The 7 best websites you can use to watch free movies online

• 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 has both on-demand free content as well as "live TV" that you access like a cable or satellite channel guide.

We live in a world with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to streaming channels, but subscribing to Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Amazon Prime and a half-dozen others can be as pricey as an old-fashioned 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 isn't just an excellent streaming media device; the company also has a free streaming channel that you can access from any Roku device or the web. Here you'll find an impressive array of TV shows and feature films you can stream for free. The selection isn't enormous, but there's a mix of classic and contemporary movies ("Driving Miss Daisy" to "Syriana") to choose from. There's no need to create an account (though you can if you want to) and ads, while present, are not overly intrusive.

YouTube

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 offers hundreds of free movies, making it a convenient one-stop shop. Also, YouTube is one of the few sites where the content is rated by users and you can read comments about the movies as you watch them. You don't have to randomly search for free stuff; YouTube has arranged all the free movies in a single category.

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Vudu

Vudu is the streaming video arm of Fandango and offers both free and paid videos. It's easy to find the free content thanks to a Free link at the top of the page, and there you'll find thousands of movies, both new and old, popular films, and schlock. The site also does a good job of sorting the movies into categories (like Most Watched, Big Time Movie Stars, Family and Dramas) for easy browsing.

IMDb TV

Owned by Amazon, IMDb TV is a standalone service and surprisingly hasn't been rolled into Amazon Prime video. You might know IMDb as the place to go to get information about movies, actors, and filmmakers, but IMDb TV has 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 has been around a long time — it got its start in 2004. And unlike some other streaming channels, Crackle is 100% free, offering all its content at no cost (with ads), so anything 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

Popcornflix is another completely free video streaming site, offering something short of 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's no account required; just open the website, select a movie and start viewing. Many of the entries at Popcornflix fall into the category of guilty pleasures ("2-Headed Shark Attack") and cheap knock-offs of mainstream properties ("Atlantic Rim" and "Almighty Thor") but there's something charming here about the movies you can binge for free with limited ads.

Pluto TV

Pluto TV is a little different than most streaming video services. In addition to being able to watch movies and TV shows on demand, it also streams live programming that you access in a program guide as if you were watching cable or satellite TV. You can jump into programs in progress after browsing the dozens of categories arranged like channels. Or switch to the On Demand tab, and start any of the thousands of TV shows and movies in the library, arranged into easily browsable categories. And it's all free, supported by ads.