Top 10 best websites to download movies to watch offline free
Introduction
While the world of online streaming is quite popular, sometimes you just want a buffer-free, ad-free experience where you can not worry about being connected to the internet. Especially useful when you are out in an area without service, be it on an airplane or an area with a poor internet connection.
While there are a lot of movie sites to watch movies online, a lot of these are violating various copyright laws by illegally streaming these movies without a license or permission from the movie studios behind it. While the legal area for streaming movies for free is in a gray area, downloading from these sites can get you in legal trouble due to privacy laws.
Don’t worry, for you can find the sources you need completely legally to fulfill your wish to watch offline movies without any cost online! So keep on reading for a list of both online and paid sites to download free movies online.
PublicDomainMovies.net
Public domains are the most legally approved places to download movies from. As they are in the public domain, the movies on these are legally downloadable. Download movies free online with Publicdomainmovies.net which is an excellent website to download movies.
It has a wide array of genres like drama, horror, romcoms etc. You can preview the movies to see if movies are worth downloading and simply download them at the click of a button.
Pros:
Wide array of genres
Preview option to download movies
No payment or registration required
Cons:
Doesn’t have many of the newer movies
UI is cluttered with Ads
No options to sort or search through the movies.
The Public Domain Review
As we have said, movies from the public domain have movies to download for free. While both of these have movies from the public domain, this website also has several filtering options for you to search through the website.
Filter by genres like country, genre and length etc. You can watch silent films, horror films and even nature based documentaries. Simply click on the download button on the movie’s description to download movies.
Pros:
Search engine provides many options to filter through the movies
UI has no ads
No registration and completely free
Cons:
None of the new films are on thereVery select catalog of movies
Netflix
The best site to watch and download free movies to watch offline free on phone. Netflix provides a subscription service meaning its services are paid unfortunately, however you can start a free trial for 30 days and download movies for free. If you want to watch movies offline free, this is a good place to start.
Pros:
Has TV shows, documentaries and movies.
Dynamic library with the latest movies
Powerful search engine
Cons:
Movies are hidden behind a paywall but have a free trial.
Downloading is only available on the mobile app.
Downloads can sometimes be removed if the movie is removed from the platform.
Prime
Download free movies to watch offline on the Amazon Prime app, which has a huge host of original TV shows and movies as well as exclusive Amazon originals. You can rent movies on the platform and download them as well. It however has a paid subscription, and just like Netflix you can take advantage of its free trial and watch free movies to download and watch offline.
Pros:
You can stream, rent and download movies on the platform.
Provides a powerful search engine and filters through the movies.
Cons:
Apps can only be downloaded via the mobile app.
All films can’t be downloaded.
Downloads can sometimes be removed if the movie is removed from the platform.
Youtube
The Youtube app hosts all its content legally and you can download movies to watch offline. The best thing about youtube is unlike the streaming services above, there is no need to subscribe to its premium service and you can start downloading right away! However the downloads are available only on the mobile app.
Pros:
Download any video online using online websites
Provides both old and new movies perfectly legally.
Cons:
Lots of scam videos that can mislead inexperienced people.
Not all movies are often available.
Hulu
Hulu is a subscription based platform based in the US that offers a range of movies that you can download legally. Every movie can be downloaded at the click of a button and while it works only on a certain number of devices like mobile phones and Firesticks, it is still a good option download movies for free online
Pros:
The site provides a clean UI to find free movie downloads to watch offline
Supports up to 25 downloads
Cons:
Not all subscription plans include movie downloads.
Requires a mobile app to download.
Downloads expire after a certain amount of time.
Library of Congress
The library of Congress hosts all the best movies of America, chosen by the government to showcase the range and diversity of the American film heritage sourced from the National Film registry.
They have a simple download option that can be downloaded in various genres and formats.
Pros:
Provides a preview option before downloading
Completely free
Cons:
Doesn’t have many new films
Limited collection of films.
Disney+
Disney+ is one of the best platforms to download movies to watch offline free on the phone. Disney is a huge movie maker in today’s world and this platform hosts all the movies on it. You can then download these easily to watch offline.
Pros:
Has a lot of popular movies that are not offered on other platforms legally.
Powerful search engine to sort through the range of movies.
Cons:
Downloading is locked behind a subscription plan
Not all movies can be downloaded
Downloaded content gets expired every 30 days of inactivity
Vudu
Just like the streaming sites we’ve mentioned, Vudu movies allows you to download movies you have purchased already and watch them offline. Its powerful search engine allows you to watch and filter the list of movies by the choice you want. You can also view their rating sourced from Rotten Tomatoes.
Pros:
Big catalog of HD movies
Download all movies of your choice
Cons:
Downloads can only occur on the mobile app.
Not available in all countries.
Downloading is locked behind a paywall.
The Internet Archive
If you are wondering how to download free movies the Internet Archive provides a huge catalog of information and movies to download. These are in the public domain, so you do not have to worry about having any legal problems. Find movies in many languages and filter by genre to find the movies to download and watch offline.
Pros:
Preview option to ensure you download movies you like
Filtering allows you to find the movies of your choice
Huge catalog of movies for free
Cons:
Many newer films aren’t on the platform
Are there many legal movie download sites
When you look for options to download movies online, you have a lot of sites that, while providing many options to download, are actually sourcing them illegally. As we have discussed, these sites can get you in trouble for piracy. Often, these movies also have malware and can pose security risks to your computer. There are also websites that advertise a download option but can only stream movies.
If a movie isn’t in the public domain, or the creator hasn’t given permission for their movie to be shared this way, then it’s not yours to keep. The first few sites in our list above are totally free because they’re public domain films, and the others don’t have any legal concerns because of the agreements those companies have with the studios that produced the movies they’re letting you download.
Conclusion
We hope this article answers the question “where can I download movies for free”. As we have seen, there are many websites that can allow you to download the files of your choice safely. However, many of them are locked behind paywalls, but like we said you can use the free trials to bypass this for a limited time and download movies to watch offline free.
We would like to end by suggesting that it is often better to stream movies rather than downloading them, as firstly they are not illegal to watch and lie in a legal gray area, meaning that you will face no issues watching them. Secondly, there are many websites that provide the option to stream movies for free online, So you can look for them if you need to.