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Tubi

Tubi

The free streaming champ

4.0 Excellent
Tubi - Tubi (Credit: Tubi)
4.0 Excellent

Bottom Line

Tubi is a free, ad-supported video streaming service that features a delightfully large and frequently updated library of movies and shows. There's no reason not to give it a try.

Buy It Now

  • Pros

    • Free
    • Extensive library of movies and shows
    • Live TV
    • Modern apps and interfaces
    • Supports watchlists
    • Parental control features
  • Cons

    • 720p streaming resolution cap
    • Lacks an ad-free option

Tubi Specs

Ads
Anime
Concurrent Streams Unlimited
Live TV
On-Demand Movies and TV Shows
Original Programming
Starting Price Free

Video streaming services can devour a good chunk of your monthly budget if you pay for multiple platforms. Ease the financial hit with Tubi, a free streaming service that has a library of popular movies and TV shows that best many paid services' catalogs. Of course, since Tubi is free, the videos are ad-supported affairs and lack top capabilities you'll find elsewhere, such as full HD streaming and offline downloads. Still, Tubi has many attractive features that make it our Editors' Choice winner for free video streaming services.


(Credit: Tubi)

What Can You Watch on Tubi?

Tubi's library has approximately 50,000 movies and TV series—an impressive count that has more than doubled since our last review (though it is unclear whether individual TV episodes count toward that number). By comparison, the paid Criterion Channel has roughly 2,000 films. NBC's Peacock, which no longer offers a free tier, has 80,000 hours of content. Tubi's library covers a wide range of genres, from recognizable mainstream hits to obscure cult oddities.

At the time of our review, some popular films on the service include Big Trouble in Little China, Brewster's Millions, Don't Breathe, Happy Gilmore, Malcolm X, Rush Hour, Scooby Doo, Superbad, Taken, and The Matrix. Note that shifting licensing deals make free streaming libraries prone to change at a moment's notice.

Some of the TV shows on the platform are Babylon 5, Columbo, Degrassi: The Next Generation; Everybody Hates Chris, Hell's Kitchen, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, Miami Vice, Naruto, One-Punch Man, The Bernie Mac Show, and 2002 Twilight Zone. If those anime series interest you, check out our roundup of the best anime streaming services. Many of those options have a free tier. In addition, a recent deal with Warner Bros. Discovery gives Tubi HBO shows you won't find on Max, such as Lovecraft Country, Raised by Wolves, and Westworld.

Like some paid on-demand services, Tubi now produces original content. We saw schlocky monster movies like Bigfoot vs. Yeti, as well as trashy true crime docs like Branded and Brainwashed. However, if you want to watch the latest streaming hits that people talk about, such as Disney+'s The Mandalorian, Netflix's The Witcher, Prime Video's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, or Paramount+'s Star Trek: Picard, you must pay for those respective services.

Other movie streaming services, including The Criterion Channel and Mubi, offer a superior collection of classic, indie, and international films for cinephiles.

For many free streaming services, a "Live TV" section is a 24/7 marathon of existing content. However, Tubi offers genuine live TV options that feature news channels. Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Xumo also offer a wide variety of interest-based channels and aggregate content.


Tubi's Price and Platforms

As noted, Tubi is free. No-cost services are a great option for people looking to reduce monthly expenses in the wake of an ever-fragmenting streaming market. Whether Tubi's inconveniences are fair trade-offs against paid services is a personal preference. We feel strongly that Tubi's approach may represent the best possible future for streaming video.

Note that there is no way to watch Tubi without ads; it lacks premium subscription tiers. That said, Tubi may get new features and tiers as a result of its acquisition by Fox Corporation. Other free on-demand services include Amazon Freevee, Crackle, and Vudu.

Ad-supported plans on Disney+ and Hulu are available for a relatively affordable $7.99 per month. Horror-focused Shudder costs $5.99 per month. Those services are good options for movie fans and support full HD streaming.

Going up in price, Max ($15.99 per month) and Netflix ($15.49 per month for a Standard plan) are both excellent options for watching top movies and series. Netflix even has the advantage of original films, such as El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story, The Irishman, and Roma. The Criterion Channel and Mubi are $10.99 per month and $12.99 per month, respectively.

Prime Video ($8.99 per month for the ad-supported plan), Paramount+ ($5.99 per month for the ad-supported plan), and Peacock ($5.99 per month for the ad-supported plan) are other options for watching popular network and original TV shows.

Tubi is available on all major platforms, as well as on the web and mobile devices (Android and iOS). As for media streaming devices, Tubi has apps for Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, and TiVo. Tubi also supports gaming consoles (PlayStation and Xbox) and select smart TVs from Samsung, Sony, and Vizio.


Tubi on the Web

To get started with Tubi, you can sign up for a free account, but you aren't required to create one. Pluto TV doesn't have this requirement either. Setting up an account is just a matter of providing a name, email, and a few other basic details. Signing up comes with advantages, such as parental controls, adding titles to a personal queue, and viewing your watch history.

Tubi's web interface is attractive, with a gray, orange, and white color scheme. It has few navigation buttons, which keeps the emphasis on the content. It organizes films and shows into four categories (Popular, Genres, Collections, and Channels) with subcategories listed below. For instance, the Collections list includes Award Winners and Nominees, Cult Classics, Highly Rated on Rotten Tomatoes, and Not on Netflix. Tubi is much better organized than its free competitor, Crackle.

(Credit: Tubi)

The search bar works fine and supports queries for anything that appears on a movie's or show's description page, such as an actor, director, or genre. From the account section, you can edit your profile details, delete your account, set up parental control options, and modify your viewing history. We would like the option to customize the account's profile photo. As it is now, the profile photo is just a circle with different shades of orange. Disney+ lets you change your profile icon.

When you find something of interest, click the program's thumbnail to view its details and begin playback. Tubi presents a playback window at the top of the screen, with other information laid out in cleanly outlined areas below it. Apart from a basic description of the title, the page also includes the run time, parental rating, genre, director, and main cast members. On the right side of the screen, you can add the entry to your Queue or share it via Facebook or Twitter/X.

At the bottom of the page, Tubi shows recommendations for other movies you may like. If any of those catch your interest, you can add them to your Queue by hovering over the thumbnail. It's unclear whether these recommendations are based solely on the current title you are viewing or if Tubi considers other films you've watched on the service. One missing feature that I'd like to see added is a user rating or review system. Mubi, Prime Video, and Shudder let you add ratings and written comments.


Tubi's Android and iOS Apps

We downloaded Tubi's mobile app on a Google Pixel smartphone. The mobile app interface is visually consistent with the web version, and uses a black, white, and orange color scheme. The bottom navigation bar houses three icons, Home, Discover, and Account.

The Home section is where Tubi displays its top content, be it via the top gallery or the overwhelmingly long list of subcategories. From the Discover tab, you can find all the subcategories and genres from the web's top menu (For You, Collections, Genres, and Channels). The Search bar also lives in this section.

The Account section has a few options, the most notable of which are a toggle for closed captions and the option to lock the app in landscape mode. We do appreciate the well-designed Help Center interface, but notably missing are options for streaming preferences and parental controls.


(Credit: Tubi)

Playback Experience

Tubi's video player on the web has an understated design, but all the standard features. Apart from the basic playback controls, you get 30-second rewind and fast-forward buttons, a menu for selecting streaming quality, and a button for toggling closed captions. Scrubbing the progress bar shows previews of each frame. The mobile playback screen looks largely the same. However, you can't control the playback resolution from that player.

Tubi says it runs ads (one to two minutes each) approximately every 15 minutes. That's not so bad, considering that Hulu's ad-supported tier behaves even worse than this (more frequent commercial breaks on shorter videos and sometimes multiple ads play in a row at each break). Anecdotally, we only ever saw ads at the beginning of playback, if at all. Still, we would like the option to pay a minimal monthly fee to get rid of ads entirely.

Tubi states that it only requires internet speeds above 4Mbps (download) to enjoy its programming, which is a pretty low barrier. We tested the service's streaming performance over a home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download), and, as expected, had no issues with stutters or lag.

Unfortunately, Tubi has a maximum 720p streaming resolution. Not all of its movies hit that quality either, with many popular films offering roughly 540p resolution. This streaming limitation is a big drawback. It would be much less of an issue if everything was available in at least 720p. That said, some paid services, namely Acorn TV and BritBox, also limit playback to 720p on the web and mobile devices. Peacock does not have this streaming resolution limitation.

For more on the video streaming field, check out five reasons why you may want to ditch your video subscription and keep cable; read how streaming has ushered in a new trash TV golden age; and learn why companies must preserve their streaming catalogs. In addition, you should visit our recommended video streaming guides if you don't know what to watch. 


Features and Accessibility

Tubi doesn't support offline downloads for movies or shows, which is to be expected of a free service. That's one feature that's standard across the vast majority of the paid options, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu (ad-free), and Paramount+ (ad-free).

As mentioned, Tubi offers parental control tools on the web. To set them up, head to the Parental Controls tab on the Account Settings page of the web interface. Here, you can select what content you want to be viewable in the account. The four options are Little Kids (Y, TV-G, and TV-Y); Older Kids (PG, TV-PG, TV-Y7); Teens (PG-13, TV-14); and Adult (R, TV-MA, NR, and NC-17). Tubi makes you reenter the account password to lock down these changes. Tubi also has a dedicated kids section in its library.

(Credit: Tubi)

There are several problems with Tubi's parental control implementation. Firstly, Tubi is a free service, so a child or teen could simply log out of the monitored account and watch whatever they want. If you don't see the movies and shows they say they are watching pop up in the watch history, then this may be an indication of their evasion. Another issue is that Tubi locks these settings with the account password. Presumably, if you want your child to use the account you set up, you must give them the password; the same password that would let them disable the restrictions. And without the ability to set up individual user profiles, this means that everyone using the account is subject to the same rules. Parents might want to watch content that may be age-inappropriate for their kids.

Tubi's simultaneous streaming limits are somewhat irrelevant since anyone is free to watch content with or without an account. In addition, we were able to simultaneously stream content without issues on a mobile and desktop device while logged in to the same account.

Tubi supports closed captions on the vast majority of its content. You can now customize subtitles directly from the player (font size and background), with more advanced options available in the settings section. You won't find any content that supports Audio Descriptions. Currently, Apple TV+, Netflix, and Prime Video offer Audio Descriptions for at least some of their original content.


Using Tubi With a VPN

A VPN is a great way to protect yourself online from your ISP or malicious actors on a network. VPNs can also be used to spoof your location online. Many video streaming services may prevent you from streaming over a VPN connection since some content is locked to certain geographic regions. Oftentimes they will block access even if you are connected to a VPN in supported countries.

We tried to stream a movie on Tubi on our Windows 10 desktop over Canada-, Sweden-, and US-based Mullvad VPN servers. We had no streaming issues over the US or Canadian servers, but Tubi wouldn't work with the one from Sweden. Even if you find a VPN that currently works with all of your streaming services, it might not work with all of them forever. Most video streaming services actively work to block VPN traffic.


Verdict: A Top Choice for Free Movies and TV Shows

Despite not costing a dime, Tubi offers an entertaining assortment of movies and TV shows on numerous platforms. It also includes useful extras, such as watchlists and parental controls. Tubi's biggest limitation is that it tops out at 720p streaming. Although the ads aren't overwhelming, we would still like to see a low-cost monthly option to remove them entirely and unlock higher-resolution streaming. Still, Tubi's expanding library of exciting movies and shows makes it our Editors' Choice winner for free streaming services.

For the best on-demand shows and movies, we recommend Editors' Choice Netflix. Despite losing its free tier, Peacock holds onto its Editors' Choice badge as an affordable video streaming service. Our top choices for live TV services are Hulu and YouTube TV, platforms that offer excellent channel variety and slick interfaces.

About Jordan Minor