It was way too hot outside, so we opted to stay in the air conditioning and shop! We are pretty seasoned with the all the magazine subscription services at this point. We wanted to find a gift for a friend and figured an annual subscription to Rolling Stone would suffice. Star Reviews had to look at netMagazines and we’re glad we did! When our browser first popped open, we were happy with what we saw. The netMagazines website interface was reminiscent of Amazon, with resourceful bold headers outlining the perimeter of the page and a clean site feel. Keep reading to find out the inside scoop on what else we discovered.
What’s New with NetMagazines?
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Bonus offers: Depending on the subscription and the day, almost any order comes with a bonus offer. You can’t go wrong when you buy the magazine you love and are offered even more of a discount for future purchases.
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Today’s Deal - See which magazines are featured at low subscription rates.
Star Review’s Favorite Feature:
Create your own package - For $30 or $50; choose 5 magazines from a limited selection for a year’s worth of subscription savings. By creating your own netMagazine package, you can mix and match different categories to create a personalized magazine assortment akin to your liking.
netMagazines’ Features:
- Alphabetical Listing
- Top 10 Titles
- Clearance section
- PayPal Verified
- Offers international subscriptions
- Fantastic package deals, including “make your own selections.”
- Customer testimonials
- 120-day money back guarantee
- Product description
- Related suggestions/ “Customers who purchased this also bought...”
Navigating the netMagazines website:
Star Reviews really appreciated how classic and clean their site feel was, as it is often easy to sacrifice usability when designing a magazine subscription service site with tons of options. The categories were effortless to navigate, with numerous categories yielding detailed results, pricing, and product descriptions in a quick load time. Our team felt like we might actually enjoy browsing through their title collections! We loved how useful tabs like ‘Gifts,’ ‘Specials,’ and ‘My Account’ were clearly displayed, taking us right to the designated information they advertised. There is also an easy-to-use keyword search box that bypasses all category searches altogether if you are in a hurry. When making a purchase, you are given the option of ‘New’ or ‘Renewal’ to avoid any unnecessary signup headaches, a feature Star Reviews applauds.
Selection:
We loved netMagazine’s offering of numerous magazine titles. They had everything from ‘Women’s’ and ‘History,’ to ‘Religion’ and ‘News.’ In each category, we pulled up various magazines that fit the category bill. Although there were a few titles we didn’t find, we were pretty happy with what we did find.
Subscription Rates:
If you’re not already a member, checking out takes a little while because you have to enter extensive, yet basic data. Once you’ve created a free account, you can easily access your orders and track them. Also, your data can be saved to make future purchase check-outs lightning quick. Some magazine subscriptions, mainly foreign ones, require shipping fees but netMagazines doesn’t charge any processing fees.
We noticed how netMagazines tends to offer lower subscription rates than some of their competition. They also provide tons of bonus specials--whether it’s a free subscription after you’ve spent a certain amount, money towards your next purchase, a rebate, or a completely free subscription, you’re constantly bombarded with more savings on this site. Talk about an incentive to come back for more!
Sample Price Comparison
1 Year Subscription |
Value
Mags
|
Mags4
Cheap
|
Blue
Dolphin
|
Magazine
City
|
Magazine
Agent
|
Net
Magazines
|
Magazines
Quick
|
|
Shape
|
$21.97
|
$15.97
|
$21.97
|
$21.97
|
$15.97
|
$14.97
|
$12.97
|
|
U.S. News & World Report
|
$20.00
|
$15.00
|
$20.00
|
$20.00
|
$24.97
|
$24.95
|
$9.99
|
|
Rolling Stone
|
$25.94
|
$12.97
|
$15.97
|
$14.95
|
$14.95
|
$11.97
|
$12.97
|
Customer Support:
We were a little disappointed in the customer support experience on this website. We clicked on the ‘Help’ tab, which brought us to the customer service center, but after an extremely long load time. You can ask a question, report a problem or check up on a case log to see if netMagazines has previously answered a similar question. The “ask a question” section is really just an elaborate FAQs section, but it is easy to navigate and not overwhelming in the least bit.
A 1-800 number is not easily accessible, but they answered Star Reviews’ questions promptly, especially when it came to subscription and billing inquiries. There is also a postal address for you writers out there. Overall, we felt netMagazines tried to be technologically savvy with their customer support, but it confused our team a little when the email address and phone number were listed under a different category than ‘Help.’ Long load times frustrated us a little, as well.
Upside: Awesome selection, always some promotion to save you money or get you something completely free. Great package deals.
Downside: Unclear access to and long-loading customer service Help desk.
Summary:
Overall, we felt that netMagazines had a lot to offer the inner reader in many of us. They boast an incredible title selection and let you sign up for bundle package deals, which definitely saves you some money. Every day they have a different ‘Today’s Deal,’ so check it out to find special savings on featured titles. They even offer international magazine subscriptions, so if you’re going to Australia for the summer, you can still get your hands on People to see what Britney Spears did now.
Their website interface was similar to Amazon’s, which is a plus in our eyes, since professionalism and user-friendliness come to mind when we think of their service. netMagazines offers lower prices than some of the other discount magazine subscription services, plus bonus specials. Customer support can improve, but hey, no website is truly perfect.