9 Free Netflix Alternative Services to Try in 2025
Tech for Life & Work
BY 17. June 2025 0 comments

9 Free Netflix Alternative Services to Try in 2025

The Download

  • You can watch free TV shows and movies on many apps, not just Netflix.
  • Some apps like Pluto TV and Tubi have lots of channels and shows without needing an account.
  • Other apps like Fandango at Home offer both free and paid shows, but some may have ads.

You don’t need a special streaming device to watch free TV shows and movies. These services offer mobile apps, allowing you to start a show on your smartphone or tablet and cast it to a smart TV.

These are our favorite free streaming apps that, like Netflix, are user-friendly, work on various devices, and offer a wide selection of entertainment.

What We Like

  • TV shows and movies in dozens of genres.

  • Easy to browse channels and movie listings.

  • Mobile apps cast to a smart TV.

If you like the traditional TV guide format for watching movies and shows, then you’ll love Pluto TV. It offers live and on-demand content.

You’ll find hundreds of live TV channels that broadcast news stations, comedy shows, sports events, music videos, top TV series, sitcoms, horror shows, indie flicks, and action movies.

Pluto TV also has a large selection of family-friendly programming. There’s a dedicated family section, episodes from the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and documentaries.

Pluto TV is often included with apps available on smart TVs and streaming devices. You can also watch it in a web browser on any computer.

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What We Don’t Like

  • Need a free Fandango at Home or Walmart account.

  • Some issues casting from mobile device to smart TV.

  • Commercials start in awkward places during a show.

Not everything on the Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu) is free. Most movies and TV shows are available for rent. However, its free section includes thousands of comedies, indie films, TV classics, anime, kids’ shows, and special collections.

Enjoy Fandango at Home on your favorite device. You can cast from Android, iOS, and Windows 11/10 devices to a smart TV. Use your Xbox or PlayStation console, or play on your Apple TV, Roku, or Chromecast streaming device.

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What We Like

  • Mobile apps cast to a smart TV.

  • Hundreds of TV and on demand channels.

  • Content changes frequently.

  • No user account needed.

Xumo Play provides a variety of TV channels similar to those on broadcast TV. The app opens with a list of over 300 live streaming channels, including food and travel shows, comedy channels, lifestyle stations, music shows, and more.

The list of on-demand movies and TV shows is long—there are over 15,000 titles available. The best way to find a show is to browse the dozens of genres and collections, but the search function could be better and doesn’t return results for very many movies.

Xumo Play works everywhere: computers, smart TVs, streaming devices, and mobile devices.

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What We Like

  • Use the queue to play shows one after another.

  • Watch shows on the FilmRise YouTube channel.

  • Mobile apps cast to a smart TV.

What We Don’t Like

  • Can’t access or change the queue.

  • The search returns more results for TV shows than for movies.

  • Can’t read show description when another show is playing.

FilmRise offers over 10,000 hours of TV and movie content, including popular TV series, reality shows, and classic TV shows. It also features comedy series from the 1990s, true crime stories, and cartoons.

The FilmRise library includes many award-winning movies, such as action and horror films, cooking shows, kids’ TV shows, and documentaries. It also features live concerts and classic albums.

If you’ve spent too much time indoors and want to escape to the outdoors without leaving the couch, check out the nature and outdoor life collections or the international film genres. You can watch FilmRise on streaming devices, mobile devices, and YouTube.

You can stream FilmRise from a TV, computer, phone, or tablet.

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Many broadcast TV networks offer free streaming, but NBC stands out. In addition to current episodes of its lineup, NBC features recent movies not available on other services.

NBC also streams the current season of all its shows, selected past seasons of some shows, and all episodes in all seasons of selected throwback shows. Some shows are free to watch. Other shows are locked and require an NBC account or a TV provider.

The NBC app supports a variety of platforms. Use the app on a mobile device, gaming console, smart TV, or streaming device.

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What We Don’t Like

  • Closed captioning text may be too small for some.

  • Need an account to set up shows to binge-watch.

  • Movies sometimes magically rewind a few seconds.

features thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows. Like most free streaming services, Tubi doesn’t include the latest major box office releases.

However, you will find intriguing titles, and Tubi’s search function is excellent. Enter a few characters or a random word, and you’ll receive a diverse list of interesting and unfamiliar titles.

You’ll find Tubi on the popular Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox, Playstation, and Chromecast devices. It’s also available for TiVO, Android TV, Xfinity, and Cox Contour.

If you have a smart TV from Samsung, Sony, or Vizio, the Tubi app is installed on the TV. There are also mobile and tablet apps for Android and iOS, and you can watch Tubi in a web browser.

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If you enjoy crime stories and biographies, A&E is worth exploring. Setting up a free account with A&E also gets you access to their History, Lifetime, Vice TV, FYI, and Biography channels.

Watch A&E on iOS and Android devices, Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and Samsung TV.

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What We Like

  • Links to social media account for all CW shows.

  • Don’t need a subscription or cable account.

  • Get push notifications when shows are available.

What We Don’t Like

  • Subtitles may not work correctly.

  • Can’t fast forward or rewind shows.

  • Can only watch the last few episodes of some shows.

The CW offers free streaming of the current seasons in its lineup. If you miss an episode on broadcast TV, you can stream it the next day.

The CW is available for Roku, Chromecast, Android TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire.

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Many people have a collection of streaming apps on their devices. Instead of browsing through each app individually to find something to watch, use Yidio to search for a movie or show.

Yidio shows which titles are playing in which streaming app and makes it easy to start watching the video moments later.

You can easily filter by free content to only find the ad-supported movies and shows, and lots of other filters are available—like genre, IMDb rating, decade, and network—to narrow down the huge list of results to see only what you’re interested in.

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