Comparison

HDHomeRun vs PlayOn Cloud

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HDHomeRun

Stream live, over-the-air, and cable TV channels directly to your iOS device. Pause, rewind, and fast-forward live broadcasts. Access program guides with images and logos for an enhanced viewing experience.

Highlights
  • Live TV streaming (OTA & Cable)
  • Pause, FF, RW live TV
  • HD channel support
  • Program guide with images
  • Fast channel changes
  • Intuitive UI controls
Features
Read full description

Enjoy free over-the-air TV throughout your home on Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and Mac with HDHomeRun and a TV antenna. Simply connect your HDHomeRun to your TV antenna and home network to enjoy a modern TV experience throughout your home. Discover shows, explore a beautiful guide, see what's on now and next, and start watching with fast channel changes and an intuitive interface. Add a USB hard drive to your HDHomeRun for DVR across your home. Pause and rewind live TV, record your favorite shows, and watch your recordings on Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Watch NEXTGEN TV (ATSC 3.0) where available with the HDHomeRun FLEX 4K. Features: • Watch free over-the-air TV from your TV antenna on Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and Mac • Discover shows with a beautiful guide • Pause and rewind live TV • Fast channel changes • Record your favorite shows with HDHomeRun DVR • Schedule series and movie recordings • Watch your HDHomeRun DVR recordings on Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and Mac • Watch NEXTGEN TV (ATSC 3.0) with the HDHomeRun FLEX 4K where available Requirements: • HDHomeRun connected to your TV antenna and home network • Wi-Fi or wired home network • Internet connection for guide data

About

PlayOn Cloud

Record and download streaming videos from over 20 popular services, including Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. Watch your favorite shows and movies anytime, anywhere, even offline, and skip ads on supported tiers. Downloads never expire.

Highlights
  • Record from 20+ streaming services
  • Download videos for offline viewing
  • Ad skipping on supported tiers
  • Downloads never expire
  • Watch on TV via casting
  • Automatic downloads
Features
Read full description

Record and download any streaming video from Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, The CW, Discovery+, Showtime, STARZ, Vudu, Pluto, Tubi, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS, The Roku Channel, and BBC iPlayer, Acorn, Xfinity, and Spectrum. PlayOn Cloud downloads never expire. Download Big Bang Theory, The Bear, House of Dragon, Superman & Lois, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Yellowstone, Gotham Knights, Chicago Fire, Grey's Anatomy, or any of your favorite movies and shows; watch anytime, anywhere, even offline. Save hundreds of dollars a year by subscribing to the Ad-supported tiers of Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, and Paramount+ and then skip over the ads when you watch with PlayOn (just like you do with your cable DVR). Record and download videos from Netflix before they go offline then watch them anywhere, anytime, even after they have been removed from Netflix. No need to select only the videos that Netflix lets you download, with PlayOn Cloud you can download ANY Netflix or Hulu video. Record and download Disney+ videos to watch offline. The simple PlayOn Cloud app gives you easy access to download all streaming videos from Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, The CW, Discovery+, Showtime, STARZ, Vudu, Pluto, Tubi, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS, The Roku Channel, and BBC iPlayer, Acorn, Xfinity, and Spectrum.– over 20 of the most popular streaming services. Love House of Dragon, Game of Thrones, Jack Ryan or want to watch Moon Knight when you’re offline? Simply select the show you want and hit record. Once recorded, a streaming show or movie will be available for you to download to your mobile device or PC. You can even set it to automatically download to your phone, tablet, or TV as soon as the recording is finished. You can skip right over the recordings automatically when you watch. You can even watch your recordings on your Roku, Chromecast, Fire TV, or Apple TV (and skip the recordings). The recording happens in the PlayOn Cloud so no data is used to make the recording. Once your PlayOn Cloud recording is downloaded, you can watch it anytime and anywhere. You can watch it on your big screen TV with your Roku, Chromecast, Fire TV, or Apple TV. No more worrying about a Netflix video leaving. You can even download it to your Mac, PC or other device. No more WiFi requirement to watch on your mobile device – you can download Netflix and watch when you're not on WiFi without using data. Want to watch your downloaded PlayOn Cloud recordings on your TV? You can cast to your TV with Roku, Chromecast or Fire TV or AirPlay it to your Apple TV. Have a long flight tomorrow? Queue up Game of Thrones, Jack Ryan or The Mandalorian tonight and they’ll be downloaded and waiting when you take off. Long subway ride to work? With PlayOn Cloud, you’ll be watching downloaded Netflix, The CW, or Disney+ videos the entire time. Need a selection of safe shows for your kids to watch? PlayOn Cloud makes it easy to fill up your kid's device with safe streaming shows - and watch them without using any cellular data, or watching any commercials. When you watch recordings that have commercials, you have an option to automatically skip the ads. How great is that? Want to make PlayOn Cloud even more powerful? Get an optional PlayOn Cloud Storage and Credit plan. You'll get a week to make 7 free recordings. After that you'll be billed $4.99 per month for 30 recordings and 100GB cloud storage. You’ll be charged as a recurring transaction through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal by going to your iTunes Account Settings after purchase. Terms of Use: https://www.playon.tv/eula Privacy Policy: http://www.playon.tv/privacy

Screenshots

HDHomeRun4 screens
PlayOn Cloud4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PlayOn Cloud at 4.6 against HDHomeRun's 2.6. PlayOn Cloud also leads on review sentiment (62% vs 27%) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). HDHomeRun's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. PlayOn Cloud sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. HDHomeRun asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PlayOn Cloud holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 476 and 2K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 27% of HDHomeRun's written reviews are positive against 62% of PlayOn Cloud's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HDHomeRun ships an update every 2 months, PlayOn Cloud every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
HDHomeRun versus PlayOn Cloud: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHDHomeRunPlayOn Cloud
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.6 (476 ratings)4.6 (2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews26.9% of reviews62.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4762K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac
Requires iOS15.012.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB155 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperSiliconDust USA, Inc.MediaMall Technologies, Inc.

Customer experience

HDHomeRun

All ratings465 ratings
Positive30.5%
Neutral14.2%
Negative55.3%
Written reviews227 reviews
Positive26.9%
Neutral15.0%
Negative58.1%

PlayOn Cloud

All ratings1,945 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral2.4%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews283 reviews
Positive62.2%
Neutral7.8%
Negative30.0%

User reviews

HDHomeRun

From 476 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fastest TV app
  • 📺 Great picture quality
  • 🔍 Picks up more channels than TV tuner
  • 🔌 Works reliably
  • 🔨 Decent hardware

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🔍 Unreliable channel detection
  • 🤖 Clunky and unintuitive UI
  • 🔇 No independent volume control
  • 🔒 Lacks DRM support

PlayOn Cloud

From 2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Convenient for offline viewing
  • 👍 Great for travel
  • 👍 Allows building personal content library
  • 👍 Helpful customer support

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent app crashes
  • 🐛 Buggy login and download issues
  • 🔍 Limited content selection
  • 💰 Expensive per-recording fees
  • 🕰️ Slow download speeds

Bugs and requests

HDHomeRun

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Fails to detect tuner device
  • Channels not loading
  • Playback issues after updates
  • Crashes on channel change
  • Compatibility problems with iOS 15+
Show 1 more
  • Lip-sync issues

Requested features

5 requests
  • Picture-in-Picture mode
  • Channel favorites and filtering
  • Improved DVR functionality
  • Manual IP address entry
  • Native Apple TV app

PlayOn Cloud

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Recordings not resuming from where left off
  • App not working on certain devices/OS versions
  • Inconsistent performance across platforms

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to delete recordings from queue
  • Option to sort recordings alphabetically or chronologically
  • Support for more streaming platforms
  • Larger cloud storage capacity
  • Offline playback without needing to download

In-app purchases

None

HDHomeRun

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

PlayOn Cloud

Subscriptions9
  • 10 Credits/50 GB Storage7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • 10 Credits/50 GB (No Trial)$2.991 Month
  • 7 Credit Trial/ 30 Cred/mo7 Days trial$2.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • 30 Credits Monthly$2.991 Month
  • 30 Credits/100 GB Storage7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • 30 Credits/100GB (No Trial)$4.991 Month
  • 100GB Storage/ 30 Credits$4.991 Month
  • 100GB Storage/30 Credits7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • 500GB Storage/ 30 Credits$9.991 Month
One-time1
  • 25 Recording Credits$4.99

Questions

Is HDHomeRun free?
HDHomeRun is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PlayOn Cloud free?
PlayOn Cloud is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HDHomeRun or PlayOn Cloud?
PlayOn Cloud is rated higher. HDHomeRun averages 2.6 out of 5 from 476 ratings, while PlayOn Cloud averages 4.6 from 2K ratings.
Do HDHomeRun or PlayOn Cloud have ads?
Neither HDHomeRun nor PlayOn Cloud shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HDHomeRun or PlayOn Cloud?
HDHomeRun ships an update every 2 months, and PlayOn Cloud every 3 weeks. Most recently, HDHomeRun was updated on November 6, 2026 and PlayOn Cloud on November 6, 2026.

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