Chromecast vs Apple TV

Both products plug into your TV and let you stream. They share almost nothing else. The Chromecast is a $35 dongle controlled by your phone. The Apple TV is a $179 set-top box with its own remote, app store, and ecosystem. The right answer depends on which side of the room you start from.

Tech Talk News EditorialJul 14, 20184 min read

Key takeaways

Chromecast assumes the phone is the center of your media life and the TV is a secondary display, while Apple TV assumes the TV is the center and the phone is optional.

The standard Chromecast is $35 and the Ultra is $69, while the Apple TV is $149 for HD and $179 for 4K, a roughly 4x gap at comparable specs.

Chromecast is a dongle with no remote controlled entirely from the phone, while Apple TV is a set-top box with a Siri Remote, its own UI, and a tvOS App Store with real games.

Chromecast wins for phone-first households, guests casting without accounts, and cheaply deploying across multiple TVs at $35 each.

The recommended approach for most 2018 buyers is to start with a $35 Chromecast and only upgrade to Apple TV if you specifically need the apps, games, or AirPlay integration.

Chromecast and Apple TV are both technically streaming devices but they solve the same problem in opposite ways. Chromecast assumes the phone is the center of your media life and the TV is a secondary display you push content to. Apple TV assumes the TV is the center and the phone is an optional second screen. Once you understand that the products start from different premises, the comparison is much clearer than the spec sheet suggests.

The Price Gap

Chromecast: $35 for the standard model, $69 for the Ultra (4K, HDR). Apple TV: $149 for the HD model, $179 for the 4K model. The gap is roughly 4x at the comparable spec, which is a bigger price difference than most consumer-tech categories tolerate. Apple is selling something else in addition to streaming hardware, and the price tells you they know it.

What You Actually Get

Chromecast comes with: a small dongle, an HDMI cable that's already attached, a power cable. No remote. No box. No setup wizard. You plug it in, open the Google Home app on your phone, and the rest of the experience lives on the phone.

Apple TV comes with: a black puck-shaped box, an HDMI cable (separate, not attached), a power cable, and the Siri Remote. The remote has a touchpad, mics for voice search, and an accelerometer. The box has its own UI, an app store, and Bluetooth for game controllers and AirPods. It's a small computer.

Where Chromecast Wins

Phone-first households. If you discover content on your phone (browsing YouTube, Spotify, Twitter for video clips) and want a fluid way to push that to the TV, Chromecast is faster than Apple TV by a clear margin. There's no app to open, no menu to navigate. The cast button is right there in every supported app.

Guests. A friend visits, hits the cast button, picks your TV, plays a video. They don't need an account on your network, they don't need to know your TV setup, they don't need a remote. Apple TV requires either AirPlay (Apple-only) or installing your friend's account info on the device.

Cost per TV. If you have multiple TVs, Chromecasts at $35 each are an order of magnitude cheaper to deploy. A house with three TVs gets three Chromecasts for the price of one Apple TV.

Where Apple TV Wins

TV-first households. If your media consumption pattern is "sit down on the couch, pick up a remote, browse for something to watch," Apple TV is the right answer. There's no phone in the loop. The on-screen interface is fast, the search is unified across services (mostly: not Netflix), and the remote is right there.

Apple ecosystem integration. AirPlay from any iPhone or Mac is seamless. Photos and home videos from your iCloud library appear automatically. HomeKit-enabled cameras show up in the TV's UI. AirPods auto-connect when you put them in. None of this works with Chromecast, by design.

Apps and games. The tvOS App Store has thousands of apps, including a real game store. The Chromecast doesn't have apps in the conventional sense; it casts from your phone or laptop. If you want a specific niche streaming service or you want to play games on your TV without a console, Apple TV is meaningfully more capable.

The Decision

The honest framing: Chromecast and Apple TV are not competitors so much as they're answers to different questions. If your phone is where you live and the TV is a satellite, Chromecast costs less and works better. If the TV is the center and the phone is incidental, Apple TV is worth the premium. Most households have both kinds of viewers in them, which is why a lot of homes end up with one of each.

For most buyers in 2018, the smart move is to start with a Chromecast (it's $35, it's reversible, it does most of what people use a streaming device for) and only upgrade to Apple TV if you specifically need the apps, the games, or the AirPlay integration. Buying the more expensive product first and discovering you didn't need it is the default mistake in this category.

Frequently asked questions

What is the price difference between Chromecast and Apple TV?

The standard Chromecast is $35 and the Chromecast Ultra is $69, while the Apple TV is $149 for the HD model and $179 for the 4K model, a roughly 4x gap at comparable specs. Apple is selling ecosystem integration on top of streaming hardware, and the price reflects that.

What comes in the box with each device?

Chromecast comes with a small dongle, an attached HDMI cable, and a power cable, with no remote and no box, and the experience lives on your phone. Apple TV comes with a puck-shaped box, a separate HDMI cable, a power cable, and the Siri Remote, plus its own UI, an app store, and Bluetooth.

When is Chromecast the better choice?

Chromecast is better for phone-first households where you discover content on your phone and want to push it to the TV quickly. It also wins for guests, who can cast without an account or remote, and for deploying across multiple TVs cheaply at $35 each.

When is Apple TV worth the premium?

Apple TV is worth the premium for TV-first households that browse for something to watch with a remote, and for people deep in the Apple ecosystem who want seamless AirPlay, iCloud photos, HomeKit, and AirPods integration. It also has the tvOS App Store with thousands of apps and a real game store.

Which streaming device should most people buy first?

Most 2018 buyers should start with a $35 Chromecast because it is cheap, reversible, and does most of what people use a streaming device for. Only upgrade to Apple TV if you specifically need the apps, the games, or the AirPlay integration.