Of all the premium streaming services out there, Starz might be the stingiest when it comes to handing out free trials of its service.
Sure, you can sign up for a discounted rate on its website – which we recommend if you know you definitely will be watching for more than a month – but if you’re looking to just sample some of best Starz shows like Outlander, American Gods, Black Sails and Power, you’re lucky, as there's a seven-day free trial out there.
Of course, while seven days should be enough time to binge a season or two of your favorite Starz series, there is one way to get 30 days of free service... and you might already be eligible for the offer and not even know it.
Starz free trial: how to get 30 days for free
To maximize the amount of free time you have on Starz, the best thing you can do is sign up for the service when you buy and register a new Roku device on Roku.com. If you do so within 30 days of buying a new device you can select a free trial of the service – that comes with both Starz and Showtime – for the first 30 days.
Here’s the catch: after the 30 days are up, the services are set to automatically renew using your credit card info (which sadly needs to be on-file with Roku to take advantage of the offer). At that point you’re looking at $8.99 per month for Starz and $10.99 per month for Showtime Anytime.
There are other offers – like the seven-day free trial that we’ll talk about below – but this is by far the best way to get the most amount of days of free Starz. Just make sure you cancel the subscription through Roku before the 30 days are over so you don’t get charged.
Starz free trial: how to get seven days for free
If you don’t have a brand-new Roku device to reap the rewards from, there are still a few ways to get a free Starz trial – especially if you’re already an Amazon Prime member or plan on subscribing to Hulu.
If you’re a Prime member, you’re probably aware that you have access to Amazon Prime Video – Amazon’s add-on streaming video service that has great shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Good Omens, Fleabag, Goliath and Man in the High Castle.
What you might not know is that there’s a tangential service called Amazon Prime Channels that lets you tack on premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz for an additional monthly fee.
While all those channels are worth checking out via their corresponding free trial offers, Starz has a deal with Amazon Prime Channels that nets customers a seven-day free trial. You can sign up for Amazon Prime below, if you haven’t already:
Now, Hulu has a similar partnership with Starz but you have to be a new or eligible returning customer to take advantage of the trial. The good news is that you only need to sign up for the base Hulu service that costs $8.99 per month, and not the Hulu with Live TV package that costs $54.99 per month.
That said, after the trial is over you should expect to pay the normal $8.99 per month fee for Starz on top of your $8.99 per month Hulu subscription.
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Starz discount: three months for $5 per month
As we mentioned earlier, the best option out there for folks who plan on keeping Starz for more than seven days is to sign up directly through Starz’ website.
Doing so locks you into a rate of $5 per month for the first three months, and then puts you on an $8.99-per-month plan after that, saving you about 40% of the cost over those three months.
Getting Starz this way is cheaper than the Amazon Channels offer, at least for those first three months, but there's no seven-day free trial offer to test things out.
Starz shows and movies
It’s more than likely you already know what you want to watch on Starz – hence the reason you’re here looking for a free trial of the service – but if you don’t know the scope of Starz’ service, buckle up because there’s a ton of great content on Starz.
Among the tentpole series are Outlander, American Gods, Black Sails and Power, but there’s also Now Apocalypse, The Spanish Princess, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The White Queen, Pillars of the Earth and Spartacus, too.
On the movie side, there are a few decent documentaries exclusive to the service but you’ll really want to keep an eye out for films that have just left theaters to join the service. Currently that includes Venom, Zombieland 2, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spider-Man Far From Home, MIB International and Dragon Ball Super: Broly. (Yeah, the last one was a surprise for us, too.)
Obviously the newest films are going to change out every month – so if the current crop of just-released films aren’t what you’re looking for it might be worth holding out for a bit to see if it pops up, or check out another premium streaming service like HBO Now to see if it’s streaming over there.
Whichever Starz option you choose, however, you can rest easy knowing that you got a way better deal than paying full-price.
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