NextEp next to Trakt, TV Time, Simkl, Serializd and Letterboxd. Comparison pages usually hide the rows where the home team loses; ours are right there in the table, because you would find them anyway.
Free, every feature unlocked, no card, no ads.
Written August 2026. Rows about other apps reflect their public feature pages and announcements at that time.
Green means it is genuinely there, purple means partly or with caveats, a dash means it is not. TV Time's column is history: it shut down in July 2026.
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| NextEp | Trakt | TV Time | Simkl | Serializd | Letterboxd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Still exists | ✓ | ✓ | Shut down 2026 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tracks TV, episode by episode | ✓ | ✓ | Was ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Films only |
| Tracks movies too | No — TV only, on purpose | ✓ | Was ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Automatic scrobbling (Plex etc.) | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | — |
| Release calendar + what's next | ✓ | ✓ | Was ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Watch together live, in sync | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — |
| Spoiler-sealed episode discussion | ✓ | Spoiler flags | Was ✓ | — | Spoiler flags | Films, flags |
| Collectible card per finished show | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — |
| Daily guess-the-show puzzle | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — |
| Written reviews | ✓ | Comments | Was ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ films |
| Imports your TV Time export | ✓ incl. comments | Via tools | n/a | ✓ | — | — |
| Full data export, free | ✓ JSON + CSV | ✓ | Gone with it | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Caps on lists / watchlist / notes | None | Free tier caps | n/a | Recs paywalled | None known | Some paid |
| Price | Free, all of it | Free + VIP | n/a | Free + Premium | Free + Plus | Free + Pro/Patron |
Being fair to the other columns: Trakt's scrobbling and open API are real advantages if you watch on a media server, and its free-tier caps are quoted on our full Trakt comparison. Simkl's automation and anime coverage are genuinely strong. Serializd is the closest thing TV has to Letterboxd's review culture. Letterboxd is the best film diary ever made — it just does not do television. A dash means we could not find the feature on that app's public pages in August 2026; if one of these rows goes stale, tell us and we will fix it.
Every tracker logs what you watched. These are the parts that only exist here.
Press play together, actually in sync, with live reactions — a shared couch for people in different houses. Every other app on this page is a diary you write alone.
Finish a show, mint a collectible card. Rarity tiers, era sets, a binder score — a collection that grows out of your real watch history, not a badge shelf.
A daily guess-the-show puzzle with a streak and a leaderboard. The reason to open the app on a day you didn't watch anything.
Per-show discussion rooms where posts stay sealed until you've seen the episode they spoil. Talk freely; nobody gets ruined.
TV Time, Trakt, Letterboxd, Simkl, IMDb — even screenshots. TV Time imports carry your comments over, into rooms that are still alive.
See what each streaming service is actually doing for you, per show, and which subscriptions are just rolling credits on your card.
Not everyone should pick NextEp. Here is who should pick what.
You watch through Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi and want episodes logged without touching your phone, or you need films, anime and TV in one database. Automation is their thing; it is not ours.
Your tracker is really a public writing venue — long reviews, a follower audience, a critic identity. Serializd for TV prose, Letterboxd for film. NextEp has reviews, but community-scale review culture is theirs.
You mark episodes yourself, you care about tonight's episode and what to watch next, and you want the parts nobody else built: watching in sync with someone, a collection that grows as you finish shows, and spoiler-safe rooms to talk in.
Your export still works here — shows, progress, even your comments land in each show's Aftershow room. The full TV Time guide walks it through in about two minutes.
Nothing to cancel, and your data exports in one click if you decide against it.
It depends on what you used TV Time for. If you want automatic logging from a media server, look at Trakt or Simkl. If you want written reviews in a public feed, Serializd. If you marked episodes yourself and cared about the calendar, what to watch next, and the community around each show, NextEp was built for exactly that — and it imports your TV Time export including your comments.
No. NextEp is deliberately TV-only. If you want films and television in one app, Trakt or Simkl covers more ground, and Letterboxd remains the home of film diaries.
No. Trakt and Simkl can watch a media server and log episodes automatically; NextEp cannot. You mark episodes yourself, and the app is built to make that one tap.
Yes. Every feature is unlocked, there are no ads and no paid tier, and there are no caps on your watchlist, lists, notes or ratings. Your data exports as JSON or CSV in one click.
You shouldn't, automatically — which is why the table includes the rows we lose (scrobbling, movies, an open API, review-community scale), links the competitors' own pages where numbers are involved, and asks you to email us when a row goes stale. The honest version costs us a few checkmarks and is worth it.
Most of NextEp is browsable without an account, and the rest is free with no card and no caps.