5 Best Free Streaming Services That Can Replace Your Netflix Subscription

For far too many people in this country, ’tis the season for belt-tightening. From rampant layoffs to rising inflation, people are having to make some tough choices over the 2025 holidays. One area where consumers are likely to cut back is streaming subscriptions. With choices like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV, Paramount+, Peacock, and The Criterion Channel, Americans currently spend a not-nice $69 per month on streaming services. For those of us who are ad-free or bust, that number is much higher. And now with the looming Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (or is that the hostile takeover of WBD by Paramount Global?), there’s reason to fret that, when these services get yoked together, those prices will skyrocket.

It’ll likely take a year and change for all of this to shake out, but in the short term, people who can’t fit a current Premium Netflix subscription ($25 per month) into their budget and find it obscene to pay to watch ads on one of the lower tiers, there are many fine free streaming options out there. Yes, these are mostly ad-supported services, but they’re loaded with terrific, sometimes hard-to-find titles. Picture quality, as ever, depends on the digital print that’s been licensed by the studio, network, or production company, but more often than not, their offerings look every bit as good as what you’ll pay to watch on Netflix.

What are the best free streaming services? Here are five of the best out there.

You can’t go wrong with a streaming service packed with over 275,000 titles, and you won’t find a more easily navigable website. And if you want to start watching, all you’ve got to do is head over to its front page, click on a movie and start watching without creating an account. If, however, you’re keen on becoming a frequent user of Tubi, I’d recommend signing up, if only so you can build a viewing queue and, most importantly, keep your place if you navigate away from the site. Tubi also boasts original programming, which includes its teen-skewing “Sidelined” series of movies. And, oh yeah, they’ve got hundreds of classic Looney Tunes cartoons (since WB, under David Zaslav, treats their animation crown jewel like dirt).

In terms of print quality, some of the films on Tubi have not been carefully looked over by their studios. So, yes, they’ve got William Friedkin’s interesting failure of a military satire “Deal of the Century” (starring Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines, and Sigourney Weaver), but the print is kinda beat up — which, let’s face it, is how this 1980s relic should look.

Pluto, like Tubi, is free to use without an account, but with its hundreds of live channels, all of which are viewable through the device of your choice, it’s more about the live television experience. It boasts channels dedicated to the “Law & Order” franchise, classic sitcoms, numerous “Star Trek” series, and other fan favorites. You can just switch on, say, the Pluto Comedy channel, and hop midstream into “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” while you laze around on the couch during a rainy Sunday. The ad breaks aren’t aggressive. Just note that Pluto doesn’t allow offline viewing options.

Pluto’s on demand library is much smaller than Tubi’s, but if you’re in the mood for a James Bond movie, this site’s got you covered. They’ve also got a host of classic television series like “I Love Lucy,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Gunsmoke, “Matlock,” and, of course, “Hogan’s Heroes.”

You used to need a Roku player to take advantage of the service’s library of channels and on-demand movies and television, but now you can access its offerings, sans account, via The Roku Channel on its website. The service offers over 500 live channels for free, and the usual assortment of movie and television library titles. They’ve also an assortment of original programming that includes “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” “Honest Reservations,” and the pro wrestling docuseries “WWE: Next Gen.”

If you do opt to open an account, you will, as with the aforementioned sites, be able to tailor your Roku experience to your liking. You just can’t watch it offline, nor can you access it on, say, Apple TV. Some of its featured movie titles at the moment include “The Departed,” “The Rock,” and such Christmas classics as “Die Hard” and “Jingle All the Way.”

Hoopla is a much more expansive service that offers movies, music, TV shows, audiobooks, eBooks, comics, and manga, and to access it for free, all you need is a library card (provided your local library participates). You get a limited number of downloads per month, but it’s awfully handy if you’re a voracious reader living on a tight budget. The only major problem with Hoopla, and it’s a huge one, is that libraries have no control over what books get added to Hoopla’s digital libraries. This means, you guessed it, Hoopla is awash in AI slop.

This isn’t a problem with movies and TV just yet (they’ve got a decent collection that includes most of the “Mission: Impossible” movies and all three of “The Godfather” films), but you can see the potential for abuse. It’s for this reason that I do not recommend Hoopla. Fret not, there’s a better option.

For discerning cinephiles who can’t swing a Criterion Channel subscription, Kanopy is a godsend. The streaming service is free to use with a library card, and it has a wide variety of classic movies, many of which come and go on Criterion’s service (e.g. “The Third Man,” “The Graduate,” and “Punch-Drunk Love”). And here’s the kicker: It’s all ad free!

If you’re in the mood for a Jason Statham actioner or a series binge of “Below Deck,” Kanopy may not be for you, but their carefully curated list of titles is movie heaven. They’ve got just about every single one of Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries (including masterpieces like “Titicut Follies,” “Essene,” and “Welfare”) available to stream, as well as recent critical favorites like “Anora,” “Perfect Days,” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” As for television, Kanopy goes heavy on British classics like “The Prisoner,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” and the original “The Office.” Hit up Kanopy’s search engine if you’re in the mood for a lesser-known noir or screwball comedy, and they might just have it!