by Sean B.
Amazon Prime vs Amazon Student : Which one to go for ? - Amazon is the go-to site for almost every item and product. This is of no surprise at seeing as it is one of the largest online retail sites out there. You can buy and sell almost anything on Amazon. That’s one of the many reasons lots of people shop on the site and love it. One other major reason is how personal it gets. You get personalized recommendations based on everything the site notices you like. It even gets as good as you getting personal discounts on items you browse through. Also, checking out is as easy as it gets. Users of Amazon don’t experience difficulties making purchases and payment. While one can’t say that things are expensive on Amazon, any opportunity to save money is always welcome.
Subscribing to Amazon Prime is a popular way used to save money on Amazon and it comes with many perks. It comes with special discounts as well. Other perks are free two-day shipping, unlimited streaming of media and so much more. For students, the deal is even better. Students get to enjoy most of the Amazon Prime benefits at an even lesser price. There are more differences between Amazon Prime and Amazon Student membership plans. This post would cover all the differences but before that, let’s get into the overview of both plans.
Contents
Condensed table for Amazon Prime versus Student Prime Comparison. Detailed Explanation of each field is below the tables
| Service Name | Trial | Price | Requirement | Free same-day delivery | Free two-day shipping | Prime Pantry | Prime Now | Amazon Student Days | Textbook Savings | College Deals | Family Discounts | Prime Early Access | Video Game Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Prime | 30 days | $119 / year | New Member | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Amazon Student | 6 months | $59 / year | valid .edu email address | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Service Name | Kindle First | FreeTime Unlimited | Whole Foods | Rewards Visa Card | Prime AmEx Card | Prime Video | Prime Music | Prime Photos | Kindle Lending Library | Add-On Subscriptions | Free Games with Twitch Prime | Amazon Elements | Membership Sharing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Prime | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Amazon Student | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Amazon Prime is one of Amazon’s paid membership subscription plans. The membership comes with access to a host of services. Such services are unavailable or more expensive to others. Those who enjoy this service the most are individuals who make purchases frequently. Someone who makes purchases as much as 10-20 times a year, at an average of $25 per order, would benefit a lot from this plan. As of April 2018, Amazon reported that this plan had over 100 million subscribers, all over the world.
A 30-day free trial is first given. After which a fee of $119 per year has to be paid.
· Free same-day delivery: To enjoy the free same-day delivery on millions of items. Users have to live in areas with eligible zip codes. Those who live close to Amazon warehouses are eligible. More details on Amazon Free Same-Day Delivery Benefits.
· Free two-day shipping: To enjoy this free shipping feature, purchase an ‘eligible product’. An eligible product is one that has the Prime logo right next to its price. Products that are not eligible are those that involve 3rd party sellers. These 3rd party sellers do not guarantee 2-day shipping. In most cases, some of these 3rd party sellers would have included shipping fee in the item’s price. The implication of this is that products without the logo do not exactly attract free shipping benefits. More details on Amazon Free Two-Day Prime Shipping Benefits.
· Prime Pantry:Shop for discounted groceries and household items. With your existing Prime Membership, it costs additionally $4.99 per month. For an order with the total less than $40, the shipping free is $7.99. It is free of shipping for an order over $40 in total. For now, Amazon can ship Prime Pantry orders to any address in the US except Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico.
· Prime Now: One-hour delivery on 10+ thousands of items from local stores. For example, in San Jose, California you can get shipment of wine, bread, desert from Whole Foods or Wine Beer Spirits. Amazon constantly tries to expand Prime Now in item selections and shipping locations with more and more cities throughout the US.
· Amazon Family Discounts: extensive list of deals for family .15 % off eligible products from your baby registry. The discount can be up to 20% with recurring orders, also called "Subscribe & Save"
· Prime Early Access: 30-minute early access to discounted price items at Lightning Deals on Amazon.com. More details on Lighting Deals on Amazon
· Video Game Credits: Amazon now rewards Prime Account members the $10 credits on selected video game pre-orders. More details on $10 game pre-order credits for Amazon Prime
·Kindle First: Early access for the U.S. Prime members to get new, free books monthly atAmazon Kindle First Reads. You can read them later on a Fire tablet, Fire phone, or Kindle e-reader. More details atAmazon First Read Press.
· FreeTime Unlimited: Kids enjoy discounts on access to thousands of movies, TV shows, books, and apps compatible with Android, IOS, Fire platform. With your existing Prime Membership, it costs additionally $2.99 per month for a single child and $6.99 per month for a family plan of four children. Non-Prime members pay $4.99 for a single child and $9.99 per month for a family plan of four children.
· Whole Foods:With the acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon has expanded its footprints for food item delivery. Now Prime members can receive discounts at all Whole Foods locations. You can see more detailshere. For this, the Prime Now program has tons of Whole Foods items for one-hour delivery windows in some cities with more on the way. Refer to the "Prime Now" above for details
· Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card: As an Amazon Prime member, you can apply for This Visa Credit Card by Chase. Using this card as the payment method for Amazon products earn you points. You can redeem these points on subsequent purchases at Amazon. Or simply log in your Chase account to request cashback, gift card, rewards, etc. You can see more details here. The cash percentage is as below:
· Amazon Prime American Express Card: As an Amazon Prime member, you can apply for This AmEx Credit Card by American Express.Using this card as the payment method for Amazon products earn you points. You can redeem these points on subsequent purchases at Amazon. Or simply log in your American Express account to request cashback, gift card, rewards, etc. The cash percentage is as below:
· Prime Video: Streaming of digital movies and TV shows. You can also enjoy subscriptions to Showtime, AMC, Starz, A&E and many other video streaming services. Amazon is constantly expanding its Prime Video library. More details at About Prime Video.
· Prime Music: Unlimited Streaming of million song classified nicely into playlists, categories, artists. Many amazing features. More details at About Prime Music.
· Prime Photos: Secure unlimited cloud storage for photos in Amazon Cloud Drive. With this feature, you get up to 5 GB to store documents other than photos. More details at About Prime Photos.
· Kindle Owners' Lending Library: Thousands of books from the huge digital library to borrow from. You can then read them on a Fire tablet, Fire phone, or Kindle e-reader. More details at Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
· Add-On Video Subscriptions: Ability to buy third-party streaming apps to organize all your media content together. For example, you can download HBO Go app or Showtime Anytime app into your Prime account to enjoy streaming your videos there.
·Free Games with Twitch Prime: Enjoy free games, paid items, and in-game loots all in one place withTwitch Prime.
· Amazon Elements: Everyday vitamins and essentials available to Prime members.Check out the Amazon Elements item selections
· Membership Sharing: This program allows you to share the Amazon Prime benefits with another adult in the same household. Teens and children in the same household many share some select Prime benefits too. More details at About Amazon Households.
Also referred to as Prime Student, this membership plan is akin to the Amazon Prime. This time though, it is the college version. It is a more affordable version of Amazon Prime. It is only available to those still getting their education. This plan makes sourcing for school essentials easier. Items from books to furniture to clothing become more accessible. With Amazon Student, there is also access to free shipping for 2 days. It is interesting to note that some colleges and universities support and encourage Prime Student membership. This is clear because they have pickup centers for shipped Amazon goods.
A free six-month trial, way longer than the 30-day trial in Amazon Prime. The subscription fee is $59 / year or $6.49 per month after the six-months trial. The $59 per year means members pay an equivalent of $4.92 per month. If you pay monthly at $6.49, it means you would pay way more than $59 in a year. That’s assuming you make the payment every month of the year.
The monthly payment works just fine in some situations. If September is the month you often need a lot of school supplies, then you can pay just that once. That way, you get to optimize your membership fee. This is quite better than paying the $59 at once and making purchases just once or twice in a year. This plan is not applicable for students in high school, middle or primary school. Check out the How to join Amazon Prime section below for more details
· Free two-day shipping:just like a regular Prime Membership, Prime Student includes access to millions of items. More details on Amazon Prime Shipping Benefits here.
· Amazon Student Days: Saving offers and discounts on thousands of items for students only. Amazon occasionally organize special discounts, giveaways, and contests for Prime Student members.
· Prime Early Access: Being an ordinary Amazon user comes with many perks as already stated. One of such perks is special deals. Amazon Student members get such deals too but it comes with something extra. The members gain access to the deals about 30 minutes earlier than non-members do. This means non-members get only what the members leave behind after 30 minutes of the release of the deal at Lightning Deals on Amazon.com. More details on Lighting Deals on Amazon
· Textbook Savings: Ever come across an Amazon ad that says students can get to save up to 90% on textbooks? Well, if you did not already know, you do now. With the Amazon Student membership, students get to rent textbooks from the site at a cheap rate. Not forgetting the fact that more perks exist. One is the free 2-day shipping for textbooks. Another one is the several available discounts and deals. All these would make buying books on Amazon cheaper than other places. You can also sell your old textbooks and get up to 80% of their value. The money though is in the form of a gift card. You can use it to pay your subscription fee or even buy new books.
·College Deals: Every other Amazon user can save money viaAmazon coupons. Amazon Students have their own version. It’s referred to as College Deals. Via College Deals, students get discounted on certain items. They include dorm furniture, beauty products, electronics and so on. In addition, all these get shipped to them for free.
· Prime Video: Streaming of digital movies and TV shows. You can also enjoy subscriptions to Showtime, AMC, Starz, A&E and many other video streaming services. Amazon is constantly expanding its Prime Video library with new content. More details at About Prime Video.
· Prime Music: Unlimited Streaming of million song classified nicely into playlists, categories, artists. Many amazing features. More details at About Prime Music.
· Prime Photos: Secure unlimited cloud storage for photos in Amazon Cloud Drive. With this feature, you get up to 5 GB to store documents other than photos. More details at About Prime Photos.
· Kindle Owners' Lending Library: Thousands of books from the huge digital library to borrow from. You can then read them on a Fire tablet, Fire phone, or Kindle e-reader. More details at Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
· Add-On Video Subscriptions: Ability to buy third-party streaming apps to organize all your media content together. For example, you can download HBO Go app or Showtime Anytime app into your Prime account to enjoy your streaming videos there.
· Free Games with Twitch Prime: enjoy free games, paid items, and in-game loots with Twitch Prime.
1. Visit the sign-up page for Prime Student here
2. Fill the form and submit it
3. You will receive a verification link in the mail address you registered with. That should be your college-issued .edu mail address. Clicking on the link confirms your e-mail address. This would complete the sign-up process.
Though, if you don’t have one, there’s still a way around it. You would have to mail some documents that can aid your verification. They include your
- Student ID : It should display your current term. It should also include a valid expiration date.
- Tuition bill : This must contain your name and that of your college or university.
- Transcript : This should be that from your current term
- Acceptance letter : It has to have your matriculation date. It should also be the acceptance letter for the upcoming term.
Let Amazon know when your expected graduation year is. The mail address to send the documents to is amazon-student-verification@amazon.com. You should get a response in a few days, with a link to sign up for the Prime Student account. It is important to note that it is one mail address to one Prime Student account. It is impossible to sign up for two accounts. Once you’ve signed up, you are eligible to the six-month free trial. If you are ready to, you could go ahead with activating the paid subscription. This would give you full access to all the benefits sooner, rather than later. During the trial period, you might decide to not upgrade to a paid subscription. If you do, make sure to cancel before the free trial is over. If you do not cancel the subscription plan as soon as possible, Amazon rolls the account over to regular Prime membership. You’d get notified through email before this happens.
If you already have a regular Amazon account, you can still switch it to Amazon Student Prime. Go to the homepage, login and follow the instructions to prove you’re a student. If you still have an active subscription for the Prime plan, Amazon would first refund the money for the rest of the existing subscription.
There is a time limit to being eligible. Students who get verified are eligible for four years or until graduation. There is also a referral feature that allows students to get more benefits. Both the student who refers and the one who got referred get paid $5 each. The requirements for making this referral are on the Amazon website here.
One major perk the standard Amazon Prime plan has that the Prime Student doesn’t is this. For the former, it is possible to share membership while it is impossible to do so in the latter. This means you can share your login details with friends and family in one plan but not in the other.
Differences between both membership plans do not only exist in paid subscription alone. There are differences even in the trial periods. None of these differences though are deal breakers. For the Amazon Student, there is limited access to the Prime benefits. On the other hand, Amazon Prime comes with full access to all the benefits.
On the brighter side, the trial period for Amazon Student is longer, as stated earlier. It goes on for six months while that of Amazon Prime lasts for only 30 days. Some benefits that come with the six-month trial are
- Deals and discounts on school essentials such as books, electronics
- Free shipping for two days on almost all purchases.
- Unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies
- Access to Prime Video: Titles on the Prime Video change periodically. Creating a watch list would help you to keep track of the movies you’re interested in. With the watch list, Amazon would ensure you get notified before the title expires. Supported channels on Prime Video include HBO, Showtime, Starz and a few others. You can stream videos with almost any device. Your mobile phone, through a web browser, and a television. Some movies and shows are originally produced by Amazon. All you need to stream is a good internet connection, a compatible browser, and a gadget/device. You could also download the Prime Video app and stream movies on the go! It might not be a suitable TV replacement as it doesn’t include many live feeds from major cable channels. Yet, it meets your movies and shows needs and that might be all that matters.
- Exclusive giveaways and promotions
- Opportunity to store photos and videos in Amazon cloud through Prime Photos
- Twitch: Twitch Prime caters to the gaming needs of both Prime Student and Prime members. There are a lot of fun features and gaming content on this platform. There is also a free game loot every other month. There are discounts on newly released games, right from pre-order until two weeks post-launch.
Looking at some of these benefits, students get to save some money. For example, there is an opportunity to stream movies and videos. This way, they can cancel their subscription on streaming sites like Netflix and save money.
It is now known that not all benefits are accessible on the Amazon Student trial. The benefits are only fully enjoyed when a paid subscription becomes activated. Some of these benefits are
If you love to read and you own a Kindle, then you don’t want to miss out of this amazing benefit. Think of the Prime Reading feature as a private and large library that allows for free reading. You get to borrow a book from the library for free every month. You would love this if you enjoy reading either for pleasure or you are a student of Literature. You get access to a lot of books and magazines. There are over a 1000 book titles on Amazon’s library.
If you fancy audio books, Amazon has Audible Channels to help you gain access to them. Listening/reading when you are on the move, cooking, gardening simply gets easier. You can access the audio books with a tablet, Kindle E-reader, Android and iOS devices. This way, switching between devices is possible. There is a wide range of genres to choose from. Fiction, children’s book, comic books, nonfiction and so on.
You get to borrow these books with no due dates. This means there is no pressure on you to finish reading it within a stipulated time. However, return that book before you can get to borrow another. This benefit is only available to users who have the Kindle device and link it to their Amazon account. It is neither available nor accessible through the Kindle app for iOS and Android.
Here, there is access to unlimited and ad-free music. There are over 2 million songs on Prime Music. Subscribers can stream music on demand. New songs get added regularly while some get removed too. Amazon also takes it a notch higher by suggesting songs to users based on their taste. Also, the songs are all available for offline playback. Users can download songs to the Amazon music app. This way, listening offline has been made possible. It is impossible though to export the songs elsewhere.
Paid subscribers get access to low-priced groceries, household items, and pet care items. The price of these items is set at $5.99 for each pantry box. A standard Prime pantry box is about 45 pounds of goods. Hence, purchasing goods that together weigh over 45 pounds attracts more charges. Only members who live in eligible areas can get to enjoy Prime Pantry.
No student can afford to say “No” to extra cash especially when little or no work goes into getting it. Referring a friend to join the Amazon Student family attracts a bonus of $10. $5 for the student who refers and the other $5 for the student who got referred.
This article has described in details how Amazon Student is a better option for college students than Amazon Prime. The biggest difference between them though is the membership plan and trial duration. For Amazon Prime, the price is $119 per year. Its trial duration is only for 30 days.
With the 30-day trial membership comes full access to all Prime features except one. The exception is access to Kindle’s lending library. This means borrowing a free book on Kindle devices is impossible. While both membership plans have major differences, they enjoy almost the same benefits. Some are the early access to deals, unlimited streaming of music, the free two-day shipping, etc.
Users of Amazon Student have access to some benefits that those of Amazon Prime do not. It also works the other way round. Below are privileges that only users of Amazon Prime get to enjoy
This package caters to both expectant women and mothers. An expectant woman would get 15% off the baby items in her cart. With the Amazon Subscribe and Save program, there is also a 20% discount on diapers.
With this feature, adults from the same household get to share accounts. They can create an Amazon household account. Here, it is possible to share the Prime membership. Adult and four children can share, making 6 users. 6 users for just one account! It’s amazing. The adult must already have an Amazon account before they can be added. Children need not have an account. They can share only a few benefits though. Some ones that can get shared are free two-day shipping, video streaming. Benefits that do not get shared include Prime reading, Prime music. To prevent purchase errors, the accounts for children do not have a shopping feature. You can add and remove members at will and also manage parental controls. When this feature started, payment options were always kept separate. Now, every user can access the payment information of others. Hence, it is best to share your account with another user you trust. If teens want to make purchases, Amazon requests for parental approval. That can be gotten via texts. Kids can’t make purchases though.
With the Amazon Prime and Amazon Student plans, you can upgrade your Amazon experience. Subscribing to either plan would help you get more from Amazon. It becomes much more than an online retail store. It becomes your go-to library for books, streaming site for movies and music. Whether you’re a student or a working adult, be sure to choose the plan that best suits you.
About Sean B.
Sean Bradley is a highly regarded marketing expert with extensive experience and expertise in the field. With a passion for helping businesses thrive and grow, Sean has established himself as a leading figure in the marketing industry. Sean's expertise spans various marketing channels, including digital marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and branding. He is well-versed in utilizing data-driven insights to craft targeted marketing strategies that resonate with audiences and generate measurable ROI.
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