FlixHQ alternatives: legal free movie apps in the US

You searched FlixHQ for a free movie and want the same thing, legally. A free movie app is a streaming service that charges nothing to watch, because ads or your library pay the license fees. Each of the FlixHQ alternatives below names the company that runs it.

First come the two ways free is paid for, then five apps free with ads and two you sign in to with your library card. After the seven side by side: how to tell a licensed app from a copycat, why FlixHQ isn't on this list and which app to install first.

Two ways free is paid for: ads or a library card

Five of these seven sell ad breaks. Kanopy and Hoopla run on your library card instead.

Ad-supported apps stop for commercial breaks during the movie. Tubi's corporate page calls Tubi an AVOD service, short for advertising video on demand. Its App Store listing promises "way fewer ads than cable," which still means breaks. Plex's FAQ names the money behind every break: "ad revenue is how the studios and distributors get paid." With library apps, your card replaces the ads. Kanopy's App Store listing says you can stream films "for free without ads through your library", and Hoopla's listing says "No ads." In exchange, your library sets a monthly limit on plays or borrows.

Five apps that are free with ads

So if commercials don't bother you, start here. All five stream at no charge, even the two inside apps that sell paid extras.

Tubi

Tubi's corporate site calls it "a free streaming service" and says Tubi is part of Tubi Media Group, a division of Fox Corporation. Fox's own Tubi Media Group page lists Tubi among its streaming businesses. The Tubi App Store listing goes further: "We'll never ask for your credit card, ever." Tubi's corporate page also says it's available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the UK and Australia, and "can be accessed on over 30 devices."

Pluto TV

Pluto TV mixes live channels with an on-demand library. A company news post on the Pluto TV redesign says "Pluto TV will continue to offer an expansive free streaming experience." The Pluto TV App Store listing, sold by Pluto, Inc., says you can "Flip to free live TV anytime with hundreds of channels." That redesign post also says the new guide lets you favorite channels and browse programming more than 24 hours in advance.

The Roku Channel

No Roku player is needed for this one. Roku's help page on getting The Roku Channel says you can stream "on TheRokuChannel.com or on the Roku mobile app." It lists 500+ live channels plus free TV shows and movies. Where you live matters here. Roku's page says it runs "in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on Roku streaming devices, web, and mobile." Mexico gets Roku devices only. Paid Premium Subscriptions sit beside the free titles, so read the label before you press play. Roku's support home files the free part under "Free movies online & on The Roku Channel."

Plex

Plex runs a free movie service beside its tools for your own media. Its watch-free page says "Stream 50K+ titles on demand," and its App Store listing says "over 50,000 free movies and shows." The catch is ads. The Plex free movies FAQ says a paid Plex Pass "will not remove ads or reduce their frequency." It also says "Plex users from almost every country are able to access free, ad-supported content."

Prime Video's free row (formerly Freevee)

Freevee was Amazon's free movie app, and its old address still works. When we opened amazon.com/freevee on October 30, 2026, it sent us to a Prime Video page titled "Watch Freevee on Prime Video." The page address marks it as Amazon's free-with-ads storefront. Amazon's advertising guide to free streaming TV explains why. It says Freevee was deprecated in early 2025 and its free TV, movies and FAST channels "were subsumed within Prime Video." Those titles "are still available to watch for free with ads, no Prime subscription needed." The guide counts "750+ premium FAST Channels within the Live TV tab" and calls these viewers "100% signed-in audiences," so expect to use an Amazon account.

Two apps you sign in to with your library card

But if ads are what you hated about FlixHQ, the library route skips them. Both apps ask for your card number, often with a PIN, before you can stream.

Kanopy

Kanopy's getting-started page says you "enter your library card information and create a Kanopy account on the Kanopy website or in mobile app." Plays cost tickets. The tickets page says "Each month, you receive a set number of tickets from your library," and unused ones don't roll over. Kids' titles are the exception, since "Kanopy Kids videos never use tickets." Two more details save you a support call. Kanopy's PIN page says "Both a library card number and PIN or password are required to access a library in Kanopy." And if you hold cards from two libraries, Kanopy's add-a-library page says "You can add one card per library to your Kanopy account," each with its own tickets.

Hoopla

Hoopla's App Store listing, sold by Midwest Tape LLC, puts it in six words: "Sign in with your library card." Its free movies article adds "No waitlists, no commercials, no cost," and the listing says you can stream or download to enjoy later on iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. Your library sets the limits, not Hoopla. The error messages page shows what you'll see when you hit yours: "You have reached your monthly lending limit." A second, library-wide daily cap also exists, and Hoopla's daily borrow limit page says it "will reset at midnight." Returning a movie early won't help either, because Hoopla says "Returning a title does not increase your borrow limit for the current month."

Getting an eCard online

Don't have a card yet? Hoopla's library card guide says most public libraries offer an online card, sometimes called an eCard, that you can apply for at home instead of at a branch. You fill in a short form on your library's website with your name, address, date of birth and email, and many libraries also ask for proof of residence. Then, the guide says, "you'll receive a library card number and a PIN, often by email or right on the confirmation screen." It puts the whole process at "usually takes less than 10 minutes."

The seven side by side

Offline viewing splits these seven most. Hoopla lets you download borrowed titles, Plex says its free titles can't be downloaded at all, and the official pages of the other five don't say either way. The table also gives each app's sign-in rule and App Store seller.

"Not stated" means the official pages didn't mention it. Two rows need care: Apple's US search showed no app named The Roku Channel, so Roku points you to its own mobile app, and Freevee now sits inside Prime Video.

How can you tell a licensed movie app from a copycat?

That seller column is your first check, and Apple's App Review Guidelines back it up by barring "copycat representations, names, or metadata" in an app or developer name. Google Play's intellectual property policy says "We also don't allow apps that encourage or induce infringement of intellectual property rights." Rules don't catch every listing, so run these four checks yourself:

1. The seller matches the company on the service's own site, such as Tubi, Inc for Tubi.
2. The service's own help page names the app, as Roku's page names the Roku mobile app.
3. The listing says how it is paid for: ads, a library card or a priced plan.
4. It never claims to carry every new theater release for free.

Failed the first check? Close the listing and search the company's own website for its download link instead.

Don't trust the price label. Every app in our test showed "Free" in Apple's data, including Prime Video, which sells subscriptions inside the same app. Names mislead too: one result for "hoopla" was an app called just "Hoopla" from a seller other than Midwest Tape LLC. Most same-name apps in our test were TV remotes or Plex players, so a shared name alone doesn't make an app bad.

What we tested

On October 30, 2026, we saved Apple's public US catalog search for each name, up to 25 results. A local script ranked the expected seller, counted other sellers' apps using the brand word, and matched 46 official quotes word for word. All 46 matched.

Each official seller was result 1 for its own name. Other sellers used the brand word for Roku (7 of 23 results), Plex (8 of 25) and Hoopla (4 of 22). Tubi, Pluto TV and Kanopy had none. No app named The Roku Channel came up.

Why sites like FlixHQ are not on this list

Unlike the seven above, we could not confirm who runs FlixHQ or what rights it holds. So we didn't visit it, and we don't link to it.

The FTC's alert on illegal streaming apps warns that "websites offering free movies and TV shows can infect your computer with malware." Its advice is short: "If you want to avoid downloading malware when you stream video, don't watch pirated content." The FTC's malware guide adds: "Don't use unfamiliar websites to download free stuff like music, movies, shows, or games." Converter sites raise the same problem, which our MP4Juice safety guide covers. If you came for one genre, we have separate guides to Tamil movies in the US, free anime streaming and K-dramas when kisskh is down.

Which app to install first

Our take: install Tubi or Pluto TV tonight. Both are free with ads, and Tubi says it will never ask for your credit card. Then add your library card to Kanopy or Hoopla this week, so you have an ad-free option on nights when commercial breaks would spoil the film.

Your TV changes the order a little. If it runs Roku, Roku's own help page covers adding The Roku Channel to any Roku streaming device. If not, our guide to OTT boxes and smart TVs explains the options, and the YouTube TV activation guide shows a big-screen sign-in. For live games, use our list of legal sports streaming services.

FlixHQ alternatives questions

How we made this guide: We read each service's own help, corporate and store pages, then pulled seller names from Apple's US catalog data. Facts checked by the DigitalTreed team on October 30, 2026.

First published December 2023 as a list of 60 FlixHQ-style sites. Rewritten October 30, 2026 to cover only licensed free apps, each sourced to the company's own page. For offline viewing on a laptop, our Netflix on Mac guide covers what a paid app allows.

Sources

• Tubi: About Us (corporate site)
• Fox Corporation: Tubi Media Group
• App Store: Tubi: Movies & Live TV
• Pluto TV's new experience (company news post)
• App Store: Pluto TV
• Roku Support: How to get The Roku Channel
• Roku Support home
• Amazon: amazon.com/freevee (lands on Watch Freevee on Prime Video)
• Amazon Ads: Free ad-supported streaming TV guide
• Kanopy Help: Getting started for public library users
• Kanopy Help: Using tickets
• Kanopy Help: Entering a PIN or password with your library card
• Kanopy Help: Adding or removing a library
• App Store: Kanopy
• App Store: Hoopla: Your Library Anywhere
• Hoopla: Where to download free movies online
• Hoopla: Error messages
• Hoopla: Collective daily borrow limit
• Hoopla: How to get a library card online
• Plex: Watch free movies
• Plex Support: FAQ, Free Movies & Shows
• App Store: Plex
• Apple: App Review Guidelines
• Google Play Console Help: Intellectual property policy
• FTC: Malware from illegal video streaming apps
• FTC: Malware, how to protect against, detect and remove it