TiviMate Premium vs Free: What You Get and Whether It Is Worth It

TiviMate Premium is the paid upgrade of the TiviMate player, sold by its developer, that unlocks the features most daily viewers end up wanting: more than one playlist, favourites, catch-up, recording and a long list of ways to tidy and customise the channel list. It is not a channel subscription and adds nothing to what your IPTV login carries. Here is what the free version already does, what Premium changes, how to buy it on a Firestick or an Android TV box, and how to tell whether you need it.

What the free TiviMate already does

The free TiviMate is a complete player for one playlist. You add your Xtream login or M3U link, the channel groups appear down the side, and the TV guide fills in as a grid you scroll like a printed listing. Live channels play with the same picture quality as in Premium, because the stream comes from your subscription, not from the app.

For many people that is enough to start with. If you are setting up for the first time, use the free version for a while: you will quickly notice whether you keep reaching for features that are locked. Our TiviMate setup guide covers adding the playlist and loading the guide.

What TiviMate Premium adds

The developer’s store listing describes the player’s full feature set, and the Premium screen inside the app shows which parts are locked. The table below covers the features Premium has unlocked for a long time; check the current list before buying, because TiviMate moves things between versions.

How to buy TiviMate Premium on a Firestick

Premium is sold only by TiviMate’s developer. A Firestick has no Google Play, so the purchase happens on a phone and the stick simply signs in to the same account.

1. Install TiviMate Companion on an Android phone

   The TiviMate Companion app is on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. It is not a player; it exists to buy Premium and to manage the devices that use it.

2. Create an account and choose the term

   Sign up with an email address and password, then pick the yearly or lifetime option. The price, a yearly or lifetime fee set by the developer, is shown on screen before you confirm, and payment goes through Google Play.

3. Sign in on the Firestick

   In TiviMate on the stick, open the settings, find the Premium section and sign in with the same account. The Premium features then unlock in the app; menu names vary between versions.

4. Manage your devices

   One Premium account covers a limited number of devices. If you replace a stick, remove the old one in the Companion app before signing in on the new one.

The phone is only needed for the purchase and for managing devices. If nobody in the house has an Android phone or tablet, check the TiviMate website for the current options before relying on any other route.

Buying Premium on an Android TV or Google TV device

Devices with Google Play, such as Google TV boxes and the Nvidia Shield, can buy Premium inside TiviMate itself, from the Premium section of its settings, billed to the Google account on the TV. If you also plan to use Premium on a Firestick, the account route through the Companion app keeps every device under one account you can manage from your phone.

Yearly or lifetime?

The yearly option suits you if you are not sure you will still use TiviMate in a couple of years, or if you are trying it alongside another player. Bought through Google Play, it is handled like other Google Play subscriptions, so check under Payments and subscriptions in the Play Store whether it renews and when.

The lifetime option costs more up front and makes sense if TiviMate is already your everyday player. Either way, Premium belongs to your TiviMate account, not to your IPTV line: if you change plan or provider, it stays with you.

Avoid “lifetime Premium” codes sold by third parties and modified copies with Premium already unlocked. They can stop working at any moment, block updates, and none of the money reaches the developer who keeps the app working.

Is TiviMate Premium worth it?

It is worth paying for if several of these sound like you:

• You watch live TV most days and plan around the guide.
• You want a short favourites list instead of scrolling through every group.
• You use catch-up to watch programmes after they have aired.
• You want to record, or to keep two logins in one app.
• You use more than one Android TV device and want the same setup on each.

It is probably not needed if you mostly watch the film and series library (a player with separate library sections, such as IPTV Smarters Pro, suits that better), if you only watch a handful of channels and do not mind scrolling, or if your screens are Apple or Samsung devices, where TiviMate does not run at all and other players suit each device better. The best IPTV app for Firestick compares the alternatives on Fire TV.

Premium is not a channel subscription

Some sellers bundle “TiviMate Premium with channels” as if it were one product. It is not: the player upgrade comes from TiviMate’s developer, the channels come from an IPTV subscription, and the two are bought separately. Our subscription has 25,000+ live channels and 120,000+ films and series, works in the free or Premium TiviMate alike, and is set out on the plans and prices page.

A good order of events is to install the free TiviMate, run our 24-hour free trial in it, and only then decide whether Premium’s extras are worth it for the way you watch.

Using Premium features once they are unlocked

• Favourites: hold the select button on a channel to open its menu and add it to favourites. The favourites group then appears at the top of the list.
• Catch-up: channels with an archive show a marker in the guide. Scroll back to an earlier programme and select it to play from the start.
• Recording: choose where recordings are saved in the settings before you start; a USB drive is kinder to a stick’s small storage.
• Tidying the list: hide groups you never open from the playlist’s group settings, so the guide only shows what you watch.

If TiviMate stops accepting your login after you add a second playlist or change a detail, the cause is the playlist, not Premium: TiviMate error 401 explains the fix. To install the player itself on a stick, see the TiviMate Downloader code guide.

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