Are you looking for a website you can trust for HD movies, TV series, even animes? But you also don’t want to download illegal content? Sadly many sites online are not what you need because they offer illegal content. But don’t give up yet, we created a list of sites that you can watch movies online legally.
If you’re living in a country or an area where streaming isn’t a thing due to factors like region availability, data tariffs, low budget, and other reasons, you may want to settle for downloading some of your favorite movies or TV shows offline.
*Please note we do NOT encourage the viewing or downloading of illegal or pirated content without a paid subscription. We simply offer info on the topic.
Recommended read: These are the best websites to stream movies and download in 2019.
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What are sites that offer illegal movies?
Simply put, there are many websites online that offer movies and TV shows for users in exchange of a monthly subscription or simply by showing ads.
Like many other sites on the internet that want to provide their users with movies to watch, the main problem usually is the fact they are not legal. As we all know, pirated content offered online is a major issue with the big movie and music studios that try and fight it as hard as they can.
Since the early 2000 many sites and programs have popped up trying to profit from this niche as millions of people around the world want to get their hands on their favorite movie or song but don’t want to pay for it.
Whether you are on the site of the ones who agree with it or not, these sites do exist and the industry can’t ignore them. We have all read about major lawsuits and FBI crackdowns on pirate and torrent sites that operated freely for yers until the long arm of the law got them and took them down.
Today, we want to offer a list of sites that offer and provide you with legal options for your movie and TV shows needs.
Are these sites or similar streaming websites Legal?
Many such sites and other similar sites are usually not legal to use. Rather, these sites usually curates the titles and contents illegally and shares them with the audience. Simply put, these are sites that are not an official one from any publisher or film production company. In short, usually FREE movie sites and similar could be illegal in many ways in many countries.
Should You Use sites that offer free movies?
No! In our opinion, you should not use free sites because this doesn’t help the film industry or your favorite films to make any money. That way you are not supporting your favorite programs at all.
Another issue with using illegal sites to download movies or such content is that you might be breaking the laws of your location or country.
If that is the case, chances are you might get punished by the law. So, the smart move is to not use illegal sites if it is prohibited by the law of your country.
Also, as these sites provide free content to stream or download, they need to place ads on their websites. And, some of those ads might carry malware or harmful files for your device. All in all, the smartest thing would be to not use these types of illegal sites for your own good.
Best 5 LEGAL Alternatives to watch movies online
As you just heard that it is not wise to use free illegal or similar sites for many reasons. Now, what should you do in this instance? Lucky for you, there are a lot of sites that are legitimate and offer free movies to watch and download. And, for your convenience, we will share a list of these legal alternatives to watch in the next section.
#1 PopcornFlix
This is a great website for streaming and downloading movies and TV shows. You will get many public domain movies and indie films on this website. Interestingly, it is available both on mobile and computer. So, you can enjoy movies wherever you want to legally.
They have 3 main categories in their websites such as movies, TV shows, and viral videos. And, you can search for the videos and movies as well. You cannot use any ad-blocker while watching movies or shows on this website. They earn money by placing ads. So, if you want to support them, you should disable the ad-blocker for their website.
#2 iflix
Launched back in 2014, iflix has taken the world by storm. Nowadays, it is becoming one of the best options for watching and downloading the latest movies for free for many movie fanatics all over the world. Why? Because this entertainment streaming service offers everything on their site for free.
They not only have movies, but also TV series, documentaries, sports highlights, informative contents, and more. Another great feature of iflix is that they offer country/region-based contents. So, you will not only be able to enjoy foreign movies or shows, but you can also enjoy your own country’s programs for free.
At the moment, on the desktop version of iflix, you will be able to only stream or watch the shows. But, if you want to download the shows, then you will have to install their mobile app on your smartphone. From that app, you can easily download any movies, Animes, cartoons, TV shows, documentaries, sports highlights, and so forth for free and legally.
#3 Yidio
Your Internet Video aka Yidio is another popular legal yet free website to download and watch movies online. At the moment of writing this post, Yidio has over 1 million movies and TV series programs. Let that sink in for a moment! But not all of them are free.
If you want you can also rent or buy movies from them. However, we believe the free content will be more than enough for you. You can directly search for your favorite movie and see whether they have it on their collection or not.
Also, you can sort by polarity, time, IMDb rating, latest releases, Metascore, source, genre, MPAA rating, and more. So, it will be very easy to find your desired shows and movies on Yidio. You will like that they have many popular and latest shows and movies for free.
#4 Hotstar
Hotstar is one of the largest web streaming platforms in India. Due to the success of Hotstar, Disney has joined in with them. And, now, they are offering their service outside of India as well. We believe, Hotstar might increase its coverage all over the world in the future.
Hotstar has a huge collection of movies, TV shows, interviews, news, sports highlights, etc. They also broadcast live TV channels and live games all across India. On top of that, Hotstar also has a mobile app on both Android and iOS platforms.
#5 The Internet Archive
The Wayback Machine or the Internet Archive is another hidden gem when it comes to downloading free movies and TV shows. This website is known for archiving the old webpages of millions of websites. That means we can look back on how any particular website looked like in the past.
As a result, it is also called the Wayback Machine. Interestingly, the Internet Archive has a lot of full-length feature films for free. You can both watch and download the titles from there without any legal issues.
In Conclusion
Free movie sites might make it easy to watch movies and the latest TV shows online and also download them to your device without restrictions, but it does come with its drawbacks.
Sites like that are often made free, but the cost of running them isn’t so they tend to make ads display aggressively on their website in other to keep the platform open and accessible to everyone.
Now you could use an ad-blocker to bypass most of these ads, but then, keep in mind; it would mean they won’t be making enough money to keep rerunning the platform, especially for free.
So weigh-in the options, a couple of ads you could look at, or taking a means of revenue off. The choice is really up to you. We hope you’ve learned something on this post.
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