Best Mainstream Movies: Vudu

Vudu is a streaming service owned by Walmart. It offers many free titles in the “Movies On Us” section, and some of them are available to watch in 1080p. You can also purchase or rent movies and watch episodes of popular TV shows on-demand. Vudu is available on various platforms including smart TVs, mobile devices, and game consoles.

  • Mix of new and old mainstream movies and shows.

  • Well categorized library.

  • New titles are constantly being added.

  • Not all content is free.

  • Free movies have ads.

Best Streaming App for Students: Kanopy

If you’re currently enrolled in college, you probably qualify for a free Kanopy account. It’s intended primarily for educational purposes, so there are plenty of documentaries, but it also has a surprising amount of mainstream movies from around the world. Some public libraries offer free Kanopy subscriptions to members, so it’s worth looking into.

  • Free for most university students.

  • Free for some public library cardholders.

  • Not available in every country.

  • Verification required through your local library or university.

Best Interface: Sony Crackle

Sony’s official streaming service sports a polished interface and a video player that looks great on every platform. Crackle’s offering of old and new movies is almost too good to be true. Like many premium streaming services, it gives you the option to rate content you’ve watched with a thumbs up or thumbs down to receive recommendations based on your preferences.

  • Consistent video quality.

  • Extensive video player customization.

  • Excellent mobile app.

  • More ads than similar streaming services.

  • No option to sort films by viewer rating.

Best Foreign Films: PopcornFlix

PopcornFlix has a little bit of everything, but its selection of independent and foreign films sets it apart from other streaming apps. With its social media integration and comment sections, PopcornFlix encourages user engagement and interaction. The video quality is hit or miss, especially when watching in a web browser, but the video player itself is impressive.

  • Create GIFs from movie scenes.

  • Post and view comments.

  • Separate streaming site just for kids.

  • Subtitles not available for all foreign films.

  • Inconsistent video quality.

Best Movie Aggregator: Yidio

Think of Yidio as a search engine for finding where you can watch movies and TV shows online. It’ll tell you where to rent or buy any movie, but it also has links to other sites where you can watch for free. It might direct you to some of the other services on this list, so it’s a great place to start for figuring which streaming apps have what you want to watch.

  • Aggregates content from other streaming sites.

  • Sort by MPAA rating or Rotten Tomatoes score.

  • Find out where you can purchase or rent movies.

  • Not all content is free to watch.

  • Movies are hosted on other websites.

  • DVD-quality video.

Best Exclusive Content: IMDb TV

IMDb is a treasure trove of information about almost every film ever made. You’ll find a lot of movie trailers and clips, but there are also many free movies and TV shows you can watch on the website. Most of the films available are a decade or so old, but there’s also IMDb exclusive content like movie documentaries and interviews with celebrities.

  • Extensive video player options.

  • Tons of information about movies.

  • Original content.

  • Sign up required.

  • Lengthy ad breaks.

Best Nostalgic Movies and Shows: Retrovision

Retrovision has old sitcoms such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and Beverly Hillbillies as well as cult films like Children of the Corn. Movies are sorted into the usual categories like horror, comedy, and Westerns, but there’s also a one-page alphabetized list of all available content. The video quality is sometimes poor, but that’s to be expected for old movies and shows.

  • Massive collection of classics.

  • Lists all streaming content on a single page.

  • No new movies.

  • Some content is split into parts.

  • No subtitle support.

Best Anime: Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll has the largest collection of animated movies and TV shows from Japan ever assembled. If you follow modern anime, then a paid subscription may be worth the price since it allows you to watch new episodes as soon as they air in Japan. The Crunchyroll website is frequently updated with news about upcoming shows, manga, and video games.

  • Shows available in English and Japanese.

  • Make a queue and track your viewing history.

  • Available as an app for video game consoles.

  • Premium account required to watch new episodes of current shows.

  • Buggy mobile app.

Best Public Domain Movies: Big Five Glories

All movies on Big Five Glories are in the public domain, which means most of them are quite old. The newest movies you’ll find were made in the 1970s, but the majority are black-and-white films from the first half of the 20th century. The movies are actually hosted on YouTube, but the site is still very helpful since it filters out all of the other YouTube content.

  • Wide selection of silent films.

  • Uses the YouTube video player.

  • Well organized categories.

  • No recent films.

  • Some broken movie links.

Best TV Substitute: Stirr

Stirr is owned by the television broadcasting company Sinclair and features several live streaming channels. Among them is Comet, which is an excellent substitute for the Syfy Channel. Some content is tailored to your location, so you can watch local news and public access channels live. You can even watch local programming for places you don’t live.

  • Watch local programming and news broadcasts.

  • Easy-to-navigate grid interface.

  • Limited selection of on-demand movies.

  • No live prime time shows.

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