Hotstarfor Android

Hotstar is the free dedicated app for streaming all of India’s favorite entertainment programs. The app provides the ability to stream live sports and episodes of top TV shows such as Bigg Boss or Special OPS. However, this service has an uphill battle for a top spot in the Indian, European, and U.S. markets.

Features

Hotstar is a free Indian entertainment streaming app available on mobile devices. The app allows you to stream popular movies, TV shows, and news. The app also allows you to stream live matches of India’s favorite sport, cricket.

It’s available to use in India, the UK, and the United States, but not anywhere else in the world. Despite the limited and saturated market, Hotstar stands apart by being completely free to use.

Drawbacks

Because the app is free, Hotstar has an abundance of advertisements and breaks during shows and movies. The ads are intrusive and set the experience back a considerable amount. The app’s layout is also dysfunctional in some areas.

Hotstar lacks a picture-in-picture mode, meaning that building a queue can be tiresome. Video quality may be low for some shows, and subtitles may be too small to read on some devices.

Competition

Hotstar's main competitor is Netflix. Netflix has a heavy presence in India, which is Hotstar’s primary market, that risks suffocating the app. That being said, it’s easier to use Hotstar to watch Indian entertainment in the US and UK than on Netflix. Using Netflix in these countries to watch Indian entertainment requires the use of a virtual private network.

Hotstar’s competition doesn’t end at Netflix, because Cricbuzz is also in their market. Cricbuzz is a free Cricket live-streaming app. Cricbuzz is available in the same markets as Hotstar, just like Netflix, and draws away consumers from the app by providing a specialized and custom experience.

Our take

Hotstar is a unique app that isn’t looking to force you to pay large sums to watch your favorite Indian entertainment. The app has a large number of intrusive ads and breaks that can ruin the experience for less patient viewers. The competition behind the app makes it the underdog behind Netflix and other companies, requiring Hotstar to work harder to maintain a presence in the European, American, and Indian markets.

Should you download it?

Yes. If you want to watch Indian entertainment for free without a VPN.