- Stop plugging these 7 devices into extension cords - even if they sound like a good idea
- I changed these 6 Samsung TV settings to give the picture quality an instant boost
- I tested a 9,000,000mAh battery pack from eBay that cost $10 - here's my verdict
- The 3 most Windows-like Linux distros to try because change is hard
- This 'unlimited battery' GPS tracker is an integral part of my hikes - and it's on sale
The 7 best free video streaming services
When cord-cutting first became a thing, it was all about saving money. Not anymore: Streaming services have largely replaced cable and satellite TV and their prices are almost the same. Still, some free services out there can save you from spending serious coin for your television entertainment.
Just Disney+ Basic — with its must-watch package of Marvel Universe, Star Wars, and Disney films — is $8 a month. Netflix Standard starts at $15.49 a month. With internet TV streaming services such as YouTube TV, which costs $73 a month, your streaming bill can easily climb up to $80 or more, which is within spitting distance of a cable TV bill.
Also: One of the best TV streaming devices I’ve tested isn’t made by Apple or Google
You can save some money by going with an inexpensive TV-bundling service like Philo TV. At $25 a month for up to five simultaneous streams of 58 popular channels — including AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, IFC, Nickelodeon, Science, and The History Channel — it’s a steal.
However, there are plenty of good free services to try, and then there’s good old-fashioned over-the-air (OTA) antenna TV. Yes, you do have to put up with commercials on all of these — and none of them includes DVR features — but they are free. The key feature in this category is the combination of how many channels you get and whether you like them. With so many selections to choose from, I can guarantee you’ll find something to watch that won’t hurt your pocketbook.
Show less
Tubi TV
Best free video streaming service overall
Features: Over 45,000 titles | 720p or less | Some live TV
Tubi TV, a Fox Entertainment division, is one of the better free VoD services. It comes with perhaps the biggest video library of any of the free services, with over 45,000 titles. That’s thanks to its access to Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, and Starz Digital’s libraries. Recent popular selections include Anna, Stars Fell on Alabama, Queen of Hearts, and all the Twilight movies. It also offers over 250 live channels. It doesn’t have major live channels, so you can’t use it as a replacement for YouTube TV or the like, but it does offer a good selection of lesser-known channels, and channels dedicated to particular shows, such as The Carol Burnett Show, Midsomer Murders, and my favorite: Mystery Science-Fiction 3000.
If you register, which I recommend, you can resume play from where you stopped to let in the cat or grab a snack. For a free service where you often don’t have control over the stream, that’s a nice benefit.
Pros:
- Excellent selection of older movie titles
- Good live TV streaming choices
Cons:
- Most shows broadcast at 720p or less
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
Pluto TV
Best runner-up
Features: Hundreds of channels | 4K quality | Pause on one device and restart on another
You probably know about Pluto TV. It offers access to over 250 streaming networks with a single interface. Some of these “channels” aren’t that interesting, but then there are others, like the classic Dr. Who, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (classic MST3K shows), and RiffTrax, which bring a smile to my face. Besides these 24×7 streaming channels, you can watch some shows on demand.
Since Paramount bought Pluto, it has included live shows, primarily news, and channels devoted to a single show, such as Star Trek, The Walking Dead, and The Addams Family. It also includes free on-demand movies and TV shows and offers 4K streaming. Overall, Pluto has more than 250 channels. Yes, these all come with ads, but if you like older shows, you can’t beat the offerings.
You can watch Pluto TV without signing up for an account, but that would be a mistake. You can set up your favorite channels when you create your free account and log in. That makes Pluto much easier to navigate. You also get a very handy search feature for finding channels or shows. Last but not least, you can pause on-demand videos and then start where you left off on another device.
Pros:
- Great selections of streaming networks
- Excellent add-on features
- Some 4K video
Cons:
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
Fandango at Home (Formerly Vudu)
Best family-friendly streaming service
Features: 200,000 titles | 4K UHD | Can purchase movies
Once upon a time, Fandango at Home was Vudu, Walmart’s online rental video-on-demand (VoD) service. While it still offers online rentals, it also offers free movies and shows with commercials.
On the VoD side, movies cost between $5 and $25 to buy and $1 and $6 to rent.
Vudu offers over 10,000 free movies and over 800 free TV series. These are usually older, more family-friendly shows like The Dresden Files, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Benji, The Little Princess, and His Girl Friday. All free, so who can argue?
Pros:
- Selection tends to be family-friendly.
Cons:
- Customers report numerous streaming delays and technical problems.
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
Hoopla and Kanopy
Best picks from your local library
Features: Requires a library card | Movies and documentaries | Audible books, ebooks, and music
Hoopla and Kanopy require you to have a library card to a library system that supports either of the two services. Their offerings aren’t quite identical, but they both offer high-end movies and documentaries. They also come with many PBS and The Great Courses (a personal favorite) titles. Hoopla also offers audible books, ebooks, and music, while Kanopy comes with movies from the Criterion Collection.
Unfortunately, you almost certainly can’t get both services. And, I’m sorry to say, in some places you can’t get either.
Pros:
- Excellent high-end video collections
Cons:
- Odds are you can get one or the other but not both
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
Crackle
Best for older TV shows and movies
Features: 1,062+ movies | More than 70 TV shows | 1080p max
Crackle is perhaps the best-known free streaming TV and movie service. Crackle boasts TV shows and movies from the 1980s through the 2010s. Some recent selections include Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, and What’s Happening!!.
Sometimes, you’ll also find newer films on Crackle. It also has a bit of original content such as StartUp, a dark show about technology companies. Call it organized crime 2.0. It’s a hidden gem of a show with actors such as Martin Freedman, Ronald Perlman, and Adam Brody. Give Crackle and StartUp a try!
Pros:
- A decent selection of free movies and TV shows
Cons:
- Streaming quality tops out at 1080p
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
FilmRise
Best obscure selection of TV shows and movies
Features: 40,000 titles | HD quality | Independent TV shows and movies
For another good free VoD network, check out FilmRise, a streaming service for independent TV shows and movies. As you might expect, its shows tend to be more obscure, but FilmRise does offer a decent selection of popular TV shows such as 3rd Rock from the Sun, 21 Jump Street, and Roseanne.
Pros:
- With FilmRise’s film catalog of 40,000 videos, chances are you’ll find something you like that you’ve not seen before.
Cons:
- Viewers agree that FilmRise has too many commercials, and all too often they’re placed at inconvenient spots on the stream.
Show Expert Take Show less
Show less
The Roku Channel
Best for Roku devices
Features: 80,000 titles | Compatible with Roku devices | Roku original content
Roku’s own network now, The Roku Channel, borrows free movies and TV shows from other streaming networks and also presents its own free content. It offers a mix of older and current TV shows and films. Altogether it has about 10,000 videos, some recent selections include Growing Pains, Trouble with the Curve, and The Beverly Hillbillies.
The Roku Channel has two interesting features. You can watch its shows not only with your Roku but on the web via The Roku Channel for the web. Also, you can use the Roku Channel app as a Roku remote.
Pros:
- It offers both VoD and live channels.
Cons:
- The video selection, even more so than most free networks, seems to be all over the place.
Show Expert Take Show less
Also: The best live TV streaming services: Expert tested
The best free streaming service is Tubi TV, followed by Pluto TV, due to their large selection of TV shows and movies. But, hey, they’re free! Get both.
And, since the rest of our picks are free, just try each of them and find out which one works best for you. For example, I’m a big Mystery Science Fiction 3000 fan, so I have Pluto TV. I also like Leverage and its sequel Leverage: Redemption, which I can watch “for free” on Amazon Prime. They used to be on FreeVee, but they’ve since been incorporated into Prime while Amazon has closed down FreeVee.
|
Free Video Streaming Service |
# of Titles |
Video Quality |
|
Tubi TV |
45,000 |
720p or less |
|
Pluto TV |
Hundreds of free channels |
4K |
|
Vudo/Fandango |
200,000 |
4K UHD |
|
Hoopla and Kanopy |
N/A |
Varies |
|
Crackle |
1,062+ movies and more than 70 TV shows |
1080p max |
|
FilmRise |
40,000 |
HD |
|
The Roku Channel |
80,000 |
Varies |
Since all of these video streaming services are free, you can try them all out to decide which one is right for you. All of these free video streaming services are great options — it just depends on what you are looking for.
|
Choose this free video streaming service… |
If you want… |
|
Tubi TV |
The best overall option |
|
Pluto TV |
Another really great free video streaming service |
|
Vudo/Fandango |
A streaming service with titles for the whole family |
|
Hoopla and Kanopy |
Movie and documentary picks from your local library |
|
Crackle |
To watch older TV shows and movies |
|
FilmRise |
An eclectic collection of TV shows and movies |
|
The Roku Channel |
To use your Roku device with a streaming service |
My dad was a TV repairman and I grew up working on TVs and setting up TV towers. In those days in rural West Virginia, we had to set up 100-foot towers just to get two or three stations. Things have changed.
I’ve been watching streaming TV since the early ’90s, when tiny IPTV stations were the name of the game. In short, then and now I’ve watched a lot of TV and there are very few streaming networks I haven’t tried over the years.
Also: The best VPN for streaming: Expert tested and reviewed
Yes, there have been services such as Showbox and Admitme.tv that offered new movies and shows. These sites were illegal and have since been shut down. Similar services will pop up from time to time, but I wouldn’t trust any of them with my money. They also tend to get closed down with no notification. Don’t waste your time with them.
Yes, you can with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that offers its services both in your country and the country where the network originated. This is a legal gray area. Sometimes, streaming services don’t have the right to transmit their shows in a country, but you can bypass that restriction with a VPN. Personally, I have used VPNs to watch shows across borders, but it’s up to you.
Not all VPNs are good for streaming. To make the best choice, check out the ZDNet list of the best streaming VPNs. My personal favorite is NordVPN.
Finding the show you want to watch on streaming services can be a real pain. Roku offers a cross-service search function, but it only works on Roku devices and it doesn’t bridge the gap between VoD and the live TV streaming services. Fortunately, there are two services to help you out. These are JustWatch and ReelGood. Both let you pick out the streaming services you use and you can then search for your shows and movies with one search across all your services. I highly recommend both programs.
