Terrarium TV Shut Down Forever (Here are the Best Alternatives)

If you’ve been happily using the Terrarium TV app on your android box or Fire Stick to watch TV and movies for free, you are probably aware that it’s shutting down.

Ever since the turbulent year of 2017 for Kodi streaming add-on users, many people got fed up and abandoned Kodi in favor of native Android apps (referred to as APKs) that do the same thing as the popular Kodi streaming add-ons, but just don’t rely on Kodi.

By far the most popular of these Android TV & movie streaming APKs was Terrarium TV.

Terrarium TV Says Goodbye Forever

On September 11, 2018, Terrarium TV app users received a notification and this message appeared when opening the app.

Apparently, after Terrarium TV rose to such massive adoption and mainstream attention, the developer, NitroXenon (Peter Chan) from Hong Kong, decided to shut it down.

One can only speculate that the developer (once they get too much mainstream attention) may be receiving legal threats to cease and desist or face legal action.  Or, the developer could just be fed up with all the fake website posing as the official Terrarium TV website, when there is actually no official website for Terrarium TV.

It’s interesting that another streaming APK called Morpheus also shut down just a month prior.  It makes me wonder how many more will be shutting down in the coming months.

Streaming APKs Are No Different From Kodi Streaming Add-ons

I want to take this opportunity to point something out.

Over the past year, there seems to have been an “exodus” of people from Kodi moving to APKs.  Why?  They were sick of their favorite add-ons getting shut down every month and having to find the next best add-on.  APKs were viewed as something immune to this problem.

But, now we know they’re no different at all.  It was only a matter of time before the adoption of users brought too much attention to the developers who are then pressured to bail.

What kind of pressure?

Anyway, my point is that if you find a way to watch TV shows and movies for free, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in the form of a Kodi add-on, a native Android app, or something else.  It’s eventually going to get too much attention and shut down.

Alternatives to Terrarium TV

Now to the part you’re probably most interested in… what use to replace Terrarium TV?

If you’re still looking for a Netflix-style experience for watching TV shows and movies for free, here are some alternatives…

Patched Terrarium TV APK

Don’t do it!

I only put this here to warn you that there will be lots of impostors with a patched version of Terrarium that continues to work after the Terrarium TV shut-down.

The problem is that these are only “patches” by removing the shut-down warning and letting you get into the app.

But, the app will only work well if the scrapers and providers are kept up-to-date.  Without the original developer keeping those updated, the app is going to start having problems.

Or, a worse scenario is that people could be putting apps out there that contain malware to take control over your device and possibly spread to other devices on your network.  This scenario is no different from the major security threat of leaving abandoned Kodi repositories installed.

TeaTV

TeaTV has been out for about as long as Terrarium TV.  However, back at when they were starting Terrarium TV’s interface was much cleaner and easier to use than TeaTV.

However, over time TeaTV has improved quite a bit and is now a very good alternative to Terrarium TV.  If you use it, you will find it is very similar.

It has Real-Debrid and Trakt integration (much like Terrarium TV did) which I think are important for a free TV show and movie streaming app.

How to install TeaTV on a Fire TV Stick

Kodi

Kodi was and is by far the most popular streaming media player used for free TV shows and movies.

Before Terrarium TV came onto the scene, Kodi was it.  Terrarium TV and Live TV APKs like Mobdro led many people away from Kodi.

With Terrarium TV shut down and the possible new trend of APKs getting shut down, no doubt Kodi will reign again as the king of streaming platforms.

With Kodi available on just about any device including Fire Stick and Xbox One, and with the huge amount of streaming add-ons available, it’s easy get started with Kodi.

Show Box

This one has been a popular streaming app for a long time.  It goes way back.

On, Show Box, you can watch lots of TV shows and movies.  I tried some and they loaded up right away, so I’m impressed there.

One things it doesn’t have is Trakt integration.  I would love to be able to bring over my Trakt lists as favorites within the app.

It also does not work well at all on a Fire TV Stick.  It seems to only be usable with a touch screen.

Honorable Mention – Mobdro

Mobdro is not exactly a replacement for Terrarium TV, but it goes really well alongside something like TeaTV or Kodi.  Mobdro is great for live TV channel streaming, and looks fantastic on a Fire TV Stick.  It has the best interface I’ve seen for Fire OS.

How to Install Mobdro

Dishonorable Mention – FreeFlix HQ

I installed it, but it was nothing be problems.

It was super buggy and couldn’t ever get anything to play.

Here are some of the issues I encountered…

• The update popup kept coming up every time I would load a new screen even though I just just installed it fresh.  Even after going through with the update, it would still keep popping up.
• The TV Shows screen filtered to “Most Watched” showed the most irrelevant set of shows, NOT any popular ones.
• Many times, the screens would have a loading graphic that would never go away.  I couldn’t ever get any video to play.

Comments

What do you think?  Any other suggestions for Terrarium TV alternatives that you prefer?