AppTierList › All lists › Live TV
Best Live TV Apps for iPhone (2026)
Pluto TV: Watch Free Movies/TV is the top-ranked of 40 live TV apps on iPhone, at S tier with 4.8/5 from 1,625,605 ratings.
- 1
Free · ★ 4.8 · 1,625,605 ratings · score 96 - 2
Free · ★ 4.8 · 1,274,555 ratings · score 96 - 3
CBSSFree · ★ 4.8 · 71,944 ratings · score 93 - 4
Free + IAP · ★ 4.6 · 137,867 ratings · score 93 - 5
Free · ★ 4.7 · 570,065 ratings · score 90
What belongs in this list
Watch live TV channels as they air on my phone.
Not here: an on-demand TV show library alone; a TV schedule or guide alone; live news articles alone; live sports scores alone; a general live-video broadcasting app alone
How we pick
For this list we ask the App Store the same searches a person would, in several countries, and keep every app it returns. A model reads each app's listing and rejects the ones that only mention the use case. Every app that stays is scored out of 100 from four parts, each 0 to 100 and averaged with no weights: its App Store rating, how many people rated it, where the App Store itself ranks it for this list's searches, and how recently its current version shipped. An app showing Apple's Editors' Choice badge gets a fifth part of 100, which can only lift its score. Tiers follow fixed score bands: S from 90, A from 80, B from 70, C from 60, D from 50, F below. The list's leader is S if it scores 80 or more. On a list of 20 or more ranked apps, a tier from S to D takes in new apps only up to a quarter of the top 40: an app pushed out of a full tier falls to the next tier with room, and F takes the rest. An app already in a tier keeps its place while the tier is at most 2 apps over a quarter; past that, only the apps over that margin go down, lowest score first. Equal scores share a tier, and no app has a better tier than an app ranked above it. An app keeps its tier until its score passes the band edge by more than 1 point, or a full tier or the order above moves it. Only the top 40 of a list get a tier. Read the full method →
Compare every app
- 1Free · ★ 4.8 · 1,625,605 ratings · score 96 · best in class
- 2Free · ★ 4.8 · 1,274,555 ratings · score 96 · best in class
- 3CBSSFree · ★ 4.8 · 71,944 ratings · score 93 · best in class
- 4Free + IAP · ★ 4.6 · 137,867 ratings · score 93 · best in class
- 5Free · ★ 4.7 · 570,065 ratings · score 90 · best in class
- 6
Free + IAP · ★ 4.6 · 1,429,881 ratings · score 88 · excellent - 7
Free · ★ 4.6 · 625,796 ratings · score 86 · excellent - 8
Free + IAP · ★ 4.6 · 251,795 ratings · score 85 · excellent - 9
Free · ★ 4.6 · 264,057 ratings · score 85 · excellent - 10
Free · ★ 4.6 · 266,477 ratings · score 85 · excellent - 11
Free · ★ 4.5 · 111,712 ratings · score 84 · excellent - 12
Free · ★ 4.8 · 118,414 ratings · score 84 · excellent - 13
Free · ★ 4.6 · 291,756 ratings · score 84 · excellent - 14
Free · ★ 4.8 · 78,352 ratings · score 84 · excellent - 15
Free + IAP · ★ 4.8 · 69,550 ratings · score 84 · excellent - 16
Free · ★ 4.8 · 49,696 ratings · score 83 · good - 17
Free + IAP · ★ 4.7 · 107,486 ratings · score 83 · good - 18
Free download · ★ 4.8 · 33,073 ratings · score 82 · good - 19
Free · ★ 4.5 · 334,899 ratings · score 81 · good - 20
Free · ★ 4.6 · 70,459 ratings · score 81 · good - 21
Free · ★ 4.7 · 389,566 ratings · score 80 · good - 22
Free download · ★ 4.5 · 27,004 ratings · score 80 · good - 23
Free · ★ 4.5 · 102,217 ratings · score 80 · good - 24
Free · ★ 4.5 · 12,344 ratings · score 79 · good - 25
Free download · ★ 4.5 · 3,256 ratings · score 75 · good - 26
Free · ★ 3.6 · 59,791 ratings · score 74 · situational - 27
Free · ★ 4.7 · 351,377 ratings · score 72 · situational · provisional - 28
Free · ★ 4.8 · 40,827 ratings · score 71 · situational · provisional - 29
Free · ★ 4.7 · 34,835 ratings · score 70 · situational · provisional - 30
Free download · ★ 4.9 · 9,421 ratings · score 69 · situational · provisional - 31
Free + IAP · ★ 4.4 · 4,395 ratings · score 69 · situational - 32
Free download · ★ 4.6 · 25,703 ratings · score 68 · situational · provisional - 33
Free · ★ 4.8 · 10,597 ratings · score 68 · situational · provisional - 34
E!CFree download · ★ 4.5 · 9,852 ratings · score 68 · situational · provisional - 35
Free download · ★ 4.7 · 2,767 ratings · score 67 · situational · provisional - 36
Free download · ★ 4.8 · 12,078 ratings · score 66 · weak · provisional - 37
Free download · ★ 4.5 · 13,984 ratings · score 66 · weak · provisional - 38
Free download · ★ 4.5 · 4,489 ratings · score 65 · weak · provisional - 39
Free download · ★ 4.4 · 3,110 ratings · score 64 · weak · provisional - 40
Free + IAP · ★ 4.3 · 3,410 ratings · score 63 · weak · provisional
Beyond the top 40
New in the last 30 days
- Plex: Find Movies and TV Shows (S)
- USA Network (B)
- DStv Stream (B)
- GSE Smart IPTV Player Live TV (B)
- KQED: Bay Area Culture & News (C)
- MyTV IP - TV Online (C)
- Pyone Play (C)
- Intl+ (C)
- E! (C)
- UHF - Love your IPTV (C)
- Animal Planet GO (D)
- truTV (D)
- Channels Pro - IPTV Player (D)
- IPTVX (D)
- IPTV Player: Xtream, M3U, EPG (D)
Questions people ask
- What is the best live TV app for iPhone?
- Pluto TV: Watch Free Movies/TV, S tier, ranked #1 of 40, rated 4.8 by 1,625,605 people.
- Which live TV apps are free?
- 40 of 40 are free to download: Pluto TV: Watch Free Movies/TV (S), Tubi: Movies & Live TV (S), CBS (S), Plex: Find Movies and TV Shows (S) and more. 7 of them sell in-app purchases. 22 report no in-app purchases.
- Which live TV app has the best App Store rating?
- KQED: Bay Area Culture & News at 4.9 from 9,421 ratings.
- How many live TV apps reach S or A tier?
- 15 of 40. Tiers follow fixed score bands: S from 90, A from 80, B from 70, C from 60, D from 50, F below. The list's leader is S if it scores 80 or more. On a list of 20 or more ranked apps, a tier from S to D takes in new apps only up to a quarter of the top 40: an app pushed out of a full tier falls to the next tier with room, and F takes the rest. An app already in a tier keeps its place while the tier is at most 2 apps over a quarter; past that, only the apps over that margin go down, lowest score first. Equal scores share a tier, and no app has a better tier than an app ranked above it. An app keeps its tier until its score passes the band edge by more than 1 point, or a full tier or the order above moves it. Only the top 40 of a list get a tier.
Related lists
- Best Concert Discovery Apps for iPhone (2026)8 ranked
- Best Documentary Streaming Apps for iPhone (2026)8 ranked
- Best Drama Streaming Apps for iPhone (2026)40 ranked
- Best Event Ticket Booking Apps for iPhone (2026)35 ranked
- Best Iptv Streaming Apps for iPhone (2026)26 ranked
- Best Live Streaming Apps for iPhone (2026)34 ranked