NextEp vs Trakt · an honest comparison

Trakt is a great tool. It is just not the same kind of tool.

If you came looking for a Trakt alternative, here is the honest version: Trakt does one big thing NextEp cannot do at all, and NextEp has no caps where Trakt's free tier now has several. Which matters more depends entirely on how you watch.

Free, every feature unlocked, no card, no ads.

Written July 2026. Trakt's limits are quoted from Trakt's own announcements, with sources at the foot of the page.

Where Trakt is genuinely better

Leading with this because it is the part most comparison pages leave out, and because it is the part most likely to decide your answer.

 
NextEp
Trakt
Automatic scrobbling
Plex / Jellyfin / Kodi / Stremio
Movies as well as TV
TV only
Open API + third-party apps
Large ecosystem
Years of track record
Early access

The first two rows are the whole story for a lot of people. Trakt can watch your media server and log episodes without you lifting a finger. NextEp has no scrobbler at all, so you mark episodes yourself. If hands-off logging is why you use Trakt, nothing below will outweigh it, and you should stay.

Where Trakt's free tier stops

Trakt published updated Free and VIP limits in February 2026. These are the free-tier numbers, next to NextEp's.

 
NextEp
Trakt, free
Shows on your watchlist
No cap
250
Personal lists
No cap
5
Items in a single list
No cap
250
Items across all your lists
No cap
1,000
Notes you can save
No cap
100
Ratings
No cap
10,000
Connected apps (Plex, Kodi…)
Not supported
1
Price
Free, everything unlocked
Free tier + paid VIP

Trakt's VIP tier raises all of those numbers, and Trakt is a small team funding real infrastructure, so having a paid tier is fair enough. The point is only this: on NextEp none of these are decisions you have to think about, and there is nothing to upgrade to. For completeness, NextEp's one hard cap is twelve favourites in your Vault.

What NextEp does instead

NextEp is TV-only and it is built around finishing shows, not logging them.

 
NextEp
Trakt
One-tap import (5 sources + screenshots)
Yes, via CSV and third-party tools
Works with exports that have no TMDB IDs
Collectible card for every show you finish
Watch together, in sync, with reactions
Spoiler-sealed episode discussion
Daily guess-the-show puzzle
Full JSON / CSV export
Ads
None
None

So which one should you use?

🔌

Stay on Trakt if

You watch through Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi or Stremio and want episodes logged automatically. You track films as well as television. You rely on a third-party app built on Trakt's API. You want the option that has been around for years.

📺

Try NextEp if

You mark episodes yourself anyway. You have run into the free-tier caps and would rather not think about them. You only care about television. Or you want the parts Trakt does not do at all: a collection that fills as you finish shows, watching in sync with someone, and episode talk that stays sealed until you have seen it.

Nothing to cancel, and your data exports in one click if you decide against it.

NextEp vs Trakt — FAQ

Is NextEp a good Trakt alternative?

It depends on how you track. If you watch on a media server and want episodes logged automatically, Trakt is still the better tool, because NextEp has no scrobbler. If you mark episodes yourself and you have hit Trakt's free-tier caps on watchlists, lists or notes, NextEp has no equivalent caps and costs nothing.

Does NextEp support scrobbling from Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi?

No. NextEp has no scrobbler and no media-server integration, so you mark episodes as you watch them. This is the clearest thing Trakt does that NextEp does not.

Can I import my Trakt history into NextEp?

Yes. NextEp imports CSV exports from Trakt, along with TV Time, Letterboxd, Simkl and IMDb, and it still matches your shows when the export contains no TMDB IDs.

Can I get my data back out of NextEp?

Yes. Settings has a one-click export of everything you have tracked, as JSON or CSV, with no paid tier in the way.

Is NextEp free, and is there a paid tier?

NextEp is free and every feature is unlocked. There is no paid tier and no ads. Signups are open while early access lasts.

Does NextEp track movies?

No. NextEp is deliberately TV-only. Trakt tracks both films and television, so if you want one place for both, Trakt covers more ground.

Sources

Every Trakt figure on this page is from Trakt or from reporting that quotes Trakt, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Free and VIP limits (watchlist, lists, notes, ratings): Trakt's own announcement, Updating Trakt Limits for 2026, posted 27 February 2026.
One connected community app on the free tier: reported 22 July 2026 by TROYPOINT, quoting Trakt's forum post. Trakt's February limits announcement does not itself list an app-connection limit.
We have deliberately not quoted a VIP price here, because the figures we could find were inconsistent and we would rather leave it out than print a number that is wrong. Trakt's own VIP page has the current price.
Everything in the NextEp column is a feature you can check yourself in the app, free, without an account for most of it.