27 best free trials for products and subscriptions
From films and TV to classic novels and delicious snacks... Free trials give you all of the perks at none of the cost. We've listed all of the best offers for you.
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There are so many free trials nowadays – it's almost not worth paying for anything. After all, add up all the trial periods of movie streaming services and you could be watching films for months without so much as a penny leaving your bank account.
Of course, while they give so much, free trials also have a sting in the tail. If you forget to cancel them, you could be charged full price for a membership.
So, with that in mind, we've listed all of the best free trials available to you right now. We've also included how long they run for, how much the service usually costs and if you need to cancel to avoid paying.
Best free trials
Best free subscription trials in the UK
Here's our pick of the best free trials:
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Amazon Prime Student
Trial length: Six months
Normal cost: £4.49 per month or £47.49 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
With a free trial of Amazon Prime Student, you'll get most of the same benefits as a fully paid-up member of Amazon Prime. Plus, you'll get some exclusive student-only offers throughout the year.
That means unlimited free next-day delivery, full access to the Prime Video selection of films and TV (including their Premier League games), Prime Music and more.
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Apple TV+
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: £18.95 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
There's a one-month free trial of Apple One available. However, it's worth noting it can only include subscriptions you don't currently have.
The cheapest plan (Individual) costs £18.95 per month after the free trial and includes:
- iCloud+
- Apple TV+
- Apple Music
- Apple Arcade.
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YouTube Premium Student
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: £7.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
YouTube Premium has the feature we've all been begging for for years: the ability to listen to YouTube videos while the app is closed.
What's more, there are no ads and you can also download videos (music or otherwise) to watch offline. But mostly, we're excited about playing music in the background.
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ITVX Premium
Trial length: Seven days
Normal cost: £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
ITV's new streaming service, ITVX Premium, is the new home of BritBox. And luckily ITVX Premium is offered at the same price and with the same seven-day free trial previously offered by BritBox.
A free trial will get you full access to Britbox's collection of British TV shows and films, including Doctor Who, Love Island and Skins. You'll also get access to over 10,000 hours of ad-free ITVX shows and movies.
And, unlike live TV, you won't need a TV Licence to watch ITVX Premium. Although, as we always point out, students usually don't need one anyway.
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BFI Player
Trial length: 14 days
Normal cost: £4.99 per month or £49 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Sign up for a free trial of BFI Player and you'll find that it's packed with classic and cult films. Some of them even have BFI-exclusive introductions from the nation's favourite film critic: Mark Kermode.
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MUBI Students
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £7.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Another one for fans of cult and indie cinema, MUBI has a great selection of past classics and modern masterpieces. With your trial membership, you can watch as many as you like.
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Spotify Premium Student
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: £5.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Sign up to Spotify Premium and you'll get ad-free streaming. On top of that, you can download songs and podcasts to your phone and listen to them offline.
And if you're happy to keep paying for a membership, just make sure you specifically sign up for a free trial of Spotify Premium Student. That way, you'll get a big discount on the usual subscription fee.
But don't worry if you're not eligible – we have loads more tips on how to get a cheap Spotify subscription.
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Apple Music Student
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: £5.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
You'll need to verify your student status with Apple in order to get a trial of Apple Music Student, but it's definitely worth signing up for that rather than the basic plan (£10.99 per month).
As we touched on earlier, in addition to all the music you'll be able to stream, a Student account will also get free access to Apple TV+.
What's more, if you decide not to cancel your trial, you'll get all of this for £5.99 per month. That's half the cost of a normal plan, which doesn't even come with Apple TV+. No-brainer.
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Audible
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £7.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Audible members get one credit per month to buy any audiobook, regardless of price. Or, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you can select two free audiobooks during your free trial period.
These are yours to keep, even if you cancel your Audible membership or free trial. If you're not happy with the audiobook, you can return it for another credit.
You'll also get unlimited access to Audible Original Podcasts, plus the option of listening to your audiobooks offline.
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Rakuten Kobo
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £6.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Similar to Audible, Kobo's 30-day trial gives you one credit. You can exchange this for a free audiobook. Even if you cancel your subscription before you start paying, the book you choose is yours to keep.
At the time of writing, TopCashback and Quidco are offering cashback for shopping with Kobo.
Want more tricks? Check out our guide to getting free audiobooks. -
YouTube Music Student
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: £5.49 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Confused by the fact that YouTube has YouTube Premium and YouTube Music? Yeah, we were too.
The key difference is that YouTube Music is purely for music and therefore has a lower monthly cost than YouTube Premium.
Of course, it goes without saying that we're only interested because they offer a one-month free trial. This will give you all the same ad-free, downloadable listening privileges that paying members get to enjoy.
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SoundCloud Go and Go+
Trial length: Seven days for Go, 30 days for Go+
Normal cost: £5.99 per month for Go, £4.99 per month for Go+ for students
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
SoundCloud Go lets you save an unlimited number of tracks for offline listening, as well as taking away the ads you'll hear between every few tracks.
SoundCloud Go+ does both of these as well as giving you high-quality audio and unlocking access to the full catalogue of tracks on the platform.
Given the choice, we'd definitely recommend signing up for a SoundCloud Go+ trial. It's longer, offers more and, if you're a student, is cheaper than the standard Go membership once your free trial ends.
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TIDAL
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £4.99 for students
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
When it comes to free trials, there are a fair few music streaming services out there. But TIDAL stands out for its focus on incredible sound quality.
If you like what you find during the free trial, it may be worth paying for the student plan.
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Headspace
Trial length: Two weeks if you sign up for an annual plan, one week if you sign up for monthly
Normal cost: £9.99 per month, £49.99 per year or £7.99 per year for students
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
A Headspace subscription gives you access to its full library of meditations and courses, including sleep sounds and bedtime exercises. It's ideal if you're looking for ways to fall asleep fast.
If you like what you hear, you can subscribe to the Student Plan for just £7.99 for the year. That's a discount of around 84% discount off the £49.99 annual subscription you'd be charged to continue with the standard annual plan. It's a great student discount.
Don't know which service to stick with? Check out our guide to the best music streaming sites in the UK.
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Readly
Trial length: Two months
Normal cost: £12.99 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Readly is host to over 7,000 magazine and newspaper titles. With your free trial, you'll have access to digital issues of them all (online and downloadable for offline reading).
You even get the option of having up to five profiles on your account.
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Kindle Unlimited
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £9.49 per month
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
You'll need to sign in to your Amazon account to view your specific offer for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited, as some users are offered 60 days or more.
That said, as far as we know, all new Kindle Unlimited users are entitled to a 30-day free trial. The trial gives you unlimited access to over one million titles, plus thousands of audiobooks and even some magazine subscriptions.
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Blinkist
Trial length: Seven days
Normal cost: £44.99 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
If you're looking for a super productive way to read non-fiction books, you should check out Blinkist. This service provides professional book summaries, showing you the essential information from the world's best non-fiction books in less than 15 minutes.
The free trial of the premium subscription gives you unlimited access to over 6,500 books, exclusive podcasts and more. And, at the time of writing, you can save 25% off the cost of a Premium plan after the trial ends.
You have seven days to cancel before you automatically roll onto the paid subscription. If you cancel, you'll get the free version of Blinkist. This gives you access to one pre-selected book per day.
If you're looking for any non-fiction recommendations, check out our guide to the best financial books. -
The Athletic
Trial length: Seven days
Normal cost: £7.99 per month, £59.99 per year, or £29.99 per year for students
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Since launching in 2019, The Athletic has really shaken up football coverage in the UK.
With your seven-day free trial, you'll get full access to the platform's exclusive content from some of the country's top football writers.Frustratingly, you can't get a free trial with the student or monthly subscription. Instead, once the free trial is up, you'll need to cancel your annual plan and then sign up again as a student.
It's worth it though, as students can get their membership half-price for up to four years.
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The Week
Trial length: Six weeks (six issues)
Normal cost: £38.99 every 13 issues (digital only), £45.99 every 13 issues (print only), £50.99 every 13 issues (digital and print)
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
As the name suggests, The Week is a weekly publication covering the news from the last seven days.
You can get free trials of the publication in print or digital form, or both together. Whichever one you go for, the first six issues are completely free. The Week promises to refund you for any unmailed issues should you decide to cancel.
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Outplayed.com
Trial length: seven days of Platinum membership and a 30-day money-back guarantee (excluding Pro membership)
Normal cost: £39.99 per month or £350 per year for Platinum (other plans available)
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? No.
Outplayed is an online service and community focused on making money from matched betting (you must be over 18).
We suggest reading our own free guide to matched betting first. Once you understand the concept and have made your first profit, you could consider trying the free trial at Outplayed.
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PlayStation Plus Premium
Trial length: Seven days
Normal cost: £13.49 per month, £39.99 per three months or £119.99 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Think of PlayStation Plus as being like the Netflix of PlayStation games. Rather than having to buy each game individually, PlayStation Plus lets you stream hundreds of titles on-demand via the cloud.
The service is available on PS4 and PS5. New games are added to the platform all the time, including a whole host of PlayStation exclusives.
However, the free trial can be account-specific.
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Nintendo Switch Online
Trial length: Seven days
Normal cost: £3.49 per month, £6.99 per three months or £17.99 per year
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
As well as unlocking online gaming, your seven-day trial of Nintendo Switch Online will also give you free access to the service's growing library of NES and SNES titles. Many of these can also be played online.
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NordVPN
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £10.39 per month, £53.85 for one year or £67.23 for two years
Hidden costs: Payment may be taken before the plan renews, but this will be refunded if you cancel before the end of the trial
Cancellation required? Yes.
If you're looking to browse the internet securely and privately, you should look no further than a VPN (Virtual Private Network). NordVPN is one of the biggest and best VPN providers out there, and you can now get a 30-day free trial of the service to try it for yourself.
The NordVPN free trial gives you all the same features as a full membership, including compatibility across pretty much every operating system you can imagine (yep, even mobiles) and the option to use it on up to six devices at any one time.
And if you're keen to keep using the service once your free trial is over, it may be worth signing up again, using the NordVPN student discount.
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LinkedIn Premium
Trial length: One month
Normal cost: Varies
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
LinkedIn is great for finding a job, and it's even more effective when you have a Premium subscription. With this, you'll get insights into how your CV stacks up against those who have already applied, plus the ability to message people you're not connected with (including recruiters).
Unlike most other companies, LinkedIn regularly offers more than one free trial per customer. If you already used a trial of LinkedIn Premium a while ago but want to move jobs again, check if there's another month of free service waiting for you.
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Smol
Trial length: One box of nine laundry or dishwasher capsules or one spray bottle with multi-purpose refill tablet
Normal cost: £5.80 for 24 washing capsules, £6.30 for 30 dishwasher capsules and £6.60 for a six-pack of multi-purpose spray refill tablets
Hidden costs: £1 for postage of each capsule type and £2 for postage of spray bottle and refill
Cancellation required? Yes.
Smol produces planet-friendlier, cruelty-free washing machine capsules, dishwasher tablets and surface cleaning sprays. And you can try all of them in free trial boxes.
And we've got a little tip. If you're not fussed about using bio or non-bio washing capsules, you can get a free trial of both. Just remember that you'll have to pay £1 postage for each separate set, even if you order them at the same time.
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Waldo
Trial length: 10 days
Normal cost: From £12 per box of 30 lenses
Hidden costs: £2.95 shipping
Cancellation required? Yes.
Before committing to a paid subscription, Waldo gives you a chance to try their contact lenses for free. They'll send you 10 pairs to try. While the lenses themselves are free, you will have to pay for shipping.
For alternatives, check out our guide to the best and cheapest contact lenses.
Did you know that when you buy glasses online, you can sometimes get a free trial of the frames first? -
Strava
Trial length: 30 days
Normal cost: £8.99 per month or £54.99 per year, or £2.29 per month for students
Hidden costs: None
Cancellation required? Yes.
Strava is an app that combines exercise with social media. You can track your runs, swims, bike rides and more and share them with your friends.
The regular app is free to use, but you can try the premium version to unlock some extra features. These include training logs, being able to set goals, advanced metrics and more.
The free trial lets you use these features for 30 days. And if you decide to become a paying premium member, make sure to use the 50% student discount.
The free stuff doesn't end there. We've also got a whole host of ways to get free money too.
All information was correct at the time of writing.
