The best apps like Tubi for a first install are Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Plex and Fawesome. Pluto TV best suits channel surfers, The Roku Channel best suits anyone who wants one app across a television, a browser and a phone, Plex best suits readers who want a catalogue rather than a schedule, and Fawesome best suits viewers who watch niche and genre films.
All four are free with advertising. None of them asks for a card, and none hides a trial that turns into a charge.
The habit decides between them faster than the catalogue does. We checked three things on each app: the published service area, the ownership record and the current price. Those three facts retire more free streaming apps than any shortage of titles does, and the same approach applies to software beyond streaming: it is the one we took when comparing dictation apps by platform earlier this month.
What to use instead of Tubi?
Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Plex and Fawesome still work as drop-in replacements. None of the four charges a subscription, and none asks for payment details.
Catalogue size is a weak filter here, because no operator publishes a verifiable title count. What separates the four is how each one asks you to watch: a schedule, a browse-and-play shelf, or a genre shelf.
| App | Best for | Account needed | Ads | Live channels | Working offline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pluto TV | Channel surfers who want a schedule running when they open the app | No | Yes, on both live and on-demand | Yes, hundreds of themed channels | No |
| The Roku Channel | One app across a TV, a browser and a phone | No for viewing; a free Roku account only for resuming across devices | Yes | Yes, more than 500 live channels | No |
| Plex | Finding one particular film instead of browsing a schedule | Yes | Yes, on the free tier | Yes, more than 600 channels | No |
| Fawesome | Independent and genre cinema that the big operators rarely licence | No | Yes | Yes, themed film channels | No |
Pluto TV for channel surfers
Pluto TV opens onto a programme guide rather than a browse-and-play shelf. That is the closest thing to the cable experience Tubi replaced. The channels run on a schedule, and most of them cannot be paused, only muted, so it suits an evening when nobody has decided what to watch. On-demand titles sit alongside the channels in the same app, which is why we treat it as the closest single replacement for Tubi.
It is a subsidiary of Paramount Skydance, through the company’s direct-to-consumer division, which is the main reason to expect the service to keep running.
The trade-off is a thinner on-demand shelf than Tubi carries.
The Roku Channel for one app on every screen
The Roku Channel reaches further than the other three. Roku’s own support pages list more than 500 live channels. The app runs on Roku devices, Samsung smart televisions, Amazon Fire TV devices, the web and the Roku mobile app. A television, a laptop and a phone all resume the same programme once you sign in with a free Roku account, and the Roku Channel support page lists the whole device range.
That account is optional for watching but useful for anyone who switches screens mid-film. Roku’s published service area for the channel is the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, plus Mexico on Roku devices only.
Plex for search rather than surfing
Plex began as a way to play media stored on your own computer. It now carries a free streaming catalogue alongside that job. Its advantage over the other three is search. You can look for a title, a genre or an actor and get a straight answer instead of browsing rows.
Plex does ask for an account, even when you only want the free tier. That is the one clear cost against it. In return you get the catalogue, plus the option to point the same app at your own library later.
Fawesome for genre film
Fawesome is the smallest of the four, and the one to try when the mainstream shelves have nothing left. It runs independent cinema, cult titles and genre film. It needs no account at all. Readers on r/420Grindhouse named it in the same breath as Pluto, Roku and Plex when asked what else was out there.
The catalogue is narrow by design. It works as a second app that stays installed, not as a replacement for a broad one. Its Spanish-language shelf has grown through separate content deals.
The shortlist real viewers write down
The most useful public evidence on this question is a comment thread rather than a review. It names what people actually installed after they went looking. One reader on r/420Grindhouse answered a request for a free app in the Tubi mould with a shortlist and an open question of their own.
“Pluto, Fawesome, Roku, Plex, Filmrise (might be the same as Fawesome?). Midnight Pulp has some free movies and some you need a paid membership for” – r/420Grindhouse, September 2026 (24 upvotes)
Filmrise is the one name on that list worth a caution, because the two apps look alike and are not the same company. FilmRise publishes its own app, which states that no login is needed, and Fawesome is operated by Future Today. The open question inside that quote, whether the two are related, has a plain answer: they are separate operators with overlapping genre shelves.
When the apps like Tubi do not fit: Fawesome, Plex and Peacock
The shortlists that go past the big four are usually the ones worth reading, and that is where we part company with the rave write-ups.
Fawesome, Plex and Peacock get recommended as substitutes constantly. They are not the same kind of answer. Fawesome and Plex deliver what they promise. Peacock stopped being free for new users. Anyone who installs it expecting a Tubi-shaped app will meet a subscription page instead.
NBCUniversal ended the open free tier in 2023. What remains is limited to accounts that predate the change and to paying subscribers. Android Authority puts it plainly: Peacock no longer offers a free tier. That leaves a paid service with a legacy carve-out, and CNET now prices the paid route at $11 a month for Premium and $17 a month for Premium Plus.
The same correction applies to Freevee, Amazon’s former free service. Its app no longer exists. Its catalogue now sits inside Prime Video.
Guides that still list either one as a free pick are describing a market that has moved.
Sling Freestream is the other large free service, although it is often overlooked, because Sling sells paid packages on the same site. Freestream carries more than 600 live channels and 40,000 on-demand titles. It needs no account, and it includes 10 hours of free DVR space for anyone who does sign in. We count it as a paid brand’s free wing rather than a stand-alone app.
Two smaller options survive on a different basis. Kanopy and Hoopla both run without advertising, and both require a library card from a participating library rather than a payment. Kanopy leans towards arthouse, documentary and classic cinema. Hoopla mixes film, television, comics and audiobooks, and it limits each borrower to a monthly number of titles set by their own library. Neither is a general replacement. Either is worth holding if your library has signed up.
For readers in the Gulf, the honest alternative is a paid regional service rather than a free one. OSN+ and STARZPLAY both carry mainstream film and series on a subscription. We found nothing in the free, advertising-funded group that covers the region, which is the next question worth settling.
The app that works in the most places, and where the others stop
The Roku Channel is the free app with the widest published reach. Roku lists the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom on Roku devices, the web and mobile, plus Mexico on Roku devices only. Tubi publishes six markets, and Pluto TV covers the Americas and Europe. None of the three lists Gulf coverage.
Service area decides whether an evening works at all. It is also the one fact that app-store listings do not carry. We will not recommend an app that refuses to open, and a catalogue so thin that the recommendation was never real is not worth the install.
Tubi’s own list is the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Access from the European Union ended when the GDPR took effect on 25 May 2018. The service has not returned to those markets. A shortlist built from American guides will therefore contain apps that cannot open in a large part of the world.
Licensing is not the only reason an app changes shape across borders. The same pattern governs regional football coverage, where rights holders split a competition country by country and the viewer’s location decides which listings appear. The domains behind Futbollibre are a worked example.
Travel is the second half of this question. A service that works at home can stop working on a trip, because the account and download rules travel with the licence rather than with the device. Readers who move between the Gulf, Europe and North America should treat any of these apps as a bonus. Keep one paid regional service for the evenings when something has to work.
Ownership, in one table
A free service survives on advertising. The operator’s balance sheet therefore decides whether the app will still exist in two years. Every free app on this list belongs to a company with other revenue: a broadcaster, a hardware maker or a studio. That is the strongest signal available, and it is checkable from the public record.
The table below pairs each operator with the registration record of its main domain. We read those records from the registries on 23 September 2026. The registration date belongs to the web address and not to the service. That distinction matters for Kanopy and Sling in particular, because both addresses are older than the products now using them.
| Service | Operated by | Main domain registered | Operator since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tubi | Fox Corporation | tubitv.com, 25 February 2014 | 2020, for approximately $440 million in net cash |
| Pluto TV | Paramount Skydance, direct-to-consumer division | pluto.tv, 23 February 2013 | 2019, when Viacom bought it for $340 million |
| The Roku Channel | Roku | roku.com, 3 April 2004 | Built in-house by Roku |
| Plex | Plex | plex.tv, 27 November 2008 | Independent since it was founded |
| Sling Freestream | Sling TV, a Dish Network subsidiary | sling.com, 12 September 1999 | Built in-house by Sling |
| Fawesome | Future Today | fawesome.tv, 18 December 2013 | Independent since founding |
| Kanopy | Kanopy, owned by OverDrive | kanopy.com, 27 November 1998 | Acquired by OverDrive in 2021 |
The pattern is a broadcaster behind almost every app that lasts, and the reason is simple: free streaming is paid for by advertising, and advertising rewards scale. Fox bought Tubi in March 2020 for approximately $440 million in net cash at closing, by Fox Corporation’s own announcement. Paramount Skydance now describes Pluto TV as part of its direct-to-consumer division. Two independent operators remain on the list, Plex and Future Today, and both have stayed in the market for more than a decade.
When free streaming apps stop being free
Free streaming is a business model with an expiry risk, not a category. Peacock closed its open free tier in 2023. Freevee shut its app and moved its catalogue inside Prime Video. Both are still cited as free options by guides that have not been updated.
The test is simple and takes a minute. Look for a current price on the operator’s own page, an account requirement, and a service-area line. If a service shows a price and no free tier, the free version has gone. If the app page has not changed in years, check whether the operator still lists the service at all.
Three groups should not build an evening around these apps. Anyone outside the listed service areas will meet a licence wall rather than a catalogue. Anyone who wants no advertising at all is better served by Kanopy or Hoopla through a library card, or by a paid tier. Anyone who needs a specific new release should expect to rent it, because the free services licence back catalogue rather than new titles.
What remains is a good deal for everyone else. Several of these apps run side by side on the same television, cost nothing, and can be tried for one evening before you decide. Ad breaks are the price. They arrive on a fixed clock, and the pause button does not stop them: WhistleOut timed one every 15 to 20 minutes on Tubi during a full-film test. Netflix and YouTube have both raised their prices, which is why the free shelf looks better than it did a few years ago.
Availability decides the rest. Read the service-area line before you commit an evening to an app.
Common questions
What is the best free alternative to Tubi?
Pluto TV is the closest match for a first-time viewer, because it mixes live themed channels with an on-demand shelf and needs no account. The Roku Channel is the better choice if you watch on a television, a browser and a phone, since one sign-in keeps your place across all three.
Are there apps like Tubi for Android?
All four of the main alternatives publish an Android app: Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Plex and Fawesome. Tubi itself also runs on Android. The limitation is regional rather than technical, since a licence wall blocks the app before the phone matters.
Which is better, Fawesome or Tubi?
Tubi is the better general app, with a larger mixed catalogue and a wider device range across six markets. Fawesome is the better second app, because its independent and genre shelf holds titles the larger services rarely licence, and it needs no account.
Tubi or Plex: which one is better?
Tubi is better for browsing, since it opens onto rows of films and starts playing. Plex is better for searching, because you can look for a specific title and get a straight answer. Plex also requires an account, and Tubi does not.
Is there a totally free streaming app?
Yes, with advertising. Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Plex and Fawesome all stream without a subscription or a card. The truly ad-free route runs through Kanopy and Hoopla, and both need a library card from a participating library rather than a payment.
Which free streaming apps need no account?
Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and Fawesome all play without signing in. Plex asks for an account before it will stream. An account is still worth creating on the others if you want to keep your place across devices or set up profiles.
Do free streaming apps like Tubi work in the Gulf?
None of the main free services lists Gulf coverage. Tubi publishes six markets and Pluto TV covers the Americas and Europe, so readers in the UAE and the wider region are outside their service areas. A paid regional service is the dependable option there.
