Plex Alternatives to Consider
While Plex is quite popular, its free tier offering may not be the best option. Unless you shift to Premium Plex Pass, a few issues might sour your experience. For one, a lot of the “free” content is ad-supported which feels annoying if you have something interesting to watch. To watch trailers and reviews on Plex, you’re always led through to an external page. Unlike other streaming aggregators, Plex doesn’t have many interesting widgets such as “Love,” “Want to see,” free options availability for a movie title, and a dedicated comments section. Setting up the Plex app on Windows/Linux/Mac is a major hassle. You have to jump through hoops before being finally served the video content on a browser. Even while using the mobile app, you’re frequently told to quit the app and visit a browser. Migrating to a paid plan works for many Plex users but other providers are offering the enhanced features absolutely free! Bottom line is that if for whatever reason, Plex isn’t doing it for you, you may instead select from the following list of Plex alternatives all of which combine multiple streaming services.
1. Oneflix
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android. Price: Free Oneflix is a new entrant in the movie and TV show aggregation space but is winning rave reviews for its universal coverage. Like Plex, it works by unifying multiple streaming services while letting users browse through any content of their choice. Personalizing the main dashboard is very easy as you just have to click a “Customize” button to add all the different subscriptions. Using Oneflix “My List”, you can add the different programs on different channels. Similar to Netflix, you get “For You” recommendations. The app also has a social vibe as it allows you to chat with many other users, and connect with your friends. You can see what they’re watching and join that stream. It is very easy to turn this feature off for greater privacy. To keep the inventory fresh, Oneflix frequently brings over new titles from all the different streamers. After you search for and find the title you need, you can watch it on the subscribed third-party app. You can further add it to a watchlist, read the reviews, go through the comments, and also add your own comments.
2. Reelgood
Supported Platforms: Web, iOS, Android. Price: Free Reelgood has a massive collection of streaming apps, covering a range of 300 free and paid apps. However unlike Plex, it is not available for different geographies and languages. You can only choose English language streaming content from USA/UK. But the massive collection can be accessed from anywhere. Reelgood is a great option for those who want to watch a wide variety of US/UK television shows. Combining all the different streaming services happens quickly. Just head to Reelgood’s Account section on top and add the streamers of your choice. Apart from big names like Netfix, Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+, Reelgood also supports Peacock, Tubi, Crackle, Showtime, FuboTV, Vudu, PopcornFlix, Fandor, Hoopla, and more. Do you like to watch more free content? For each and every title, Reelgood’s algorithms point to a free streaming service (if available). If a title is blocked in your country because of your IP address, Reelgood unblocks them through ExpressVPN and other VPN services.
3. JustWatch
Supported platforms: Web, iOS, Android, FireTV, LG TV, Samsung TV, Xbox. Price: Free / $2.5 per month JustWatch is another popular streaming aggregator with a massive collection of titles. It hosts a large collection of free anime videos for every category ranging from horror to comedy. Its biggest highlight though is its ability to combine movies and TV shows from different streamers. After logging in, click the prominent “+” button where you can add a wide variety of streaming services. These include YouTube Premium, Curiosity Stream, Mubi, Rakuten TV, CrunchyRoll, and many more. Unlike Reelgood, JustWatch allows you to select your country from the User Account section. This helps them serve localized streaming services from around the world. Currently the aggregator supports nearly 100 countries. Each JustWatch title can of course be streamed or rented as per your choice. You can also additionally check if their free versions are available. If you want a high quality picture/video, choose from any available HD and 4K options. JustWatch also gives additional suggestions to access any related titles from other available services.
4. Flick Metrix
Supported platforms: Web. Price: Free While Flick Metrix calls itself as a source for “the best movies on Netflix,” it is also a no-frills streaming service. Based in UK, it currently supports a small list of streamers: Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount, Peacock, STARZ, and BritBox. What I liked most about Flick Metrix is that it houses an impressive collection of classics from several different streamers. A cursory glance reveals “GoodFellas”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Apocalypse Now”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, and “Casablanca”. With Flick Metrix, a timeline allows you to view all the movies between certain years and decades, ranging all the way from the 1940s to present. If you don’t like new Netflix suggestions (let’s face it, they are becoming very unimaginative), Flick Metrix’s algorithms have that missing wow factor. When you crave real entertainment, it will hit the spot. Each movie title is sorted according to available subscription and Rent/Buy services. For every flick irrespective of its streaming service, you can create watch-lists, add favorites, recommend them, or trash the title. Apart from titles, Flick Metrix also aggregates movie reviews from Critic, MetaCritic and IMDB.
5. PlayOn
Supported platforms: iOS, Android. Price: Free (Streaming only) / $5 per month Most streaming aggregation services require you to be online to access the different streaming apps. PlayOn is the only one that lets you record and download movies and shows to watch them offline, anytime. However, you should first check the legality of downloading streaming content. For regular streaming, PlayOn offers access to different channels including Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Discovery+, Peacock, Tubi, Vudu, SHO, The CW, and more. Unlike the previous streaming aggregators in our list, the offering is served a bit differently. Instead of showing all the titles through a search bar, you are required to choose your favorite channels. After a cursory login into your selected streaming app, you will be able to access your app dashboard on the PlayOn app itself. In the following example, I could easily access my entire Netflix account via the PlayOn app.
6. PlayPilot
Supported platforms: Web, iOS, Android. Price: Free Apart from USA/UK, you can fine-tune your regional preferences with content served from Australia, Belgium, India, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and a few more countries. For each movie/show title, you can stream it from multiple subscription apps and also rent/buy those services. You can easily check a movie against “Seen” filter, add it to a watch-list or collection, and hide it if you don’t want to see it again. You can also read multiple reviews about the movie and add your own impressions to the mix. PlayPilot also serves you recommendations through “multiple titles” further classified according to its presence in different streamers. Apart from movies and TV shows, it also has a huge collection of documentaries.
7. SelectTV
Supporting platforms: Web, iOS, Android, FireTV, Android TV, Apple TV. Price: Free / $29.99 (one time payment) SelectTV is a zero cost app to seamlessly access hundreds of free channels as well as many leading movie and TV show streaming services. After a simple login, you can head to “My subscriptions” on the left panel. Here you need to turn the toggle switch on for all the services you need. Once you have an active subscription, you will receive title recommendations pertaining to that streamer. You can also search for any title online. If you are an avid watcher of US television content, SelectTV has plenty of good recommendations. The shows are segregated according to “Trending TV,” “Hallmark”, “Crackle Recommends” and other filters. Image credit: Unsplash All screenshot by Sayak Boral
