Best last-minute digital gift ideas for Father’s Day

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Yes, Father’s Day is this weekend. But before you have a full-blown panic attack because you forgot to pick up a gift worthy of dad’s admiration, take a deep breath. After all, the internet is filled with a treasure trove of gift cards, subscriptions, and other great digital gifts you can buy today or at any point this weekend.

To help make your life a little easier, we’ve curated a list of some of the best digital gifts we’ve either used ourselves or gifted to our friends and family. We’ve organized the list based on various interests, too, so you can find the perfect present whether your dad is into the arts, exercise, or something else entirely. That way, you’ll be able to gift something more thoughtful than a generic Amazon gift card — even if that is still a totally viable option in our book.

Gifts for film and TV buffs

No matter whether you’re shopping for a movie buff or an avid sports fan, there are a number of subscriptions on the market that’ll grant your dad access to a wide range of content. Below are just some of the most popular, followed by a few catered toward anime diehards, horror lovers, and those looking for something more niche.

$13

For $12.99 a month, you’ll get ad-supported access to Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus, which is cheaper than you’d otherwise pay if you purchased each subscription separately. You can also gift a year of the ad-free version for $109.99.

Major streaming services

Niche subscription services

$25

The Criterion Channel grants access to over a thousand classic and contemporary Hollywood, international, art house, and independent movies. It also features special programming spotlighting directors, stars, genres, and themes, like a “15-minute-a-month film school.”

  • A gift card to Shudder, which is a streaming service dedicated to horror, thriller, and supernatural movies
  • A Crunchyroll gift card for the anime lover in your life
  • A BritBox subscription, which is tailored toward fans of British shows and movies
  • For MMA lovers, you can gift a subscription to DAZN so they can stream live fights as well as a wealth of original programming. This includes not only past fights but also profiles on famous fighters like Manny Pacquiao

An actual movie theater experience

Gifts for fitness fans

For health and wellness enthusiasts, a number of services offer a wealth of streamable fitness and even meditation classes. There are also a number of more unique gifts that can help your dad practice self-care and lighten his load, including services that will do the grocery shopping on his behalf. Below, we’ve listed out some of the more popular options as well as a few lesser-known gifts that’ll help your dad take care of both his body and mind.

Person stretching in front of TV streaming Peloton subscription content.

$13

Peloton’s $12.99 monthly subscription offers thousands of streamable fitness classes revolving around a variety of different workouts, ranging from strength training to stretching. It’s a service that’s available to everybody, so you don’t need to own a Peloton device to use it.

Gifts for music lovers

Whether your dad is a musician or just loves to unwind with some music, there are a lot of digital gifts you can buy. We all know about Spotify and Apple Music, but there are also other streaming services that you can gift as a subscription, some of which we’ve highlighted below.

$25

Apple Music offers more than 90 million ad-free songs you can listen to with spatial audio as well as support for Dolby Atmos. Note, however, that there is no designated gift card for Apple Music, meaning you’ll have to buy a regular Apple gift card.

Major streaming services

Experiences and other gifts

If Spotify and Apple Music are a little too cliché for you, why not gift a guitar lesson or vinyl record subscription? Here are a couple of more unique digital gift ideas for all the music-loving dads out there.

  • A Fender Play or Guitar Center (Amazon, Target) gift card so your giftee can learn how to play the guitar
  • A Ticketmaster or StubHub gift card, the latter of which is available on Amazon
  • A Vinyl Me, Please subscription for those who love spinning records
  • A gift card to Bandcamp, the online record store and music community so dad can buy digital tracks and other items from his favorite musician

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Gifts for the bookworms

Obviously you could just gift a bibliophile a book and they’d probably be happy. But what if you don’t know what your dad is into or simply want to give him more options? In that case, a Barnes & Noble gift card or a subscription to something like Kindle Unlimited is a good idea. These kinds of gifts will grant dad access to thousands of titles and / or audiobooks.

$15

An Audible Premium Plus subscription grants instant access to thousands of audiobooks and podcasts as well as one premium audiobook a month.

  • An Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription, which grants members access to millions of ebooks, magazine subscriptions, and even select audiobooks
  • A Comixology or Marvel Unlimited subscription for fans of comics and manga
  • A Book of the Month membership, which will grant your giftee access to up to seven books a month
  • A Scribd subscription, which grants members access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, magazines, and more
  • A subscription to the Next Big Idea Club, a membership service where subscribers are sent titles selected by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink
  • A Barnes & Noble gift card, available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Best Buy
  • A Bookshop.org gift card for those who are more into buying books from local bookstores
  • If your dad is a fan of a certain Substack writer, a Substack subscription could be a welcome gift. To gift this, replace “subdomain” in the following URL with the name of the publication: https://subdomain.substack.com/gift
  • You can also gift a subscription to newspapers like The New York Times or The Washington Post or publications catered to specific interests like Cosmopolitan or National Geographic

Gifts for the creatives

Movie buffs and bibliophiles are easy to shop for, but what do you get the creative type? It’s actually not that hard — just buy them something to help them create, whether that’s a website or a piece of art. Below are a few subscriptions and gift cards creators will love that you can also buy last minute.

$14

A subscription to Skillshare grants subscribers access to over 34,000 online classes related to graphic design, painting, photography, film, music, coding, and more.

  • An Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, which provides access to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, InDesign, and other Adobe apps
  • A WordPress subscription so they can finally get their blog or passion project up
  • A subscription to the coding educational platform Codecademy
  • Their own domain
  • A Craftsy membership, which grants access to a host of live and on-demand classes covering everything from baking to woodworking and drawing
  • A Michaels gift card, which you can buy from Michaels, Amazon, Target, or Best Buy
  • A MasterClass membership, which includes access to classes taught by world leaders and other subject matter experts (screenwriters, musicians, business experts, etc.)
  • A gift card to ArtSnacks, a subscription service that delivers boxes of assorted art supplies

Gifts for the adventurers

Is your dad in dire need of a break? Fortunately, the internet is filled with travel-oriented gifts, ranging from the obvious, like airline and Uber gift cards, to national park passes.

$80

The America the Beautiful pass grants entry to all 63 national parks, from the Grand Canyon to Yosemite as well as over 2,000 recreation sites across the country.

Gifts for the gamers

If you’re not sure which type of games your dad prefers, you can gift him an Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo subscription. Not only will these memberships grant him access to free digital titles but they also come with perks such as online multiplayer and cloud-based saves, among other incentives.

The Xbox logo

$45

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offers access to more than 100 titles for PC and Xbox consoles, which you can play on multiple devices. The pass also gives subscribers access to exclusive deals, online multiplayer, and Microsoft’s cloud gaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming. A one-month digital subscription typically costs $15.99.

$30

A membership to PlayStation Plus allows PlayStation 4 and PS5 owners to play games online, download free titles every month, use cloud save backups, and take advantage of discounts on the PS Store. PlayStation Plus memberships start at $9.99 a month.

$20

A premium online service for Nintendo Switch owners that allows you to play online with friends and access cloud saves in addition to over 70 retro games released during the NES and SNES eras.

$50

The Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack offers the same benefits as the Nintendo Switch Online membership but also grants access to Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 titles as well as DLC content for select games. It costs $49.99 a year.

Alternatively, you could buy a gift card to a store like GameStop (Amazon, GameStop). This is useful if you don’t know which console your dad prefers or want to give him the option of buying accessories and games.

$25

GameStop gift cards start at $25, and your giftee can use them to purchase a variety of Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and PC games and accessories, among other things.

Gift cards for pretty much anyone

Sometimes the best gift card is one that’ll give your dad a ton of options, especially if you’re having a hard time figuring out what he wants this year. Gift cards from major retailers like Amazon and Best Buy are perfect in these situations, namely because they’ll let your dad choose whatever he likes from a wide range of departments.

The Amazon logo over a black background with orange lines

$25

Amazon gift cards start at $25 and can be used toward purchases across a variety of departments.

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