Watching free movies online is a convenient and frugal way to see the films you love right from the comfort of your own home. Yes, there are plenty of sites where you can get movies “for free” but I’ve taken the time to confirm that the ones listed below, although ad-supported, are clean from viruses and, importantly, 100% legal to use.
There’s a huge variety of freely available movies on these sites, from dramas and comedies to action and horror films. There are movies from big-name studios, but also many older and independent movies that you’ll love to watch over and over again. Just be sure you have the best TV to ensure a great viewing experience.
I spend some time each month looking for websites with free movies. This list was last updated in August to confirm that they still work, are still free, and are still worth your time.
01. Tubi
What We Like
High quality, popular movies. Lots of categories.
Subtitles can be enabled for most movies.
Has a section just for kids.
You don’t need to log in to start watching.
Genre categories don’t separate movies from shows.
02.Youtube
Recently, I was able to watch Project Gemini and Empire State; both included captions and were available in 1080p. Here are some other examples of free films I saw listed on YouTube this past month: Employee of the Month, LOL, Open 24 Hours, and In Time.
Something you can’t get with YouTube but that is supported by most of these movie sites is the ability to search through just the free titles. However, here’s a trick that has saved me loads of time: Open the full list of movies and use your browser’s Find function to search by year, genre, or title.
YouTube’s curated list (the link below) is the best way to find all their new and popular free films. Some companies, like Cineverse, list movies in their own profile.
03.Fandango at Home
There are thousands of movies on Fandango at Home that you can watch right now. All you have to do is put up with a few commercials.
It’s a great movie site whether you do or don’t know what you want to watch. Films can be filtered by genre, and you can browse by most-watched or release date. All the basic genres are available: action, comedy, crime, romance, and a few others.
While it’s true that the genres aren’t interesting, Fandango at Home makes up for it with their curated lists. Check these out: Big Time Movie Stars, Critically Acclaimed, Hidden Gems, and Most Watched Movies. There are a few hundred videos in each section.
Something unique about this site is that it not only lets you look through the newest releases, but you can do so on a single page for every genre. Another great thing about Fandango at Home’s movies is that some of them are in 1080p, so you don’t have to sacrifice quality just to watch some free movies.
Once you settle on something to watch, you might be given the option to buy or rent it, but so long as you find it through one of the free pages, there will be a button you can use to stream the movie without paying. You can even watch movies still in theaters.
04.Freevee
Freevee (formerly IMDb TV) is Amazon’s collection of free movies. I use this a lot from my TV, but it’s just as easily accessible from their website or mobile app. Everything I watch here is easy to find and seems to be high-quality.
Something I like about this site is how the genres and movie collections are organized. For example, if I’m looking through the most popular movies or recently added lists, I can filter by genre and/or subtitle language to make sure I find a movie that’s a good fit for me.
The video player lets you turn on subtitles, adjust the way the captions show up on the screen, change the video quality, and go into full-screen mode.
There’s a lot to explore here, including original films, but I’ll get you started with these titles that are some of the more popular choices: Split, The Turning, Hotel Transylvania 3, and My Mom’s New Boyfriend.
05.Pluto TV
Pluto TV is the closest thing I’ve found to free cable TV. It’s owned by Paramount and fully supported by ads, so there’s no worry that you might accidentally buy something.
My biggest joy about using this service is that I can just turn it on and let it play. There are hundreds of live channels, so some of them feature news, reality TV, or game shows, but others have full-length movies.
Not everything is live, though, which is good. If I’m in the mood for something specific, I can look through thousands of movies and TV shows that are available on demand.
The unique categories for their on-demand films are a huge plus because most movie sites just stick to the traditional few genres. Hollywood Icons, The King of Horror, Whoa. Keanu is on Pluto TV, 00s Replay, and Cult Films are a few examples.
These are some of the most-watched movies on Pluto TV this last month: Good Burger, Road Trip, School of Rock, Red Eye, and Equilibrium.
In my experience, running Pluto TV through a TV makes it easier to use because the always-on video player gets in the way on smaller screens. But, there is a mobile app and a desktop player if you’d rather go that route.
06.Yidio
I’m so happy I stumbled on Yidio years ago! It’s like a search engine for all these other movie sites. It’s incredibly handy because it shows where on the internet a movie is available for free.
A search box would be enough, but Yidio goes above and beyond with lots of other sorting and filtering options. These include MPAA rating, decade, genre, IMDb score, and others. Just fill out any of that information to get a list you can comb through, with links to free movie sites.
For example, I asked Yidio to find me free animation movies released since 2020 and to sort the list by IMDb rating. The top several results provided links to watch those films on Tubi, Roku, Pluto TV, and other free streaming sites.
This isn’t a perfect service, but it works great nearly every time I use it.
07.Plex
Plex is an interesting service because it’s actually a much bigger package than it might seem at first. In addition to its massive collection of free full-length movies and TV shows, Plex also has live TV and software that serves as a really cool at-home media server.
Currently, there are tens of thousands of free movies and shows here. They’re sectioned off in traditional genres like action and crime, but you can also browse by actor or channel. Plex has its own unique collections, too; I’ve seen Feel Good Films, Til Death Do Us Part, Oh-My-Godzilla, Cheap Thrills, and Midnight Movies.
On a movie’s watch page are similar titles and additional details that help build a total picture of the film, like the full cast list, reviews, and trailers. I love this because it makes it easy to find other movies on Plex with the same stars.
See which movies on Plex are leaving soon to catch them before they go! Plex’s Most Popular page lists The Girl Next Door, Cruel Intentions, Scary Movie 4, Movie 43, and others.
If you can’t find what you want on Plex, the title you’re interested in might still show up in the results, and you’ll be given links to places you can buy/rent it (sort of like Yidio, listed above).
08.Filmzie
Filmzie is built for streaming movies from independent filmmakers and both small and large studios. The site and app are well-designed, and there are plenty of great titles to stream.
Here are some collections I’ve seen that are rare to find on a movie site: Directed by Women, European Production, Asia’s Top Cinema, LGBTQI+, Cuddle-Up Comedies, and Independent Cinema. Of course, over 20 traditional genres, like drama and thriller, are also available. Trending, new, and most-watched movies each have their own section as well.
Filmzie does a great job organizing its movies. This is the main reason I use it. That, and there are so many videos here that I have never even heard of, so it’s the perfect place to find something brand new.
Some movies that were trending recently include Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Dark Souls, Raven, Delicious, and The Frame.
I’ve used the website and the mobile app, and both work more or less the same as these other movie sites.
u can buy/rent it (sort of like Yidio, listed above).
09.Crackle
Crackle is a no-brainer for this list. I always come back to it to watch free movies online because of its list of hundreds of full-length films and original programming. These are big-name movies with stars I’m sure you know.
Although you have to sit through commercials, I find them to be relatively short, with only a few breaks during a movie.
Another reason I choose Crackle is because of its unique categories like Summer Binge-a-Thon, Foreign Language, Stand-Up, British, Variety/Talk/Games, and Unidentified/Unexplained. It’s fun to look through interesting genres like this.
A closed captioning toggle is available directly from the video player for all users but, if you sign up for an account (it’s free), you can also enable parental controls (options are kids mode, teen mode, and grown-up mode).
Here are some examples of the most popular movies on Crackle: 2010: Moby Dick, Colonia, Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear, King of the Lost World, and Sanctuary.
10. The Ruku channel
You might already know about Roku’s free movies if you have a Roku TV or streaming device. But even if you don’t, you can still watch all the same free movies, TV shows, and live TV from a computer, phone, or tablet.
There are some ads in these movies, but the trade-off is high-quality videos and well-known movies.
On the home page are handy categories I have yet to find on another website with free movies. They often change, but some that I’ve seen recently include End of Summer Laughs, Dinosaurs & Dragons, Leading Men, Retro Action Movies, and Music on the Small Screen.
While there are also typical genre lists you can browse through, none of them let you sort by popularity or filter by rating or year. This is by far my biggest issue with the service. That, and both TV shows and movies are mixed into the same lists and said lists must be browsed horizontally in a carousel-like menu. It’s just not super user-friendly.
However, I do like that you can search for actors and directors to find movies they’re associated with. I also appreciate the Continue watching section.
11. kanopy
The Kanopy movie streaming site is different from these other choices because you need a valid library card or university login before you can watch anything. However, there are zero commercials in the movies, and new films are added every month.
Use Kanopy’s signup page to search for your library, whether it’s a public library or one attached to a school. You can start watching movies after you’ve been approved.
Kanopy does a great job of providing useful categories to look through. There’s Short Film, History – Ancient, LGBTQ Cinema, War & Action, Sociology, Performing Arts, Human Rights, Everyday Health, and K-12 Lessons.
A few of the more popular movies here include God’s Own Country, Lady Bird, The Bookshop, and Anomalisa.
There’s also an entirely separate section for kid movies at Kanopy. My son’s old enough now to watch more mature movies, but if he weren’t, I’d be thrilled with this. There are subsections like Story Time and Read-Along Storybooks. You can also set up parental controls to force only age-appropriate content
