What you actually get for more money
Four things, in the order they are worth paying for.
1. A switchable amplifier. The most useful upgrade in cheap antennas, and the Mohu Leaf Amplified has it: an amplifier you can switch off. Amplification helps a weak signal and actively hurts a strong one by overloading the tuner, so the only sane way to use one is to scan with it off, scan again with it on, and keep whichever found more channels. An amplified antenna with no switch takes that choice away from you.
2. A directional element. The ClearStream 1MAX uses a loop element and a directional pattern, which concentrates its sensitivity in one bearing. If the FCC map shows all your wanted stations on roughly the same heading, that is real, cheap gain. If your towers are scattered, it is a drawback.
3. Band coverage.The FCC states that VHF is channels 2 to 13 and UHF is channels 14 to 36, and that many antennas sold as “HDTV antennas” receive UHF well but VHF less well. If a station you care about sits on a low VHF channel, that is the one spec worth checking and the one place a cheap flat panel can fail outright. The map tells you the channel numbers.
4. Being outdoors.This is the big one, and it is not really an antenna upgrade — it is a position upgrade. The FCC itself says outdoor antennas generally get better reception and are strongly recommended for the most reliable results. The two GE antennas on this page are the cheapest way to test that: still inexpensive, but now you are paying in labor rather than money, because mounting one is a real job on a ladder with a cable run.
What you should not pay for
A big mile number. Range claims printed on antenna boxes are unregulated marketing figures with no standard test behind them. We quote them as manufacturer claims because that is all they are. A claim over about 100 miles is physically impossible for line-of-sight broadcast reception; honest brands quote 40 to 70. A cheap antenna claiming 300 miles is cheaper than the one claiming 50 because the number is free to print.
“4K” or “HD” on the box. There is no such thing as an HD antenna or a 4K antenna. The antenna collects radio energy; the tuner in your TV decodes it. The same piece of metal served analog television and serves digital broadcast now, and ATSC 3.0 does not obsolete it either— that standard changes tuners, not antennas.
A “smart TV” antenna. No such product exists. An antenna cannot tell what brand of television is behind the coax socket, which is the whole argument of our smart TV antenna page.
Getting the most out of a cheap antenna
Height and glass beat everything
Put it as high as the cable reaches, on the wall or window facing your transmitters, and on an upper floor if you have one. A window is usually the best surface in the house because glass is nearly transparent to the signal while brick, stucco, foil-backed insulation and metal siding are not. Moving a cheap antenna from the wrong wall to the right window changes more than doubling your budget does.
Rescan after every move
Your television only knows about the channels it found during its last scan. Move the antenna, rescan. It takes a couple of minutes and it is the step most people skip before concluding the antenna is bad.
Try it passive before you amplify
If you bought the amplified Mohu, scan it both ways. Plenty of close-in addresses get more channels with the amplifier off, because the problem was never weak signal.
Renting? The OTARD rule is on your side
The FCC’s over-the-air reception devices rule has, since its 1999 amendment, covered rental property where you have an exclusive-use area such as a balcony or patio. It prohibits most restrictions that unreasonably delay or prevent installation or preclude an acceptable-quality signal. An antenna on a balcony rail is both cheap and often permitted where a roof mount is not.
When cheap is the wrong answer
If the FCC map shows your nearest wanted station beyond about 35 miles, or if you are behind a hill, or if your home has metal siding or foil-faced sheathing, an inexpensive indoor panel is not going to work and buying three of them is more expensive than buying one proper outdoor antenna. In that case go to rural reception or the attic option, which gets most of the height benefit without the weather and the grounding.
Cheap, small, or both
Budget and size overlap heavily in this category — the least expensive antennas are usually also the smallest — but they are not the same requirement. If the real constraint is a room where nothing can be mounted and there is no spare surface, best small TV antenna sorts the same market by size and covers where a compact antenna costs you channels and where it does not.
