Two price grids a dollar apart, and one identical number

The number that appears on both sites

A channel count in this market is not the output of an audit. Nobody publishes a channel list with a timestamp, nobody submits inventory to a third party, and no buyer can verify a five-figure total from the outside — you would have to tune every stream and check it resolves. The figure is a marketing input, and it travels.

Most services at this price point are resellers. They buy access to an upstream panel and put a storefront in front of it. The upstream supplier quotes a catalogue size, and that quote propagates onto every reseller's homepage. Two brands sharing a supplier will therefore share a number without either one copying the other.

There is corroborating evidence for that reading elsewhere in the market. SmartSGI, an unrelated brand, advertises “Anti-Freeze™ 9.8” — character-for-character the same trademarked string that appears on Smartiflix plan cards. Marketing language and inventory claims are clearly circulating between these storefronts.

The practical consequence is worth stating plainly: if the catalogues are substantially the same, then choosing between these two on channel count is choosing on nothing. That removes the headline feature from the decision and leaves the terms, which is where the real differences are.

The two grids, side by side

Nigma's published prices, single device: $13.99 for one month, $39.99 for three, $69.99 for a year. Two devices: $30.99 monthly, $49.99 for three months, $79.99 for six, $120 for a year. Three devices start at $39.99 monthly.

Smartiflix, one connection: $14, $36, $47, $69 for one, three, six and twelve months. Two connections: $26, $47, $69, $125. Three connections: $37, $59, $89, $175. Four connections: $49, $69, $125, $225.

Put those next to each other and the pattern is a set of near-ties with the advantage swapping sides:

• One device, one month: $13.99 vs $14 — a one-cent difference, which is close to comic
• One device, one year: $69.99 vs $69 — Smartiflix by a dollar, or about eight cents a month
• One device, three months: $39.99 vs $36 — Smartiflix by $3.99
• Two devices, one month: $30.99 vs $26 — Smartiflix by $4.99, the widest gap at the short end
• Two devices, one year: $120 vs $125 — Nigma by $5, its clearest win
• One device, six months: Nigma does not publish this term; Smartiflix charges $47

Where each one is genuinely ahead

Nigma is the better buy for a two-screen household committing to a full year, where $120 against $125 is a real if small saving, and its two-device six-month plan at $79.99 has no direct Smartiflix equivalent at that price point. If those are your exact requirements, it wins on arithmetic.

Smartiflix is ahead in two ways that matter more often. It publishes a price for every combination of term and connection count — four tiers across four terms, sixteen prices, all visible before checkout. Nigma's grid has gaps, and gaps are where a quoted price can move once you are in a conversation with support. It also extends to four simultaneous connections; Nigma's published tiers stop at three, which is a real constraint in a house with two televisions and a couple of phones.

One more difference is worth noticing on the Nigma page. Every plan carries a struck-through higher price — $20 becomes $13.99, $300 becomes $120 — alongside “Limited Time Offer! Hurry Up!”. Those markdowns are permanent fixtures. A digital subscription has no inventory that can run out, so an urgency banner on one is a persuasion device rather than information. It is not dishonest exactly, but it tells you something about how the storefront is built, and it means the “was” price is not a price anyone was charged.

What neither one lets you check

Both services are opaque on the things that actually determine whether you are happy in month three. Neither publishes server capacity, peak-hour concurrency, or an uptime figure derived from external monitoring. The “99.9% uptime” style claims that appear across this market are self-reported and unverifiable.

Neither states which upstream sources it uses, so you cannot tell in advance whether the channels you specifically care about are carried reliably or are a thin re-stream that fails under load. Both promise instant activation, which is checkable — but only after you have paid.

That is not a reason to avoid either. It is the reason the pre-payment checklist matters more than any comparison table, and why a cheap short plan tested during a busy evening is worth more than a week of reading reviews. Live sport at 8pm on a weekend is the load condition that separates adequate capacity from inadequate capacity, and it is the only test that cannot be faked in marketing copy.

How to actually decide between them

Since the catalogue claim is a wash and the prices are within a few dollars, the decision comes down to four questions you can answer before paying either company.

• Count the screens that will stream simultaneously, not the devices you own. If that number is four, Nigma's published grid does not cover you
• Check the renewal price on the plan you want, not the promotional one. On a grid with permanent markdowns, ask support in writing what month thirteen costs
• Confirm the payment method is reversible. A card or PayPal payment can be disputed; a crypto payment cannot, and both accept crypto
• Send one pre-sales question to each and time the reply. Support quality while nothing is wrong is the best available proxy for support quality when a stream dies mid-match

The verdict, with the reasoning shown

We recommend Smartiflix here, and the honest basis for that is narrower than most comparison pages would admit. It is not the catalogue, because that appears to be shared. It is not a decisive price advantage, because there is not one — Nigma wins the two-device year outright.

It is that Smartiflix publishes a complete price grid with no gaps, supports a fourth simultaneous connection, and names its official domains explicitly, which is a meaningful protection in a category where clone storefronts are the single most common way buyers lose money. Those are structural, checkable things rather than claims.

If your household needs two screens and you are certain about a full year, Nigma's $120 is the cheaper ticket and we would not argue with you for taking it. If you want the terms stated in full before you pay, and room for a fourth stream, start with the Smartiflix grid — and test it on a single month before committing to twelve.