What Is the Best Free Streaming Service?
Have the prices of cable TV subscriptions made you a cord-cutter or even a “cord-never”? Do the recent price increases of streaming TV subscriptions have you searching for a “Cancel Membership” button? The good news is, you don’t have to pay a dime to watch hit movies and TV shows — all you have to do is think FAST.
Free ad-supported streaming television — or FAST for short — has taken off recently, with services like The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi offering film and television both on-demand and even live. Yes, we’re back to channel-surfing, sitting through advertisements, and wondering what’s next on the schedule! After perusing the popular options, we’re ranking our picks for the free streaming services with the most bang for your buck… so to speak.
9. Crackle
Crackle isn’t exactly crackling these days. As of the time of this writing, Crackle’s home page featured lesser-known movies by big-name stars — Nic Cage in Stolen, anyone? Morgan Freeman in The Code? — and the streaming service’s original programming is trickling out at best. Plus, parent company Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment — yes, the company behind those self-help books — has been beset by financial losses lately, with yearly losses in the hundreds of millions.
8. The Roku Channel
If you use a Roku device for your streaming, you’re probably already familiar with this service, which offers live TV channels and on-demand entertainment. Roku hosts a decent selection of originals, including shows dropped by other outlets like Most Dangerous Game, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Chad. One big drawback, though, is that The Roku Channel is only available on Roku devices, compatible Samsung Smart TVs, compatible Amazon Fire TV devices, on the website, or on the mobile app. Apple TV users, notably, aren’t invited.
7. Plex
Plex might be the best ad-supported streaming service you’ve never heard of. Originally, the company focused on media server software, but it started offering free movies and TV shows in 2019. Now the Plex library includes movies and TV shows both highbrow and lowbrow — Prime Suspect, Spartacus, and Broadchurch are standouts — plus a seemingly endless selection of live TV channels. (No originals, though!)
6. YouTube
YouTube’s ad-supported movie collection is impressive — it includes the sci-fi classic Alien, the Western film True Grit, the teen romances A Walk to Remember and 10 Things I Hate About You, and an unrated version of the comedy Bridesmaids. And the TV offerings are extensive, but note that YouTube only hosts certain seasons of shows like The Good Wife and Farscape. In another bummer, YouTube is no longer producing original programming.
5. Kanopy
Gone are the days when you’d need to get DVDs from the library. Now, anyone with a library card can access their local library system’s catalog of digital titles with Kanopy, which advertises films like Moonlight and Lady Bird on its homepage. The library card prerequisite could be a hurdle for some viewers, though, and Kanopy is unavailable in some areas — the Chicago and New York City library systems aren’t connected yet, for example. On the plus side, however, Kanopy offers a wide variety of films and TV shows.
4. Hoopla
Like Kanopy, Hoopla serves up titles from your local library system. Again, titles vary by library system, but Hoopla’s “Popular Movies” lineup currently lists Oscar contenders like Past Lives, The Whale, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, while “Popular Television” includes tons of British telly. Plus, there’s more than cinematic fare: Hoopla also hosts ebooks, audiobooks, music albums, and comics. (FYI, neither Hoopla nor Kanopy currently have original programming.)
3. Pluto TV
Paramount Global’s free streamer is a legitimate planet in the FAST solar system. Pluto TV’s on-demand offerings currently include multiple movies from the Mission: Impossible, Bad Boys, Transformers franchises, and the service is the exclusive free home of series like I Love Lucy, Frasier, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and CSI. Pluto TV’s Live TV lineup has something for everyone — with multiple channels in categories like comedy, sci-fi, true crime, game shows, and competition reality — all organized in an easy-to-navigate user interface.
2. Freevee
The streaming provider formerly known as IMDb TV is an Amazon property now, and despite the introduction of ads to Prime Video, Amazon assures us Freevee isn’t going anywhere. That’s good news for anyone who enjoys Freevee’s content, which includes many well-known movies, buzzy Freevee originals (like Jury Duty, Bosch: Legacy, and Leverage: Redemption), and even some Prime Video titles (like Fallout and The Boys).
1. Tubi
This Fox Corporation-owned streaming service is coming off its best month yet, with a higher average viewership than several paid streaming platforms. Tubi has a quarter-million movies and TV episodes, including blockbusters like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Maze Runner and Tenet, plus TV shows like Gilligan’s Island, Roots, Southland, and Scandal. And Tubi is staking its claim in the scripted originals space, with upcoming movies and TV shows starring Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, and Lauren Graham. Tubi or not Tubi? Definitely Tubi.
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