One of the most popular free (as in pirate) streaming movie sites of all time, 123movies shut down in March 2018 after giving notice to the community. They also used the names GoMovies123, MeMovies, GoStream, and 123MoviesHub along with variations of PutLocker.
Free Alternatives to GoMovies123 & 123Movies
Millions of users each day flocked to 123movies located at the 123movies.to domain. 123movies, one of the largest online streaming video piracy websites in history, finally started to feel the heat of pending litigation.
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What are the Best Alternatives to 123 Movies?
While 123movies is down and likely gone forever, there are many places streaming movies and TV series online. Here is a short list containing our current working 123movies alternative sites. Some of these sites may even be run by the same guys that ran 123movies and shut it down along with the original GoMovies and 123MoviesHub sites.
Related reading: Top Torrent Sites
These alternatives to 123Movies may not be around forever, so be sure to also peruse our list of the best Kodi addons to get all the movies, TV episodes, and even live streaming sports matches you want without going to websites that may be monitored or not.
Of course, there’s no need to worry about that when you use the freely available Surfshark VPN app and connect only through their encrypted VPN servers with unlimited bandwidth.
Without further ado, here are the best 123Movies alternatives available for your viewing pleasure.
MovieWatcher.is
MovieWatcher Online Cinema is a fantastic movie download and streaming site with daily updates. This very simple website provides tons of your favorite movies and episodes to watch for free. From comedy to drama and kids programming to westerns, MovieWatcher.is has it all. This includes selections now playing in theaters.
You can even download movies free at MovieWatcher . Also one of the safest streaming websites online, MovieWatcher is much like the original 123Movies.
MyDownloadTube.com
MyDownloadTube isn’t only one of the best download sites available for movies on the internet. It may also be the best place found online to download full PC games. To download a game or HD movie from their extensive library is easy.
Their cinema selection includes one of the biggest online collections of working Arabic movies and Bollywood titles. Of course, you’ll also find all the expected Hollywood favorites.
Their playback function allows you to select subtitles for their in-browser player. You can even preview with a trailer before you play or download a feature film on MyDownloadTube.
With game downloads and previews of movies available, MyDownloadTube enters the mix as one of the very best alternatives to Movies123.
WatchMoviesFree.org
Visit WatchMoviesFree.org (previously WatchMoviesFree.tv and WatchMoviesFree.us) to watch loads of movies in HD absolutely free. Their site provides a very large movie collection of both new titles and the best classics.
As their name suggests, WatchMoviesFree is great to visit for watching movies free online. Try them for titles you can’t get elsewhere, as WatchMoviesFree is a very nice site without a bunch of hoops to jump through like some sites.
123GoStream.tv
A sitemap would reveal 123GoStream heavily linked to its sister WatchMoviesFree shown above. Still, this is a very nice website to watch free streaming movies online if you can get over some of their downsides.
Checking the available categories, there are tons of titles organized by genres, country, and year of production. If using a mouse to navigate, you may be turned off by their poorly developed navigation menus.
Also note the most prominent feature on their homepage is a plea for crytpocurrency donations. Another downside is occasionally getting a movie other than the one you selected.
The interface may be a bit jumbled; probably to make people follow the advertisements that are made to look like they start the streaming video. Most 123Movies replacement sites seem to use these same terrible ads, but they appear styled differently on the 123GoStream.tv website.
There is quite a selection of streaming videos available, so browse around here and see what you think. Once you know where to click, 123GoStream.tv is a really nice alternative.
MovieDDL.to
MovieDDL lets you download or watch movies absolutely free of charge. You can find HD movies by title, genres, or release year at MovieDDL. MovieDDL.to is one of the best websites for downloading movies.
Watch-Free.me
Watch-Free has a large selection of HD movies to watch online for free. Sadly, there is no download option for those of you wanting to grab the movie and take it camping in the middle of nowhere or on the train to work.
You must view the movies from their site with an active connection to the internet. Still, with the tremendous selection of movies available at Watch-Free.me , this is a wonderful replacement for the gone 123Movies sites to watch free streaming movies online.
123Movies4u.to
If you ever watched free streaming movies online at GoMoviesTV.co, you’ll recognize the 123Movies4u.to/GoMovies website. It’s the same site design upgraded with faster servers and far more free streaming online movies and TV shows.
Watch movies by genre, title, and even country. This fantastic 123Movies clone allows you to download movies for later or enjoy them immediately for free. 123 Movies 4 U also provides ratings from IMDB for every movie on their website. This is great when you’re searching for something to watch free online.
Full4Movies.co
If you’d used the Full4Movie.com site in the past, then you know the superb quality available on Full4Movies.co. This is the same site, but with a better layout and even more HD quality movies available. All the most popular HD movies and TV series can be downloaded from this website.
You can choose to either download movies or watch movies online for free by streaming at the Full4Movies.co website. You can even find movies and specific TV episodes using the release date, rating, genre, and much more. This website is one of the best 123Movies versions.
9Anime.is
9Anime has a humungous collection of anime titles. The interface is clean and very friendly to watching streams. No advertising or sign-up requirements at 9Anime.is
; just streaming anime fully keyboard controlled with options to darken the screen to avoid eye fatigue and much more. If you love anime, then you really need to check out the 9Anime website.
SolarMovie
Found at their SolarMovieX.to
address, SolarMovie has one of the largest collections of HD movies found anywhere. This wonderful website provides filters, meta data, and reviews.
You are free to comment on their movie pages to let others know what the quality of their streams is like. Many of their available streaming servers are really fast, allowing you to watch movies without any buffering.
With SolarMovie, you can also download movies and TV series to watch when not connected to the internet.
PutLocker.io
Putlocker is another website helping you watch the latest movies online free. They provide access to a huge number of movies and television to watch. They don’t require registration before watching the movies on their site, and you don’t need to download the videos first.
While the PutLocker.io
site and many other PutLocker sites like it are ad-supported in a somewhat annoying way. The ad banners and buttons can easily be avoided with something like the uBlock Origin ad blocker browser addon.
PopcornTime
While PopcornTime is not a website, this should be taken into consideration for watching movies and TV free online. Like Kodi, Terrarium TV, and plenty of other streaming APKs, PopcornTime provides a wonderful replacement for 123movies and PutLocker.
With a simple interface and excellent navigation, along with a huge library of top movies and other videos, it’s plain to see why so many people love the PopcornTime app. Give it a try on your Firestick, PC, or nearly any other streaming device you want.
FMovies
With both FMovies.ac and Fmovies.se dead and gone at this time, they deserve special mention. Their many versions have provided beautifully simple interfaces and tons of available content. Providing the option to download or watch free movies gave both very high scores as GoMovies replacements.
There were tons of Anime, movie, and TV streams to download or watch free online streaming to any web capable device. Once you saw something you wanted to view, you could simply push play to watch.
There were a few ads, but the number of super-fast servers and HD streams made up for them. We will provide more information immediately upon discovering another version that works.
Alluc.ee
If you want to download movies or TV shows to watch later, Alluc.ee
may become your next best friend. This site finds films available for download on the internet. You will have fun searching and grabbing any and everything you can imagine to watch. With a search engine devoted to finding downloadable video files, why would you need any other site—except for free online movies in your browser, of course.
Sadly, Alluc.ee closed down to pursue other interests. They were by far one of the most popular sites online for finding movie and TV show downloads. They didn’t provide free streaming directly by design, though many used them this way anyhow. For free movies online, we highly suggest any other website on our list of the best 123movies replacements available.
Free Streaming Movies Online from Google
If you use Google to look for the name of a movie or TV show you want to see preceded by “parent directory” or “index of” then you just may find available streams without the help of any other website or application. Seriously—just search “parent directory big buck bunny” (without the quotation marks) and explore the results.
Now, download the free Surfshark VPN app, connect to one of their encrypted VPN servers, then do that same search for anything you want to watch without hassle or worry. No more crying about 123Movies going down.
You’re welcome.
123Movies Departing Words
The GoMovies123 and 123Movies administration posted a very clear message stating their intention to close down at the end of the week. That was last week, and they kept their word.
The message stated “We’ve been providing links to movies and shows for years. Now it’s time to say goodbye.” As a gesture of good will, they said: “Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long.”
Respect the Filmmakers
In a twist that seems half insurance policy for the 123Movies developers, they also encouraged their users to start paying to watch movies and TV episodes rather than pirating them. They called this the way to pay respect to filmmakers. At the end of their goodbye message, the team added “PS: Please pay for the movies/shows, that’s what we should do to show our respect to people behind the movies/shows.”
MPAA on the Prowl Against Piracy Sites like 123Movies and GoMovies123
The entire shutdown and message left are not entirely surprising, as the MPAA branded 123Movies as “the most popular illegal site in the world.” Representatives of the MPAA were also visiting Vietnam to work with authorities there in an effort to bring an end to 123movies(hub)/GoMovies123.
Jan van Voorn, the MPAA Executive Vice President & Chief of Global Content Protection said “Right now, the most popular illegal site in the world, 123movies.to (at this point), is operated from Vietnam, and has 98 million visitors a month.”
Beware 123Movies Imposters
123Movies had changed their name a few times leading up to their shutdown in an effort to avoid personal detection. They had several variations using mixtures of the words go, 123, movies, and hub in their name. Nobody knows how many variations of 123movieshub.to and goomovies existed with the original moderators, but there is a storm of copycat sites recently.
You can find many naming variants with Go, 123, and Movies popping up online, but be very careful. It’s possible that 123Movies opened another site (or even more than one). It’s also quite possible some of these copycat sites are run by government or corporate agencies. Many will contain spyware, cryptomining scripts, and far worse. If you’re not using an encrypted VPN to cover your tracks and protect your privacy, even your internet service provider is monitoring and logging your identity, address, and online activities.
Further Trouble for 123Movies
123 Movies had been under the gun before. The US Ambassador asked the Vietnamese Government to prosecute the 123movies operators criminally. He did so under the assumption this was the operators’ home turf. Also, the 123movies site was featured in the latest Notorious Markets report from the office of the US Trade Representative.
Related reading: cheap IPTV services
123Movies Meteoric Rise to Prominence
The 123 Movies developers may have changed the site’s name several times in the months leading up to their disappearance, but it hadn’t even been around for three years. They very quickly reached astronomic popularity for a startup site.
Hordes of regulars are now on the lookout for a replacement, which shouldn’t take long to crop up. Many copycat sites have been cropping up since 123Movies became popular. Nature abhors a vacuum, so the sucking sound won’t last long. Advertising revenue alone on a site that popular is far too enticing for many to ignore, as is catching criminals in areas where watching unlicensed copyright movies and TV is outlawed.
While the 123movies / GoMovie123 team hasn’t commented on what led them to shut the site down, speculation suggests the legal pressure got to be too much. With the MPAA breathing down the backs of the GooMovies 123Movies owners, it’s no wonder they shut these sites down. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in this niche, as the nature of the beast dictates many will take their place; for better or worse.
Stay Tuned
When checking out any of these replacements for 123Movies, please make sure to protect yourself with a securely encrypted VPN. Also, visit our homepage to remain informed on these and many more ways to watch free streaming TV shows and movies online and…
May your streams never run dry!