Plex Review: The Most Powerful Free Streaming Option in 2025

Streaming Smarter says: Plex is my most-used streaming service. More than Netflix. More than any live TV option. The free version of Plex gives you 960+ live TV channels and 50,000+ on-demand titles. You can also use Plex to watch and share any movies, music, or TV shows on your computer’s hard drive with friends and family.

I have a lifetime subscription to the Plex Pass option, which makes Plex unbelievably powerful. More on that later.

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What Can You Watch with Plex?

Even a free Plex account comes packed with worthwhile movies and TV shows. If you choose to supercharge it with your own library, it gets even better.

Movies, TV, and Music from Your Hard Drive

If you have movies, TV shows, and songs on your computer’s hard drive, you can install the Plex Media Server on your PC, then tell it where to fetch your files. Once connected, Plex can stream your hard drive content to your TV, phone, and tablet.

Plex allows you to share your video files and music with friends or family. To make this work, one of you needs Plex Pass – or users can pay for the Remote Watch Pass. It can be a great way to share home movies to specific people without dealing with YouTube or another video sharing service.

Movies, TV, and Music from Your Friends’ Hard Drives

If your friends have Plex Pass and the Plex Media Server installed, you’ll be able to watch any files they share with you. If you want to watch a friend’s media and they don’t have Plex Pass, you can either buy Plex Pass or choose the Remote Watch Pass plan.

Live TV with an Antenna

One of the coolest things about Plex Pass is that I can watch live TV from my antenna and record any show to my computer’s hard drive.

1. Get an antenna.
2. Connect the antenna to a HDHomeRun device.
3. Add HDHomeRun as a live TV source within your Plex settings.

If your antenna can access a TV signal, you can watch it with Plex. For me, that means the ability to watch and record CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS, PBS Kids, MeTV, MeTV Toons, ION, COZI TV, Dabl, Comet, Antenna TV, Rewind TV, Catchy Comedy, and much more.

Free Movies on Plex

The free movie library on Plex includes a rotating library of hits. As of this review, the library includes “Crank,” “The Grey,” “Trading Places,” “Winter’s Bone,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Evil Dead II,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The Right Stuff,” “LA Confidential,” “Point Break,” “Ip Man,” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Free TV Shows on Plex

Plex offers stellar TV shows like “Mad Men,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Weeds,” “The Conners,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Perfect Strangers,” “The Kids in the Hall,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

Free Kids Content on Plex

Plex isn’t a great ecosystem for kids because the content isn’t walled off from the rest of the library. Free kid-friendly content on Plex includes “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” “Ferngully: The Last Rainforest,” “The Transformers,” “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” “Garfield and Friends,” “Thomas the Tank Engine,” “Danger Mouse,” “Bakugan Battle Brawlers,” “G.I. Joe,” and “Babar: The Movie.”

What Free Live Channels Are on Plex?

Even if you don’t connect an antenna, Plex has a huge lineup of more than 900 free TV channels.

You’ll get free news from CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC affiliates around the country.

Plex provides fun entertainment channels like BritBox Mysteries, Ion Mystery, ALLBLK Gems, Hallmark Movies & More, The Martha Stewart Channel, CraftsyTV, BET x Tyler Perry Drama, Curiosity NOW, Dateline, Court TV Legendary Trials, Game Show Central, Screambox TV, Midnight Pulp, The Ed Sullivan Show, PBS Nature, MovieSphere, PBS Retro, Cowboy Channel, and SNL Vault.

Plex sports channels include NBC Sports NOW, PFL MMA, Motorsport.tv, Stadium, Tennis+, HBCUGO SPORTS, MSG SportsZone, and CampusLore Sports.

How Bad Are Commercials on Plex?

The commercials on free content appear more frequently than I’d like with Plex. When watching a movie, I hit my first 90-second commercial break less than 7 minutes in.

However, there are no commercials if you use Plex to watch movies or TV shows on your hard drive or your friends’ hard drives.

Plex ‘Managed Accounts’ – A Great Option for Kids

As a dad, one of my frustrations is that parental controls on most streaming services are clumsy. With Disney+, I can’t set my kids’ profile to allow some PG-13 movies – it’s all PG-13 movies or nothing.

With Plex, I decide what titles from my library are available for my kids’ profile. We’re slowly making our way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I don’t want them getting spoiled by seeing a movie we haven’t watched yet. After we watch a movie from my library, I add it to their profile so they can choose it on a Saturday morning.

Use Plex to Launch Your Other Streaming Services

It’s a huge headache to find where a movie or show is streaming these days. But Plex makes it easy. After you tell Plex which subscriptions you have, Plex can open those services when you search for and find a movie you want.

I also like that Plex has a Trending tab – you can scroll down to your paid services and Plex will tell you the most popular titles available on each. It makes finding a movie much faster than other methods I’ve found.

Movie and TV Rentals with Plex

If you want to rent a new movie, you can do that within Plex! Just head to the Rentals section. You can look up movies or shows and pay to borrow or buy them. Rentals last for 48 hours and usually cost $3.99 for older films and $9.99 for new releases.

Plexamp – Your Music Library’s Best Friend

When you sign up for Plex, you’ll get access to Plexamp – a mobile app that can play any songs saved on your computer’s hard drive. Create playlists or play virtual “stations” based on music genres or moods like “angry,” “carefree,” “fierce,” “greasy,” “lonely,” or “mysterious.”

Plex Pass – Why You’ll Love This Powerful Upgrade

You don’t have to pay to use Plex. You’ll find a lot to love on the free version.

But Plex takes a huge leap forward when you invest in Plex Pass. You can choose to pay monthly ($6.99), yearly ($69.99), or follow me and grab the Lifetime plan ($249.99).

With Plex Pass, you can stream media from your friends’ Plex libraries and share your media with others outside your home.

The subscription allows you to skip credits or skip TV intros on any shows saved to your hard drive.

The upgrade also provides special extras for any movies in your home library – see behind-the-scenes content, trailers, deleted scenes, and more.

If you have an antenna running through HD HomeRun and sending the signal to Plex, Plex Pass allows you to record those shows to your computer’s hard drive.

Plex Pass users can download music to their devices in Plexamp. I use it for various running playlists. Plex Pass also gives you the lyrics to your songs.

What Streaming Devices are Compatible with Plex?

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Peter Gardner

Peter Gardner cut the cord in 2017. He’s Streaming Smarter’s resident sci-fi fan – his favorite films include “Blade Runner,” “Children of Men,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Gattaca.” His favorite live TV streamer is Sling TV and his favorite on-demand service is Max.