# YouTube Premium Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtube-premium/ 143 people recommended YouTube Premium in Hacker News comments, 38 had mixed feelings and 183 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 84 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it, disliking the interface, pushed Shorts, rising prices and data collection; those who recommend it call it their best-value subscription, ad-free and paying creators. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. Claude agents reviewed it against the quotes on 2 Nov 2026. ## What people warn about - Poor interface and pushed Shorts (3 comments in the sample): "It seems like Premium should be all about optimizing for the experience the user wants, without the same dark patterns as the ad-supported site." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985705)) "And that subscriptions screen has a row of all shorts across the top, and shorts trun up in searches and side bar related recommendations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48231152)) "YouTube Premium would offer you an API so that you can watch your stuff without being bothered by their horrible official front-end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931263)) - Rising price (2 comments in the sample): "I liked it better at 10 a month tbh. If they keep increasing the price like Amazon they need to offer more features to compensate." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771497)) "I'm not willing to pay $20 a month for watching like an hour or two of mediocre homemade content Google did not even produce." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46044257)) - Data still collected (2 comments in the sample): "your activity data (views, for how long, what topics, what times of the year, of the day, so on and so forth) is still collected" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45990193)) "It requires the use of a google account and there is no way to even request opting out of the accompanying data harvesting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612930)) - Sponsor segments still need skipping (2 comments in the sample): "I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594787)) "They make it slightly easier to find the end of a sponsor segment, while still requiring me to manually interact with the video." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49787923)) ## Why people recommend it - Best value subscription (8 comments in the sample): "no other subscription - software or otherwise - comes close to providing the real-world value that yt premium does for that little money" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50057726)) "I pay for bundled Google storage + Gemini and YouTube separately, it's still worth it, even without free months or whatever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47652275)) "the premium membership fee, which includes YT Music, is more valuable than any of the other streaming services" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612844)) - Removes ads, saves time (6 comments in the sample): "YouTube is one of the better ones -- sort of -- in that you can simply pay with a very small amount of money rather…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45851418)) "with YT Premium (or adblockers) I can't think of a better platform currently for finding distraction free content focused on your interests" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612922)) "I do value watching unlimited youtube videos without ads, but if they're gonna add the ads back in, I'd easily stop paying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46107781)) - Supports content creators (3 comments in the sample): "Until that point I’ll continue to pay. Content creators tell me they get more income from premium subscribers too so win-win." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45856304)) "Youtube Premium is a pretty good system. I pay $16/mo, and 55% of that gets distributed to creators based on my watch time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290944)) "Revenue should be considered per user to artists they listened to per month. This is actually how YouTube Premium works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47839623)) - Includes YouTube Music (3 comments in the sample): "YouTube music, higher quality video, and the ‘jump ahead’ feature to skip portions of a video that others usually skip." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612990)) "I can mix my own music library with stuff from Youtube Music seamlessly, which is impossible with non-piratical means." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942947)) "I have premium because of Google Music (although the official app is now so bad I use Metrolist" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455817)) ## Other streaming services people recommend - [Netflix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netflix/): 82 recommend, 85 mixed, 517 criticize - [Nebula](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nebula/): 28 recommend, 9 mixed, 14 criticize - [PBS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pbs/): 23 recommend, 0 mixed, 8 criticize - [HBO](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hbo/): 22 recommend, 9 mixed, 31 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.youtube.com/premium) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "YouTube Premium", https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtube-premium/ (143 recommend, 38 mixed, 183 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.