not a benefit because you can just connect a computer to your TV and watch Hulu for free on hulu.com
So why pay for Hulu Plus to watch on your TV instead of just connecting a computer to the TV and watching Hulu for free? Well I don't really know. You get less content and the same amount of commercials.
When searching for shows from the BBC on Hulu Plus, I only found three: Coupling, The Office, and Little Britain. But on Netflix there are dozens more, including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, Robin Hood, Miss Marple, Poirot, Rosemary and Thyme, and many others.
As for other countries, there is a lot more anime and foreign films. Not to focus on just shows from other countries, there are a lot more American shows too. More stand-up comedy, and more movies.
Now granted, I always assumed Netflix was better for movies, and Hulu Plus was better for TV shows. But I was wrong, Netflix is better for both. There were a ton more TV Shows available for Netflix that I actually wanted to see. I only discovered Robin Hood (the BBC show) the last day of my Netflix trial, and was disappointed to discover Hulu Plus doesn't have it.
So to summarize, if you're deciding which one to pay for, Netflix wins by a mile!
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