6 free streaming apps that are 100% legal and surprisingly underrated

Published Jul 29, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT After a 7-year corporate stint, Tanveer found his love for writing and tech too much to resist. An MBA in Marketing and the owner of a PC building business, he writes on PC hardware, technology, and Windows. When not scouring the web for ideas, he can be found building PCs, watching anime, or playing Smash Karts on his RTX 3080 (sigh). Sign in to your XDA account The enshittification of streaming is almost complete. Being forced to pay for individual titles even after paying the subscription fee takes all the fun out of your evening. And then you have to watch non-skippable ads on a paid subscription. Fragmented content libraries and rapidly rising subscription fees are forcing people to look for alternatives. While hosting your local media library helps, deleting all your subscriptions isn't realistic. That said, when you want a break from the poor experience, there are more than a few free streaming apps you can turn to. These apps are completely legal, host new and old titles, and some of them are even ad-free. These free and legal streaming apps offer thousands of movies, TV shows, anime titles, music releases, podcasts, and documentaries to enjoy. Pluto TV Missing the old days of cable TV? Credit: Pluto TV Starting simple, Pluto TV is one of the better-known streaming apps with a healthy on-demand library and live channels. You can simply tune in to the live-style channels if you want to be surprised, or check out the library of movies and TV shows instead. I prefer Pluto TV over the likes of Xumo Play due to its larger library. Both are ad-supported, so you have to prepare yourself for a lot of breaks during your stream. Pluto TV supports almost every platform, including Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, smartphones, and browsers. This makes it easier to sync across devices if you choose to create an account. Pluto is primarily available in North America, Central and Latin America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, but you can use a VPN if you reside outside these regions. I turn to Pluto TV when I don't have any specific title in mind, and I'm mentally free enough to sit through the live channels, waiting for something to catch my fancy. The on-demand catalog is decent, and you'll find many Paramount-owned titles, although new content is limited. I would have mentioned Tubi, too, but it's not exactly underrated. Pluto TV Filmzie For the indie aficionados You may not have heard of Filmzie, but it offers a unique library of independent films from small studios and creators. It's free and ad-supported, but has fewer ads than alternatives like Fawesome. The focus is indie movies, but you can find the occasional large-studio production. I suggest using Filmzie as a companion app to Tubi when you can't get your indie fix. It supports Android, iOS, Android TV, Fire TV, iPhone, iPad, and other smart TV platforms. Filmzie uses ad revenue to support indie filmmakers, and there are no "premium" titles — everything is 100% free. The app is accessible in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia and Africa. Filmzie RetroCrush For old-school anime you missed out on RetroCrush can be your go-to app for retro anime titles and hidden gems that you struggle to find elsewhere. You'll find both old anime series and movies here to satisfy your otaku itch. You might find the number of free titles a little sparse, though, since many series and movies are locked behind a paid tier. Still, it's worth checking out. It's available on Android, iOS, Google TV, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and some other smart TV platforms. Availability is primarily in the US and Canada, so there's a chance you might not find it in your region. RetroCrush Eye Yay Polished Internet Archive streaming for the Apple ecosystem No one thinks about the Internet Archive when they think of streaming, but it's home to tens of thousands of public-domain movies and shows, plus historic newsreels, documentaries, speeches, radio dramas, public podcasts, and music recordings. It's a treasure trove of classic public-domain content, and Eye Yay brings the entire experience to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. You no longer need to manually download files from the Internet Archive. Since it pulls from the Internet Archive, you won't find new titles here, but the library is deep, and the Eye Yay interface is slick and uncluttered. There are no ads, unplayable files are omitted, and you can save your viewing progress across the Apple ecosystem. The app takes a while to populate the library as you search the various collections focused on movies, classic TV, anime, VHS content, and the Prelinger Archives. Eye Yay is available in the US, Canada, the Middle East, India, and Africa Archive Watch Internet Archive for the Android crowd Eye Yay is great, but it's made for Apple devices. For Android users, Archive Watch achieves the same thing in a slightly different way. It also sources content from the Internet Archive, so you'll find feature films, silent films, classic TV series, animated films, commercial films, newsreels, and more. Archive Watch is curated for movies and TV shows, so you won't find music or other content here. Another feature that differentiates Archive Watch from Eye Yay is the live channel interface. It provides you with a live TV experience, where you can scroll through curated channels instead of spending time picking a specific title. It's available globally in most regions, but specific titles might not be available everywhere. Archive Watch The Archive TV Niche horror and rare 4K restored titles The Archive TV (not to be confused with Archive TV) might sound like yet another Internet Archive front-end, but it's actually a commercial app by the Multicom Group. The app provides access to the group's vast library of rare and restored movies, TV shows, and niche horror titles in addition to the public domain library. While most titles are free to view with ads, there's also a paid tier that removes ads and makes the full archive available, along with 4K resolution formats. The Archive TV is available on Google TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, and most other platforms. The library is primarily available to US and Canadian viewers and is highly restricted in most other regions. There is plenty of free content to stream without resorting to piracy It can be tempting to pirate movies, shows, and other content, but free and legal streaming apps can prevent you from going down that road. Sure, the library will be different and older, but you can discover classics, hidden gems, new favorites, and must-watch historical content on these apps. Nearly all of them have modern interfaces and features, making your viewing experience all the more rewarding.