Which Subscriptions Raised Prices the Most? A Full Ranking

The Subscription Price Creep Nobody Talks About

A £1 increase here, a £2 increase there. Individually, subscription price rises feel almost insignificant. Your brain processes them as minor adjustments, barely worth the effort of cancelling over. And that is exactly what companies are counting on.

But when you step back and look at the cumulative effect over two or three years, the picture is dramatically different. Some of the UK's most popular subscriptions have risen by 30, 50, even 80 percent since their launch or recent baseline. Across a household with ten or more subscriptions, those small increments add up to hundreds of pounds per year more than you were paying just a short time ago.

We tracked the price increases of major UK subscriptions across every category — streaming, music, software, fitness, food boxes, broadband, mobile, and more — and ranked them by percentage increase to find the biggest offenders.

The Ranking: Biggest Price Increases by Percentage

1. Disney+ (Ad-Free) — Up 83%

Launch price (March 2020): £5.99/month
Current price (2025): £10.99/month (Premium tier, ad-free 4K)
Increase: £5.00/month / 83.5%

Disney+ takes the top spot with the most dramatic price transformation in UK streaming. What launched as a single, simple, ad-free plan at £5.99 has become a three-tier system where the equivalent ad-free 4K experience costs nearly double. The introduction of an ad-supported tier at the original price point means Disney effectively moved the goalposts — you are now paying significantly more for what was originally the standard experience.

2. Adobe Creative Cloud (All Apps) — Up ~67%

Approximate introductory price (2013): £30-35/month
Current price (2025): £54.99/month
Increase: ~£20-25/month / ~67%

Adobe's transition from one-time software purchases to a subscription model was initially pitched as a more affordable way to access professional tools. The introductory pricing in the early years reflected this promise. But steady annual increases have pushed the full Creative Cloud suite to nearly £660 per year — significantly more than the old perpetual licence model cost for most users. Individual app plans like Photoshop have also risen, from around £10/month to £22.99/month.

3. Peloton All-Access Membership — Up ~64%

Launch price (UK, 2020): £39/month (initially discounted)
Current price (2025): £44/month (All-Access)
Increase: ~£5/month from initial pricing, but effective increase higher for many users

Peloton's price increases are compounded by the fact that many UK buyers purchased the bike during lockdown at promotional rates and with significantly cheaper membership pricing. The All-Access membership that connects to the bike hardware now costs £44/month — over £500 per year — making it one of the most expensive subscription services in any category. The app-only membership (no hardware required) has also risen to £12.99/month.

4. Netflix Premium — Up ~50%

Price in 2020: £11.99/month
Current price (2025): £17.99/month
Increase: £6.00/month / 50%

Netflix's Premium tier has been one of the most consistently rising prices in streaming. Every year or two, another £1-2 gets added, and because the increases are gradual, most subscribers absorb them without switching plans. At £215.88 per year, Netflix Premium is now one of the most expensive entertainment subscriptions on the market.

5. Council Tax (Average Band D, England) — Up ~25%

While not a subscription in the traditional sense, council tax is a recurring payment that many households treat as such. The average Band D council tax in England has risen from approximately £1,818 in 2021-22 to around £2,280 in 2025-26 — an increase of roughly 25 percent. Local authority increases of the maximum 5 percent per year compound significantly over time.

6. Spotify Premium (Individual) — Up 23%

Price in 2021: £9.99/month
Current price (2025): £11.99/month (after two increases)
Increase: £2.00/month / 20%

Spotify held its £9.99 price for over a decade before finally raising it to £10.99 in 2023 and then to £11.99 in 2024. While the percentage increase is lower than many competitors, it was notable precisely because Spotify had been the poster child for price stability. The Family plan has also risen from £14.99 to £19.99 — a 33 percent increase that hits multi-person households particularly hard.

7. YouTube Premium — Up 18%

Price in 2022: £11.99/month (Individual)
Current price (2025): £12.99/month
Increase: £1.00/month / 8.3% (Individual), but Family plan up from £17.99 to £19.99 — 11%

YouTube Premium's increases have been relatively modest on the individual plan, but the Family plan increases have been more aggressive. Given that YouTube Premium's core value proposition is ad removal on a free platform, any price increase sharpens the question of whether paying for ad-free YouTube is genuinely worth it.

8. HelloFresh — Up ~20-30% (Effective)

Typical box price (2021): £3.25-3.50 per serving
Current price (2025): £4.00-4.99 per serving
Increase: Varies by box size / ~20-30%

Meal kit services like HelloFresh and Gousto have increased prices significantly, partly driven by food inflation and supply chain costs. HelloFresh's per-serving costs have risen from the £3.25 range to over £4 for most configurations. A standard box of three meals for two people now costs around £30-35 per week, up from roughly £25 a couple of years ago.

9. Broadband (Average UK) — Up ~15-20%

Average broadband bill (2022): ~£30/month
Average broadband bill (2025): ~£35-37/month
Increase: ~£5-7/month / ~15-20%

UK broadband providers have been raising prices annually through mid-contract inflation-linked increases, typically CPI plus 3.7 to 3.9 percent. BT, Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk, and others all use this mechanism, meaning your bill rises every April regardless of what you agreed when you signed up. Over a two-year contract, these increases can add £60-80 to your total cost compared to the headline price.

10. Gym Memberships (Budget Chains) — Up ~25-40%

PureGym (typical, 2020): £15-20/month
PureGym (typical, 2025): £22-30/month
The Gym Group (typical, 2020): £12-18/month
The Gym Group (typical, 2025): £18-25/month

Budget gym chains that built their brand on affordability have raised prices substantially. Many early members who signed up at founding rates of £9.99 or £12.99 have seen their memberships rise to £20+ as gyms remove grandfathered pricing and introduce peak/off-peak tiering. Premium gym chains like David Lloyd and Virgin Active have seen even larger absolute increases, with family memberships now routinely exceeding £150-200 per month.

Services That Have Held Prices Relatively Steady

Not every company has been aggressively hiking prices. These services deserve recognition for maintaining reasonable pricing:

Apple Music — Moderate Increases

Apple Music's individual plan has moved from £9.99 to £10.99 — a 10 percent increase over several years, which is below the rate of general inflation over the same period. The Family plan at £16.99 for six people remains one of the best value music streaming options available.

Tidal — Improved Value at Same Price

Tidal has taken the unusual approach of improving its offering without raising prices. HiFi-quality audio, which previously required a more expensive plan, is now included in the standard subscription. This effective price decrease is the opposite of what most services have done.

Amazon Music Unlimited — Stable

Amazon Music Unlimited has remained at £9.99/month (or £7.99 for Prime members) for an extended period. For Prime members, it represents genuine value, especially as Amazon has expanded its catalogue to rival Spotify.

Kindle Unlimited — Stable

Amazon's Kindle Unlimited has held at £7.99/month for years, making it one of the most stable subscription prices in any category.

Why Prices Keep Rising: The Economics Behind the Increases

Understanding why prices rise helps you predict which services will increase next and when.

The Land Grab Is Over

Most subscription services launched with below-cost pricing designed to attract subscribers quickly. Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, and others all accepted years of losses while building their user bases. Now that subscriber growth has slowed or plateaued, investors are demanding profitability, and the only way to get there is to raise prices.

Content Costs Are Soaring

For streaming services specifically, the cost of producing and licensing content has skyrocketed. Netflix spends roughly $17 billion annually on content. Disney+ invests billions in Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar productions. These costs must be recovered through subscriber revenue, and as content budgets grow, so do prices.

Inflation Passthrough

Many companies have used broad economic inflation as cover for above-inflation price increases. When the UK CPI was running at 6-10 percent in 2022-23, services could justify 15-20 percent price increases and point to "rising costs." Now that general inflation has fallen to 3-4 percent, some services are still raising prices at much higher rates.

Reduced Competition in Key Markets

In some categories, consolidation has reduced competitive pressure. The merger of Discovery and Warner Bros created a streaming giant that could raise prices without fear of losing subscribers to a comparable alternative. In broadband, the major providers have aligned on similar pricing structures, reducing the incentive to undercut each other.

Shareholder Pressure

Publicly listed companies face constant pressure from investors to demonstrate revenue growth. When subscriber numbers plateau, the easiest way to show revenue growth is to increase the price per subscriber. This is a fundamental tension between shareholder interests and consumer value.

Category-by-Category Analysis

Streaming Video: Moderate-to-High Increases

The average streaming video price increase across all major UK services is approximately 30-40 percent over three years. The shift to tiered pricing with ad-supported options has complicated direct comparisons, but the net effect is that getting an ad-free, high-quality experience costs significantly more than it did.

Music Streaming: Low-to-Moderate Increases

Music streaming has seen the lowest average increases, partly because the market is more mature and price-sensitive. Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music have all kept individual plan prices within 10-20 percent of their historical levels.

Software: High Increases

Software subscriptions, led by Adobe, have seen some of the highest absolute price increases. The shift from perpetual licences to subscriptions initially lowered costs, but ongoing increases have eroded that advantage. Microsoft 365 has been more moderate, rising from £59.99/year to £69.99/year for the Personal plan.

Fitness: High Increases

Gym memberships and fitness app subscriptions have seen 25-40 percent increases on average, driven by post-pandemic demand recovery and the removal of early-adopter pricing.

Food Delivery and Meal Kits: Moderate-to-High Increases

Meal kit services have passed through food inflation directly to customers, with 20-30 percent effective increases over three years. Delivery subscriptions like Deliveroo Plus have also crept up.

Broadband and Mobile: Moderate Increases (But Sneaky)

The broadband industry's use of mid-contract CPI-linked increases makes their pricing particularly deceptive. The headline price you sign up for is not the price you will actually pay across the full contract. Over a typical 24-month contract, mid-contract increases add 10-15 percent to the total cost.

Predictions: What Comes Next

Based on the patterns we have tracked, here is what we expect for subscription pricing in the near future:

Netflix will likely increase the ad-supported tier from £4.99 to £5.99-6.99 within the next 12-18 months. The current price is deliberately set low to attract users into the ecosystem
Disney+ may restructure again, potentially removing its cheapest tier entirely or introducing a fourth pricing level
Spotify will likely raise prices again in late 2025 or 2026, following the pattern it has now established
Gym chains will continue removing grandfathered pricing, forcing long-term members onto new, higher rate cards
Broadband providers will continue using mid-contract inflation clauses until Ofcom clamps down more aggressively

What You Can Do About Rising Prices

Audit Quarterly

The most effective defence against subscription inflation is regular price monitoring. Every three months, check what you are paying for each service and compare it to three months ago. Note any increases and evaluate whether the value has increased to match.

Set Price Alerts

Use subscription tracking apps like Emma or Snoop to automatically flag price changes on your recurring payments. This ensures you never absorb a price increase without consciously deciding to accept it.

Downgrade Before You Cancel

When a service raises its price, your first move should not be to cancel — it should be to check whether a cheaper tier exists that meets your needs. Many people are on premium tiers out of habit rather than necessity.

Use the Price Increase as Leverage

A price increase is the perfect excuse to call a retention team and negotiate. For broadband, mobile, and insurance, saying "my bill just went up and I am considering switching" almost always triggers a retention offer.

Vote With Your Wallet

Ultimately, companies raise prices because they can — because most subscribers do not cancel. Every cancellation shows up in their churn metrics and influences future pricing decisions. If a service raises its price beyond what you consider fair, cancel. If enough people do this, it sends a clear market signal that there is a ceiling on what consumers will accept.

The subscription industry is betting that your inertia will always outweigh your price sensitivity. Prove them wrong by being an active, engaged consumer who reviews prices regularly and is willing to walk away.