Crackle: Watch Free Movies and TV Online

Stream movies and shows for free from anywhere

Crackle is a website that lets you stream free movies and watch free TV shows on your computer, phone, and tablet.

Although you'll need to sit through a few commercial breaks during the movies and shows at Crackle, an awesome selection of programming, as well as a decent video quality, will have you coming back again and again.

Crackle's website

This video streaming service was originally called Grouper when it was first released, but later changed its name to Sony Crackle, and finally just Crackle.

Watch Free Movies and TV Shows at Crackle

Crackle regularly has around 100 free, full-length movies that you watch any time you want. New movies are constantly being added and retired from Crackle, so you'll always find something new to watch.

Movies at Crackle are organized into genres to help you find thrillers, comedies, action movies, Crackle original movies, dramas, crime movies, horror films, and more. You can sort the free movies alphabetically or by recently added so you can check back as often as you want to see what they've been including in their free selection.

In addition to movie-length videos are movie clips, trailers, and information on movies that are about to become available on Crackle.

Crackle also lets you stream free TV shows from hundreds of series that includes full episodes of comedies, anime, action, and thriller series.

Crackle free TV shows

Like the movies section, the TV shows you can find here include full episodes, clips, and trailers, including original Crackle series that you can't find anywhere else.

Crackle keeps videos during a particular time frame and then removes them. This means if you watch part of a movie one day, it's quite possible it could be gone the next before you can finish it. While this isn't ideal, it's still fine for most people since you probably usually watch a movie from beginning to end. Plus, the movies are free, so it's hard to complain.

How to Stream Crackle Movies & Shows

Crackle works on lots of devices. You can follow the links above to see the movies and shows on your computer, but there's also a Crackle movie app so that you can stream the videos on your phone or tablet.

You can download the Crackle mobile app on iOS devices, Android phones and tablets, and other devices.

Download For:

The main page in the Crackle mobile app has featured movies and shows, and the next two sections of the app separate movies and TV shows into their own categories. As you move down the app in either section, you can find the most popular videos, those that were recently added, and then all the videos in their own genre.

It's super simple to use the app because while it shows all of Crackle's content, it's organized very well to prevent clutter. You can move left to right in each genre to find all the movies and shows that belong in it. When you choose a video, you can find all the details you can see on Crackle's desktop site, such as the cast and a description of the video.

You can also share the video over social networks, SMS, or email, and a simpler set of CC/SUB settings is included in the mobile app.

Crackle also works with PS4, PS3, PlayStation TV, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Sony Blu-Ray players, Samsung Blu-Ray players, and several brands of TVs.

The Ads Are Worth It

Because Crackle is free, it uses advertising in both movies and TV shows. One appears at the beginning of every video and then more will appear as you watch more of the video. The shorter the video you’re watching, the fewer advertisements you’ll see, which seems appropriate.

For example, a 20-minute episode of a TV show might have three advertisements whereas a movie that’s an hour and a half may have as many as nine.

You can clearly see where the advertisements are at in a video. If you put your mouse into the video player and attempt to fast forward, you’ll notice small gray lines, which indicate advertisements. It's fortunate these are there so you know how far you can fast forward the video without having to watch another ad.

Advertisements might tend to be longer than you'd expect. As you skip forward in the video, multiple ads might play back to back. In these circumstances, the ads might last a total of a minute, so they're still tolerable.

Video Quality and Player Options

The video quality for movies and shows on Crackle is decent but not great like you might experience on other websites like Tubi. If viewing movies and TV shows on a very large, high definition screen, this relatively low quality will surely be noticed. However, the movies we tested seemed about as clear as a regular DVD on a normal computer screen.

As for buffering, we had absolutely no hiccups or stalls when watching several TV shows and movies. From the moment a video started to the point that an advertisement would show, were no delays due to buffering. There were also no delays when starting a video midway—it would begin to play just moments later from wherever it was clicked.

We've seen lots of comments about how Crackle's videos are too hard to watch because they take too long to buffer. This wasn't our experience, but whether it's yours depends entirely on your own network bandwidth and computer speed.

We also like that Crackle's movies and TV shows can be displayed in full-screen mode to get that theater-like experience at home.

Below the video are other things like an Add to Watchlist button, video description, cast list, and other movies you might like. If you're watching a series, you'll see links to other seasons (if there are any).

Benefits of Registering With Crackle

You don't have to register a user account with Crackle to watch the free movies and TV shows, but if you do, it means you that you don't have to enter your birth date every time you want to watch R-rated videos.

After you register, you'll also be able to create your own list of films to watch later, where they'll be neatly stored in your Watchlist page to remind you which videos you're wanting to watch but don't have time for right now.

Is Crackle Legal?

It might seem like Crackle is not legal because of its selection of well-known movies and full length TV shows, but you can rest assured that what you see on their website or through their app is 100 percent legal to stream as often as you want.

Crackle is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, meaning that not only is the service completely legal, there's also a continuous flow of new movies and programming from Sony to keep it fresh with new content.

FAQ
  • Is Crackle entirely free?

    Yes! Crackle is a completely free, ad-supported service. You may not find the same selection there as on other paid services, but Crackle itself is totally free.

  • What can you watch on Crackle?

    Crackle has a rotating selection, like all other streaming services, but Crackle does offer many mainstream, popular things to watch.

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