Putlocker Alternatives: 7 Legal Ways to Stream TV Shows Free (2026)

Putlocker was, for a few years, the internet's default answer to "where can I watch that show?" Then the UK High Court ordered it blocked in 2016, the original site went dark that same year, and its main domain was seized in early 2017. Its operators were never publicly identified.

Everything calling itself Putlocker today is an unaffiliated clone — and so are the sites the old version of this article recommended alongside it. SolarMovie vanished in 2016. 123Movies went dark in 2018. Fmovies was taken down by law enforcement in 2024. The whole list is gone.

What replaced them is better than what they offered: free, legal, ad-supported services with real licensed TV libraries, entire channels devoted to single shows, and — if you have a library card — completely ad-free borrowing. This guide focuses on TV shows, since that's what most people wanted Putlocker for. If you're mainly after films, see our companion guide to free legal movie streaming.

Why this article no longer lists streaming sites

Three reasons, none of them a lecture.

The clones are the danger. When a pirate site is taken down, its name gets recycled by operators with no reputation to lose. Research from the Digital Citizens Alliance found that roughly 80% of pirate streaming sites served malicious advertising, and about one visit in six triggered a malware attempt. An earlier DCA study with RiskIQ found one in three such sites exposed visitors to malware, with 45% of infections arriving by drive-by download — no click needed. The FTC has published its own warning about illegal streaming apps and devices bundling credential-stealing software.

"Still online" doesn't mean "safe." The torrent site YTS is the example worth remembering: its operator settled with movie rights-holders and, as part of that settlement, handed over the user database — registration emails, IP addresses, download histories — which was then used to sue individual users, including at least one who had used a VPN.

And the practical risk isn't what people assume. In the US, nobody has been criminally prosecuted for simply watching a stream. The Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020 created felony liability for commercial operators of illegal services; Congress explicitly excluded viewers, and the first conviction under it was an IPTV operator. Torrenting is genuinely different, because it broadcasts your IP address and distributes the file — which is exactly why torrent users get sued and streamers generally don't. The realistic cost of using a Putlocker clone is a compromised computer, not a courtroom.

That's a bad trade, because the alternatives below are free.

Quick comparison

Service	Cost	Ads	Best for TV
Pluto TV	Free	Yes	Whole channels devoted to single shows
Tubi	Free	Yes	The largest catalog of TV episodes
The Roku Channel	Free	Yes	Works on any device, not just Roku
Hoopla	Free with library card	None	Borrowing full seasons, ad-free
Plex	Free	Yes	Free TV plus your own library
Sling Freestream	Free	Yes	Live channels, no credit card
Prime Video (Watch for Free)	Free	Yes	Ex-Freevee originals, no Prime needed

1. Pluto TV — best for TV, full stop

Owner: Paramount. Cost: Free. Account: Not required.

If Putlocker's appeal was "put something on," Pluto is the direct replacement. It runs roughly 425 US channels of always-on programming in a scrollable cable-style guide, and its signature trick is dedicating entire channels to a single show — hours of one series, running continuously — alongside a substantial on-demand library.

Best for: Background viewing and channel-surfing through TV. Trade-off: Live channels mean you can't pause or pick a specific episode; the on-demand side is smaller than Tubi's.

2. Tubi — the biggest free TV catalog

Owner: Fox Corporation. Cost: Free. Account: Optional.

Tubi carries what Fox describes as nearly 300,000 movies and TV episodes — that count is episodes rather than unique titles, which is precisely why it's so strong for television: full seasons, not a scattering of pilots. It passed 100 million monthly active users in 2025, needs no signup to start watching, and runs in a browser and on essentially every phone, smart TV, and streaming stick.

Best for: Actually finishing a series. Trade-off: Ad breaks, and the catalog leans older and mid-tier rather than current-season hits.

3. The Roku Channel — free on any device

Owner: Roku. Cost: Free. Account: Free Roku account (email only).

A persistent misconception: you don't need Roku hardware. The Roku Channel runs in any web browser and on iOS, Android, Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung TVs. It offers 500+ free live channels plus on-demand TV and the Roku Originals catalog.

Best for: One free app that follows you across devices. Trade-off: A free account is required on web and mobile, and there's no LG or Apple TV app.

4. Hoopla — borrow full seasons, with zero ads

Owner: Midwest Tape. Cost: Free with a public library card. Ads: None.

The best-kept secret for television. Hoopla lends TV series, movies, audiobooks, comics, and music through your public library with no waitlists — if it's in the catalog, you borrow it now. Its BingePass turns one borrow into a week of unlimited access to a whole collection, which is tailor-made for working through a series. And there is no advertising at all.

Best for: Ad-free binge-watching. Trade-off: You need a library card, and because libraries pay per checkout, many are trimming monthly borrow limits — your allowance depends on your library.

For films specifically, its sibling service Kanopy (also free with a library card, also ad-free) has a far better selection of independent, arthouse, and documentary cinema.

5. Plex — free TV plus your own collection

Owner: Plex, Inc. Cost: Free. Account: Required (free).

Plex offers a solid free, ad-supported catalog of TV, movies, and live channels, and it doubles as the best tool for organizing media you already own. One clarification, since it caused genuine confusion: Plex's 2025 pricing change made remote streaming of your personal media library a paid feature. The free ad-supported catalog was not affected and remains free.

Best for: People who also have their own media collection. Trade-off: Busier interface, smaller free catalog than Tubi.

6. Sling Freestream — free live channels, no card required

Owner: Sling TV (DISH/EchoStar). Cost: Free. Account: Not needed on Roku and Fire TV.

Sling's free tier never asks for a credit card. Sling advertises 500+ live channels and 40,000+ on-demand titles, with more news and sports-adjacent programming than Pluto. A good companion rather than a replacement.

Best for: Free live TV with a deeper channel list. Trade-off: Persistent upselling toward Sling's paid tiers.

7. Prime Video's "Watch for Free" — no Prime subscription needed

Owner: Amazon. Cost: Free with a free Amazon account. Ads: Yes.

When Amazon shut down the Freevee app in August 2025, its catalog — including Freevee originals like Jury Duty and Bosch: Legacy — moved into a free, ad-supported "Watch for Free" section inside Prime Video. You do not need a Prime subscription to watch it, only a free Amazon account. Most people don't realize it's there.

Best for: Ex-Freevee originals and a surprisingly current TV catalog. Trade-off: It's buried inside an app that constantly markets Prime at you.

Also worth knowing

Xumo Play (a Comcast–Charter venture) offers hundreds of free live channels with no login. YouTube licenses real studio films and streams them free with ads, though the lineup rotates. And PBS streams a great deal free on its app and site — though after the 2025 federal funding cuts, what your local station offers for free varies.

Two services the old version of this article recommended are simply gone: Crackle shut down in mid-2025 following its parent company's liquidation, and Popcornflix shared that parent's fate — treat any site now using either name with suspicion.

What actually happened to Putlocker and its alternatives

The historical record is well documented, and it's a fairly complete graveyard:

• Putlocker launched in the UK around 2011 and surged after Megaupload's 2012 shutdown. The UK High Court ordered it blocked in May 2016; the original went dark that year, and putlockers.ch was seized in February 2017. Its operators were never publicly named — be skeptical of sites claiming to be the "official" Putlocker.
• SolarMovie vanished in July 2016, days after the KickassTorrents shutdown.
• 123Movies — which the MPA called "the most popular illegal site in the world," with 98 million monthly visitors — went dark in March 2018 following a Vietnamese criminal investigation.
• Fmovies, by then the largest piracy streaming operation on earth with 6.7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024, was dismantled in a joint operation between the anti-piracy coalition ACE and Hanoi police, announced in August 2024. Two men were convicted in Vietnam in 2025 and received suspended sentences.
• Soap2Day claimed in June 2023 that it had "decided to close forever." It hadn't: a sealed Canadian Federal Court action had just unmasked its operator, who was served the day before the site went dark.
• Afdah was shut down by ACE in April 2022, which took control of its domains — they now redirect to a "Watch Legally" page.

ACE says it has shut down more than 1,000 illegal streaming sites since it launched in 2017. Nothing about that trend is reversing.

Frequently asked questions

Is Putlocker gone, and are the current Putlocker sites safe?

The original Putlocker was blocked by UK court order in 2016 and went offline that year; its main domain was seized in 2017. Every site using the name today is an anonymous clone with no accountability, and pirate sites as a category serve malicious ads on roughly 80% of visits sampled by the Digital Citizens Alliance. They are not safe.

Can you get in trouble for watching Putlocker?

In the US, no one has been criminally prosecuted for merely watching a stream — the 2020 Protecting Lawful Streaming Act deliberately targets commercial operators, not viewers. The realistic risk is malware, scams, and credential theft. Torrenting is a different story: it publicly broadcasts your IP address and distributes the file, which is why torrent users do face lawsuits.

Where can I watch TV shows online for free, legally?

Start with Pluto TV (live channels, many devoted to a single show), Tubi (the biggest catalog of full seasons), and — if you have a library card — Hoopla, which lends complete series with no advertising at all. All three are free and take about a minute to set up.

Is there a free legal site with brand-new episodes?

Not really, and any site claiming otherwise is a red flag. Free catalogs run to older seasons, library titles, and originals. To watch current-season TV cheaply, use the ad-supported tiers of Peacock, Paramount+, or Hulu, or a free trial — still far cheaper than cleaning up a compromised laptop.

Do I need a VPN for these services?

No. These are licensed, legal services — there's nothing to hide, and a VPN may actually break them, since licensing is regional and many will block VPN traffic outright.

The bottom line

Putlocker has been offline for the better part of a decade, and its imitators are ad-malware farms. Fortunately none of that matters now: Pluto TV is the closest thing to what Putlocker actually gave people, Tubi has the deepest catalog of full TV seasons, and Hoopla will lend you entire series with no ads if you have a library card.

For films rather than television, see our guide to free legal movie streaming services. If you've been using clone sites, it's worth running a scan with a free antivirus tool. And if playback is the problem rather than the source, here's how to fix a laptop that won't play videos.