Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick: Which is best for you?

Roku vs. Amazon Burn Goggle box Stick: Which is best for you?

(Image credit: Roku/ Tom's Guide)

Picking a new streaming device frequently brings you to debate Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick. And while Amazon is eager to discount its Firesticks, price is not the simply factor to accept into consideration when y'all make your purchase.

While Roku and Burn Telly both have a ton of apps, in that location are some notable differences between the two platforms. Which one is the best streaming device for your household will depend on a few different decisions

After reading our in-depth Roku vs. Amazon Fire Tv Stick faceoff, you'll have a pretty skilful idea well-nigh which family of streaming devices you should buy into.

Here'south everything you need to know to decide betwixt Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV.

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Grab yourself a Roku VPN or a Burn down Stick VPN for extra content

Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick: Streaming devices

Both Burn TV Sticks and Roku devices offset at $29. For that money you get the Roku Express or the Fire TV Stick Lite, and each has its own set of drawbacks and perks. The Burn TV Stick Lite'due south comparative win comes with its Alexa-enabled remote, just its excessive promotion of Prime Video may rub people the wrong way. Every bit for the Roku Express, information technology's got adequately snappy operation for its price, but its remote signal quality isn't perfect and required some extra intent in our testing.

Going slightly more expensive, yous run into that Roku has Amazon vanquish when it comes to UHD streaming. Amazon'south $40 Burn Telly Stick maxes out at 1080p, while the cheaper $35 Roku Premiere streams in 4K. While the Premiere has the same remote issue equally the Express, it's yet a better buy than the normal Fire TV Stick.

All of Amazon's Burn Sticks just hide behind your TV, and that'southward a great design characteristic — they exist without reminding you that they're there. Your experience with the Roku Express and Premiere might not exist as effortless, as they're so low-cal that they may take a hard time sitting on a surface evenly.

Those who tin can spend $50 will get the all-time streaming device either company makes: the Amazon Fire Telly Stick 4K and the Roku Streaming Stick Plus (the best streaming device in our book). Both stream in beautiful 4K HDR and offer speedy navigation and phonation-enabled remote controls, and hide behind your TV, similar all of Amazon's Firesticks.

So, to help us make up one's mind this close fight, we took an average of the ratings we gave the Roku and Fire TV devices. Roku's Streaming Stick Plus (iv.5 stars), Premiere and Limited (three.5 stars each) averaged out to 3.8 stars, beating the 3.3-star average from Amazon'south three Firesticks: Fire TV Stick Light and Fire TV Stick (3 stars each) and Burn Television receiver Stick 4K (iv stars).

Winner: Roku

Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick: Domicile screen and interface

The Roku is the out and out winner when it comes to streaming device home screens. Folks who like their Burn Stick may detect it as a user-friendly way to sentry a lot of video from Amazon — the home screen promotes a lot of Prime Video and Amazon Channels content — but it lacks in customization.

This is a problem for anyone who bought their Fire Tv set Stick because of its affordability but discovers they don't want to watch what Prime number Video is offering. Because now you're getting a face full of Prime number Video content.

Amazon has rolled out a slightly updated interface to its non-4K Firesticks, simply it's not enough to change our mind. Sure, the interface looks slightly prettier, only it's still heavy on Amazon content and light on the ability to customize and control what y'all see.

Roku has a much cleaner and simpler home screen: a filigree of icons that you lot tin rearrange and a listing of menu options. This is all we actually demand, and it allows you to run across more apps at once than you lot would on the Fire Television set, where you scroll through a carousel.

Winner: Roku

Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick: Apps and channels

Amazon Fire Sticks and Roku devices tin access a lot of content. 42Matters claims that Burn down Tv has 11,101 apps, but Roku has 21,011 apps. Merely near people don't need that many apps, much less a small fraction of those large amounts. The story of apps on streaming devices is more about what'southward missing.

Long-fourth dimension streaming device owners have often spent some time dealing with the lack of a new streaming service here and at that place. This is often because it takes time for companies to iron out contracts, every bit nosotros the consumers lose. For example, YouTube Idiot box took a lot longer to state on Fire Boob tube than other platforms — finally arriving in 2019.

2020 saw both Peacock and HBO Max launch, and both took their sweet time to land on Roku. And while HBO Max fabricated it to Fire TV Sticks, Peacock is still not on Burn down TV. The Walmart-owned movie streaming service Vudu is non on Fire Idiot box either.

When the Tom's Guide staff nerveless a list of 33 popular apps (and 3 niche apps) that we need on our streaming devices, we institute that Roku had all but one of the niche apps (NJPW World, a Japanese pro wrestling app that's only on Fire Television receiver). The Burn down Idiot box lacks Peacock, Vudu and the built-in media player (with DLNA) that you get on Roku. That media player is too categorized as a niche app that many could live without, instead using Plex (available on both platforms).

Peacock'south absence on Firesticks could be a big bargain for you, but it's not a big problem (yet). Maybe that changes when the WWE Network is merely available on Peacock in mid-march.

Winner: Tie

Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV: Special features

The Burn down TV devices benefit from Amazon's Alexa skills and connected smart domicile devices. That means you can cheque your smart home-connected alive cameras around the house, view the weather forecast and even order a pizza, all with your phonation. These features work on all Fire Sticks.

Roku has tertiary party options such every bit IP Camera Viewer - Pro, only it's still much more than of a device meant for streaming than being a role of your smart home. That being said, the Roku platform supports both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for commands.

Winner: Amazon Fire TV

Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV Stick: Scorecard

	Roku	Amazon Fire Tv set
Streaming devices	✓
Dwelling screen	✓
Apps and channels	✓	✓
Special features		✓
Full	3	2

Roku vs. Amazon Fire Television receiver Stick: Verdict

And there you take it, our boxing of the Roku devices and Amazon Fire Sticks has a winner. When it'southward time to stream, you want to become with Roku.

This Roku vs Amazon Fire Telly Stick face up-off has clearly explained how the quondam wins. It'due south got the cheaper 4K device, better hardware overall and an interface that you control (and non one that just spams y'all with Prime Video content).

On top of that, Roku is non lacking anything in the apps department (thanks HBO Max), not that Burn Tv's missing Peacock is a huge flaw. Sure, folks plugged into the smart home lifestyle may prefer the connectivity of the Firesticks and the Amazon ecosystem, but in our book you purchase a streaming device to stream content — and that'due south why Roku gets the win.

Henry is a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple tree, reviewing devices and services for the past six-plus years. Prior to joining Tom'southward Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild globe of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other manufacture veterans.