Here is a list of best free anime streaming sites for 2021. Every single on of these websites is 100% free. In most cases, you do not even need to sign up. Simply go to a site, select an anime and start watching.
I’ve compiled this list based on:
- Anime database: The number of available anime content.
- Quality: For each of these anime streaming websites, I’ve mentioned the highest quality they offer.
- No. of servers: So you know if and how many backups you have.
- Search filters: So you know how easy (or hard) it will be finding what you’re after.
- Additional features: Some anime sites offer subtitles and dubbed content, others don’t. Some have a better UI. Some also allow commenting, rating and liking content. All of that has been considered as well.
Point being, regardless of what type of anime you like best, you’re bound to find a free streaming platform for your anime here.
Let’s get started.
Best Free Anime Streaming Sites In 2021
1. Zoro
Website: https://zoro.to/
Zoro is the best of these free anime streaming sites for more than one reasons. It’s 100% free, has a professional interface, and a good arsenal of content.
Most available content can be watched at 1080p completely free! For those on a limited bandwidth, it even offers quality-control. You can increase/decrease the quality at will.
The video-player offers quite a few controls, you can fast-track or rewind 10 seconds or enable/disable subtitles. In fact, you can customize the colour, size, opacity and a lot more for the subtitles. The playback speed too can be controlled!
*The aforementioned video-player settings depend on the selected server.
Didn’t I say ‘professional interface’? For starters, there are absolutely no hidden, on-click, or sidebar ads on Zoro. Unfortunately, those are very common for almost all the other sites on this list and hence it’s a big edge for Zoro.
You can choose to watch either anime movies or anime series. Every listing shows a short description, run-time, and dub/sub availability along with the thumbnail. This helps you find quality content fast without having to waste time going through a lot of time-wasters.
Other details such as release-date, status (running/finished), genre, age-rating, available quality etc. too are displayed on the anime page. Even has all the trailers, teasers and other announcements. While not major “wow” factors, it still adds to the site’s professionalism (especially considering it’s free).
You can filters your content using a genre filter. The “Most Viewed” anime of the day/week and month too is listed on a sidebar.
You can either watch an anime for free directly, or add it to a “list” for watching later. OVAs, ONAs and even special anime-related events can be found on the site.
2. 123 Animes
Website: https://123animes.mobi/
123 Anime is one of the most popular free anime streaming sites on the planet. It also offers one of the most professional interfaces in the industry.
For almost all the available content, it offers 10+ streaming servers. This ensures you get to stream your anime even if a few of those servers are down.
Quality of the anime is decided by these servers. Most available anime can be watched in HD, however, not all servers may be as generous.
The content database and age is impressive. It has thousands of anime, and even those released just a few weeks or days back! Even more impressive are the search filters.
You can filter using Alphabet or other filters. E.g. you can choose to watch Chinese, Japanese, subbed, or dubbed anime.
Dozens of Genre filters too are available, including action, mystery, parody, police, school, vampire, sports and many others.
You’re even offered a “status filter”. If you’re someone like me, you can use the “finished” filters to find only those anime which have been concluded. Ongoing and “upcoming” are two other status-filters available.
Selection by “release date” too is possible based on the year of release. Maybe you’re into specific “types”? Those too can be filtered for, available options include movies, series, OVA, ONA etc.
There’s even a “Top Anime” list for the day/week and month. This helps you instantly find trending anime.
No signing up, payment or survey of any kind if required to watch anime free here.
3. Chia Anime
Website: https://chia-anime.su/
The website offers more filters, information and a better interface than most other free anime streaming sites on this list. When starting out, there’s a top-bar using which you can select the type of anime you’d like to watch.
In fact, a numerically and alphabetically arranged “anime list” is a great place to start. It can be accessed both in an “image mode” and “text mode”. The image mode also includes thumbnails for the anime which may help you recognize or find anime faster.
The image mode listings are impressive. There’s a thumbnail, status indication (ongoing/finished) but most importantly audio indication (subbed/dubbed).
Additionally, hovering over any thumbnail displays a popup which would include a description for the anime.
It offers this unique, rare filter for “studios”. You can select from 8bit, MAPPA, C2C and about 100 other most popular anime studios in the industry.
It also offers more “types’ than most other best websites to watch anime listed here. It’s not limited to just OVAs and ONAs, but also offers live action, music, and specials.
There’s even a “season” filter. It offers options like “summer 2020”, “fall 2019” etc. The database-strength can be understood from the fact that it goes back to “fall 1999”!
Each anime page also has a rating feature! The stars tell you how well the anime has done with the audience.
The available servers are often about a dozen, totally impressive. With the right server, you do get a quality control option, playback speed control, subtitle control etc. There’s also a “dark mode” if that’s how you like watching your anime.
4. GogoAnime
Website: https://gogoanime.be/
Gogoanime is another one of the very popular and best anime streaming sites. The homepage has a list of “Top Anime” for “all time”, day, week, and month. You can start watching popular content right away if you don’t have specific preferences.
The listings do include a description, genre, and release-year of the anime. There’s a very extensive anime list you can start with. All types of anime (OVAs, ONAs, movie, series) etc. are obviously available.
It offers 2-3 streaming servers for all content. While not impressive, it’s still acceptable and gets the job done. The quality of most videos is lower than 720P.
It even has a “social element”. Users can upvote content, use emojis to express their reactions, and leave comments. This can help you find like-people anime lovers.
On each anime page, you also get anime recommendations based on your current choice. The hidden on-click ads are surely available and annoying. The same goes for banner ads as well.
You also can “favourite” content, however, signing up is required for that. Streaming anime is still open to everyone without any signup requirement.
The video-player does offer a 10-second rewind (no fast-forward available) feature. The playback speed can be set manually as well.
5. Kissanime
Website: https://kissanime.rest/
No list of the best anime sites is complete without mentioning Kissanime. You can start with its anime list. It has an alphabetically arranged list of all available anime. The database probably extends to the thousands.
The homepage also has “recent additions”, “most popular”, “latest update” and other sections. These help you find something to watch in a jiffy.
While the listings aren’t very informative, the anime pages are. Once you click on an anime, it displays a short description, genre, aired date, status and even the total number of views on the anime.
A properly organized episode list can be found for each anime series. 2-3 streaming servers too are available for most anime.
The video quality is pretty impressive, it’s mostly 720P or more. There aren’t many video controls though except a 10-sec rewind button and playback speed control.
It too has a comment section and it’s well-populated with comments from other users as well.
The one relief on Kissanime is that it doesn’t use hidden ads. So you don’t have to close dozens of popups for every click you make. Sidebar banner ads still exist but they can easily be ignored.
There’s also a report/request feature. You can report broken links and make requests for specific anime you’d like to watch.
Signing up isn’t mandatory. It’s only required if you wish to comment.
6. Masterani
Website: https://masteranime.es/
Masterani is one of the best free anime streaming sites 2021. A prime reason for that is its listing UI. Each listing includes a thumbnail, but also an indication for sub/dub status of the anime. Helps me find subbed anime easily (I’m obviously not fluent in Chinese/Japanese).
It even offers an audio filter which lets me choose either from subbed or dubbed anime directly. Although not many other filters are available. I can’t specify a genre. Only the release-year can be selected.
A few broad filters such as “most viewed today”, “most favourite”, “most rating” etc. sure are available. Each anime page also shows the “score” for the anime, it’s like a rating scale and helps make better choices.
The total number of episodes in an anime too are displayed on the anime page.
The hidden, on-click ads are used but only on the video-playing page. It’s still a blessing and you only get annoyed a few times. The video-playing page also includes a short description of the anime to help you get an idea.
Again, a “not-so-control-rich” video player is presented. You can control the playback speed and 10-sec rewind but that’s it. No quality control or subtitle control available. Talking of quality, everything is mostly between 480P-720P.
7. AnimeDao
Website: https://animedao-tv.com/
I’ll be honest, the interface here isn’t what you’d expect from the best anime streaming websites. However, it does let you watch anime for free and that’s what you’re here for, right?
Now, there are no filters so you can’t adjust what you’re searching for. There’s a search-bar which only accepts keywords. You can also watch the anime randomly displayed on the homepage.
The one impressive feature is its server availability. Over a dozen server choices are available for most content. Also, there are no hidden ads which was a welcome surprise to me initially. Obviously, the pre-roll ads, banner ads on the video and on the sidebar still exist.
The videos are of quality, often 720P or higher. The video-player as is obvious depends on the streaming server. However, there’s no quality control in most cases (except the “MultiQuality” server). You do get the choice to enable/disable or even upload subtitles in some cases.
Even if there’s no indication on thumbnails or the anime page, most available content is either subtitled or dubbed in English. It does have a “Dubbed Anime” link, it takes you to an external website which too is a free anime streaming site filled with dubbed Anime.
8. AnimeHeaven
Website: https://animeheaven.ru/
AnimeHeaven looks really professional for starters. On the homepage, you can select from options which include “dubbed”, “ongoing”, “popular”, “series” etc. Manually entering keywords too is possible.
Advanced filters too can be activated for audio (subbed/dubbed), genre, and release-year. It’s updated very frequently. In fact, you can expect multiple updates and new upload almost every single day.
It’s specially desirable for those who like watching an entire series. For most content, it does display a “Full” tag, indicating that the entire series is available.
4-5 servers are commonly found for each anime on the site. Mostly there’s no quality control. The default quality certainly is 720P+ in most cases. No social features (liking/commenting) are available though.
On-click ads to disrupt the fun when watching anime here. Spammy banner ads can’t be ignored either. However, it sure is completely free without requiring any form of payment or registration.
9. 9Anime
Website: https://9anime.city/
9Anime doesn’t need an introduction, does it? Once you arrive on the site, you get to choose from half a dozen choices. You can start with a “Genre”, available options include magic, harem, kids, music, school, family and everything else.
Country (Japan/China) and release-year filters too are available. Unlike Zoro, the listings do not include a description for the content. No hints about subs/dubs or quality are available either as far as group listings go. Despite the lack of indications, you’ll find most content here is dubbed in English by default.
While not dozens, a couple different servers are mostly available for most content. The site does have multiple hidden ads which are triggered on almost every click anywhere on the page. Banner ads and sidebar ads too are a bit annoying.
The video quality while rarely 1080P often stands at around 480P+ which is still acceptable.
Isn’t just limited to “series” and does have a database of anime movies as well. You can find the newest and freshest content by clicking on the “newest” button. It’s completely free and doesn’t even demand registrations.
10. AnimeFrenzy
Website: https://animefrenzy.org/
When you land on AnimeFrenzy, you get to select from a list of dubbed/ ongoing/ movies/ongoing and popular anime. There are no ads on the homepage, however, the video player does include hidden ads.
The anime pages do have a format for anime descriptions, however, you may find the descriptions blank at times. Anyway, each anime does share its type, status, no. of episodes, and genre before you play it.
2 or 3 video streaming servers are generally offered. Most of the content is in the highest possible quality. Also, most available anime is also subtitled in English by default. The video players often offer speed controls.
Almost all available content can also be downloaded instantly, for free! Multiple download resolutions are available. No registration is required, neither for downloads nor for watching anime for free.
The anime database does seem impressive. There’s that traditional anime list and I generally find a few dozen anime available under each alphabet/number.
Conclusion
Hopefully you’ve found a platform to watch anime for free by now, haven’t you? Those 10 were literally the best anime streaming sites on the planet.
If you need a quick answer, just go with Zoro. The other options without doubt are great options as well, Zoro just has a few extra features.
That’ll be all for this piece. In case any of the sites above do not work, just use a VPN. There are generally local restrictions which can be circumvented easily with a VPN.
