25 best Kodi Addons for April 2019: 131 tested (one is hacked, remove it now).

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTICE: We’ll take you through some the best, safe Kodi addons but will also draw your attention to one VERY popular Kodi addon which has been hijacked and should be removed immediately if you have installed it.

There are hundreds of Kodi addons on the market and dozens of lists declaring the best Kodi addons available. However, we’ve fully tested over 130 Kodi addons, from unofficial addons like Seren,13Clowns, Incursion, Exodus Redux, and Magicality, to official addons like YouTube, Fite.tv, USTVnow, Xumo, Pluto TV, Viewester and more.

Whether you’re looking for movie or TV addons to stream online, we’ve got you covered.

Our list sifts through the junk to help deliver the top 25 best Kodi addons still working in April 2019. Check back next month as well for more updates!

Quick links:

• JUMP STRAIGHT TO BEST OVERALL ADDONS FOR JANUARY
• JUMP STRAIGHT TO BEST MOVIES ADDONS
• JUMP STRAIGHT TO BEST SPORTS ADDONS
• JUMP STRAIGHT TO BEST ADDONS FOR TV SHOWS

Warning: Kodi should only be used for content to which you have the legal right to access. Neither the Kodi Foundation nor Comparitech advocates the use of Kodi for piracy.

Beware: New laws mean your internet provider can sell and share your browsing data

Your internet provider could sell and share details about the websites you visit, videos you download or stream and social media sites you use. By using a VPN whenever you connect to the web, you can encrypt your connection so your broadband provider doesn’t know what you’re doing. All your web activity will be hidden and can’t be shared, sold or stolen.

We’ve tested the top VPNs for security, privacy and speed and IPVanish is our #1 choice for Kodi users.

Top unofficial Kodi addons (and the risks they present)

Please note these are the top unofficial Kodi addons based on popularity. It’s important to be aware of these addons and understand the risks they present as they populate many lists of so-called best Kodi addons.

Unofficial addons are more likely to contain malware, are less reliable and will often carry pirated content. For these reasons, we recommend you avoid these and instead pick from our list of best official Kodi addons.

One very popular addon on this list has been hijacked and should be removed immediately to avoid compromising your device. Read on to see which one…

1. Covenant – A once-popular movie and TV show addon
2. Seren – A current addon that requires other integrations
3. Exodus – One of the first, widely popular movie and TV show addons
4. cCloudTV – A former and popular live TV streaming addon
5. Genesis Reborn – A revised version of the Genesis addon
6. Gurzil – Another Exodus/Covenant/Genesis clone (now dead)
7. Incursion – A once-popular and short-lived on-demand addon
8. Placenta – A once-popular addon with a questionable name
9. Gaia – A once-popular addon that infected users’ machines with malware
10. Orion – An on-demand addon that requires additional integrations
11. Reaper Builds – A current build that has a few infringing addons
12. Magicality – A now-dead addon for on-demand content
13. Masterani Redux – A mostly-dead addon for on-demand content
14. Exodus Redux – A revised version of Exodus that is not maintained
15. Real Debrid – A multi-hoster service that requires payment
16. Premiumizer – Another multi-hoster service that requires a subscription
17. Yoda – An on-demand movie and TV show addon
18. Einthusan – An on-demand addon for Bollywood content
19. 13Clowns – A recently hijacked addon (DELETE IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE THIS)

Over the course of 2018 and 2019, a large number of once-popular Kodi addons have shut down for good, with their developers leaving the scene. Most of the addons that are no longer available are already ones we tend to recommend users avoid, anyway, which include Exodus, Covenant, Genesis Reborn, cCloud TV, Gurzil, and others in those families.

Meanwhile, a few have taken their place, namely Seren (nixgates), Exodus Redux, Placenta, Gaia, Magicality, Placenta, and Incursion (nixgates), which are all popular but also ones we don’t recommend.

25 best Kodi addons

There are the best official Kodi addons as of March 2019. Some have regionally restricted content which can be bypassed with IPVanish.

1. YouTube – On-demand and live content addon for YouTube
2. Tubi TV – TV and movies on-demand and completely free
3. iPlayer WWW – Live TV and on-demand content for the BBC iPlayer
4. Crackle – TV and movies on-demand and completely free
5. FilmRise – Movies on-demand and completely free to use
6. BigStar Movies & TV – TV and movies on-demand (mostly B-ranked movies)
7. Viewster – TV and movies on-demand, completely free with lots of anime
8. Snagfilms – Movies on-demand and completely free to use
9. Black and White Movies – Movies on-demand and free of charge to use
10. Netflix – TV and movies on-demand directly from Netflix thanks to Kodi DRM
11. Shout Factory TV – TV and movies on-demand and broadcast live
12. HGTV – TV on-demand for the popular HGTV channel’s content (free)
13. Comet TV Live – Live TV focusing on action and sci-fi content
14. Xumo – Live TV covering a large number of genres and completely free
15. Pluto TV – Live TV covering a massive number of genres and completely free
16. PlayStation Vue – Live TV with direct access to your PS Vue account
17. NewsOn – Live TV focused on local news from across the US
18. USTV Now – Live TV and completely free, with a paid option
19. DAZN – Sports content, including fight sports. Requires account
20. Fite.tv – Sports content for fight sports. Free to use
21. Sling TV – Live TV from major US networks.
22. PBS Kids – Kids TV shows and cartoons, free to use
23. Documentary Storm – Documentaries from across a number of genres, and free
24. Indigo – Maintenance addon for maintaining your Kodi addon settings
25. Trakt – Watchlist tracking for TV shows and movies

This month, we’ve found numerous legally-available Kodi addons that you may be interested in. We’ve also updated our list of overall addons that tend to be popular in the Kodi scene, including those we don’t recommend for Kodi users, with some notes on each addon that we’ve found.

Lastest Kodi developments

The two most interesting developments in Kodi this past month include the rising popularity of third-party addon 13Clowns, and, more importantly, the stable release of Kodi v18 Leia.

13Clowns gains popularity then dies. DELETE IMMEDIATELY

The 13Clowns Kodi addon was an on-demand TV and movie watching addon. Over the past few weeks, it had gained an extremely large amount of popularity and attention. Many Kodi users considered it to be one of the best TV and movie addons available at present, especially considering it uses the new Civitas Scrapers.

However, 13Clowns, much like its predecessor Exodus, was an infringing addon. The sites that it scraped from obtain and display TV and movie content without permission from the rights holders.

More recently, this addon’s developer suddenly and unexpectedly quit and deleted his Github account. However, he did not take the proper precautions to avoid nefarious behavior with his Github account, and it was promptly re-registered under the same name by a different user. That user then began uploading content. While no malware has been detected, it’s recommended that you if you were using this addon, that you delete it immediately.

It reflects the primary issue we like to point out with infringing addons – that they are unsafe to use and can more easily be hijacked. At present, this addon is not being maintained by the original developer, and the individual controlling the Github has unrestricted access to push malware to anyone currently using the 13Clowns addon.

AGAIN, IF YOU HAVE 13CLOWNS OR THE CIVITAS REPOSITORY, DELETE THEM IMMEDIATELY.

Kodi v18 Leia stable release

Kodi v.18 Leia has finally been released as a stable version! You can download the newest, official and stable version of Kodi directly from the Kodi.tv download page.

In the few weeks since the official release, a few bugs have been identified by Team Kodi and community users. As a result, a new Release Candidate with some bug fixes is now out as well, which you can download directly from the download page.

According to a blog post from Team Kodi, the bug fixes include:

• Speed up Player and Playlists operations with JSON-RPC’
• Revert edge case crash fix that caused DVDs to be not recognized on Mac OS
• Add date to the log records
• Fix Android MediaCodec freeze when early disposing stream
• Ignore very first « server not reachable » notification for PVR servers
• Update SSL CA trust store
• Fix thread logging on Android which cause issues like gettings frozen on DVD/Bluray playback
• Avoid attempt to load music info for smartplaylists
• Check if app intent is valid on Android. This fixes a hard crash when trying to open Kodi again
• Catch an exception while reading or writing a file
• Fix logical « or » operation in GUI engine
• Several Estuary cosmetic fixes
• …and over a dozen more!

There are more release notes for the latest release version, which you can check out on the Github page here.

File-hosting site RapidVideoto begin charging a premium, considers unofficial addon users to be freeloaders

While file-hosting websites tend to turn a blind eye to illegal streaming that happens on their site as a means to generate more ad revenue, one service has now decided that Kodi addon users are bad for business. RapidShare announced that it will begin charging a premium subscription price to use its service. According to RapidShare, Kodi users are eating up nearly half of its bandwidth while also blocking out the ads the site uses to generate revenue.

As RapidShare is a major streaming source for illegitimate movie and TV Kodi addons, the move toward premium accounts will likely impact a large number of unofficial, third-party addons.

Before we start: Always use a VPN with Kodi

Although virtual private networks (VPNs) are often used by people trying to hide their illegal activities from their ISP, there are many valid reasons law-abiding Kodi users should use one too.

If a Kodi addon were to be hijacked, the user’s computer would be at the mercy of the attacker. By using a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack, hackers have access to all of the victim’s internet history, saved browser information, and even login credentials.

Also, several internet service providers (ISPs) have been known to deliberately limit the download speeds of their customers in an effort to combat online video streaming. This could leave you with speeds far below those that you pay for.

A VPN can help secure your computer against corrupted addons used for spying purposes. You will also find a solid VPN will help eliminate spying from your ISP and reduce instances of buffering and speed throttling.

We recommend using IPVanish. It’s not only fast with top-level security and no-logging policies in place, it also is one of the few that have working apps for the Amazon Firestick.

BEST VPN FOR KODI:IPVanish is our top choice. Has a large uncongested network of servers and achieves good speeds. Strong security and privacy features make IPVanish a favorite for Kodi and Amazon Fire TV Stick users. Try it risk-free with the 7-day money back guarantee.

IPVanish includes a 7-day money back guarantee so you can cancel if you are unhappy for any reason.

Our favorite new Kodi addon: Sling TV

Sling TV is an official Kodi addon that offers live TV streams of major US TV networks. You can connect to your Sling TV account, which costs as little as $25 per month for 30-45+ popular TV channels. Sling TV also offers a 7-day free trial, making it a great option to consider for Kodi users who want to watch must-see live sporting events that are typically only available on cable TV networks.

You can find the Sling TV addon in the official Kodi addon repository.

For April 2019, we’ve refined our list even further with a wide selection of great new addons. We’ve also added a new warning about potential malware floating around that you may need to look out for.

Best Kodi addons for movies

Some of the most popular Kodi addons are the ones that offer a wide selection of movies and TV content.

The official Kodi repository offers addons that not only allow you to browse a large collection of free movies but also expand that collection by integrating with your other streaming subscriptions.

While testing, we’ve found many of the movie addons offered only offer content in a select few countries. In cases where geographic content blocking exists, you can use a VPN to bypass those blocks and access all of the content library available.

Crackle

Crackle is a streaming service that has a varied selection of films and TV shows. It’s free to use and offers some better-known titles, like 2003’s Underworld. Crackle region-locks their content, so to watch, you’ll need to connect your VPN to an American server.

Location: eracknaphobia Addon Repo

FilmRise

FilmRise is a distributor of TV shows and independent films. This company offers two addons: FilmRise, which contains six of their TV shows, and FilmRise – YouTube, which also includes free to watch movies.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

BigStar Movies & TV

BigStar Movies have a collection of award-winning independent and foreign films and the BigStar Movies & TV addon lets you watch these directly through Kodi. This service is completely legal to use and unlike when using the BigStar online service, you don’t have to keep a credit card on file. This is only used for purchasing specific films. Since this can’t be done via the addon, payment it isn’t required.

Location: MetalChris Addon Repository

Snagfilms

Snagfilms offers a collection of documentaries and independent films. There are over 5000 free-to-watch movies, and they’re all organized by genre. While most of these films aren’t well known, some, like 2007’s Nanking, are critically acclaimed.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

TubiTV

TubiTV is one of the largest streaming video-on-demand websites around. The service boasts a library of over 50,000 titles, from movies to TV shows. Additionally, there is no fee to use TubiTV. It offers the service as a free, ad-supported option.

You can stream TubiTV on Kodi without a login required and without the ads. Due to the way it works, Kodi automatically blocks advertisements, letting you enjoy your streams quite easily and without interruption. If you want to unlock TubiTV’s full library, you will need a VPN, however. The service has different content in the US, UK, and Canada, meaning you’ll need to bypass its geographic content blocking to gain access gain access to everything.

Location: Kodi1 Github Repository

Shout Factory TV

{Perhaps one of the best addons to come around in a long time, Shout Factory TV provides users access to dozens of cult classic TV shows and movies. This free addon is completely legal to use and offers up a huge load of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, Rifftrax episodes, movies and TV shows across a dozen genres, and even stand-up comedy routines.

Location: Official Kodi Addon Repository

Black and White Movies

Classic movies are available for streaming and downloading using the Black and White Movies addon. This addon focuses purely on classic movies that are made free thanks to expired copyright licenses. The quality and speed of the streams are also top-notch

Location: MetalChris repository.

Viewester

A quality, free streaming service, Viewster has a ton of TV shows and movies. What’s more, Viewster is one of the best, free addons for anime lovers. It has a huge library of anime content and does not impose geographic content blocks for any of its content.

Location: Official Kodi Addon Repository. 

Best Kodi addons for TV shows

When it comes to watching TV shows, Kodi users have several options. There are several legitimate content providers that offer collections of well-known shows. These are usually free to watch, although there are a few that have additional costs.

TV show addons often pull from sites that use geographic content blocking, so be sure to check out whether it makes sense to bypass content blocks to help access your streams.

USTVnow

USTVnow is a service that provides access to live American TV channels. A free subscription provides streams from seven network TV stations. For $20 a month, you can unlock and additional 21 channels and DVR functionality.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

iPlayer WWW

The iPlayer WWW Kodi addon takes content from the BBC’s iPlayer streaming platform. It offers live and on-demand TV shows, radio stations, and movies. iPlayer WWW is free to use but requires a valid UK TV License. Additionally, its content is region-locked, so to watch from outside of the UK, you’ll have to connect your VPN to a British server.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

NewsON

NewsON is the best Kodi addon for US news. It groups its live streams by state and shows which regions each station covers. Streams load quickly and while it’s a US-only news addon, there’s no region-locking. This means that it can be watched from anywhere in the world.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

PS Vue

PS Vue is intended as a replacement for a traditional cable subscription. Plans start at $45 a month and include at least 50 channels. More expensive plans that offer access to sports and movie channels are also available, and there’s no annual contract. You can try it out and leave if you find it unsuitable.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Pluto TV

A premier live TV service that offers up over 100 channels for free, Pluto TV is one of the best Kodi addons available. It’s also one that any Kodi user should have installed, as it’s just that essential to a good Kodi build. You’ll find every type of content imaginable here: sports, entertainment, movies, news. Much of the content comes from major TV networks and content providers as well.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Xumo

Similar in style and scope to Pluto TV, Xumo has over 100 completely free channels you can watch on your web browser or via an app. It’s also 100 percent legal, making it a great IPTV option for Kodi. The addon is brand new as well from developer Lunatix, making it a solid entry in the official Kodi addon market.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Comet TV Live

Comet TV Live is a unique and free live TV addon that offers up a host of movies. From cult classics to some really high-quality gems, you’ll find a lot of interesting sci-fi TV shows and movies streaming live to your Kodi installation.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

HGTV

HGTV stands for Home and Garden Television, and the network hosts full episodes of its shows online. These episodes can also be viewed from within Kodi using the HGTV addon. There are 17 different shows available, all in high-definition, so you can watch DIY programming to your heart’s desire.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Best Kodi addons for sports

There are many Kodi addons aimed at sports fans. These provide live and on-demand sporting coverage, however, a VPN may be needed since this content is almost always region-locked.

This is not our full list of sports Kodi addons. For more, check out our longer guide on the 20 best Kodi addons for sports, updated March 2019.

Fite.tv

Featured as our favorite addon for December 2018, Fite.tv is a streaming service that offers 10,000 hours of free fight sports video. You can install this addon directly from GitHub.

DAZN

DAZN is a subscription service that costs $20 a month. It covers a wide range of different sports but is currently only available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan. As such, you’ll need to connect your VPN to a server in one of these countries in order to watch anything

DAZN launched in the US on September 10, 2018. It’s so far provided a solid option for US fight fans.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Sling TV

A perfect addon for those who want US TV, the Sling TV addon connects to your official Sling TV account, even when you’re using the free trial period. Major networks are available, including ESPN, Fox Sports, HGTV, AMC, and more.

You’ll find the Sling TV addon in the official Kodi addon repository, and you’ll need to connect it to your account using your username and password.

Best Kodi addons for cartoons and anime

Whether you’re into anime or are just looking for something to keep the kids occupied, there is a Kodi addon that provides most of what you’re looking for. Below, you’ll find the best, most popular Kodi addons for cartoons and anime in 2017.

PBS Kids

PBS Kids offers on-demand access to a wide selection of high-definition children’s TV shows. It’s completely free and legal to use, and no registration is required. PBS’s content is only available from within the US, so overseas Kodi users will have to connect to an American server in order to watch.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Funimation Now

Funimation is one of the best official sources of dubbed anime. It costs $7.95 a month, but there’s a 14-day free trial so you can see if it’s right for you before committing. A premium account is required to use the Funimation Now Kodi addon, but once you sign up you’ll have access to hundreds of classic and newly released anime.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Best Kodi addons for general video

The following addons provide access to libraries of content that don’t fit neatly into one of the classifications above. They cover everything from vlogs to viral content to cutting-edge documentaries, so they’re great for when you can’t decide what to watch.

YouTube

Everybody knows YouTube – it’s the largest video sharing platform on the internet. The YouTube Kodi addon maintains most of the functionality of the website and allows you to access your playlists, watch history, and channel subscriptions.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository

Documentary Storm

What’s life without some quality documentaries? You can get great documentaries if you install and load up Documentary Storm from MetalChris’s repository. This addon gives you access to all of over 100 documentaries available online, for free. You’ll get everything from sports to war to sexuality documentaries. There’s a good chance you’ll get lost in all of the free, legally-available content here, so we recommend an extra large bag of popcorn.

Location: MetalChris’ Repository

Best miscellaneous Kodi addons

The addons below don’t contain any of their own content. Rather, they provide additional functionality to Kodi or enhance the user’s experience in some way.

Trakt

Trakt is an online service that keeps track of your media consumption. When you use the Trakt Kodi addon, it automatically adds movies and TV shows you’ve watched to your Trakt profile. This allows you to easily find the last episode you watched, even when using Kodi on a different device.

Location: Kodi Addon Repository (program addons)

Third-party addons for miscellaneous

The following addons are popular but are not contained in the official Kodi repository. This means that they may provide access to unlicensed content in some way, or provide functionality that has not been sanctioned by the Kodi development team. We advise our readers to use the following addons at their own risk.

Indigo

Indigo (previously known as Fusion) is an addon that allows you to install additional addons and perform maintenance, similar to the Ares Wizard. However, since TV Addons relaunched with its new legally-focused addon policy, it only contains non-infringing addons. Indigo also has a dedicated section for Kodi skins, so it’s a good choice for people looking to change the way Kodi looks without installing a build.

Click here to read our interview with TV Addons following their intense legal battle.

Location: Fusion Addon Repository

Keeping up with Kodi addons

With new addons appearing all the time and old addons becoming defunct, it can be difficult to keep abreast of all the new developments. To help, we’ve created a list of the best Kodi addons of March 2019. We’ve tested over 100 addons, but only chose 25 that offer the best quality and functionality.

We encourage our readers to seek official sources of content, but we know there are several third-party addons that come highly recommended by other sites and forums. These addons are searched for more frequently than official addons, as shown in the graphic below.

Interestingly, our research shows that despite their dropped support, unavailability, and security risks, addons like Exodus and Covenant appear to still be drawing a lot of traffic. Meanwhile, there are other third-party options that appear to have taken steam, most notably the Seren Kodi addon. Still, YouTube remains a good, free, and legal option to use.

It’s important to remember that third-party addons provide unrestricted and unlicensed access to content and may not be legal to use in your country. Additionally, many of these unofficial addons stream from sites that may be putting your computer at a security risk. Meanwhile, most of the of the more popular unofficial addons that get recommended in other locations are no longer supported by their creators. Any working copies you find are a significant security risk.

We advise all Kodi users to research the laws in their country regarding streaming content online before attempting to use Kodi for this purpose.

Addons Offline in 2019

After a silent run-up in popularity for the past decade, 2017 and 2018 were significant years for Kodi’s third-party scene.

The very public take-down of TVAddons by Canadian telecoms made headlines around the world. As a result of that action, several other addons and addon developers decided to call it quits for their own safety. However, in the months following that June activity, many new addons emerged to replace the ones that went offline.

In November 2017, major copyright holders were at it again, this time a bit more fiercely and widespread. A large number of well-known addon developers received cease and desist letters from a collection of media companies such as Netflix and Sky, demanding those developers remove their infringing addons and repositories.

Given the seriousness of the threats, most developers who received such letters decided to comply. As such, popular addons like Covenant and Bennu were taken offline, while the repositories housing them were also taken down. This resulted in a lot of the most popular movie and TV show addons disappearing for newcomers, while those who already possessed them lost support for future improvements.

A number of addons have already risen to take the place of those that disappeared, however. As ever, the third-party Kodi community appears to be resilient to change. Many developers who were once extremely active on social media have wiped their presence from places like Facebook and Twitter. While some are still actively maintaining their addons and repositories, they’re doing so in a far more discrete manner.

Want to know more? Check out our longer article covering 2017’s third-party addon changes in more detail.

New Kodi Addons for 2019

There will likely be a lot of changes coming to the Kodi addon scene in 2019. Perhaps the most important one will be the full release of the newest version of Kodi’s software, version 18 « Leia ».

Coming with the full release of Kodi 18 will be the inclusion of DRM, or digital rights management, something that allows Kodi to help protect the content rights of streaming services like Netflix. Team Kodi hopes the inclusion of DRM into its platform will help incentivize official development for its platform from major content providers.

We’ll also be interested to see whether there continue to be notable shake-ups happening in the third-party scene. As we’ve seen this past year, and studied ourselves, the illicit activity occurring in the third-party Kodi addon scene spiked in 2017 before getting beaten down by multiple anti-piracy efforts that occurred over the course of 2018.

That in no way means content piracy through Kodi is dead, however, and we have our eye on a growing trend among a few new addons that have become a bit of a rallying cry for Kodi’s third-party advocates.

We’ll keep you updated for when the full release Kodi 18 drops, as well as any notable addon impacts among the most popular Kodi addons.