The popular movie streaming website Flixtor claims it is “an automated video search engine.” In other words, like other free-streaming movie sites, it is essentially an aggregator of unlicensed streamable content.
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You may be thinking, “unlicensed?” Yes, Flixtor, like others we reviewed in 2022, is essentially a file-sharing site that doesn’t actually make file copies to share. Instead, it refers you to the file’s location, wherever that may be. You click on the title you want to stream and you’re linked to the location of the file. In this way, the site isn’t making a copy of the media, so it isn’t technically breaking any law.
But does this expose you to any risk? Well, it depends.
“Whether it’s wrong or not, in a moral sense, is something you can ask your friends or your minister. But whether it’s illegal from a copyright viewpoint, the best answer is, probably not on an individual viewer basis,” says Jim Gibson, law professor and founder of the Intellectual Property Institute.
This is because you are neither sharing copywritten content nor copying it. Downloading copywritten content is illegal because you are making a copy; however, streaming media is not because a new copy is not created.
Of course, one could make the argument that streaming could be considered copying, even if the copy is only temporarily located in RAM, but we digress.
In short, it’s complicated. As always, this article should not be substituted for legal advice.
Let’s see how Flixtor performs and the drawbacks of this website.
Content Library
Flixtor has a huge collection of movies. This free streaming site gets over 500 thousand monthly users. You can access a ton of classics and newer titles on this website. It has a good collection of TV shows as well.
For example, as of this writing (February 2023), the following titles were available (among many others):
- Blonde
- Dayshift
- Prey
- Nope
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Top Gun: Maverick
You get the picture. If you can hang through seemingly endless ads, your favorite movie can be found on Flixtor. But again, just understand that, wherever these DO exist (Flixtor or somewhere else), they are likely unlicensed copies. But it doesn’t mean you’re breaking the law; maybe.
Ad annoyance
There are no free streaming websites that do not offer advertisements. Hence, you do encounter ads on the Flixtor website. Pop-ups, new tabs, embeds; if ad servers can imagine a place to put their code, Flixtor has added it – everywhere on the site.
However, as far as we could tell, none of the ads were actually intrusive or contained malware – even if it felt that way.
Geo-restriction
Flixtor is not a geo-blocked website. It is available globally. However, for the past few months, our users in the Asia region have started to get an “access denied” message. There is a quick workaround for this error to use a VPN.
Normally, Flixtor is compatible with all popular VPN services. Note: you will notice a negligible difference in performance when using a VPN.
Interface
Flixtor has a neat and user-friendly interface. It has a frosty blue theme that looks pleasing to the eyes. Users can get glued to this interface for hours. It is not overwhelming and does not spoil or get in the way of your watch experience.
Search function
Flixtor may advertise as a video search site, but its search feature is virtually useless for outsiders. Unless you have the keys to the site and can actually access the search feature, you’ll be directed to yet another ad when you click the search bar.
Even looking for clickbait, this one didn’t make sense to us. Why not allow users to actually search for content and load up the search results page with ads?
Summary
Flixtor is a very useful movie streaming website if you’re one of many users that don’t have access to the services they’re released on (in the U.S.). It offers a large collection of movies for free.
Pros
- Ads do not appear to contain viruses and malware, though annoying
- Good library
Cons
- Connectivity issues depend on the area
- The advertised search feature is nonexistent for outside users (we can’t access your search feature!;)
Related: 5 Free Streaming Services to Escape Subscription Hell In 2022