Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Roku’s distant additionally controls TV quantity and energy
- Smooth efficiency for the worth
- Portable design that attracts energy from the USB port on most TVs
Cons
- Weak long-range Wi-Fi efficiency
- App launches are a bit slower than pricier Roku fashions
- Home display feels more and more cluttered
Our Verdict
The Roku Streaming Stick (2025) is an inexpensive solution to carry Roku’s smarts to any TV, however you’ll want to just accept some trade-offs.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$29.99
Best Prices Today: Roku Streaming Stick (2025)
$19
$29.99
$29.99
$29.99
$36.99
Of all of the streaming units Roku gives, the 2025 version of the Roku Streaming Stick is—apologies prematurely—the Rokuiest.
The firm prides itself on providing a clean streaming expertise on low-cost {hardware}, and the Roku Streaming Stick (HD) is its least costly mannequin at $30. It addresses the most important issues with Roku’s earlier low-end providing, the Roku Express, by including TV and voice controls to its distant and utilizing a extra transportable design that you would be able to plug immediately right into a TV’s HDMI port.
Roku hasn’t offered an HD streaming dongle like this since 2018, and it’s good to have one again within the lineup. While the $40 Roku Streaming Stick Plus will get you 4K HDR video help and barely higher efficiency—and there are different choices from Roku’s rivals price contemplating on this worth vary—the $30 Streaming Stick works in the event you don’t pay for 4K streaming providers or simply need one thing low-cost to journey with.
The newest Roku Streaming Stick’s distant is an enormous improve over the one which got here with the outdated Roku Express, as a result of it may well management the TV’s quantity and energy.
What you get with the most cost effective Roku stick
Jared Newman / Foundry
The Roku Streaming Stick is roughly the scale of a giant finger and is identifiable by its purple printed-on Roku emblem, versus the embossed black emblem on the Streaming Stick Plus. It has an HDMI connector at one finish that plugs immediately into the tv, and Roku will nonetheless send you a free HDMI extender if the dongle doesn’t match behind your TV.
The Roku Streaming Stick additionally wants a supply of energy; nevertheless, it notably doesn’t include an influence adapter that you simply’d plug into an AC outlet. All you get is a five-foot USB-A to USB-C cable, which you’re alleged to plug into the USB port in your TV. The dongle drew ample energy from each TV I examined it with, however you would possibly want a USB-An influence adapter for actually outdated TVs that don’t have USB energy ports.
The distant is an enormous improve over the outdated Roku Express distant as a result of it may well management the TV’s quantity and energy immediately. Combined with HDMI-CEC for input-switching, you may not want to make use of your TV distant in any respect. Roku’s distant additionally helps voice management, so you’ll be able to seek for apps, launch content material, and dictate login particulars as a substitute of pecking on every app’s on-screen keyboard.
Jared Newman / Foundry
On the draw back, the Roku Streaming Stick doesn’t settle for IR enter, just like the outdated Express, so you’ll be able to’t program a fundamental common distant to manage it. Roku’s distant can also’t immediately management soundbars and A/V receivers over infrared, so that you’ll want a separate distant in case your sound system lacks HDMI-CEC support. The $100 Roku Ultra is now the one possibility that works with programmable IR remotes.
Roku Streaming Stick efficiency and Wi-Fi reception
Streaming dongles have superior to the purpose that efficiency isn’t a difficulty even on the most cost effective units. The Roku Streaming Stick scrolls easily via most menus, and also you’ll seldom want to attend lengthy for an app to load.
Still, efficiency is a step down from pricier fashions. In side-by-side testing, app load occasions have been sometimes a couple of seconds slower than the Roku Streaming Stick Plus and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, and it wanted extra time to fill in program info whereas scrolling rapidly via the channel information in Pluto TV. With Netflix, the higher-end Sticks have been higher at selecting up the place I’d left off after switching to a different app, whereas the Roku Streaming Stick needed to utterly reload Netflix when switching again.
The Roku Streaming Stick’s Wi-Fi efficiency can be worse than different fashions. It makes use of an outdated Wi-Fi 4 connection (Wi-Fi 4 was first standardized manner again in 2009). Certified Wi-Fi routers are backward appropriate, so this gained’t be an issue in the event you set it up in a spot with strong reception, however Roku’s system can falter at lengthy vary.
In the identical workplace as my Eero 6 Pro (a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router), as an example, the Streaming Stick maintained a strong 100Mbps connection, and on my again deck, about 30 toes from a wi-fi Eero satellite tv for pc, it maintained speeds round 50Mbps, which remains to be loads for streaming. But after I moved the Roku Streaming Stick to the other nook of my yard, it displayed a weak sign warning and averaged lower than 10Mbps in velocity exams.
The Roku Streaming Stick Plus, which makes use of a Wi-Fi 5 connection, maintained speeds round 20Mbps in the identical location. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K, which has a separate Wi-Fi 5 adapter constructed into its energy twine, achieved speeds of round 100Mbps.
The Streaming Stick confirmed this error on the far fringe of my property, the place pricier fashions didn’t.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Roku says you need to use wired ethernet adapters with these units. however after I tried connecting the Roku Streaming Stick to a few USB-C hubs with ethernet ports, the connection didn’t work. Only Roku’s Ultra fashions have hardwired ethernet ports in-built.
Roku’s software program: Still easy, however getting worse
Jared Newman / Foundry
Using a Roku system in 2025 means coming to grips with modifications to its interface, not all for the higher.
It used to work like this: The predominant Home part introduced an easy grid of apps, and in the event you wanted assist deciding what to observe, Roku provided suggestions via its further sidebar menus, equivalent to “What to Watch” and “Featured Free.”
Roku is now stuffing extra of these suggestions into the Home part. There’s a set of “Top Picks for You” tiles above the app grid, a collection of genre-based menu hyperlinks beneath, and a separate set of hyperlinks for Home, Food, and Sports beneath that.
The more and more cluttered Home part would possibly require scrolling simply to see your apps.
Jared Newman / Foundry
I don’t fault Roku for following the lead of different streaming platforms, whose home-screen suggestions will be useful, however Roku’s strategy feels just like the worst of each worlds. Between the brand new content material tiles and the large banner advert on the right-hand facet of the display, the Home part simply feels cluttered and cramped, and its sidebar menu choices have additionally multiplied with sections like Sports and Daily Trivia. (Some of those choices seem on the Home display as nicely, which is redundant.)
The one factor I’d like to see on Roku’s Home display is the “Continue Watching” row, which hyperlinks to your most not too long ago seen TV episodes, films, and stay channels. It’s a terrific characteristic, however connecting you to what you’re already watching doesn’t assist Roku earn cash on promotions; so, naturally, it’s relegated to the “What to Watch” menu, the place you’re unlikely to ever use it.
Roku’s “What to Watch” menu is a greater house display than the precise Home part now.
Jared Newman / Foundry
The upside is that you would be able to nonetheless simplify Roku’s menu system with some settings tweaks, and Roku’s software program remains to be pretty easy to make use of as a complete. Your full app checklist isn’t distant, the format is simple to know, and the search perform works nicely. Roku’s software program additionally comes with some neat options, equivalent to Apple AirPlay help, non-public headphone listening through Roku’s cell app, and a “Photo Streams” characteristic that allows you to arrange private images as your screensaver. It’s simply too dangerous you need to wade via extra promotional muddle to get pleasure from all of it.
Roku Streaming Stick vs. the remainder
If we’re strictly evaluating the Roku Streaming Stick to Roku’s different streamers, the $40 Streaming Stick Plus gives 4K HDR video help, sometimes quicker app launches, and barely higher Wi-Fi connectivity. The $50 Streaming Stick 4K contains Dolby Vision HDR help and a lot better Wi-Fi at lengthy vary out of your router. The $100 Roku Ultra improves efficiency barely additional whereas including hardwired ethernet help, a USB port for native media, and a more feature-packed remote (which you can too purchase individually to make use of with different Roku fashions).
Beyond the Roku ecosystem, Walmart’s Onn streamers are compelling options, together with the $20 Onn Streaming Box with 4K HDR support. The Google TV software program is extra complicated, but it surely’s additionally higher at organizing content material than Roku, and also you get extra options in your cash. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick HD is in the identical worth league at $35, however its interface is far more chaotic.
Where does that go away the Roku Streaming Stick? It’s a strong possibility in the event you like Roku’s software program and simply need an affordable manner so as to add it to any TV, however maintain the options in thoughts if you would like higher efficiency, longer Wi-Fi vary, or a brisker strategy to navigating your streaming providers.
At a look: The Roku Streaming Stick (2025) is an inexpensive solution to carry Roku’s smarts to any TV, in the event you’re keen to make some trade-offs.
Further studying: This evaluate in a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best media streaming devices.