Fubo is perfect if you love sports and watch that more than anything else. But Sling saves you big bucks while letting you pick a channel lineup to your liking.
Sling TV vs. fuboTV
8 min readFubo TV and Sling TV are both great ways to get your TV fix over a streaming platform, but neither is a perfect service, and it helps to know what you’re getting into before you fork over your hard-earned money.
I spent five days testing Fubo TV and two weeks with Sling TV — a marathon period of testing that had me in studious couch-potato mode, watching sports, browsing channel guides, testing out cloud DVR, and digging into other features. I put both services to the test on both my LG TV and iPhone, and I go into much more detail in my Fubo TV review and my Sling TV review.
But to sum it up: While I loved Fubo for its incredible sports programming and unique playback features, I ended up liking Sling a bit more because it delivers more value for the dollar. Either service takes a unique approach to TV, offering an experience more akin to Netflix than your old dusty Xfinity TV setup.
Sling wins out, though, because it’s cheaper and easier to set up an ideal selection of channels. That said, its numerous plan options can be woefully confusing, and Fubo really is a superb pick for sports fans, particularly thanks to its smooth streaming and bountiful RSN access.
Want to know more? Keep reading for my Fubo TV vs. Sling TV face-to-face showdown.
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Meet the expert
I'm Peter Holslin, a writer who has been covering tech, streaming, and internet services since the 2010s. Watching on my TV and iPhone, I basically became a sports fan watching Fubo TV and I learned the joys of streaming TV because of Sling TV.
Reviews.org
Our breakdown of Fubo TV vs. Sling TV
I scored both services on three main criteria. I gave a score for each, then averaged them for an overall rating.
Quick verdict: Which service should you choose?
Choose Fubo TV if sports are your main reason for watching live TV. You get up to 278 channels, including live games and extensive coverage of major sports and leagues on the local, national, and international levels. You also get unlimited cloud DVR at no extra cost and a five-day free trial to test everything before committing. Just know you'll be without NBC, which accounts for a significant chunk of sports stuff.
Choose Sling TV if you want a user-friendly interface, seamless navigation, and extensive content offerings for a surprisingly affordable price. Sling’s color-coded plans and numerous add-ons make it easy to curate a channel lineup just for you, while the Day Passes are perfect for casual fans who only need live TV for a single game or event. And the Freestream service is genuinely great too, packed with an impressive number of international channels.
Side by side comparison
*Fubo also has a Latino plan for Spanish-language channels that costs $14.99/mo., but we listed the rate for Fubo’s standard English-language base plan.
Fubo TV vs. Sling TV plans and prices
Fubo TV: 4/5
Sling TV: 5/5
Fubo TV's pricing is straightforward once you understand the tiers. The Pro plan at $73.99/mo. is the main entry point, with 215 channels including ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX, FS1, NFL Network, encompassing a wide range of sports and entertainment options. The Elite plan at $83.99/mo. bumps you up to 278 channels and includes 4K streaming at no extra cost.
Fubu also comes with regional sports networks (RSNs), which carry local pro team games. As is common with other streamers, Fubo adds an RSN fee on top of your base plan price.
The Sports + News plan at $55.99/mo. is a leaner option with 29 sports and broadcast channels — it’s a decent deal if you only care about live games and don't need the full channel lineup. The Latino plan at $14.99/mo. is Spanish-language content only, with no ESPN, CBS, FOX, ABC, or local NBA, NHL, or MLB games.
Additional taxes and fees may apply. Prices subject to change.
Every Fubo plan includes unlimited Cloud DVR storage and the ability to stream on up to 10 screens in the same household simultaneously, plus three simultaneous streams on devices outside the home. There's a five-day free trial and no contract is required, so canceling is as easy as signing up.
Sling TV's biggest strength is its modular pricing: You pay for a base package and then you can mix-and-match with various add-ons. That flexibility is genuinely useful if you're on a budget and selective about your viewing.
There are two main packages: Sling Orange and Sling Blue. Coming in at $45.99 a month, Sling Orange gives you 30+ channels, specializing in live sports and entertainment, with only one simultaneous stream. Orange is also available in a Day Pass, with prices starting at $4.99 and options for one day, three days, and seven days. These passes are perfect if you’re a sports fan and just need to tune in for one game or championship.
Sling Blue costs $45.99 a month and comes with 40+ channels, with a focus on news and reality TV, and three simultaneous streams. Sling also has the Orange & Blue plan, which costs $60.99/mo. and gives you 50+ channels and up to four streams. That’s the plan I'd recommend for most households.
All Sling plans include 50 hours of free Cloud DVR storage. Upgrading to unlimited DVR costs $5 a month extra. Sling does not offer a free trial, but you can tune into Freestream (a free, ad-supported tier with 600+ channels) with no account required and it gives you a solid sense of the app experience before you pay anything.
Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change. Sling Blue base price does not include local channels — subscribers in markets where locals are available pay an additional $4–$9/mo. depending on the number of local channels received.
Fubo TV vs. Sling TV reliability and experience
Fubo TV: 4/5
Sling TV: 4/5
My Fubo TV experience: Of everything I tested on Fubo, the app experience was what impressed me most. Rather than leading with a traditional channel guide, Fubo's interface organizes content around specific games, news broadcasts, shows, and movies. It felt more like scrolling Netflix than channel-flipping on a cable plan: I could pull up a live college basketball game between Syracuse and North Carolina without needing to know which channel it was on. The search function is fast and effective, and recorded content saves automatically in a section called My Stuff for up to nine months.
Load times were slower than I expected, but I had no buffering issues once a broadcast started. Most streams topped out at 720p, though I watched a live college basketball game in smooth 1080p with no grainy images or lag. The iPhone app matched the TV experience feature for feature, which isn't always the case with live TV apps.
My Sling TV experience: Sling TV's app is simpler than Fubo's, and in some ways that works in its favor. The home screen uses content carousels — including a Recommended For You section based on your watch history — that let you jump directly into a show or live broadcast without digging through a channel guide. When I pulled up the channel guide itself, it organized channels into relevant categories, which made finding content faster than I expected from a service with this many plans.
The app had some rough edges during my two weeks of testing. The screen would occasionally freeze as I switched between channels, and the channel thumbnail sometimes disappeared while the app struggled to load. Neither issue killed the experience, but they were noticeable on my premium fiber-optic internet connection. DVR playback, on the other hand, worked cleanly: I watched several prerecorded episodes with no lag or audio sync issues. On the web browser app, managing my account and confirming pricing was straightforward once I knew where to look.
Fubo TV vs. Sling TV channel selection
Fubo TV: 4/5
Sling TV: 4/5
Fubo is all about sports: Fubo is primarily a service for live sports, and you will get that impression right away once you start browsing through the app: Live games and sports coverage dominate on the home screen and are pushed heavily in other areas too. Fubo’s Pro and Elite plans come with ABC, CBS, and FOX and you can also watch local NBA, NHL, and MLB games. The only drawback (and it’s a big one) is you can’t get NBC on Fubo, which means no Sunday Night Football, no NBC Sports coverage, no Super Bowl, and no Olympics. That’s a major gap for a streaming service geared specifically to sports fans.
Still, during my five days of testing, I had access to nearly every major game being played. Also, Fubo gives you comprehensive access to regional sports networks (RSNs), allowing you to tune into all sorts of local games. Of course, you can also get lots of entertainment and news channels, though that’s not really where Fubo shines.
Sling TV is more about curating your own adventure: Sling Orange is geared toward live sports and entertainment, offering channels such as ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, and HGTV. Sling Blue emphasizes live news and reality programming, featuring networks like CNN, Fox News, MS Now (formerly MSNBC), TLC, Bravo, and others.
This setup can make things a bit confusing: Sling Orange carries Monday Night Football through ESPN, but you need Sling Blue for Thursday Night Football because it includes the NFL Network. Basically Sling gives subscribers a lot of incentives to spring for the combined Orange & Blue plan, which offers both channel lineups for $60.99 per month.
What local channels do you get?
Regional restrictions apply. Local channel availability varies by market.
Fubo and Sling diverge sharply when it comes to local channels. Fubo carries CBS locally in most markets, proving a significant advantage for NFL fans since CBS is home to AFC games every Sunday. But Fubo has been without NBC since November 21, 2025, when a carriage dispute with NBCUniversal resulted in the removal of NBC, Bravo, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Syfy, Telemundo, and Golf Channel from the platform.
Sling carries NBC in select markets through its Blue and Select plans, but has no CBS on any plan. Sling Blue's local availability is also limited: During my testing, I could get FOX and CBS affiliates in major cities like Chicago and Atlanta, but nothing local to Salt Lake City where I live. If local channels matter to you, consult both services' channel finders before committing.
What sports channels do you get?
Sling holds its own for most sports fans, particularly with the Sports Extra add-on ($11/mo.), which adds NFL RedZone, Big Ten Network, SEC Network, NHL Network, NBA TV, and more. ESPN is available on the Orange plan, and FS1 and NFL Network come with Blue and Select. But Sling has no RSNs at all, which means no local NBA, NHL, or MLB games regardless of which plan you choose. For fans who follow a specific home-market team, Fubo is the better pick.
Fubo TV vs. Sling TV: Final thoughts
Fubo TV: 4/5
Sling TV: 4.3/5
Sling TV edges out Fubo in overall rating largely because of its pricing flexibility and the sheer value it delivers at the entry level. But "better overall" doesn't mean "better for you." Fubo is the stronger pick if sports is your priority: The service has more channels, unlimited DVR at no extra cost, access to all RSNs you could dream of, and a free trial.
Sling is the smarter choice if you want to keep your bill low and build a package around what you actually watch. It’s also sweet if you occasionally need live TV for a single event rather than every week: The Day Pass lets you sign up for the Orange plan for just a day, a few days, or a week, letting you save your mun-muns for something else.
The NBC blackout is the wildcard. Until that dispute resolves, Fubo is a harder sell for anyone who follows Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, or NBCUniversal cable networks like Bravo or USA. If those channels matter to you, Sling Blue with Sports Extra is a more complete package right now. And it costs less too.
To evaluate Fubo TV, I spent five days using the service extensively and documenting my experience as a regular subscriber. To get a sense of the user interface and ease of navigation, I explored the app on an LG TV, navigating key sections such as the search tool, channel guide, and My Stuff library. I also tested important features, including 15-second fast-forward and rewind controls and recording options. I recorded multiple programs on the Cloud DVR and later watched them in playback, paying attention to recording reliability and viewing quality.
Naturally, I also conducted in-depth research into Fubo’s plans, channel lineup, and overall value. This included reviewing the service’s various subscription tiers, add-on packages, bundles, and included features. I verified channel availability through news reports and Fubo’s website, and I compared Fubo’s channel offerings against those of other major live TV streaming services.
For Sling TV, I spent two weeks using the platform, approaching it (like I did with Fubo) as an everyday customer would. During that time, I navigated channel guides, tested DVR recording and playback, evaluated the responsiveness and intuitiveness of the app on my LG TV, and explored all the account-management tools. I also studied every Sling TV package and add-on bundle, reviewed pricing and plan details on Sling’s website, and compared the service with competitors such as YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.
I always read other professional reviews to see what other critics are saying, and I’m keen to look over user feedback on Reddit so I can balance my firsthand observations with other customer experiences and industry perspectives. For more on how we test streaming services at Reviews.org, see the detailed breakdown of our methodology.
Frequently asked questions about Fubo TV vs. Sling TV
Fubo TV carries more sports channels out of the box — including CBS Sports Network and RSNs — but Sling Orange with Sports Extra covers the major national channels (ESPN, NFL RedZone, Big Ten, SEC Network) for significantly less money.
Sling TV does not offer a free trial, though Freestream — its free, ad-supported tier with 600+ channels — is available with no account required; Fubo TV offers a five-day free trial on all plans.
Sling TV is cheaper at every tier, with plans starting at $19.99/mo. compared to Fubo's plans starting at $55.99/mo. Fubo also includes RSN fees of up to $17/mo. that can apply on top of the base price.
No, Fubo has not carried NBC or any NBCUniversal channels since November 21, 2025.
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