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Just in time for year-end gizmo guides and holiday shopping lists, Amazon and Roku have introduced new streaming devices that are both faster, cheaper and smaller — seriously, they’re each the size of a pack of gum — than almost any device on the market this time a year ago.

The Roku Streaming Stick ($40) and the Amazon Fire TV Stick ($40) are both easy to set up, work with the major streaming services, and have intuitive interfaces that get you quickly from the home screen to the TV show or movie you want to watch.

But don’t just close your eyes and pick one. What you’re really buying are the features and functionality that Roku and Amazon build into the devices. The choice ultimately comes down to whether you’re a bundled TV subscriber (advantage Roku), an Amazon purist (advantage Amazon), and whether you want a stable interface that leaves things where you put them (Roku) or one that evolves as you use it (Amazon).

Here’s a look at how the Roku and Amazon Fire sticks face off in the key categories:

Setup Time

The initial setups and both devices are quick and easy, but setting up apps is decidedly not. For bundled TV subscribers, this means laboring through a long, long sequence of adding apps, going to websites like abc.com/activate, entering a code, entering your cable info, waiting for the app to update, and then going to the next one. Apple TV has a feature launching in December called Single Sign-On that will slim that down to a single login, but neither Roku nor Amazon have announced anything like this.

Interface & Apps: Roku

Roku has a super clean home page that makes it easy to do the main things you want to do with a streaming device — find and install new apps, launch apps, and search for TV shows and movies. The app icons stay in tidy rows, and it’s easy to move the apps you use the most to the top. The app interfaces are similarly clean and simple if a little on the plain side.

My Feed is a fairly new feature for Roku that works in conjunction with Search to give you updates on titles, actors, and directors that you have saved from searches. If you search for a title that’s not the services you subscribe to, you can save it. As the title becomes available in other services, it will show up in My Feed with the new information added. If you watch a lot of movies but would rather wait for them to show up in one of your services than pay the $4-$6 to watch it on PPV, My Feed is a great feature to have. My Feed also has a frequently updated lists of trending TV shows and movies across the most popular apps.

Roku has a much deeper bench of apps than Amazon Fire — especially the network and cable apps that you’ll want if you’re a bundled TV subscriber and want to use your streaming device as an alternative to your cable box. Apps available for Roku but not Amazon: ABC, Adult Swim, AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, BET, and Bravo. And that’s just the As and Bs!

Of the four major streaming-device interfaces — Roku, Amazon, Apple TV, and Chromecast — Roku is the simplest and most comprehensive by far. If you want a stable interface, lots of cable apps and plenty of niche services to try, Roku is a no-frills, click-click-boom way to get you into the app you want to use.

Interface & Apps: Amazon

Where Roku has a static interface design that looks the same every time you launch it, Amazon emphasizes new TV shows and movies and especially new Amazon TV shows and movies. Whether that’s a feature or a bug for you is a function of how much you plan to use Amazon, but a software update coming before the end of this year appears to dial back on the interface’s Amazon-i-ness.

If you’re new to streaming or if you already pay for Amazon Prime for the two-day shipping but haven’t spent much time with the streaming service, you really should give it a look. The catalog is deep, Amazon originals like Good Girls Revolt and Fleabag are as good as Amazon and Hulu’s originals, and the recommendations engine that’s built all through the Fire TV interface makes it easy to find new things to watch.

Having control of the UI and its own content also allows Amazon to do some things on Fire TV devices that it can’t do on Roku. One nifty feature is Amazon’s X-Ray, which uses IMDB — which Amazon owns — as an extra layer of data for a film or TV episode. If you want to see names and pics for the actors in a particular scene, just swipe up and IMDB will overlay that onto the lower one-third of the screen like a cable news chyron. The info disappears after a few second, or you can swipe up again to get even more information. For a quick who-is-that-guy answer, Amazon’s X-Ray is better than grabbing your smartphone or tablet and looking it up.

Amazon also has a huge and growing ecosystem of video subscriptions called Amazon Channels that you can sign up for and set up as monthly recurring payments through your Amazon account. Although Acorn TV, Showtime, Seeso, Shudder, and others are also available as standalone apps, subscribing through Amazon Channels integrates those networks into Amazon’s search, watchlist and recommendations features.

If you want all the apps for your bundled TV channels, advantage Roku. If you’re a cord-cutter or Amazon purist, advantage Amazon.

Universal Search

Roku and Amazon both allow you to search for movies and TV shows across multiple services — Netflix, Hulu, etc. — and either watch or save for later. Roku’s universal search includes more apps, but Amazon’s will likely improve with the new Amazon Fire TV interface launching before the end of this year. More on that below.

Device Remotes

The Roku and Amazon sticks both include remotes. The Roku remote’s buttons have a softer click — Amazon’s buttons sound like a dog-training clicker — and Roku has dedicated buttons for Netflix, Amazon, Sling TV, and Google Play. The Amazon remote has voice search, which the Roku does not. (Most of the more expensive Roku models, though, do.) I prefer the Roku remote, but it’s not a huge deal.

Smartphone Remotes

The Amazon smartphone remote apps for iOS and Android look a lot like the Amazon handheld remote, and they’re super intuitive to use. In place of navigation buttons, the top two-thirds of the screen becomes a trackpad that you can swipe directionally without having to look.

The Roku smartphone remote apps for iOS and Android lacks the Amazon apps’ intuitive design and trackpad navigation. The big advantage for Roku apps is the ability to play audio on your smartphone, which allows you to watch your TV on mute and listen through your headphones. That’s a great feature for watching TV while your significant other is reading lit-ru-chuh.

If you’re likely to use your smartphone as your primary remote, advantage Amazon. If you want the headphones feature, advantage Roku.

So Which One?

The Roku Streaming Stick and Amazon Fire TV Stick are strikingly similar devices — portable, fast and $40 each — that differ mainly in how best to use them. If you’re a bundled TV subscriber and want to use your streaming device as your primary interface, the Roku is far and away the best option for its superior selection of of cable-network apps. If you’re a cord-cutter, Amazon’s recommendations tools and more modern interface — and even more modern interface coming in the next few months — make it the clear favorite.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider and is also a contributing writer for Playboy and Signature. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.