16 Best Free Movie Download Sites Of 2023 | Fully Legal

In this age of digital consumerism, almost nothing is free of cost, especially entertainment. And even if there is, they are generally considered pirated or illegal. Over the last decade or so, many media streaming sites have emerged that provide streaming services and allow users to download their favorite movies and television shows but at a cost.

Those who don’t want to pay for these services are easily attracted by illegal platforms, which provide movies nothing but illegally. Non-genuine platforms, including most torrent sites not only make you liable for legal charges but there is an imminent threat of malware attacks to your personal devices. So what options we are left with? From where we can download all those movies?

Well, there are few genuine websites out there that allow you to watch/download movies and TV series legally and absolutely for free. Let’s start with 16 best free movie download sites.

16. Tubi

Available in: Worldwide

Tubi is a San Francisco-based video-on-demand platform that provides free access to hundreds and hundreds of TV shows and movies. Currently, it has more than 200 content providers, including several big ones like Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Lionsgate.

The platform brings new movies and shows every week. Apart from its website, users can access Tubi from Chromecast and other over-the-top services like as Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

15. Classic Cinema Online

Available in: Worldwide

If you love old, classic movies like me, then you may already know that most of those movies are not really easy to find. Yes, you can always search them on video-sharing websites like YouTube and Dailymotion but it takes hours before you find something that you really want to watch.

Classic Cinema Online solves this problem. Instead of spending long hours, you can simply watch hand-picked movies across different genres. It lets you explore decades-old movies by categories so that you can easily find what you’re actually looking for.

14. Vudu

Available in: United States

Vudu is a U.S based video-on-demand service that allows customers to buy or rent television shows, documentaries, and movies in standard, high, and ultra-high-definition formats. In fact, it was the first on-demand service to provide high-definition content for downloading. Vudu also has a large collection of free, ad-supported content, including classics, as well as, most recent movies and tv series.

In June 2020, Vudu was acquired by Fandango Media (a subsidiary of NBCUniversal) from Walmart. A year later, in August 2021, Fandango merged Vudu with its existing video streaming platform FandangoNOW, while keeping the name ‘Vudu’. The combined service feature over a thousand of free-to-stream movies and television series and about 200,000 titles for rent and buy.

According to an analysis performed by market research firm NDP Group, Vudu can reach more than 75 million TV-connected device households in the United States due to its extensive platform support, which includes Vizio smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, and xfinity devices. The service reportedly has over 60 million registered users.

13. Dailymotion

Available in: Worldwide

Dailymotion is the second biggest video hosting service after YouTube. It allows its users to browse, upload and download video content from all over the world. Here you can find a great variety of content from old movies to useful documentaries.

Dailymotion, however, has suffered some legal setbacks over the years. Back in 2014, the platform was fined $1.5 million after it was found guilty of copyright infringement. In Russia, the platform has been blocked nationwide since early 2017 after a court ruling. It was accused of continually violating the country’s copyright law.

12. PopcornFlix

Available in: the United States and Canada

PopcornFlix is a popular streaming website, where you can watch hundreds of free, legal movies and web series. While the service is primarily focused on independent movies, you can also find brainstorming documentaries and intriguing international films. PopcornFlix is easily accessible from Playstation, Xbox, and Roku.

11. CONtv

Available in: Worldwide

Do you like watching independent movies and anime without paying anything? If yes, then CONtv could be perfect for you. It’s a popular video-on-demand platform that provides free access to over 12,000 licensed content, including documentaries and anime.

The platform also features hundreds of region-specific television shows like The Inbetweeners, shameless, and Peep Show to name just a few. Furthermore, you neither have to register nor have to download a local client to start watching on the website.

10. Prende TV

Available in: United States (Spanish)

Prende TV is a newly launched over-the-top streaming service owned and managed by TelevisaUnivision USA, the world’s largest Spanish-language multimedia company (after the merger between Televisa and Univision). It allows users to stream television series, movies, and sports content from TelevisaUnivision network and other third-party providers without any fee.

The service was launched in March 2021 and is now available on desktop, Amazon Fire TV, Apple, and Android devices. It currently streams over a hundred channels with over 40,000 hours of content spanning from sports programs to popular documentaries, series, and movies. In July 2021, Prende TV reportedly had 1 million subscribers and was expected to reach 5 million subscribers by the end of the year.

9. Yahoo View

Available in: Worldwide

Were you a big fan of Hulu’s free version, but really miss it now? If yes, then you might not know about Yahoo View. Well, it is a free video-on-demand platform that functions almost in the same way as Hulu did once.

Here you can watch recent (last four) episodes of various popular TV shows from multiple broadcasting networks like NBC, ABC and FOX. But keep in mind that there is a minimum eight-day delay from the original broadcast and when it first appears on the platform.

A decent collection of movies is also available, however, they are generally unorthodox or non-mainstream. Furthermore, many international sitcoms and anime shows can be enjoyed fully (no four-episode limit) with subtitles.

Read: 21 Paranormal Documentaries That’ll Scare The Hell Out Of You

8. Kanopy

Available in: United States

Kanopy is a unique video streaming service that provides free access to a large selection of movies for students from different universities and other educational institutions. To gain access, you need to provide your university library credentials.

This service is currently available only in a few countries, including the U.S, Canada, UK, and Australia, and only to participating libraries. It’s completely ads-free since partner institutions pay for the films watched by their faculties and students. Unsurprisingly, Kanopy focuses mostly on documentaries, but you can find films from every genre.

7. Pluto TV

Available in: United States, and parts of Europe

Pluto TV is a free internet-based TV platform that provides its users access to over 100 channels which include new movies and sports channels. Its interface is similar to traditional TV platforms. It brings content from a total of 75 media partners.

In 2017, Pluto TV included a huge amount of on-demand movies along with TV shows after striking a deal with MGM and Warner Bros. Like few other services on the list, Pluto TV might not be available in some locations.

6. Sony Crackle

Available in: United States

Crackle is one of the most popular free video streaming platforms that offers licensed content(s) from big media providers such as Universal Studios, Warner Bros and Fox Digital, etc. Right now, it is available in more than 20 different nations in North and South America.

My personal experience with the site is somehow moderate. The interface is simple, helps you navigate easily, however, too many ads might ruin your experience.

5. Vimeo

Available in: Worldwide

Vimeo may not be as big as YouTube, but it sure is popular and has a huge fan base. Here you can enjoy movies and hundreds of entertaining short films. Vimeo has a pretty decent interface with almost no annoying ads. High-definition playback support is also there.

Vimeo also provides a video-on-demand service for users who wants to buy full-length movies and TV shows. Although most of these are independent films, a number of movies from big production houses are also available. Overall, Vimeo is a perfect platform for those who are looking for both free and creative films and paid content all in one place.

Read: 280+ Free Online Documentaries to Expand Your Consciousness

4. Roku Channel

Available in: The United States and the U.K

Roku is an American company that manufactures digital media players for video streaming. The company launched its first mainstream product — Roku Streaming Player — in 2008. It serves as a set-top box through which customers can access a variety of digital content offered by Roku partners. Roku streaming supports both free and paid channels. It also allows anyone to create new channels for a fee.

In October 2017, Roku started its own, free streaming channel that shows licensed tv shows and movies from some of the world’s biggest entertainment studios including, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, Warner Bros, and Disney, as well as, other content partners such as FilmRise, and YuYu.

Since August 2018, Roku Channel can be accessed on the web through non-Roku devices. Furthermore, the service also added a new “Featured Free” option that allows users to stream free movies and shows directly from Roku Partners. In 2021, Roku acquired the content library of a discontinued streaming platform Quibi reportedly for $100 million. It was rebranded as Roku Originals.

3. YouTube

Available in: Worldwide

YouTube can be your best companion when there is nothing else to do or watch. And why not, it’s the world’s largest video-sharing/hosting website, which provides you with visual content from around the world. Though finding full-length movies on YouTube is extremely difficult nowadays, it still has a sizable amount of free movies that you can watch easily.

Apart from that, there are hundreds of movies that never show up on the site unless you specifically search for them. Most of the time these movies are not uploaded by their rightful owner and are divided into pieces. Few authorized channels that you can try are Maverick Entertainment and The Paramount Vault.

2. Public Domain Torrents

Available in: Worldwide

One thing that I have learned after years of research is that copyright laws are extremely complex and could cost you millions. We all know that torrents are illegal as they violate international copyright rights laws, however, there are still hundreds of torrents available, which you can download legally.

Public Domain Torrents is most probably the only such site that carries movies that are now part of the public domain. This happens when the original creator of a patented material fails to renew their copyright claim after a certain age limit.

Here you can enjoy classic old movies across different genres. The site is very easy to navigate, you just select a category and scroll through until you find something you want. Each movie is available in multiple formats and quality.

1. The Internet Archive

Available in: Worldwide

The Internet Archive is perhaps the best platform from where you can get legal movies and television shows absolutely for free. For those who don’t know, it’s a not-for-profit digital library that carries millions of content from books, images, audio files to old games and of course movies.

Read: 16 Best Netflix Alternative You Can Try | Both Free & Paid Services

You would be surprised to know how much data is stored in their data center. Back in 2012, the total amount of data stored in the Internet Archive reached 10 petabytes or 10 million gigabytes. Anyway, it allows users to upload content and its web crawlers make sure that you get something new every time you visit there.

Apart from movies, you can watch and download mini-films and short clips from TV shows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which streaming services offer free trials?

For the past few years, there has been a significant rise in the number of people that use online streaming services for their entertainment. The number of these services has also risen dramatically. As a user, now that you have many different options to get your daily entertainment dose, it is a challenging task to decide where you should actually spend the money.

There is nothing better than free trials to access which streaming is right for you. Below are some popular paid streaming sites that offer free trails. (Most streaming services have a 30 days trial period).

• Amazon Prime Video
• Disney+
• HBO Max
• Hulu
• Youtube Premium
• Discovery + (7 days trial period)
• Fubo TV (7 days trial period)

Are torrents safe in 2022?

No, torrents are not safe at all. While torrents are a part of the “grey web” and are not inherently dangerous, they are usually illegal. It is often that the torrent files you have downloaded were there without the proper consent or permission of their owners which makes it illegal. So, if you’re distributing copyright content that belongs to someone else, you’re legally liable for prosecution by copyright laws. There is also a high risk of malware infection in computers through torrent downloads.

Torrents allow users to download the same file, be it audio, video, or a software program, from multiple computers at once. They are also known as peer-to-peer services. Before torrents were invented by Bram Cohen in 2001, the only way to download any file was through a centralized or a single server.