JustWatch vs Trakt

JustWatch is a free streaming guide that searches across dozens of services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and regional platforms, to show exactly where a specific movie or TV show can be streamed, rented, or bought in a given country. It also covers live sports streams and broadcasts for soccer, tennis, Formula 1, and other leagues. Users can build a combined watchlist that pulls from multiple streaming services into one place, get personalized recommendations based on the services they already subscribe to, and browse trending, new, and upcoming titles, making it a common first stop before opening any individual streaming app to search.

Trakt is a tracking service for TV shows and movies that automatically builds a watch history as you view content, syncing it across devices and apps. It is widely used as the tracking backend behind scrobbler plugins for Plex, Kodi, and other media center apps, so viewers get one unified history no matter which player they use. On top of tracking, Trakt surfaces trending and popular titles, generates personalized recommendations from a user's history and ratings, and lets people build and share custom lists and watchlists. The core service is free, with an optional paid VIP membership for users who want extra features, and a public API that powers many third-party media apps. It is accessible through the Trakt Web progressive web app at app.trakt.tv as well as official and third-party mobile apps.

• Completely free with no account required for basic search
• Saves time hunting across multiple streaming apps individually
• Covers a huge number of services and 80+ countries
• Combined watchlist works across services rather than being locked to one

• Free core tracking works across many third-party apps and media players via its open API and scrobbler ecosystem.
• Central watch history syncs across devices instead of being tied to one media player.
• Long-established in the media center community as a de facto tracking backend for Plex/Kodi/Emby integrations.
• Trending and recommendation features benefit from a large, active tracking community.

• Availability data can lag behind real-time catalog changes on some services
• Ad-supported experience on the free web and mobile apps
• Does not stream content itself, only points to where it lives

• Some features and higher limits are gated behind the paid VIP tier.
• Relies on manual check-ins or third-party scrobbler setup for accurate tracking outside of supported apps.
• The public marketing site can be intermittently protected by bot-detection, which may affect automated integrations.