If you are going to use a streaming service to watch movies and TV shows, you may first want to be sure the advantages are more than those you get when you watch shows and movies on free sites.
After all, if you can get all the TV shows and movies you want when you want them, without paying a monthly fee, it may make more sense to stick to a free site instead.
Free sites are free — The biggest advantage to using free sites like 123movies over paid streaming services is they are, indeed, free.
This can be a big advantage to someone that would find even a $10 monthly fee a little bit difficult to pay.
Organizing content — The paid streaming services tend to win out when it comes to organizing content. They make it so easy for you to add shows and movies to your library, and then to watch them when you have time, most free sites cannot compete.
If you like to be organized when watching content, then a free streaming service may be your best option.
Downloading content — Both a free site and paid streaming services allow you to download content.
The problem with doing this from a free site is that some of them do host viruses that can be damaging to your computer, tablet or phone.
With paid streaming services, however, you will never be exposed to a virus so can download as much content as you like without ever having to worry.
Finding content — Search engines are so good on paid streaming services, you will usually be able to find everything you need very quickly. While they have thousands of shows and movies as well, however, they may not have everything you want to watch. This is why some people have to pay for two or three monthly subscriptions to get access to all their favorite shows.
With free sites, however, you will usually find everything you want if you use a few sites and are willing to spend time searching. Just be aware, you can waste a lot of your time looking for content if the site is not set up for easy searches.
Offline access — You may not be able to download everything you want to watch from a free site, which means you cannot always watch all your favorites when offline.
With paid streaming services, however, most now allow you to download everything you wish to watch to your device. These shows and movies can then be watched later, even if you do not have access to WiFi.
Privacy issues — If you want real privacy when watching shows and movies online, then the free sites are the way to go.
They do not require registration. Nor do they require you to give any personal information and they do not track your viewing record.
Paid streaming services have a lot of personal information about you, and they keep records of everything you watch.
