From Netflix to iTunes, there are no shortage of ways to watch video content on your macOS or iOS devices. But many of these services come with a caveat: they cost money.
Download, Install, or Update the best Mac apps - MacUpdate. Without a doubt, CleanMyMac X is the best way to rid your Mac of the digital detritus that is accumulates, allowing you to free up storage space and even speed things up.
But not to worry. If you’re looking for free movie or TV content that you can stream to your Mac, iPhone or iPad, there are still a wealth of options available to you. Here are our ten picks for the best free movie apps and platforms for Mac and iPhone. Unfortunately, not all free streaming services are available through a mobile app. However, you can certainly view these sites in the browser of your choice on your Mac, iPhone or iPad to take advantage of their free movie and TV services.
Kanopy Now your library card can take you beyond the book — and right to the movie. Kanopy pairs with your local library in order to deliver you documentaries and international films thanks to the help of your library card.
You can either search for your library on Kanopy and see if it is available OR search through the list of movies, find a movie you would like to watch, and click ‘Watch Now’ to see if it is supported by your library. So what happens if your library isn’t listed? You can request it! Playbox A newer version of Moviebox, Playbox is another movie streaming service for HD movie viewing on your mobile device.
Unique to Playbox are a subtitles option and a child-limited mode for safe, appropriate viewing. The first iteration of the Playbox app (named Cinema Box or CB Online) was widely popular on the App Store, but was removed by Apple because they deemed it violated the App Store’s terms and conditions.
It is still available via the publisher’s site. Download and use at your own risk. The Movie DB Providing access to HD movies online, The Movie DB (an abbreviation for Data Base) is another source for online movie streaming and viewing. The app uses both direct links and torrents in order to find HD movies. You can even download select movies for offline viewing, too. Note: The Movie DB iOS app was removed by Apple from the App Store, but The Movie DB can still be downloaded as a web app via the link below.
Big Star Movies Similar to other applications on this list, Big Star Movies gives you access to award winning movies as well as TV shows, with the option to filter programming by genre. All thumbnails are labeled with either ‘Free’ or ‘Premium’ tags to let you know what options are available. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on their site, Big Star Movies also offers links to other movie-streaming sites like 247 Horror, Black World Cinema, Doc World, and more.
Big Star Movies’ premium service is available for $4.99/month. JustWatch If you’re looking to stay up to date on the most current movies and TV, JustWatch has you covered. This app is more of a discovery app than a movie or TV streaming service, as it points you to where you can watch your favorite movies and TV shows — you can even explore local cinemas playing the most current movies, too!
For quick browsing, JustWatch also keeps updated lists of the top 5 movies, TV shows, and streaming providers. WatchESPN If you’re a sports junkie, you don’t have to be subscribed to the sports package through your local cable company.
Instead, you can use free options like WatchESPN to watch coverage of your favorite games on your iPhone or iPad. WatchESPN also offers access to other specific sports channels like ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line, and others — however, access to these premier channels depends on your cable (or internet) subscription. Newsy Looking to get some quick bites of news? Then Newsy is a great option. The company seeks to deliver unbiased stories that tackle the most important question behind every news story: “why?” Their videos are compact and informative, and are tailored to a mostly millennial audience. Beyond the standard news stories (think policy, culture, and science/tech), Newsy also has occasional special reports, curated by their team to create mini documentaries.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM). If you’re a movie buff or classic film aficionado, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will be the app for you. From on demand movies to two available live streams, you’ll have options for viewing classic movies anywhere on your Apple device.
![Best Best](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125383874/198129521.jpg)
Plus, you can plan your viewing ahead of time with a 2-month schedule! Additionally, TCM also lets you create custom subscriptions to your favorite actors/actresses and films so that you can be notified when they are available to watch on the TCM app. Viki Missing out on your favorite Asian TV dramas? Fear not, Viki has you covered.
Their collection includes Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese dramas for viewing at home or on the go. Plus, Viki works on your iPhone device, but is also capable for streaming on your Apple TV. While you don’t need to pay to use Viki, you can purchase a Viki Pass to watch exclusive, ad-free content.
MegaBox HD For HD movies and TV shows streaming in either 360p or 720p, MegaBox HD offers a clean, simple interface for watching movies and TV shows. The app is not available through the App Store, and requires some technical knowledge to install. Many users also suggest downloading vShare (a third-party app store) for the installation process. It is also recommended that users download Mplayer to use in conjunction with MegaBox HD. Bobby Movie As one of the smaller, niche apps on this list, Bobby Movie Box gives you access to HD movies and TV on your devices.
The app places a special focus on delivering a great UX/UI so you can search, filter, favorite, and view all available movies and TV shows. The app also offers full subtitles in over 200 languages, too! Unfortunately, this app is not available through the App Store. Instead, you need to visit the publisher’s site to download the app package directly from them. Download and use at your own risk. Hubi Similarly to JustWatch, Hubi is a movie and TV discovery app that crawls the internet and popular streaming providers to find movies and TV shows that you want to watch.
The app finds the best links and lets you either watch the movie/show or download it (depending on availability) for later viewing. Newest Movies HD Originally available only on Android, Newest Movies HD is also available for your iPhone or iPad device — without a jailbreak needed. This app is not available through the App Store, and is only available by downloading it to your Mac and then uploading to your device. Note: you will have to adjust your device settings to allow it to install files from unknown or third-party sources. Download and use at your own risk. Yahoo View Yahoo may have fallen by the wayside as a mail and news platform, but did you know that they also offer a movie and TV service, too? Yahoo teamed up in a partnership with Hulu to offer on-demand services via Yahoo View, which includes TV episodes from popular channels and select archived movies.
Popular shows include America’s Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior, So You Think You Can Dance, and others, with a select number of episodes available for free. Plus, if you are signed into your Yahoo account, Yahoo View will offer you top recommendations and picks based on what you watch! It was formerly available in the App Store, but can now only be used via your browser. Internet Archive Like a digital version of your local library, Internet Archive was founded in 1996 to provide free access to TV and videos in addition to other media like music, software, and websites. The Internet Archive also has a plethora of books, with the goal of providing easy access to digital books for anyone, anywhere. In videos, you can filter their collection by type, year, subject, and more. And by signing up for a free account, you can easily favorite select titles to access later.
Note: Internet Archive does not have a branded app; instead, you will have to use a third-party app to access these free movies on your mobile device or tablet. You can also use their website in their browser. SkyNews For access to news broadcasts anytime, SkyNews is a great option. SkyNews is part of the SkyGroup, and offers 24-hour access to live TV through their website.
![Best Mac Apps For Free Best Mac Apps For Free](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125383874/239674289.jpg)
They cover news from the UK and around the world, including topics like business, politics, U.S., science & tech, and more. They also feature a special ‘Live’ section that gives you access to news stories and events as they are happening, with time-stamped text updates, Twitter posts, photos, and video — so if you can’t exactly watch the event, you can still receive timely updates. This works great for sport matches or special events like Apple’s September event.
The Roku Channel (Roku device only) If you are the proud owner of a Roku device (a digital media player), then you know you have access to so much media. If you are unfamiliar with Roku, it is a device that uses your high-speed internet connection to deliver and stream content from both free and paid channels.
Roku devices include TVs, streaming sticks, and express USB-connected devices. The Roku Channel was created to give Roku users access to free movies and TV, which includes Roku-licensed content as well as content from other publishers. All of this content is free because it is ad-supported. Watch Cartoon Online If you’re a fan of cartoons, then you’ll love Watch Cartoon Online. This service has a wide variety of cartoons, from current cartoon series to discontinued selections to hard-to-find anime.
Their selection is organized alphabetically; and while buffering is normally hit-or-miss, their wide array of cartoons makes up for the buffering and quality. Hotstar Hotstar’s selection is tailored towards Hindi and Bollywood films in addition to live sports like cricket, soccer, and hockey.
Some select movies and TV shows are available for free through the app, but access to premium movies and channels require either a monthly ($19.99/month) or yearly ($99.00/year) subscription. Flipps TV Previously known as iMediaShare, Flipps TV is a movie and TV streaming service that uses the cloud to deliver content to your smartphone or smart device. Flipps TV specializes in B-movies, sports, music videos, educational programming, and more. Unique to Flipps TV is the option to stream content to your smart TV and use your smartphone as the remote, which gesture-based controls for volume control, browsing, and pause/play actions. Flipps TV does this by using the cloud to deliver over-the-top content to your TV, and doesn’t require any additional hardware. Moviebox Similar to Netflix, Moviebox allows you to browse their catalog of movies in addition to TV shows and music videos. You can also browse by genre, rating, or even year.
All of this media is delivered via peer-to-peer (p2p) torrents, which is the way you can get free media. The concept of peer-to-peer torrents often brings to mind older applications like Napster — and while p2p is not illegal, the sharing of media or data could be illegal. Moviebox was initially created for Android, but it is available for iOS and can be used on your iPhone or iPad.
In fact, you don’t even have to jailbreak your device to use it. Crackle Crackle is a service that’s been around for quite a while. Originally called Grouper, it later changed its name and was eventually acquired by Sony. But, throughout its history, it’s offered one thing over Netflix or other streaming platforms: free content.
The platform offers full-length, uncut films that are available to watch with intermittent commercial breaks. New films are being added constantly, and Crackle also features a backlog of TV shows in a variety of genres. You can get the, but content is also available on its for Mac users. Pluto TV Unlike some other apps on this list, Pluto TV seems to be primarily aimed at TV-like content.
There are quite a few “channels” broken down into categories like News, Sports or Movies. For the most part, this isn’t actually live TV. But the platform does pull and curate web content from live TV platforms like Bloomberg and CNBC.
But, in addition to TV content, Pluto TV offers on-demand content that’s mostly made up of movies. The selection might be hit-or-miss for some, and not every movie is available in every device or region. But, again, it’s completely free to use. Pluto TV is available for, Apple TV. Vudu Vudu is a content streaming app that’s, on the surface, pretty similar to the other options that are out there.
You can buy or rent TV shows or films from a large selection of movies — ranging from classics to the latest box office hits. But Vudu also has a “Movies On Us” category that basically lets you watch certain content for free with ads. Just think of it like catching a movie on live TV with traditional commercial breaks. Vudu offers an and iPad, as well as an for watching content on Macs. Viewster Viewster is yet another content-on-demand platform that offers users free, ad-supported TV shows and movies. While the premise is basically the same as other free content platforms around, Viewster seems to have a slightly different focus as far as its actual content goes. You can find a wide range of foreign films, documentaries, classic Hollywood movies, and international TV.
But the site also has a massive catalog of anime movies and shows, as well as gamer-focussed or animated content. It’s available on the. For Mac users, it’s also available online via. Snag Films If your taste in film skews toward the independent, informative or obscure, Snag Films might be an excellent bet for free content. Currently, it features a catalog of about 5,000 films which can be viewed for free with advertisements.
You can stream content directly on the site. Along with high-profile documentary titles and National Geographic content, SnagFilms also features tons of films submitted by independent documentarians and filmmakers. For comedy-lovers, there’s also exclusive standup shorts available.
Users can or through the. Yidio Unlike other free movie apps on this list, Yidio is more of a “content aggregator.” The platform doesn’t host any of its own videos. Instead, it allows you to search through thousands of titles and figure out where you can watch them (for free or otherwise). It warrants a place on this list because it’s an easy way to find free movies online. Rather than search through Vudu, Crackle and the like, you can simply use Yidio to track down the platform hosting your favorite films. It can be accessed,.
TubiTV TubiTV is a relatively new player in the online content market, but it’s growing pretty rapidly. The platform recently got a slew of content from major publishers like Lionsgate and MGM. And, again, its service is completely free to use (because video streaming is ad-supported). Its content catalog certainly won’t be a replacement for Netflix, but it does offer several big-budget films and a decently high streaming quality. TubiTV does tend to do extremely well with cult classics, documentaries, foreign films and independent movies. It’s available on. An account is required to stream content.
Popcornflix Popcornflix is an on-demand video content site that is owned by an independent film distributor. As you can probably imagine, a lot of the content on the site is made up of films or TV shows put out by that independent distributor. Still, Popcornflix offers a ton of options in various genres — from horror and thriller, to action and drama films. You probably aren’t going to find the latest summer blockbuster, but the catalog does include some low-key and older gems.
As with most apps on this lists, these films can be or through a. YouTube Yeah, we know: YouTube isn’t necessarily a full-fledged content subscription platform like Netflix or Hulu.
Similarly, you probably won’tfind free full-length films on the platform (at least, not ones that are there legally). But it is, arguably, the world’s largest repository of online videos — and that includes a slew of short films and indie movies. Again, we don’t recommend that you go searching out the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But still, there is no shortage of long-form and free content on YouTube that’s definitely worth your time. You can find anything from old black-and-white classics to freely available documentaries on the platform. Vimeo Vimeo, like YouTube, is mostly a video sharing platform. But that means that indie filmmakers and content creators frequently upload their works to the platform.
While you can find feature-length films here, one of the main draws is watching high-quality indie content. Not every video is free, but quite a few of them are. Vimeo is distinct in a couple of ways, however.
Unlike YouTube, it has a much smaller and tighter-knit community of content creators. Because of that, you might be more likely to find indie or experimental films with relatively high production values. There are also no ads on the platform — so you can watch content or without interruptions.
On this website, I have covered a ton of paid apps, and that’s because in general, paid apps tend to offer more when compared to free apps. However, that does not mean that there are no good free apps out there. In fact, there are a ton of them. That’s why it is going to be a long article as I am bringing a list of 20 best free apps you can get for your Mac right now. Some of the apps on this list are evergreen and you most probably already have them installed on your device. But some of them are entirely new. Well, at least they are new to me and that’s the beauty of it. No matter, how old an app is, it is new for somebody out there.
That said, no matter how avid a Mac user you are, I can bet that you will find at least 5 new Mac apps out of the article which you have never heard about before. So, open your Macs and get ready to download these awesome free Mac apps. 20 Best Free MacBook Apps You Should Install 1. Unsplash Wallpapers I want to start this article with an app which I have discovered just a couple of months back and have fallen in love. As its name suggests, Unsplash Wallpapers is a wallpaper app for Mac which gives you access to unlimited ultra-high resolution wallpapers for your Macs. One of the things that I love most about MacBooks is its display.
Apple packs phenomenal displays on the Macs. Stop me if it’s just me, but I enjoy changing the wallpapers on a regular basis just because they look so damn beautiful on my Mac’s display.
Before I discovered Unsplash Wallpapers, it used to be a chore to change wallpapers. First, I had to find good wallpapers, then I had to download them, and only then I could use them. With Unsplash Wallpapers app, you can change the wallpaper just with one click. If you like a wallpaper, you can even download it. If you love wallpapers, you are going to love this app. The Unarchiver This is one of the first apps that I download whenever I move on to a new Mac. The app is basically the best unarchiving app you can get for your Mac, free or otherwise. The Unarchiver cannot only unarchive common formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5), 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2, but it can also open formats such as StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ, ARC, ISO and BIN disc images, Windows.EXE installers and more.
Basically, it’s a one-stop solution for all your unarchiving needs. Amphetamine We all know that Macs bring a long battery life and while some of it has to do with Apple’s excellent hardware, most of it is because of how macOS efficiently manages battery. One of the things that macOS does to preserve the battery life on your computer is to put it to sleep whenever you don’t interact with your Mac for a set period of time. While this is really good, sometimes you need to keep your Mac running even if you are not interacting with it. One of the examples that come to mind is when you are downloading a large file. If your Mac falls asleep during the download, it will stop it, and depending on the software that you are using to download the file, you might have to restart the download from the beginning.
Amphetamine solves this problem by allowing users to keep their Macs awake even when they are not doing anything. The app is powerful and allows users to keep their Macs awake for how much ever long they want. Not only that, users can also set triggers to keep their Macs awake. For example, you can tell Amphetamine to not put your Mac to sleep whenever a certain app is running.
Lastly, it allows you to easily access all these features as it lives right there in your Mac’s menu bar. It’s one of the most useful apps for Macs and I love it.
Muzzy You know how when you accidentally yank headphones out of your iPhone, the music suddenly stops, well, Muzzy brings that functionality to your Mac. The app also does a lot of other things like allowing users to play, pause, and change the music from its menu bar app, integrates with Last.fm, shows songs lyrics, and more. However, I don’t care for any other features and I just use this app to stop music whenever I accidentally yank my headphones out. Sadly, the app only works if you are playing music through iTunes. Alfred 3 Alfred is an all-purpose tool for your Mac which can boost your productivity ten folds if you learn how to use it.
Of course, there’s a learning curve to this app, but if you invest in it, it will pay you back. Alfred allows you to quickly launch apps, use text expansion snippets, search on the Mac and web, use hotkeys and keywords, and much more. Alfred used to be a paid app, but the developers were kind enough to release the app for free. There are add-on power packs that you can buy, but you really won’t be using them until you became really pro at it.
For most of the normal users, the free app itself is enough to boost their productivity. Pocket Pocket is a popular read it later service which allows you to save articles offline so that you can read them later. I mostly browse for articles on my Mac and whenever I find something that I would want to read, I just save it in Pocket. Since Pocket syncs across devices, all my saved articles are automatically synced to my iPhone where I can read them at my will. Recently, I have also started using Pocket as a research tool. Since Pocket allows me to organize saved articles using tags, I just tag the items I am using for research so that I can find them easily later.
Spark Spark is my most favorite free app on Mac. For those who don’t know, Spark is an email client for Mac. I love spark because it intelligently categorizes all the emails that I receive into different categories, giving me access to the most important emails first. It also has a very robust set of features. I can easily snooze, archive, delete, and tag emails. I also love the fact that it allows me easily search for emails using natural language search. I can also search for emails based on attachments, and more.
Lastly, Spark also has apps for both iOS and watchOS so no matter which device I am on, I can user Sparks to get through all my emails. GIMP GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source photo editor which packs so many features that you won’t be able to discover all of them in your lifetime. It is basically Photoshop but free. You can use GIMP to perform any kind of image manipulation that you can think of. That said, since it packs so many features, GIMP also has a pretty steep learning curve. Also, being a free an open-source project, its user interface is not very intuitive and feels archaic. That’s why I recommend GIMP only to those users who need a robust photo editing software but cannot afford to buy one.
Simplenote Simplenote is one of the best designed free apps you can find. As its name suggests, Simplenote is an easy note taking app which allows you to easily jot down notes. What I love about this app is that even though it is completely free, your notes are synced across devices. Apart from its online sync features, I am also a fan of its clean user interface. Simplenote is also a really good app for someone who is looking for a clean app to write long-form content.
You can use tags to organize notes easily and search for them using either their title, content, or tags. I have been using this app for quite a few years and I still don’t understand how it’s free. If you love writing, you will love Simplenote. Itsycal Itsycal is an open source small menu bar calendar application for Mac.
If you like for Mac, but hate that it’s priced so high, Itsycal is for you. Although Itsycal is nowhere as powerful as Fantastical 2, it brings all the basic features that you would want from a menu bar based calendar app. It shows you month view of your calendar, your upcoming events, and also allows you to create or delete events. I also love the fact that I can configure Itsycal to show not only the date but also the month and the day in the menu bar icon itself. It’s a good menu bar application and a must have for anyone who schedules everything on their calendar. Audacity Audacity is one of those free apps which is even better than most of the paid apps out there.
For those who don’t know, Audacity is an audio editor app for your Mac or even Windows PC. If you are someone who deals with a ton of audio, you must have already heard about this software. If you have not, you probably don’t need it.
Still, it’s such a good app that I couldn’t keep it away from the list. Just remember that if you ever need to edit an audio file to make it better, Audacity is the tool to do it.
Lightworks Since we have already talked about an audio editing software, why don’t we also include a video editing software to complete the loop. Lightworks is a full-fledged video editing app which gives you access to all the tools that you will need to get your video editing on. To be fair, Lightworks also sell a Pro version of the app, however, the free version is powerful enough to handle most of the tasks. Whether you are a budding YouTuber or someone who just want to give an edge to their homemade videos, Lightworks is the right tool for you. What I love most about this app is that the website gives you ample tutorial videos to get you started. If by any chance you were looking for a free video editing software, look no further and download Lightworks.
HiddenMe HiddenMe is a small menu bar app which comes in very handy at times when you want to show a clean desktop without having to organize your stuff. The app lives in your menu bar and allows you to do one thing and one thing only, and that’s hiding everything on your desktop. With a click of the button, everything that’s on your desktop is hidden, giving you access to a clean desktop. I constantly use this app whenever I am giving a presentation or taking screenshots of my desktop for an article. This small application has saved me from embarrassing myself a number of times and it can do that for you too. AppCleaner Do you know that whenever you delete an app on your Mac, it leaves behind a ton of residual files which does nothing but eating up storage on your Mac? Well, it’s true and if you install and uninstall a ton of apps, you might have lost gigabytes of storage already.
While there’s another app on this list which (Onyx) which can help you recover that storage, AppCleaner is an app which makes sure that the apps you delete don’t leave any residual files. Just launch the app and drag and drop the apps that you want to uninstall and it will take care of the rest. It is a must-have utility tool for any Mac user out there. Manuscript Manuscript is a writing app for students which makes writing school assignments including dissertation easier. Manuscript is a powerful writing app which allows students to complete their assignments right from the planning stage to completing it. It lets students easily insert citations, figures, tables, mathematical equations, and more. The app also allows for importation of citations from various tools including Mendeley, Zotero, Papers 3, Bookends, and EndNote.
If you are a student who is looking for a good writing app, you don’t have to look any farther than Manuscript. IINA IINA is an open-source video player for your Mac which offers one of the best amalgamations of features and user interface. The app looks extremely beautiful and supports all the modern features including force touch, picture-in-picture, and even offers Touch-bar controls for the latest MacBook Pros. IINA also supports almost all the video formats that you can think of, including the ability to play even GIFs. The app also comes with theming capabilities allowing you to use either light or dark themes. I have discovered this app just a few weeks back and I am already in love with it.
If you consume a ton of media on your MacBook Pro, this is the right app for you. OnyX OnyX is your one-stop solution for all your Mac’s maintenance needs. In fact, I cannot describe the app better and more succinctly than what’s written on its website. OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more.
However, do remember that it is an advanced tool and hence before you do anything, make sure that you get familiar with the app as you don’t want to delete files which can corrupt your entire system. SpotMenu The last app on our list the SpotMenu app which is a nifty little menu bar application. The app basically allows you to control your iTunes and Spotify music player from the menu bar giving you access to controls such as play, pause, forward, and rewind. It’s a pretty basic application, however, it does come in handy. One thing that I like about the app is that it shows the name of the song that is currently playing right on your Mac’s menu bar. When you click on the icon, the drop-down window which harbors all the features also showcase the album art of the song that you are playing.
Install: Read More: Best Free macOS Apps: Final Thoughts I hope that you found some apps which are useful to you. I personally am a fan of Spark mail, Amphetamine, INA, Simlenote, Alfred 3, Unsplash Wallpapers, and Pocket. Comment below your favorite favorite apps from the list.
Also, if you know free apps that deserve to be on the list but aren’t, drop their names in the comments section. If you liked this article, do share this on your social media profiles because we need your help to get the word out. If you loved it, consider supporting us either by clicking on the button below, or just. Remember, anything that you purchase with our links from Apple or Amazon generates income, so your help is appreciated.