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- You can watch free movies online through a number of streaming service websites and apps.
- Streaming sites like YouTube and Vudu offer a mix of free and paid content, while others are free with ads.
- Pluto TV offers both free on-demand content as well as “live TV” that you access like a cable or satellite channel guide.
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We live in a world with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to
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channels, but subscribing to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Amazon Prime and half a dozen others can be as expensive as an old-school cable subscription – or worse. The antidote to endless streaming subscriptions are free movies online. Here are seven of the best options for watching movies for free.
The Roku Channel
Roku offers a mix of contemporary and classic movies for free.
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Roku isn’t just a great streaming media device; the company also has a free streaming channel that you can access from any Roku device or on the web. Here you will find an impressive range of TV shows and feature films that you can stream for free. The selection isn’t huge, but there’s a mix of classic and contemporary films (“Driving Miss Daisy” to “Syriana”) to choose from. There’s no need to create an account (although you can if you want) and the ads, while present, aren’t too intrusive.
Youtube
You might be surprised to learn that YouTube has a large collection of free movies.
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YouTube belongs on this list because in addition to being the place you go for cute cat videos and the clip from last night’s late night talk show, YouTube has hundreds of free movies, making it makes a convenient one-stop shop. Moreover, YouTube is one of the few sites where content is rated by users and you can read reviews on movies while watching them. You don’t have to randomly search for free stuff; YouTube has organized all free movies in one category.
Vudu
You can buy and rent movies on Vudu, but the service also encourages you to visit thousands of free movies.
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Vudu is the streaming video arm of Fandango and offers both free and paid videos. Finding free content is easy with a To free link at the top of the page, and you’ll find thousands of movies, new and old, popular and schlock movies. The site also does a good job of sorting movies into categories (like Most-Watched, Big Time Movie Stars, Family, and Dramas) for easy browsing.
IMDb Television
IMDb TV’s rich collection of free movies is available through Amazon Prime Video.
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Owned by Amazon, IMDb TV is a standalone service and, surprisingly, hasn’t been integrated with Amazon Prime Video. You may know IMDb as the place to go for information on movies, actors, and filmmakers, but IMDb TV offers hundreds of free TV shows and movies. You can watch IMDb TV movies on a wide variety of devices and through the Amazon Prime Video website or app (IMDb TV content is clearly marked as such).
Crackle
Crackle is one of the oldest free video sites and has an excellent search and navigation system.
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Crackle has been around for a long time – it debuted in 2004. And unlike other streaming channels, Crackle is 100% free, offering all of its content at no cost (with ads), so everything you see on the site you can watch without paying. You can browse movies and TV shows by genre, alphabetically, or search for a specific title.
popcornflix
True to its name, Popcornflix has plenty of wacky viewing options and guilt pleasure.
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Popcornflix is another completely free video streaming site, offering something under 2,000 movies in a variety of categories. It’s available as an app for a variety of devices, and you can also watch in a web browser. There is no account required; just open the website, select a movie and start watching. Many Popcornflix entries fall into the category of guilty pleasures (“2-Headed Shark Attack”) and cheap knockoffs of mainstream properties (“Atlantic Rim” and “Almighty Thor”), but there’s something charming about it. here in movies you can gorge for free with limited ads.
Pluto TV
Pluto’s interface is organized like a cable TV program guide.
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Pluto TV is a little different from most video streaming services. In addition to being able to watch movies and TV shows on demand, it also streams live programs which you access in a program guide as if you were watching cable or satellite TV. You can jump into the current programs after browsing through the dozens of categories organized as channels. Or switch to the On Demand tab and play one of the thousands of TV shows and movies in the library, organized into easy-to-browse categories. And it’s all free, supported by ads.