Overview
YouTube may be the most popular website for videos, but there are a lot of videos that you won’t find there.
You can use this page to run the same search across a wide range of sites for finding movies, television, and other videos as well as reviews, information, and more.
The results found are mostly streaming videos, also known as video-on-demand, meaning they do not need to be downloaded to view. There are tools you can use to download streaming video.
The national archives section includes mostly films which are not available online.
This page emphasizes free resources, however some of the videos which can be found are restricted, i.e. they may require free registration, not be available in all regions, or require a fee or paid subscription.
Search engines
Bing, Google, Yandex, Petey Vid, and MeFeedia are all search engines that can find videos from many different hosts, including those on this page. Most results are free to watch, but Bing and Google include some paid videos. Petey Vid only includes YouTube videos when they are an hour or more.
Yarn finds clips from film, television, and music by searching the actual words spoken.
Video hosts
Most websites do not host their own videos, but instead host them on YouTube, Rumble, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Veoh, Metacafe, and other popular video hosting sites. This is often cheaper, enables greater distribution, and includes useful features.
While the videos hosted on these sites are generally included in search engines, some can be missed, and the host sites often have additional features not available from the search engines.
Long videos
These are the most popular video search tools, filtered to find videos that are 20 minutes or more. Petey Vid is filtered to those 45 minutes or more.
Non-English
These are large video sites that are used in non-English-speaking countries. The videos are mostly not in English, and most do not have an English version of their site.
Rutube is a Russian site that has professional and user-contributed videos.
Youku and iQIYI are the biggest video sites in China, a country where YouTube is blocked. Youku has both professional and user-contributed videos, whereas iQIYI is professional only. Aparat is a popular site in Iran (in Farsi), where YouTube is also blocked.
TV UOL and Globo Play are Brazilian sites, in Portuguese. TV UOL has both professional and user-contributed videos. Globo Play has content from Rede Globo, a major television network.
Tune.pk is used in South Asian countries; the site itself and many of the videos are in English.
Niconico and FC2 are both Japanese sites available in English, with user-contributed videos. Niconico requires a free account to watch. Naver is a Korean site that has professional and user-contributed videos.
Movies, series (free)
These websites include movies, television shows, and web series, and are ad-supported so they are free to watch.
- Tubi TV has a large library of movies and TV shows including major Hollywood studios, anime, etc. and is not available in all countries.
- AOL Video includes mostly original web series.
- Popcornflix includes mostly independent films and can only be viewed in the United States and Canada.
- Sony Crackle (not included above) includes Hollywood, anime, original web series, and other movies and TV shows, and is not available in all countries.
Movies, series (paid)
Although the focus of Fagan Finder is free resources, a lot of popular movies and TV shows are only available for a price.
JustWatch and Reelgood are aggregators which list third-party services that each movie or television show is available on. These include services that are subscription-based, have on-demand purchasing or rental, and some free services as well. These vary by country and may include Netflix, Amazon, HBO, iTunes, Hulu, and others. Telescope (listed in International) is similar but focused on international films.
IndiePix Films offers independent and international content, including download and DVD options, and is not included on the above aggregators.
Open licences
These tools include videos under various open licences, including Creative Commons and those in the public domain.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit library that provides online access to tons of free materials. Most videos can be viewed online and/or downloaded. There are around 3 million including feature films, stock footage, animation, educational videos, television news, etc. Among the many subcollections is a large portion of the Prelinger Archives.
YouTube, Flickr, and Vimeo are filtered here to open videos only. Flickr, Pixabay, and Pexels are primarily image websites that have video sections. All Pixabay and Pexels content is free.
Videos on Europeana, in the national archives section are also under open licences.
Animated GIFs
Giphy and Tenor are search engines for animated GIFs, short video clips with no sound.
Live video
Periscope and YouTube (live) are services enabling anyone to broadcast live video. Twitch is a live video site oriented towards video games but includes other content as well.
Live TV channels
wwiTV, TVopedia, and Squid TV (which has no search function), list the live streaming pages of television channels (stations) around the world. You can search by channel or location.
Library services
hoopla, OverDrive, Alexander Street, and IndieFlix are video services that are free if your local library subscribes to them. You will need to log in via your library or library card to watch. Some of these are included in the aggregators included in movies, series (paid).
While Alexander Street focuses on educational content, the others also include entertainment such as Hollywood films and television shows.
International
Viki and Asian Crush contain works mostly from Asian countries, but also Latin America and other places. They have subtitles in English and some other languages.
Telescope lists international films and links to other (mostly paid) services where they can be viewed.
National archives
Except for Europeana and the United Kingdom’s National Archives, all of these list films which are not available online. Generally they include information about how to get access.
Europeana is a government-funded collection of European cultural heritage. filmarchives online lists non-fiction films from archives in many European countries. The others are:
Documentaries
DocumentaryHeaven, Top Documentary Films, and Documentary Storm are directories of documentaries hosted on YouTube and other sites. FreeDocumentaries.org has a feature allowing annotation for fact-checking.
The Documentaries Reddit is a community forum for posting, commenting, and voting on documentaries.
Documentaries can also be found on many of the other tools included here.
Educational
TeacherTube has a large collection of educational videos, especially useful for schools where computers are blocked from accessing YouTube. ACT Academy and WatchKnowLearn include videos from YouTube and other sources. OpenEd is organized around United States K-12 education standards, while WatchKnowLearn is organized into topics for children ages 3 to 18. On SchoolTube, most videos are made by students and approved by their school. National Geographic videos are mostly short videos of wildlife and science.
See also Khan Academy which has instructional videos (hosted on YouTube) on math, science, and more.
Educational videos can also be found on the library services and many of the other tools included here.
Lectures
Most of the lectures on these sites are aimed at higher education, but some are suitable for secondary (high school) students.
VideoLectures.NET, CosmoLearning, and Free Video Lectures, have lectures organized into subjects and courses. On Free Video Lectures, you can only search by course, not individual lecture. Many videos on VideoLectures.NET are paired with their slides, which can be used to navigate with them. Videos on the other sites are hosted on YouTube.
The Lectures Reddit is a community forum for posting, commenting, and voting on lectures and talks.
TED Talks (which include TEDx events around the world) are not lectures but are often educational.
News
Associated Press (AP) and Reuters are wire services that provide video to many other news outlets. The AP Archive includes videos from Associated Press and other organizations, going back to 1895.
The TV News Archive (part of the Internet Archive under open licences), searches through the closed captions of American news shows from 2009 onward.
ABC News is an individual news media outlet.
Other video
Unlisted Videos finds videos on YouTube which are public but not included in YouTube search results.
Creativity Online (by Ad Age) is an advertising-industry publication that includes an archive of commercials from around the world.
The Home Movie Registry is a catalogue of old home movies (mostly American) from a variety of sources, some of which are hosted by the Internet Archive. Most of the videos are watchable online.
YouTube channels lets you search for users (contributors) on YouTube.
“Google, with captions” is Google video search, limited to videos that have subtitles or closed captions. If you are interested in described video, see also TellMe TV which is a paid subscription service.
Geo Search Tool enables searching YouTube videos by the location they were filmed at.
Movie/TV information
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), The Movie Database, AllMovie, Movies.com, TV.com, TVmaze, and TheTVDB.com all provide information about movies, television shows and episodes, actors, and more. This may include plot summaries, cast and crew, genres, release dates, budgets, reviews, recommendations, etc., as well as media including trailers and still images. Despite the names, IMDb and The Movie Database include both movies and television. Many of these sites also include lists and articles.
Fandom is a collection of individual wikis about television shows, movies, and fictional universes that span across media.
What is my movie? lets you find movies by describing them. It uses artificial intelligence and analyses the video content and other information. Check their website for examples.
TV Tropes is a wiki about the common themes and devices used in film, television, and other media.
Reviews
While some of the tools in the information section include reviews and ratings, these sites are dedicated to them. Both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have a primary score based on professional critics and another score based on ratings from the general public.
Common Sense Media, Kids-in-Mind, and Screen It! (which does not have a search function) provide reviews to help adults decide whether a work is appropriate for children of various ages. The reviews are very detailed and score on multiple different types of material (violence, language, scariness, etc.). Common Sense Media includes movies, television, and other media, while the other two include only movies. Does the Dog Die provides “emotional spoilers”, warning about a wide range of actions.
The Bechdel Test Movie List rates movies on whether or not they pass the Bechdel Test, a basic test for gender equality.
Movie/TV scripts
The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb), SimplyScripts, and WeeklyScript (not included as a tool above) contain screenplays for movies and TV episodes. Some are plain text, others are PDF files.
The “Google+FF” option is a Google search limited to script sites, including the three mentioned here.
Showtimes / listings
Search for movies or locations on Fandango or Moviefone to find local showtimes in the United States. Fandango works in Canada too.
TV Guide has television schedules for many countries. You will want to set your location and provider to get local listings.
Film festivals
FilmFreeway lists thousands of film festivals, screenplay contests and similar events around the world. Film Festival Database is focused on the United States.