Dropout
Shares rank 10 of 14 streaming services by recommenders
Recommended for original independent comedy and as a paid alternative to mainstream streamers. One critic finds the app poor.
8 people recommended Dropout in Hacker News comments and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 8 comments.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- mixed feelings
- 0
- warn against or regret it
- 1
The record
Recommended in 5 of 12 months
In 8 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 8 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 25% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 8 of the 10 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Interesting independent comedy content
“no one outside of low-budget stuff like Dropout is making anything interesting in the US right now”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros” “high effort / high production comedy skits (e.g. DropoutTV”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe” “Best comedy network in years, absolutely brilliant content.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “America has lost 200k of jobs in media, film and the arts. How much is AI?” Independent alternative to big streamers
“stream content from independent content providers like Dropout and Nebula using their web-based UI”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal” “I ended up culling my streaming down to just Dropout, Nebula, severely modified Youtube”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid”
Other streaming services people recommend
The four most recommended other streaming services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Premium | 143 | 38 | 183 | 44% | 12 | — | — |
| Netflix | 82 | 85 | 517 | 14% | 12 | 15 yrs10 people | — |
| Nebula | 28 | 9 | 14 | 67% | 12 | — | Approved |
| PBS | 23 | 0 | 8 | 74% | 9 | — | Approved |
| DropoutThis page | 8 | 0 | 1 | 89% | 5 | — | — |
Also compared with HBO, Apple TV+, Kanopy and Amazon Prime Video.
What people said
8 of the 10 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Best comedy network in years, absolutely brilliant content.”
“also reveals the dichotomy between investor harm and patient harm”
“Dropout, I love your content, but your app is awful”
“stream content from independent content providers like Dropout and Nebula using their web-based UI”
“I ended up culling my streaming down to just Dropout, Nebula, severely modified Youtube”
“high effort / high production comedy skits (e.g. DropoutTV”
“the boring but effective 100% paying-customers-only model that other successful businesses use”
“no one outside of low-budget stuff like Dropout is making anything interesting in the US right now”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.