In this tutorial, I will walk you through the best Putlocker alternatives you can use to watch free movies and TV shows online. Apart from the free movie sites, this post includes premium streaming services.
Once there was a time when watching movies required going to multiplexes or sitting in front of TV screens. Fortunately, that’s not the case anymore and today anyone can watch a movie online with the help of their computer or smartphone.
Websites like Putlocker emerged to make it possible. Putlocker was one of the most prevalent streaming websites offering free movie content and TV shows. However, as the popularity of Putlocker grew, the governments of various countries ran behind it and decided to block it.
In such situations, the users started searching for alternatives to stream free movies and TV shows. However, all the websites that offer free streaming are not good enough to be Putlocker replacements.
You also would want to know about some sites similar to Putlocker where you can watch the movies of your choice. Alike you, we also search around the web and tested a lot of such kinds of websites and come up with a list. And that’s precisely what we’re going to discuss in this article.
What is Putlocker?
The name Putlocker is not related to a single website as it is the common name for a group of streaming websites. All those websites bear the domain name ‘Putlocker’ with distinct domain extensions.
Initially, the Putlocker website originated in the year 2010 in the UK. Due to its popularity, millions of users from all around the web world started visiting the website. It was so much popular that the Alexa ranking of this site was in the top 250 websites in the world. Lastly, the website was banned by the authorities due to copyright infringements.
The streaming service changed the website address many times soon after the shutdown of the official website. But the Govt kept continuing to block the various sites containing the name ‘Putlocker’ and the owners kept switching to its new domains. Here are some of the websites with the name Putlocker such as putlocker.is, putlocker.ch, putlocker.rs, putlocker.com, and putlocker.io.
Is the Putlocker site still alive?
As I mentioned earlier, there are numerous mirror sites operating and bearing Putlocker’s name. However, I am not sure whether the original Putlocker website is still alive or not.
Moreover, one of the Putlocker alternatives provided in this list bears the name of the original Putlocker. However, I do not know the fact if the official Putlocker website is still alive.
Is the Putlocker website Legal and Safe?
As we have discussed earlier Putlocker’s original website was banned by the UK authorities followed by an order from the High Court. Due to copyright infringements, the website has been considered illegal.
Websites like Putlocker provide free content. The earnings of these websites were through advertisements. As the legality of all such sites is questionable, they may not be safe.
Almost all of these websites tend to use a lot of commercial pop-ups, which can redirect you to spam sites, and clicking on these pop-ap ads can download viruses or malware on your device.
Fake Putlocker Websites
Many users reported cases of so many fake Putlocker websites. All these websites are known to redirect them to other suspicious websites that either end up in the installation of malware on their device or stealing their personal information.
However, if you are also visiting such websites that look like one of the Putlockers websites, you need to be careful. Don’t visit any such website until you are absolutely sure about its genuineness.
How to Stream Putlocker Websites Safely?
I do not encourage you to any copyright violations. I always urge you to stream the content via legal streaming websites only. However, if you still want to stream from such websites as Putlocker, let me brief you, on how to stay safe while streaming free movies and TV shows.
Before you stream these free Putlocker alternatives, here’s something very important that you should know and must follow to keep yourself safe from legal consequences. Streaming free movie content is associated with illegal downloads and that makes you a target in the eyes of your ISP and Government surveillance.
I always use a VPN to hide my online identity while streaming free movies and TV shows online. I suggest you do the same and keep your streaming activities anonymous.
Moreover, some of the websites listed in this guide are geo-blocked for some particular locations or countries. In that case, you must use a VPN to unblock such websites.
In my experience, ExpressVPN is the best VPN which not only provides military-grade privacy but also super fast speed. It also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you decide to cancel the subscription in the first 30 days. You can get 3-months free and save 49% on ExpressVPN’s annual plan.
Follow the 3-step process below to set up ExpressVPN on your device.
Step 1: Visit the website ExpressVPN.com and subscribe to its service.
Step 2: Now, download and install the VPN software from this link.
Step 3: Lastly, open the ExpressVPN app and just click on the power icon to connect to the VPN.
Best Putlocker Alternatives
In this section, we will cover both legal websites and free streaming websites like Putlocker. I highly recommend you stream using legal websites or streaming services that hold the copyrights or distribution rights of the content. You will not have to worry about safety while watching from these sites.
Let’s get started with premium legal websites. Later, you will find the list of free legal sites as well as third-party free websites like Putlocker.
Before getting started, let me share the pros and cons of watching content from authorized/legal websites or streaming services.
Here in this guide, I am going to share the list of both legal and free Putlocker alternatives that you can use to watch movies and TV shows online without any trouble. It is always recommended to stream only legal websites. If you are streaming content on legal websites you never need not worry about safety.
However, before you proceed, please note that this list is purely educational and we don’t condone copyright infringement. Please be a good judge of your actions. Here I have shared some pros and cons of streaming legal websites.
What We Like
What We Don't like
Let’s get started with premium legal websites:
Premium Movie Sites [Putlocker Alternatives]
Netflix
Netflix is the one-stop destination and the King of on-demand content in the USA. It consists of a huge list of exclusive content across various genres. This exclusive content is known as ‘originals’ in the streaming nomenclature. Netflix produces its own content.
However, sometimes Netflix observes a decline in content availability by third parties because some other bigger production houses like Disney and Warner Bros are coming with their own streaming services. However, as of now, there is enough new content worth paying the subscription fee.
Amazon Prime Video
Since the Amazon Prime Video services existed for a long ago but gained popularity in recent years. It is not as popular as other leading streaming services both in terms of on-demand movies and original content.
Available across all platforms, and having a minimal, yet refined UI makes it an easy go. Besides, you get much more with a paid subscription. For $119 per year or $12.99 per month, you will get fast delivery, premium deals, and full access to prime video, and music services.
That’s the availability of a lot of value compared to any other service having such a huge library.
Disney+
Disney+ is one of the latest streaming services in the online streaming race that shook the industry. It owns some of the major production houses in Hollywood. This indicates that it has already some of the biggest tv shows and movie titles in its bag.
From the initial day, Disney+ has had a great content library. However, it has some bugs such as aspect ratio and app glitches. It is expected that it will be fixed soon after the regular updates.
It comes with a 07 days trial period followed by a paid subscription of $6.99 per month. But the trial period is less to complete even the Simpsons series.
Vudu
Vudu is owned by Walmart. It rents out the digital copy of movies and TV shows online. With Vudu you need to pay the rent for the movie or TV season however, all the other streaming services listed in this guide are subscription-based.
If you want to rent a single episode then you can very well enjoy the individual episodes without buying the entire show or season. Almost all the movies or shows are there you could care to watch.
Hulu
Though Hulu is not a completely free alternative to Putlocker, it allows you to watch subscription-free TV shows and movies for free. Other movies and TV shows which require a subscription can be watched after taking a Hulu subscription of only $7.99 per month.
An important thing that separates Hulu from other alternatives mentioned here is that it’s also available as an app, so you can use it to watch the content on your Smart TV. In addition to that, all content on Hulu is available in HD quality, so you can enjoy it to the fullest.
Free Sites Like Putlocker [Legal]
Apart from these premium streaming sites, there are some free and legal streaming sites that can be considered a viable Putlocker replacements. But most of these sites are getting their revenue from the ads. Here is the list.
Snagfilms
Snagfilms streams more than 5000 movie titles today. Though it is totally free you have to bear with the ads as the site is earning its revenue from the ads only. Moreover, you need not sign up to stream maximum content. For those who like to watch independent films and documentaries, Snagfilms is a great place for them.
If you are looking for free and legal streaming then Snagfilms is the best alternative to Putlocker.
PopcornFlix
The content on this site is as catchy as its name. PopcornFlix allows you to enjoy the content of your choice without worrying about old and new. You can find both new as well as old movies and TV shows on this site, some of which you can’t find on any other site.
Moreover, you can also find viral videos on this site (again, all sites don’t include them). The site also doesn’t require you to sign up for an account, which makes it much easier to start searching for movies.
Tubi TV
Currently, Tubi TV features more than 15,000 movies and TV shows with more than 20 million monthly users. Though it has licensed content from various services such as Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, and Universal Pictures, however, it is a free streaming website.
During the video playback on Tubi TV, you may observe ad-supported services with commercials. Apart from this, no sign-up is required to stream the content on this website. However, if you already have an account, you can sync your streaming data across your devices.
Crackle Sony
You might have heard this popular name ‘Crackle‘ in the streaming world earlier. This service is owned by Sony. You can watch TV shows and movies totally free on Crackle.
Like all other websites, this website also earns its revenues from advertisements that appear between the videos from time to time. The company delivers licensed content from various other websites as well as various Originals. Literally, it is a great place to stream free movies and classic TV shows. However, it does have some new content as well.
Pluto TV
This is totally a different streaming website from the others. Unlike other streaming websites, Pluto TV brings in free live TV channels. You can choose from other streaming services and current shows with live TV on time.
More than 100 free channels are there. However, out of these, a few are limited to the USA audiences only. You can access everything such as sports, entertainment, and news. Even Pluto TV has a channel of its own.
If you want an ad-free experience there is a premium subscription on offer too. For those who are looking for a free live TV website, it is the best and probably the only choice.
Free Putlocker Alternatives
In this section, we will discuss free movie streaming sites like Putlocker. All of these sites are known to be piracy websites and are likely to have illegal content. If you stream online content from these websites, there can be chances of unnecessary troubles. As Putlocker has been banned by the government, these websites could be the next target.
What We Like
- Maximum sites are free and don’t require a paid subscription for streaming.
- Maximum sites offer content streaming in high quality (1080p)
- Nearly all content is available in a single place.
- Need not visit various websites.
What We Don't Like
- Virus or Malware infection can occur.
- They can steal your personal information.
- Streaming these websites may result in legal consequences.
Vumoo
While not a movie streaming site in itself, Vumoo is a great site every movie streaming lover should know about. It’s sort of a search engine for movies, which allows you to easily search for any movies and TV shows on all popular movie streaming sites.
That way, it helps you in finding free streaming links for your favorite content very easily. It is the functionality that makes it a must-include item in any list of free movie streaming sites.
SolarMovie
This is one of the most popular free movie streaming sites after Putlocker, and arguably the biggest challenger to Putlocker since its early days. Its popularity can be realized from the fact that 100s of other sites have tried to copy it, and they’re available on the web from similar names.
It has also faced the wrath of regulators many times, post which it was banned. But soon after that, it emerges online from a new domain, so it’s still very much alive and kicking. Nowadays you can visit it at SolarMovie.ink.
WatchTVSeries
WatchTVSeries.io is a website that focuses solely on television shows. It includes almost every popular TV show that has been aired in the United States, and you can find your desired show based on the TV networks or their own names.
The only downside of this site is its click-based pop-up ads, which send you to other random websites as soon as you click anywhere on the site for the first time.
GoMovies
GoMovies is known for its simplicity. When you visit it, you’ll find a neat and clean design with only a search bar placed prominently in the center. You can use that search bar to find your desired movies and shows, and then you can download or watch them easily.
There are very few ads on the site to disrupt your watching experience, and the content is also completely organized into categories for easy search.
Popcorn Time
Though Popcorn Time is not offering browser streaming yet you can use their app on different devices available for Windows, macOS, Android TV, and Android smartphones. However, it is also one of the popular streaming services and one of the best alternatives to Putlocker.
This streaming service uses Torrents to stream free movies and TV shows. The Popcorn Time app uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and manually you can add third-party trackers also.
HDPopcorns
HDPopcorns is different from all other sites mentioned here because of the care it takes to make the downloading process easier for its users. Not only it sorts the movies by alphabet for easy sorting, but also it has got a full guide telling people how they can download the movies easily.
The guide is shown prominently on the top near the navigation menu, so you can see it easily. It has also got a lot of content for every geography, including Hindi movies usually found on Putlocker.
Soap2Day
Though the interface of Soap2Day is not like Putlocker. However, it is one of the most visited websites for streaming free movies and TV shows. This website delivers almost the same kind of streaming experience as Putlocker.
This website has the latest as well as the old titles of movies and TV shows and episodes and featured limited sports content also. If you are comfortable with the frequent commercials and pop-ups then you can stream the content for free. Moreover, no sign-up is required for free streaming.
However, if you want to enjoy the ad-free streaming experience then you need to subscribe to Soap2Day VIP on a payment basis. It streams most of the content in HD quality along with the subtitles. It has a neat and clutter-free interface with easy-to-pick categories and genres.
Website –
Movies123
Previously known as 123Movies, the site has now changed its name to Movies123 and domain to escape from government firewalls.
Since it’s also a popular alternative to Putlocker Movies, it has also come into the eyes of governments around the world that want to block it.
But that hasn’t reduced the amount of content you can find on it – you can still find a lot of popular movies and TV shows on this site, which continue to be added every day. UI is similar to GoMovies, which means you need to search for the movie or show of your choice through a search bar.
Los Movies
If there’s a site that has the longest catalog of video content, it’s Los Movies. With almost 2,000 pages showcasing more than 39,000 titles, its collection is unparalleled.
Its pages also show the IMDB ratings of every movie, thus telling you how good (or bad) has been the reception of that movie. Most of the content available is in HD, but old content that was not shot in HD has also been provided in optimal quality on this site.
Subtitles are also available on this site for a large number of movies, thus helping you understand a movie that is not in your language.
FMovies
FMovies is also a very old alternative to Putlocker. There’s a good chance that you might have already visited it a few times because it has been in existence for many years.
Over time it has also evolved a lot according to the requirements of its users. Previously its homepage used to showcase a large number of movies and TV shows, but now it shows only a search bar like many other sites mentioned above.
However, a button to switch to the old UI is also shown below the search bar. The site also sorts content based on Top IMDB ratings, which is an easy way to find the best free movies online.
MovieWatcher
MovieWatcher is also one of the best Putlocker alternatives. With a dark background and neatly organized content, you can easily find the movies or TV shows you’re looking for.
You can search for content based on their artists, their names, release dates, popularity, and genres because that’s how content has been sorted on this site. You can find separate sections for each of these categories on the homepage itself, so it’s very easy to navigate across the site.
The site also shows how many users are online at a time in the bottom right corner, which is some information you can use to download your movies quickly (access at a time when there are fewer users on the site).
AZMovies
Unarguably one of the most good-looking sites on our list, AZMovies shows the popular and newly released movies in a massive carousel on its homepage so you can find them easily. It also has a large collection of TV shows and movies because it has been online for many years.
The shortcomings of this site, however, are its pop-up ads that redirect you to other web pages and the test that you’re made to pass before entering the site to ensure that you’re indeed human. Besides that, it’s a great movie streaming site.
Vimeo
If you’re a lover of short movies, you would love Vimeo. In fact, it’s the only Putlocker alternative movie site with an extensive focus on short movies. Independent moviemakers post their movies to this site, which can then be seen by millions of visitors around the globe.
Yes, it’s similar to YouTube, but without ads and without any other nonsense. Vimeo also allows the creators to create their videos together right there on the platform, thus enabling the creation of videos that can’t be found on any other platform. It also has much better privacy controls than any other video streaming site.
Yes! Movies
Yes! Movies are another well-designed alternative to Putlockers HD, just like MovieWatcher. Its home page sorts movies based on the alphabet so you can find them easily by clicking the first letter of their name.
Besides that, there is also a section on Popular Movies on the site, which allows you to quickly find the popular movies which are being watched by others.
It also streams movies from multiple, which means that most titles available on it can be streamed, unlike some other sites where you find upon opening a page that the movie is not available for streaming or downloading.
StreamDor
With a collection of 16,958 movies, StreamDor is also a site having lots of movies, TV shows, and other video content that you may want to watch. That content also includes fashion shows, documentaries, music videos, and other viral videos. It has also got episodes of cartoon shows and other kids’ entertainment, which makes it a site having plenty of content for people of every age group.
Conclusion
So this was our list of the top free and best Putlocker alternatives. It doesn’t matter in which country you reside, you can certainly access a few of these sites to watch your desired TV shows and movies online. So check them out and share your opinion about these sites in the comments. Also do let us know which site is your favorite and why. Happy watching!
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