Do Disney+ and Netflix Have the Same Password-Sharing Rules?

Disney+ isn’t afraid to follow in the footsteps of Netflix’s success. The two streaming services have both rolled out rules to try and prevent their customers from sharing passwords with unpaid users outside their home, as each tries to squeeze more consistent — or in Netflix’s case, simply more — profits out of their platforms. I’ll dive deeply into each streamer’s efforts to halt password sharing below, comparing and contrasting the methods of each.

Comparing Disney+ and Netflix’s Password-Sharing Rules:

How Do Disney+ and Netflix Prevent Viewers From Sharing Accounts?

Starting out with a big similarity here. Netflix asks a viewer to set a primary location for the use of their account. then tracks how often a user’s device connects to a home’s Wi-Fi signal, marking a most-used network as a viewer’s household and flagging login attempts that don’t match up with the IP address or location of that household.

Disney+ does basically the same thing, using location-based data to determine where a user lives and when they’re logging in at home.

Similar or Different?: Highly similar

What Happens to Viewers Who Violate Disney+, Netflix Restrictions?

Here too, the answer is very similar. Non-paying users who try to log into Netflix outside the account holder’s household are confronted with a warning that they cannot access the account in question, since they appear to be outside the home of the subscriber themselves.

Disney+ also prevents customers from logging into the account holder’s profile and asks if the user wants to update the location of their account or verify their status as the account owner.

Both streamers also promise that paid account holders may lose access to their subscriptions permanently if they continue to allow viewers outside their homes to access their accounts without paying.

Similar or Different: Highly similar

Do Restrictions Mean Paid Disney+, Netflix Subscribers Can’t Watch Accounts On the Road?

No, both Disney+ and Netflix allow viewers to log into their accounts from anywhere, so long as they’re the person who actually paid for it. Attempting to sign into your Netflix or Disney+ account on the road may prompt a request from the streamer in question to verify your identity by entering a one-time passcode sent to the email address associated with your subscription.

Similar or Different: Highly similar

Do Disney+, Netflix Offer Paid Sharing Options?

Here’s where the biggest difference in attempts to stop password-sharing from Netflix and Disney+ might be, and even here there isn’t a huge gulf. Both Netflix and Disney+ allow subscribers to pay extra to add someone outside their home to their accounts.

Both services also allow users who are thusly added to a paid Netflix account to migrate their data over from their former profile, so their watch history and personalized content recommendations remain intact.

The biggest difference here is the amount each company charges to add an outside user to a paid subscription. Netflix asks for $8 to allow a new member to watch an existing account; this is $1 more expensive than the company’s ad-supported Basic plan, meaning it’s cheaper for the extra member to simply buy their own account than to be added to an existing one.

Disney+, on the other hand, seems to want to incentivize paid sharing a bit more. Once the company executes a planned price increase on Disney+ and its other streaming services and bundles in October, adding an extra member to a Disney+ Basic subscription will cost $3 per month less than buying a new Disney+ Basic account will be; adding an extra viewer to a Disney+ Premium account will be $6 less than signing up for a new account.

Similar or Different: Slightly different

Bottom Line

If it appears that Disney+ and Netflix have more or less followed the exact same strategy in cracking down on password-sharing, that’s likely no accident. Netflix executives have touted the efficacy of trying to put a halt to viewers sharing accounts without paying more than once, and Disney didn’t get to its current financial largesse by leaving money on the table. Why not copy Netflix’s strategy in this regard?

The question now becomes who will be the next domino to fall in password-sharing crackdowns, and even that isn’t much of a mystery. Max has promised that it will start enforcing similar restrictions by the end of 2024 and into 2025. It’s a good bet that they will also resemble Disney+ and Netflix’s plans, but we’ll just have to wait to find out how similar they’ll be.