March’s free streaming lineup is so good it makes subscriptions feel optional

Between Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and more, streaming your favorite shows and movies can get complicated and expensive. But there’s a whole world of free streaming options out there that don’t require so much as an account. You can go to places like Pluto TV, Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Plex on the web and start watching tons of free movies and TV shows right now for free (with ads), and there are enough options that it makes you wonder why you were ever paying for streaming in the first place.

Here are some of the biggest movies and TV shows you can watch on free streaming services in March.

Pluto TV (no original content)

An embarrassment of riches

Pluto TV doesn’t have original programming, but it does have a lot of movies that are worth watching, especially when they’re all free. The highlight of the month is probably the addition of all 13 theatrical Star Trek movies, from Star Trek: The Motion Picture — released way back in 1979 with William Shatner in the lead as Captain Kirk — to Star Trek Beyond, the 2016 film where Chris Pine was playing Kirk.

But that’s still just some of the many new movies on offer at Pluto TV this month. Check out a sampling of others:

Action

• Jack Reacher (the 2012 Tom Cruise movie, not the Prime Video show with Alan Ritchson)
• Ong-Bak 1-2
• Paint Your Wagon
• Panic Room
• Rio Grande
• Shutter Island

Comedy

• 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street
• The Big Short
• Clerks
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Jackass 1-5
• Up in the Air
• Wayne’s World 1-2

Drama

• Alfie
• Bones and All
• Cadillac Records
• The English Patient
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• The Master
• The Prince of Tides
• Sense and Sensibility
• Zodiac

Horror

• Bram Stoker’s Dracula
• The Crow 1-3
• Cujo
• The Dead Zone
• Hellraiser 3-8
• Paranormal Activity 1-6
• The Ring 1-2
• Sleepy Hollow

Sci-fi

• Arrival
• Cloverfield
• Noah
• All 13 theatrical Star Trek movies
• Starship Troopers

Family films

• The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl
• Rango

I feel compelled to point out that Bones and All is the strange 2022 box office bomb where Timothée Chalamet plays a young cannibal in love. Don’t tell me you’re not a little curious.

Tubi (has original content) (seems to have no ads at all)

Featuring real-live original content

Unlike Pluto TV, Tubi actually has original content. They’ve already debuted Gonzaga: The Slipper Still Fits, a documentary tracking the Gonzaga University basketball team’s 27 straight NCAA tournament appearances. Woman to Woman is a thriller where who mothers must confront a shared past to save their daughters. And on March 27, Tubi will drop Rockabye, a movie about a woman who investigates what she suspects is foul play surrounding her father’s death.

And those are just the originals. Tubi has plenty of new licensed content in March as well:

Action

• Armageddon
• Battleship
• Hitman: Agent 47
• King Kong (2005)
• A Knight’s Tale
• Original Rambo trilogy
• Red Dawn (1984 and 2012)
• Roadhouse (2024)
• Uncharted

Comedy

• 9 to 5
• 50 First Dates
• The Bob’s Burgers Movie
• Coming to America and Coming 2 America
• Eddie Murphy Raw
• Friday and Friday After Next
• A League of Their Own
• Never Been Kissed
• Sixteen Candles
• Snatch
• White Chicks

Drama

• Almost Famous
• An Education
• The Aviator
• Boyz in the Hood
• The Da Vinci Code
• Diary of a Mad Black Woman
• The Last of the Mohicans
• There Will Be Blood

Horror

• Jennifer’s Body
• Resident Evil: Damnation
• Resident Evil: Death Island
• Resident Evil: Degeneration
• Resident Evil: Vendetta

Sci-fi

founded

2014-00-00

number of users

100 million+ monthly

Tubi is a free, ad-supported streaming service that offers thousands of movies and TV shows across a wide range of genres without requiring a subscription. It provides on-demand access to both classic titles and modern releases from major studios.

The Roku Channel

Complete with games

The Roku Channel also makes original content, but there isn’t any in March. What they do have is a new on-platform trivia game called Roklue, which users can access via the home screen. This game will test users’ knowledge about their favorite movies and shows. A little something extra feels good when it’s all free.

That said, The Roku Channel doesn’t have as much notable licensed content as Pluto TV or Tubi this month, but there’s still some good stuff, including the additions of movies like All Quiet on the Western Front, End of Watch, Frida, Ice Age, and Million Dollar Baby. They also got all four seasons of Everybody Hates Chris, if you feel like unwinding with a good sitcom.

Roku also has a premium option that will now get users access to Apple TV+, which has some of the most underrated original shows and movies of any streaming service, paid or otherwise.

founded

2017-00-00

number of users

145 million+ monthly

The Roku Channel is a free streaming service offering thousands of movies, TV shows, and live TV channels without a subscription. Available on Roku devices, mobile, and the web, it features a mix of classic favorites, news, sports, and premium content with optional paid add-ons for more entertainment.

Plex

A small but mighty catalog

Like Pluto TV, Plex doesn’t make original content. It also has a pretty thin collection of notable licensed content added in March, but what’s there is still good, and again, the price is right at free.

On the movie side, new additions to the Plex library this month include 1408, Boys on the Side, But I’m a Cheerleader, Empire Records, Epic Movie, It Follows, Kick Ass, L.A. Confidential, Midsommar, Room, Superhero Movie, The Iron Lady, and I, Frankenstein. So far as TV goes, Plex has onboarded all three seasons of the underrated horror-action series Ash vs. Evil Dead, so there’s plenty to keep you watching.

OS

MacOS, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android

Plex is a powerful media management and streaming service that centralizes your personal media—like movies, music, photos, and TV shows—into one easy-to-access library. It also offers free streaming of movies, TV, and live channels, making it a versatile entertainment hub for all your content.

Everybody gets movies

Some high-profile films are coming to multiple free streaming services

There are also lots of high-profile movies coming to multiple free streaming services, so if you don’t like the user interface for one, you can always go elsewhere. They include:

• The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola’s edgy drama about teenagers who break into celebrity’s homes and rob them (on everything)
• De Palma, a documentary about iconic filmmaker Brian De Palma (on everything)
• Minari, an Oscar-nominated 2020 movie about a South Koean immigrant family who move to a small Arkansas farm (on everything)
• The Green Knight, a gorgeously reimagined slice of the Arthurian legend (on everything but Roku)
• The Robocop trilogy (on everything but Plex)
• Ex Machina, an unsettling sci-fi romance (on everything but Roku)
• The horror movie I Saw the TV Glow (on Tubi and Plex)
• Amy, a documentary about Amy Winehouse (on Tubi and Roku)
• Once Upon a Time In America, Sergio Leone’s crime epic (on Plex and Tubi)

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Free is the way to be

You won’t get access to some of the highest-profile original releases using services like Plex and Tubi, but you will definitely be entertained. There’s a wide variety of quality stuff on these streaming services, and the lack of any bar to entry is a huge selling point. Even the ads vary from service to service; sometimes they pop up every now and then while you watch, and sometimes they don’t seem to be present at all. Just search for what you want and get watching.