Comparisons
Moviebase vs Hobi (2026)
Updated Sep 18, 2026
Last checked 2026-09-18, live re-verified against both sites via the built-in browser pane. Moviebase ships weekly — re-verify specifics before relying on the feature list below.
Moviebase and Hobi both emerged as places for TV Time refugees to land after TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026 (a date both sites independently confirm). They're both free, both phone-only, and both sync with Trakt — but Moviebase is a company's discovery-forward app with an undisclosed Premium tier, while Hobi is entirely free software built and run by two independent developers with no venture funding at all.
What they have in common
•
Both track movies and TV, with per-episode progress and a "what's next" view for every show.
•
Both offer two-way Trakt.tv sync, and both explicitly position themselves as TV Time alternatives with an import path for TV Time's saved export data.
•
Both are free to download and use on iOS and Android, with no dedicated web app — moviebase.app and hobiapp.com are both marketing/download pages, not browser-based trackers.
•
Both send notifications for new episodes and season premieres, and both show upcoming releases in a calendar-style view.
Where they differ
Ratings and discovery depth
Moviebase pulls ratings from three sources side by side — TMDB, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes — plus genre/rating/runtime/provider filters and studio/keyword search. Hobi's site lists IMDb ratings as its rating feature, without the same three-source comparison view, and its discovery pitch is narrower: "smart recommendations" and curated trending/returning/upcoming rows, rather than Moviebase's filter-driven browsing.
Monetization
Moviebase: free tier is ad-supported, unlimited tracking; Premium price stays undisclosed until checkout. Hobi is free with no premium tier at all — its own FAQ states plainly "Yes. Hobi is free to download and use on both iOS and Android," with no paid upgrade mentioned anywhere on the site as of this check.
Who's behind it
Moviebase is a company product (its footer credits sibling apps ReSubs, Momental, StreamGuide, MindTime and Gleva under the same maker). Hobi is built and run by two independent founders, self-funded, with no investors — the site states this explicitly as a selling point, tying it to a promise not to sell or mine user data and "no exit to chase."
TV Time migration story
Both import TV Time exports, but Hobi has built this into its core identity: it calls itself "the official migration partner for TV Time users," ships a dedicated import flow "free, straight from Settings," and ends the import with a report of everything moved, ratings included. Moviebase also lists TV Time ZIP/CSV import among its supported sources and publishes its own "How to Switch from TV Time to Moviebase" guide, but doesn't brand itself around the migration the way Hobi does.
Scale and track record
Hobi's own site claims 10+ years building for fans, 10M+ downloads, and "billions" of episodes and movies tracked — a considerably longer public track record than Moviebase's marketing, which doesn't publish comparable download or tenure numbers. Hobi also cites press mentions from WIRED, CNET, The Verge and Android Headlines as a TV Time alternative.
Household or group features
Neither app has one. Moviebase has follows and an activity feed; Hobi has no social layer described on its site at all — its focus is squarely on one person's episode tracking, countdowns, and diary.
Which one, if you have to pick
•
Pick Moviebase if you want three-source ratings (TMDB/IMDb/Rotten Tomatoes) and filter-driven discovery in one app, and don't mind ads plus an undisclosed Premium price.
•
Pick Hobi if you want a tracker that's free with no paywall anywhere, built by two independent developers who've stated plainly they won't sell your data, and you're moving over from TV Time specifically.
•
Neither solves what a household should watch tonight. Both are single-account trackers with no shared-decision layer. CouchReel's comparison pages cover that gap directly, if that's the one you're trying to close.