Our advice
- Before you subscribe, check which week the plan bills for and set a reminder a day before renewal: every app here sells weekly plans that renew on their own until you cancel them in the App Store or Google Play.
- Treat the free episodes as a trial of the story, not of the app. Pick a series you would pay to finish, then compare what that app charges per week before you install a second one.
How we compare short drama apps
The table above compares the 12 short drama apps most people in the US are choosing between. Every cell comes from a public source with a date. Ratings and rating counts come from each app’s US App Store and Google Play listing. Plans and prices come from the in-app purchase list on the US App Store, which shows the top ten items an app sells. Genres are the ones each listing names, and languages are the App Store’s own list. When a listing does not say something, the cell says so instead of guessing. The default order is the total number of ratings, which tells you how widely an app is used, not how good it is.
Free episodes: what you get before the paywall
Every app here lets you start a series for free, then asks for coins or a plan partway through. None of them prints a fixed number of free episodes on its store listing, because it changes from series to series. Where an app’s own series page does show it, we use that number on our drama pages. Our free short drama apps guide covers the legal ways to watch more without paying, such as check-in rewards and ad unlocks.
What a full series really costs
To price a whole series you need three numbers: the coins one episode costs, the number of episodes, and how many coins a dollar buys. The apps publish the last one in their coin packs, and most series pages list the episode count, but no app lists the coin price of an episode. That is why the cost column still says Researching. The short drama coin calculator shows the coin packs each app lists and the math you can do once you know the episode price in your app.
Coins, weekly plans and monthly plans
Most apps sell both. Coin packs are one-time purchases, usually from $4.99. Weekly plans unlock the whole library while they last and renew every week until you cancel; the ones the US App Store names as weekly run from $5.99 to $29.99. A few apps also list monthly or quarterly plans. If you only want to finish one series, coins can cost less; if you watch every day, a weekly plan usually works out cheaper, as long as you remember it renews.
Which app fits which viewer
Start from what you like to watch. Apps whose listings name werewolf, fantasy and billionaire stories include GoodShort, NetShort, StardustTV and ShortMax. The ReelShort app and the DramaBox app have the largest rating counts, so they are the easiest place to find a popular series. Each app has its own review page with its plans, its free episodes and what reviewers complain about.
Is it safe to pay, and how to cancel
All 12 apps are real, listed by named developers on both US stores. The common complaints in reviews are about renewals people did not expect and charges after deleting the app, not about the apps being fake. Pay through Apple or Google rather than a website, and cancel in your phone’s subscription settings, because deleting the app does not cancel the plan. Some buttons on this page are affiliate links; see our affiliate disclosure for how that works.
US App Store rating of each short drama app
How many people rated each app on the US App Store
Short Drama Apps Compared: FAQ
What is the best short drama app?
There is no single best app, so we compare them on public store data. As of November 10, 2026, DramaBox has the most ratings across the two US stores, GoodShort has the highest US App Store score at 4.9, and the table lets you sort by either.
Which short drama app has the most free episodes?
None of the 12 apps publishes a fixed number of free episodes on its store listing, so it varies by series. The official ReelShort pages we checked mark the first paid episode as 7, 11 or 12 depending on the show.
How much does a full short drama cost?
Nobody publishes the coin price of one episode, so a full series cannot be priced exactly. Weekly plans named on the US App Store run from $5.99 to $29.99 a week, and coin packs start at $4.99 on most apps.
Are short drama apps free?
The apps are free to download and every one lets you watch some episodes free, often with ads or daily check-ins. Later episodes need coins or a weekly or monthly plan, and our guide to free short drama apps explains the legal free options.
Is ReelShort or DramaBox better?
It depends on what you watch. On the US App Store, ReelShort lists a $19.99 weekly plan and DramaBox lists memberships from $5.99 to $19.99; DramaBox has more ratings on both stores, and both have their own review pages here.
How do I cancel a short drama app subscription?
Cancel it where you paid: on iPhone open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions; on Android open Google Play, tap your profile, then Payments and subscriptions. Deleting the app does not stop the plan from renewing.