Updated 16 August 2026
This is not really a comparison between two apps. Trakt is infrastructure: a service that sits underneath other apps and media servers and keeps one watch history for all of them. ReelStack is an app on your phone with nothing underneath it. Whether Trakt is worth it comes down to a single question, which is whether you actually have anything to connect it to.
Disclosure: we make ReelStack. Trakt does several things we cannot do at all, and one of them is the reason most people use it. Those are listed first, below.
Pick Trakt if you run Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi or Emby, if you want your viewing logged automatically as you watch, or if you use several tracking apps and want them to agree with each other.
Pick ReelStack if you watch on ordinary streaming apps on an iPhone or Apple TV, you have nothing to scrobble from, and what you want is to be told when the next episode is on.
| ReelStack | Trakt | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An app | A service, with apps on top |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad | iOS, Android, web, plus dozens of third party clients |
| Account | None | Required |
| Where your library lives | On your device, synced through your own iCloud | On Trakt's servers |
| Price | Free to 8 titles, then $2.99 once | Free tier; VIP $60 per year |
| Automatic scrobbling | No | Yes, from Plex, Kodi, Emby, Jellyfin and more |
| Watchlist size on the free tier | 8 titles | 250 items |
| Connected third party apps, free tier | Not applicable | One |
| Custom lists | No | 5 free, 100 on VIP |
| Export your library | Free, CSV | Yes, plus a full public API |
| Episode alerts | On the day it airs, from your phone | Via third party apps and calendar feeds |
| TV Time import | No | Yes, direct |
US pricing, August 2026. Trakt's free and VIP limits were revised in February 2026; the figures above are from that announcement.
In February 2026 Trakt revised its limits. Most of it was housekeeping, and some of it was generous: the free watchlist went up from 100 items to 250. But one change landed differently. Free accounts are now limited to one connected third party app. Trakt's own apps do not count, but if you want a second community client, that needs VIP.
The reason this stung is that one shared history across every app you use was the thing Trakt was for. It was the reason to accept an account in the first place. Separately, long-standing subscribers on older legacy rates were moved onto the standard $60 a year in 2025, which for some people roughly doubled the bill.
None of that makes Trakt a bad product. It is a service with real running costs and it has to pay for itself. But it is worth being clear about what you are buying, which is a subscription to a hub, and worth asking whether you need a hub.
Our case against Trakt is not the one we would make against most competitors. It is not about lock-in, because Trakt handles that better than anyone. It is simply about whether you need any of it.
Scrobbling assumes a media server. If you watch Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV on a phone and a television, there is nothing for Trakt to listen to, and you will be marking episodes watched by hand exactly as you would in any other app. At that point you are paying a subscription for an integration you never use.
You open ReelStack and start adding shows. No sign up, no password, no email. Your library sits on your device and syncs to your other Apple devices through your own iCloud, which means we never hold it. There are no tiers, so there is no limit that can be revised in February.
$2.99, one time, with the first eight titles free so you can decide before paying. Over three years that is $2.99 against roughly $180 for Trakt VIP. The point is not only the size of the number. A subscription has to keep justifying itself every month, which is the pressure that turns free tiers into narrower free tiers. A one time purchase only has to be worth buying once.
ReelStack schedules a notification for the day an episode of a show you are watching actually airs, on your device rather than on a server, and gathers everything you are waiting on into one screen grouped by day. Getting the equivalent from Trakt generally means a calendar feed or a third party app, which on the free tier is now the one connected app you are allowed.
You have a Plex, Jellyfin, Emby or Kodi setup. You want watching logged automatically. You use several apps and need them to share one history. You have a TV Time archive to rescue. You want an API to build against.
You watch on streaming apps on Apple devices. You have nothing to scrobble from. You do not want another account or another subscription. You want to know when the next episode lands and which service has it.
Get ReelStack on the App Store
Available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Also worth reading: ReelStack vs Simkl, and the wider field in TV Time alternatives for iPhone.