Best Free Video Streaming Services

Perhaps the most well-known free streaming service, Pluto TV deserves its reputation as a heavyweight in the space. Pluto TV’s default presentation appears in the form of 350 live streaming channels, with some dedicated to specific genres and others simply showing 24/7 loops of different TV shows.

Pluto TV also has a few channels that feel like traditional live news, like Sky News, NBC News Now, and Bloomberg News.

In addition to this, Pluto TV has a large selection of on-demand titles, including some major blockbusters and award winners that rotate through the service, like “The Hunger Games” saga, “RoboCop,” and “The Fighter.” If you see a title you like, you can add it to your watchlist.

You’ll also get several channels that show music videos from various genres or specific eras.

If you like a specific channel, you can “pin” it to the top of your channel lineup as a favorite.

Whether you feel like throwing on some background TV or settling in for a movie night, Pluto TV is up to the challenge.

Like its namesake streaming device, The Roku Channel offers a simple, clean interface packed with content. One major strike against it is that it doesn’t work with all devices, but it’s a great choice if you have one of the supported options.

You’ll find 453 live linear streaming channels with free movies and TV shows on The Roku Channel. Users will have access to several popular shows, including “The Bachelorette,” “24,” and “Alias.” Roku Channel has more than 80,000 titles available, second only to Tubi.

Roku Channel is also notable for their original productions, like the critically acclaimed “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

You’ll also find some hit TV series from the past few decades, including “Quantum Leap,” “Highway to Heaven,” “The A-Team,” “Coach,” “Hart to Hart,” “Who’s the Boss?” “Bewtiched,” “Benson,” and “What’s Happening!!”

The movie catalog is strong, featuring some major hits like “The Fugitive,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Signs,” “Memento,” and “Galaxy Quest.”

A nice kids section allows you to browse by specific characters or by the age of your child.

You’ll also find the old Quibi catalog rebranded as “Roku Originals.”

If you have small children, PBS Kids is nothing short of a godsend. With a strong lineup of beloved shows, the app can keep kids mesmerized for hours. The available episodes do rotate every few weeks, so parents won’t feel trapped by hearing the same episodes over and over into infinity.

The service allows for offline downloads to keep your little ones entertained when you’re away from Wi-Fi.

If your family loves the content, you can upgrade to an inexpensive subscription through Amazon Prime that allows access to every episode of the PBS Kids lineup.

Kanopy is a streaming platform for independent films and documentaries. It has a collection of more than 30,000 films such as a wide array of dramas, comedies, biopics, and television series. The library includes award-winning films and shows from major television networks like HISTORY, A&E, and PBS.

NewsON provides instant access to live and on-demand newscasts from 275+ local TV station partners in 165+ U.S. markets. Viewers can personalize their experience by setting favorite stations and watching breaking news coverage of major events and storms from multiple local stations. The service covers more than 80% of the U.S. population.

Another great option if you have kids, Sensical is a free streaming service for children ages 2-10. It includes on-demand access to 15,000+ hand-selected videos and 50+ topic-based channels.

Sensical serves three distinct audiences: preschoolers (ages 2-4), little kids (ages 5-7), and big kids (8-10). Each child can have his or her own profile, and parents can get weekly or monthly reports on what their children are watching and learning.

Every video is viewed, vetted, and rated by dozens of individuals trained in child development.

While PBS Kids offers a slightly better experience for children, Sensical is a worthy addition to a parent’s child-calming arsenal.

Local Now aims to combine an on demand catalog of movies and TV with virtual live streaming channels, similar to Pluto TV. You also get access to some local content, as the service provides streams from major markets like New York, Denver, Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and West Palm Beach.

The on demand catalog is so comically bad that it’s barely worth mentioning. There is a small section of Local Now original programs, however.

Very Local is a free streaming service providing local news, weather and exclusive local original series from all 27 Hearst Television markets.

Entertainment fans may not find much to love about Crackle, but the service is free. The library feels more scattershot than some other services, and it feels more geared toward nostalgic audiences.

Even more puzzling, most of the Crackle library is available through Plex, which somewhat nullifies the reason for Crackle to exist as a standalone service.

You will find a small library of Crackle original titles and a decent stand-up comedy library, but it’s unlikely you’ll make Crackle part of your regular viewing habit unless it has a show you love.

As free streaming services go, the Cineverse library just doesn’t offer much premium content. As you scroll the titles, it’s unlikely you’ll see anything familiar.

The “classic cinema” section may offer some titles worth considering, including “My Man Godfrey,” “Charade,” and “His Girl Friday.”

There are a handful of Rifftrax titles where comedians make fun of B-movies. The same format applies with the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” channel. You’ll also find a selection of standup comedy performances.

Users can rent new and movies through the platform. Prices typically range from $3.99-$19.99.

On some platforms, the service is called “Cinehouse.”

BYUtv is a free video streaming service created by Brigham Young University. Its purpose is “to create purposeful, engaging viewing and listening experiences that entertain, inspire, uplift, and improve families and communities.” Popular shows include the Angel Studios Jesus Christ biography “The Chosen” and the long-running sketch comedy series “Studio C.”

Redbox offers some of the same channels as the top players on this list, though there’s very little unique here. Since the service was bought out in 2022, it’s essentially lost its momentum.

The service does offer local news from Cox stations in Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Orlando, Jacksonville, Memphis, Tulsa, and Dayton. For the most part, the free channels, films, and shows aren’t worth opening the app.

Redbox is most likely to appeal to users who use the platform to rent or buy movies. Streaming rentals typically run $1.99-$5.99, though you can sometimes rent theatrical releases early for $19.99. Purchases are often $9.99-$19.99. Users can sometimes get a discount by purchasing movie bundles. Older films are usually less expensive than new releases.

Fawesome is an ad-supported streaming service with 10,000+ movies and shows. Users will see movies from studios like Paramount, Lionsgate, FilmRise, Cinedigm, and more.