20 Movie Download Sites For Free And Legal Streaming In 2021
Watching movies is the perfect way to grab some quic and convenient entertainment for many people. As nothing good comes for free, a cinephile is always looking for amazing sites to download free movies. In this article, we’re here to caution you against the illegal movie download sources and introduce you to some free movie download websites that you can use to entertain yourself legally.
There are many legal sources that provide free movies and TV shows; you can check out our list of sites for free and legal music and free sports streaming as well.
How to download free movies?
To download the movies from free websites, you need to access them using your desktop or mobile web browser. Different websites have different download options: some provide direct download links and some offer torrent links as well. For torrent links, you will need to install a separate BitTorrent client as well.
Free Movie Download Websites – Legal Streaming
1. YouTube
While YouTube remains the biggest souce of online video on the web, it has slowly been investing more in original programming and exploring new revenue streams. You can rent most of the new movies on YouTube. However, you’ll be surprised to know that the website offers more than 350 feature films for free streaming.
Please note that it’s different from YouTube TV, which is a live TV streaming service. It’s also mentioned on our latest list of best movie streaming sites. This makes YouTube a perfectly free movie website for those who can’t afford to spend a premium for accessing Netflix and Hulu content.
What we like about YouTube:
- More than 350 movies for streaming
- Reliability of YouTube’s interface
- Cross-device functionality
What we didn’t like about YouTube:
- No latest movies for free
Availability: USA
- Zookeeper
- Legally Blonde
- The Terminator
- Flawless
- Kung Fu Killer
- IP Man
2. The Internet Archive
With a mission of “universal access to all knowledge,” The Internet Archive acts like saviour in many cases – it lets you access blocked sites, open offline websites, and see how a website has evolved over the years. But where does it fit in our list of website to download or stream free content?
About 4-5 years ago, The Internet Archive just provided direct links and often the movie downloads failed as the file sizes were large. Thanks to the torrent links, now you can easily enjoy and download hundreds of movies without spending a penny. The overall catalog found on this website is continuously growing and new content is added every day.
This free movie download site also allows creating a free virtual library card which grants you access to forums, the ability to upload videos, bookmark favorite content, etc.
What we like about The Internet Archive:
- Vast directory of movies to download across multiple genres
- Movie downloads available all across the world
- Torrent download option on some movies
What we didn’t like about The Internet Archive:
- Only classic movies are available
- No direct link to download
Availability: Everywhere
Some notable titles:
- The original Jungle Book
- Farewell to Arms
- Iron Mask
- Night of the Living Dead
- The Brother from Another Planet
3. Watch TCM
A popular way to watch free movies and TV in the US is with the help of a cable subscription. There are many movie studies and streaming players who have collaborated with cable networks to offer access to an amazing collection of movies on the web.
Out of all such free offerings, Turner Classic Movies’ TCM features the best collection of movies. Called Watch TCM, this service lets you watch an unlimited number of free movies with either a cable or satellite package.
What makes TCM even better is the availability of dedicated apps for Android, iOS, Apple TV, etc. The service also contains articles, information about artists, short movies, and lists of movie recommendations.
What we like about Watch TCM?
- Can be coupled with cable TV subscription
- Watch classics across different platforms
What we didn’t like about Watch TCM:
- Only available in the USA
- You need to select your TV service provider before watching movies on Watch TCM
Availability: USA
Free on Watch movies on TCM:
- Gone With The Wind
- Westworld
- Casablanca
4. Hotstar
Having talked about the American viewers and the availability of free movies for them in the YouTube section, let’s talk about Indian/Hindi content.
Even though paid services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are focusing more and more on Indian audiences, Hotstar remains a good source of free streaming and movie download for offline streaming. Hotstar also hosts exclusive movie premiers for Indian movies on its platform but you need to be a paying customer of Hotstar.
The interface of the service is pretty neat and there’s a well-designed app as well. Moreover, Hotstar is also great for watching Indian TV shows, sports, and news for free.
What we like about Hotstar?
- Best source of free entertainment for Indian viewers
- Affordable premium subscription for movie downloads
What we didn’t like about Hotstar:
- Only available in India
- More Indian regional content
Availability: India (free), USA (Paid)
Some free movie titles:
- Dil Bechara
- Super 30
- Houseful
- Raid
- Kaabil
- Jolly LLB
- Bodyguard
5. The Korean Film Archive
With the recent influx of amazing movies like Parasite, Minari, Burning, and The Handmaiden, American movie watchers are now exposed to a plethora of excellent content.
The Korean Film Archive on YouTube is a hidden gem that cinephiles looking for movie downloads will surely appreciate. Named Korean Classic Film, this official channel contains more than 200 classic Korean movies right from the 1930s onwards. With the increasing popularity of Korean cinema in the West, this channel is the perfect way to explore the classic works of South Korean Cinema.
All the movies come with English subtitles, so you don’t have to worry about the language barrier. If you love cinema, go ahead and give these free movies a try — you won’t be disappointed.
What we like about The Korean Film Archive?
- Best source of free movies for Korean cinephiles
- Availability of English subtitles
What we didn’t like about The Korean Film Archive:
- Only South Korean movies are available
- Limited number of movies
Availability: Everywhere
Some free movie titles:
- The Day A Pig Fell Into The Well
- Aimless Bullet
- A Dwarf Launches A Little Ball
- Sopyonje
6. Le CiNéMa Club
Earlier this year, the highly-curated Indie film streaming site Le CiNéMa Club was relaunched with a redesigned interface. First launched in 2015, the website aims to promote new talent and provide exposure to rare gems that don’t get the attention they deserve.
The website is known to stream one new film each week and is open to contributions from filmmakers. While most of the content you’ll find on the site is of short-film nature, the website is open to features of any length. The site has notably streamed Claire Denis’ ultra-rare “Keep It for Yourself” in the past. At the time of writing this article, the website is streaming Diddly Squat by Frank Lebon.
Availability: Everywhere
What we like about Le CiNéMa Club?
- One new and curated movie every week
- Diverse and original movies
What we didn’t like about Le CiNéMa Club:
- Only one movie is available per week
- You won’t find popular movies here
7. Crackle
Crackle is a great website for free movies online as it’s owned by Sony. So, naturally, you get lots of movies to watch. You need to signup, create a watchlist and you’ll be shown recommendations based on your priorities.
Crackle offers lots of popular movies and TV shows that you won’t find for free on other websites. As long as you are willing to watch a couple of ads and commercials. Some of its great offerings include Seinfeld, Firefly, Sports Jeopardy, and more. Crackle has Android and iOS apps as well, which is an obvious plus point.
Some of the content on Crackle could be blocked in your country due to license restrictions. You can access them using a VPN or proxy service.
What we like about Crackle?
- More than 100 fully legal movies for free streaming
- Handy subtitle settings for easy viewing
What we didn’t like about Crackle:
- Geo-restricted content
- In-movie advertisements
Availability: USA
Free movies on Crackle:
- Predestination
- Train to Busan
- I Am Not Your Negro
- Oldboy
8. Pluto TV
Pluto TV tries to mimic a traditional TV layout and it’s one of my favorite services on this list. This service to watch free movies online offers 75+ TV channels from different categories. All these channels are divided into news, TV, movies, tech, sports, and other popular sections.
Pluto TV also offers its official application for almost all popular platforms and you can enjoy the content on the go. They also have their own dedicated movie channel.
One thing you should note is that some channels will only be available if you’re in the US. So, you can either use a VPN service or a proxy for an uninterrupted experience.
What we like about Pluto TV?
- Traditional TV-like interface
- Wordwide, cross-platform availability
What we didn’t like about Pluto TV:
- No latest movies
- Frequent advertisements and commercials
Availability: Worldwide (More content in the US)
9. A24 Movies on Kanopy
When we talk about hidden movie streaming gems, we can’t miss Kanopy. By partnering with libraries and universities all across the world, Kanopy has managed to deliver a unique collection of content for free. Just last year, Kanopy announced its partnership with Oscar-winning movie studio A24.
What we like about Kanopy?
- Tons of award-winning and independent movies
- Unique streaming model (library card supported)
What we didn’t like about Kanopy:
- Limitations on number of movies you can stream per month
Availability: Everywhere
Free movies on Kanopy:
- Lady Bird
- Good Time
- Room
- The Lobster
- The Florida Project
- Moonlight
- First Reformed
10. Open Culture
Open Culture offers high-quality videos from all across the world. It’s home to free movies, free online courses, and free language lessons. Founded in 2006, it has 6 main sections: Movies, Online courses, Language lessons, e-Books, Textbooks, Audiobooks.
Movies section consists of an excellent collection. Currently, it hosts 1,150 free movies online that include a special collection of Oscar-Winning Movies and Charlie Chaplin movies.
What we like about OpenCulture?
- Special award-winning collection of Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin movies
- Online courses, podcasts, ebooks, and audio books
What we didn’t like about OpenCulture:
- No latest movies
Availability: Everywhere
11. MoviesFoundOnline
This website curates free movies, independent films, TV shows, and stand-up comedy video. The website hosts free movies ranging from cult classics and short films to documentaries and comedy movies.
This website curates lots of public domain movies and serves them to you. As MoviesFoundOnline doesn’t host or upload any media on its own, it works actively to delete the movies if there’s some copyright infringement.
What we like about MoviesFoundOnline?
- Night mode feature for comfortable browsing
- Also features short films, documentaries, animations, and TV shows
What we didn’t like about MoviesFoundOnline:
- Intrusive advertisements on website
Availability: Everywhere
12. NoBudge
If I call NoBudge a one-person project, I won’t be wrong. Founded by indie filmmaker and actor Kentucker Audley, this website is dedicated to independent short and feature films. Most of the movies on NoBudge haven’t been much seen or reviewed by the critics, so you’ll have to stream them without any assistance of any kind. However, since each money is personally selected by Audley, the chances of stumbling on a bad movie are slim.
What we like about NoBudge?
- One fresh, hand-picked film every day with director’s interview
- 60% profit goes to independent filmmakers
What we didn’t like about NoBudge:
- No latest movies
- Frequent advertisements and commercials
Availability: Everywhere
13. PopcornFlix
This free movie streaming website is owned by Screen Media Ventures. The website offers lots of public domain movies and original content. You can use this website to view content on any type of device without spending a single penny.
The website hosts thousands of free movies spread across multiple categories like drama, action, comedy, horror, etc. Here, you’ll also get many free TV shows and full National Geographic series catalog.
What we like about PopcornFlix?
- Dedicated PopcornFlix kids app
- Unique feature to add comments to movie sections and create GIFs
What we didn’t like about PopcornFlix:
- No latest movies
- Geo-restricted content
Availability: USA
14. Hulu
Subscription-based streaming website Hulu is also here at your service even if you choose to opt for the trial account for 30 days. Additionally, you can opt for Spotify Premium Student with Showtime and Hulu for just $4.99/month. This way you get all three services for an unbeatable price. Apart from the movies, you can also spend some hours watching lots of free TV episodes. Hulu too has apps for Android and iOS. Again, Hulu isn’t available in all countries around the world. So, the usage of a VPN or proxy is required.
What we like about Hulu?
- Spotify’s eligible student plan lasts for up to 4 years
- Excellent cross-platform functionality
What we didn’t like about Hulu:
- Premium account required for downloading movies offline
- Frequent advertisements and commercials
Availability: USA
15. Vimeo
Just like YouTube, Vimeo also has a good collection of free movies. It goes without saying that the site offers a clean layout that makes it a great place for movie lovers who wish to enjoy free independent movies online and documentaries. There are lots of short movies available for your entertainment. You might not be knowing but Vimeo also offers an On-Demand content section where you can pay for TV shows and movies.
What we like about Vimeo?
- Just like YouTube, tons of free movies to watch
- On-demand section for further viewing and download
What we didn’t like about Vimeo:
- No latest movies
- More user-uploaded content
Availability: Everywhere
16. IMDb TV
The latest addition to this list of movie streaming sites in IMDb Freedive. As IMDb is owned by Amazon, this service has been made available for free to all owners of Fire TV in the United States. The initial collection of free movies and TV shows is pretty impressive and the owners of the service have promised to add more content from time to time.
Users can also use Alexa to launch Freedive online streaming. To do so, one simply needs to say “Alexa, go to Freedive.”
What we like about IMDb TV?
- Fully free, ad-supported service with cross-platform availability
- Advanced Title Search to find what you’re looking for
What we didn’t like about IMDB TV:
- Only available on FireTV
- Website’s UI feels buggy
Availability: USA
Some free movies:
- Midnight in Paris
- The Illusionist
- Memento
- Born This Way
- Quantum Leap
17. Yidio
Many of you might not be knowing that Yidio movie site’s full name is Your Internet Video. If I talk about the complete library of content available on Yidio, this online video guide contains more than 1 million TV shows and movies. The users can sign up on the website and add movies to the watchlist section for later viewing. This feature is very useful for maintaining your collection of favorite movies.
Moving on to the free part, you can choose the free filter at the top and categorize all the content at one place. At the right, there are options to sort content by popularity, date, and genre. Moreover, you also get the option to sort the free movies by R, PG-13, PG, G, NR, and NC-17 rating.
What we like about Yidio?
- Unique platform that gathers content from Amazon. Crackle, Hulu, Netflix, etc.
- Yidio, short for Your Internet Video, is more of an online video guide with free and paid content all at one place
What we didn’t like about Yidio:
- The search feature of Yidio is broken as it still shows paid movies under free section
- No option for subtitles
Availability: Everywhere
18. Legal Torrent Sites
There are tons of legal torrent websites out there that only share content that’s in the public domain. You can visit these safe torrent sites to download movies and watch them offline at your convenience.
Availability: Everywhere
19. Yify Movies
If you are a fan of torrenting, you must have heard about Yify or YTS. Yify Movies is the official website of YTS. It offers a large collection of free movies that you can watch in excellent quality. The website features classic movies as well as some latest movies for you to watch for free. The search functionality of Yify Movies allows you to search according to different parameters such as quality, genre, rating, year, and language. At the time of writing this article, Yify Movies features 32,592 movies that you can download for free. However, movies are available as torrents here and not as MP4 files.
What we like about Yify Movies?
- A large collection of free to watch movies
- Excellent search functionality
What we didn’t like about Yify Movies:
- Intrusive ads might be a deal breaker for some
Availability: Everywhere
20. Ant Movies
Ant Movies is a fairly new website that has emerged to offer an opportunity to watch free movies online. Not only you can watch free movies online, but you can also download movies to watch them offline later. Ant Movies offers a decent collection of movies from Hollywood. What makes this one of the best sites to watch free movies is its user interface. The website has been neatly designed and the movies have been segregated into different sections namely “Featured”, “Top Viewed Today”, “Most Favourite”, “Top Rating”, “Top IMDB”.
What we like about Ant Movies?
- A large collection of free to watch movies
- Excellent categorization
What we didn’t like about Ant Movies:
- Only available in the US
Availability: US
As linked earlier in the article, you can also visit our list of best apps for streaming free movies we all.
Tip: Most of these websites don’t provide subtitle download functionality, which could be a major downside for many viewers. If that’s the case, you can head over to our list of best subtitle websites and download subtitles. You can also use VLC media player’s VLSub extension to automatically load subtitles of your choice.
Free Movie Download: Our Recommendation
So now that you have the list of 20 best sites to download movies, you have your work cut out. However, if you as which is the best site amongst the mentioned sites, we would say that it depends upon the type of movies you want to watch. For classics, we recommend Watch TCM and Crackle, for Indie movies, you can check out Kanopy and Open Culture. Similarly, if you want to download latest movies, we recommend Yify movies and Ant Movies.
Free Movie Download FAQs:
There isn’t a particular test that you can perform to confirm that the site from which you’re downloading is providing legal movies. However, we’ve tested and made sure that all the sources in our list are 100% legal. Additionally, you can see if the free site is providing newly released movies and trying to earn money via tons of advertisements and VPN recommendations — these are some of the red flags for an illegal source.
If you’re sure that you’re using a legal website to download movies, you don’t need a VPN or proxy to hide your online activity.
If you have a paid Netflix subscription, you can go ahead and download content on your Android or iOS smartphone. For Windows, you need to download the official Netflix app. However, there’s no app available for watching/downloading Netflix on Mac.
You can download free movies from several websites such as Pluto Tv, Crackle, Yify Movies, Open Culture, and more. For the complete list, refer to the article above.
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