We have two criteria for rating Kodi repos. First, we check to see if the repo has any addons that aren’t available elsewhere, and then we consider the popularity of the addons a repo holds. When these factors are accounted for, the value of a given repository quickly becomes clear.
It should be noted that some of the repositories below contain addons that offer unrestricted access to licensed content. We’ve included these due to their popularity, but we strongly recommend using official sources wherever possible. This allows you to support the people and organizations that create the content and reduces the risk of any legal repercussions. Using official repositories significantly reduces the risk of installing malware or maliciously altered addons.
Make sure to study your country’s laws regarding streaming content online before attempting to use Kodi for this purpose. If you’d like to uninstall an offending third-party addon from a repo, just right-click on the addon, go to its information page, and select the “Uninstall” button.
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.
Before we start: Always use a VPN with Kodi
Some Kodi users stream through a virtual private network (VPN) to hide their activities from their internet service provider (ISP). Despite this, there are many ways a law-abiding Kodi user could benefit from using a VPN.
Because a VPN encrypts your network traffic, an outside observer can’t see what you’re doing. This prevents most Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks and stops your ISP from throttling your internet speeds.
All VPNs slow your internet connection down somewhat, but some offer a smaller speed reduction than others. This is particularly important to Kodi users as a fast speed is required to stream video. Also, some VPN providers keep logs of your activities, completely defeating the purpose of the service.
Best Kodi repositories: June 2019
The repositories below contain mostly official addons. Because official addons are created with stricter testing and validation procedures, they’re usually safer than third-party addons. Official addons stream video from properly licensed sources, and as such, their content is either freely available or requires a login to watch.
Official Kodi Addon Repo
The official Kodi addon is the only repository that comes preinstalled with Kodi and offers a large selection of legitimate addons. Some of the Kodi repo’s most popular addons include YouTube, iPlayer WWW, and the PlayOn Browser, but there are also several helpful utilities such as Trakt and the Log Viewer for Kodi.
This repository is very well documented, and the Kodi team is very active on social media. This means that should one of the official repo’s addons be hijacked, there are numerous sources of trustworthy information, and you’ll likely be made aware before you update it Still, there’s no guarantee that you’ll receive the warning before damage is done, making protecting your connection important and turning off automatic addon updates a necessary step as well..
Eracknaphobia’s repo
Eracknophobia’s repo is home to several sports addons and the updated version of the Crackle Kodi addon. This repo contains multiple sports addons, including the MLB.TV, NHL TV, and NBC Sports Live Extra addons, which hide most of their videos behind a paywall, but the March Madness Live addon offers high-quality sporting content for free.
Although the developer doesn’t really use their Twitter account, the repo is frequently maintained and updated. Because of Eracknaphobia’s commitment to Kodi’s anti-piracy policy, there are multiple reputable sources of information should you run into difficulty installing any of its addons.
Eracknaphobia’s repo can be found here.
Kodinerds.net repo
The Kodinerds.net repo is primarily targeted towards German users but there’s plenty here for non-German speakers too. Take the YouTube Music, Dailymotion, and Eurosport addons, for instance. Additionally, this repo offers a wide selection of IPTV addons including some for ZDF, ARD, and 7TV.
This repo has its own dedicated forum and Twitter account, however both of these are in German. This means that unless the developers make an announcement in several languages, English speaking Kodi users will have to rely on unreliable translation tools if the repo is compromised.
The Kodinerds.net repo can be found here.
TVAddons repo
The TVAddons repository includes several useful addons including LiveTube and Indigo. Indigo is particularly useful as it allows you to perform maintenance on your Kodi installation, restore Kodi to factory settings, and install new repositories directly from GitHub, among other things.
TVAddons has its own forum and the development team are very active on social media, so there are several ways to find out if any of the addons in this repo have been hijacked.
You can find the TVAddons repo here.
MetalChris’ Repository
If you’re looking for extremely high-quality addons that you didn’t even realize you needed until today, install MetalChris’s Repository, stat. This repo has over 30 unique addons, some of which you’re definitely going to want.
The addons available here that interest us most, however, are the BigStar Movies and TV, CBC Sports, and CW TV Network.
BigStar Movies and TV connects you directly to BigStar, an Australia-based on-demand streaming site. BigStar is very similar to free on-demand services like Tubi TV, Yahoo View, Viewster, and Crackle. It has a loads of free content, some of which is well-regarded and highly-rated.
CBC Sports is a Canadian sports channel covering a huge range of content including athletics, horse-racing, and soccer. CW TV Network provides access to full episodes of CW shows like Arrow, The Flash, and iZombie, so you’ll always have something to watch.
All of the content found in MetalChris’ Repository is free to access. However some of it is region-locked, meaning you’ll need a VPN to watch it abroad. You can download and install MetalChris’ Repository from github.
Simply Caz repo
This repository used to contain several addons which scraped content from unofficial sources but after being threatened by the MPA, the creator decided to remove all such content. The Simply Caz repo now only includes official addons such as FilmOn Simple and YouTube.
Best unofficial Kodi addon repositories to avoid
The following repositories contain mostly unofficial addons, and as ever, we advise our readers to find official sources wherever possible. We’d like to stress that a repo’s presence in this list does not constitute an endorsement of it. Rather, they’re listed because they’re popular in the Kodi community, for better or worse.
LazyKodi
The LazyKodi repo hosts Exodus Redux, 13 Clowns, and Rising Tides, which are, among others, some of the most popular unlicensed streaming addons. Additionally, the developers don’t have dedicated social media accounts, meaning that there’s no way of knowing for sure whether the repo has been hijacked in the future. For this reason, we do not recommend Kodi users install the LazyKodi repo.
Kodi Bae
The Kodi Bae repo contains Indigo addon but also offers a selection of illegitimate sources for movies and TV shows. Among these are the infamous Yoda, Exodus, and SportsDevil addons. This makes it clear that the Kodi Bae repo is not intended for Kodi users looking for official sources.
Kodil/Kodisrael
The Kodil (Kodi Israel) repo contains over 500 addons including FilmOn.TV, ITV, and Indigo. However, it also hosts many addons that do not scrape links from properly licensed providers. These include Goodfellas 2.0, UK Turks Playlists, and Planet MMA.
Many of the addons included in this repo no longer work, and considering that the developer’s Twitter account is in Hebrew and hasn’t been used since 2016, it will not be of any use to most Kodi users. For the reasons above we do not recommend Kodi users install the Kodil repo.
9Anime repo
There are several repositories that contain the 9Anime addon, however the only one that has a working version is the 9Anime repo by DxCx. This repo contains only 9Anime, an addon that scrapes links from several unlicensed sources.
Because there appears to be a single developer, this addon is at higher risk of hijacking than some others. Also, the developer’s Twitter account hasn’t posted since July 2017. With no other social media presence, and considering the many versions of the 9Anime addon available, it can be very difficult to find information relevant to your version of it or the repo. For these reasons, we do not recommend our readers install the 9Anime repo.
Jesus Box
The Jesus Box repo was yet another source of the official YouTube addon. However, it also contained several addons that gathered links from unofficial providers. These included FlixNet, Jesus Box IPTV, and the notorious Genesis Reborn. Despite this repo’s popularity, its developer announced in 2018 that it was going offline permanently, likely due to legal threats from the MPA.
Ares Project
The Ares Project repo contains several useful addons such as the Ares Wizard, Plexus, and YouTube. However, it also hosts several addons that use unofficial sources, including SportsDevil and Planet MMA.
The Ares Wizard is useful if you’re interested in tweaking your Kodi installation, but there are far better alternatives. For the reasons above, we recommend Kodi users avoid the Ares Project repo unless it’s solely for the Ares Wizard.
Mucky Ducks
The Mucky Ducks repo is the home of the Mucky Ducks Wizard, an addon for installing builds and performing maintenance on your Kodi installation. It also contains dozens of copyright infringing addons, with no legitimate sources amongst them.
Considering that the Ares Wizard and Indigo have similar functionality and their repositories contain at least one official addon each, this repo has very little to offer. For the reasons above, we do not recommend Kodi users install the Mucky Ducks repo.
Repositories we love that are no longer active
Gracie’s Repo
Update: Unfortunately, Gracie’s Repo is no longer active. That’s unfortunate, as this repository had a lot of quality pieces in it, but sadly, Gracie has decided to close up shop.
Gracie’s repo isn’t very well known, which is a shame because it contains several excellent addons. There’s Fantastic Beasts, HammerTime, and Polaris if you like documentaries, Golden Cinema, Tempus Movies, and High Noon for film buffs, and Kidz Corner for classic cartoons. It should be noted that some addons, such as Serendipity, offer unlicensed content, so we’d advise avoiding these and using only the legitimate ones.
Noobsandnerds repo
Update: Due to legal pressures, the team behind Noobsandnerds decided to close up shop. This was definitely a tragic loss. While Noobsandnerds did have a few popular infringing addons, they also provided many legitimate options, and were a key team behind helping newcomers learn to code in Python.
Let’s be clear: the Noobsandnerds repo contains several addons like Elysium that provide unauthorized access to licensed content. That said, it also holds several legitimate addons like ITV and alternate versions of iPlayer and FilmOn.
It’s worth noting that because of the number of illegitimate addons this repo contains, many Kodi forums do not allow their users to discuss it. However, because this is such a popular repo, there’s plenty of support available on unofficial forums.
Conclusion
To find the best Kodi addons, you first have to find the best repositories. This article has shown that there are plenty of high-quality repos that offer official sources of content. This disproves the idea that Kodi is a poor platform for streaming and highlights the potential that it has for streaming services in the future.
