Comparisons
Trakt vs Simkl (2026)
Updated Sep 16, 2026
Last checked 2026-09-14/16. Both apps have changed pricing or limits within the last 18 months — re-verify before relying on the numbers below. Trakt's pricing was re-verified live on 2026-09-16 and corrected (see below); Simkl's was re-verified live the same day and confirmed unchanged — no correction needed there.
Trakt and Simkl are the two automation-first trackers people compare when they want their watch history logged with as little manual effort as possible — scrobbling from Plex, Kodi, or a streaming service instead of checking things off by hand. They overlap enough that switchers genuinely ask "which one," so here's the actual difference.
What they have in common
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Both are built around automatic tracking, not a manual diary — connect a media server or app once, and watching something logs itself.
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Both have a real API and power a chunk of the wider tracking-app ecosystem: Trakt's sync API is what several other trackers (including Moviebase) build on top of; Simkl's free import list covers 20+ services.
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Both are solo, per-account products. Neither has a household concept, a joint watchlist, or any notion of a decision made for more than one person — sync means "this account's data, everywhere," not "everyone in the room's taste, combined."
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Both cap the free tier and charge annually for the uncapped version.
Where they differ
Scope
Trakt covers movies and TV. Simkl adds anime as a first-class category (140K+ TV shows, 14.8K+ anime, 1.18M+ movies as of this check) with two-way MyAnimeList sync on its paid tier — if anime is part of what you watch, Simkl covers ground Trakt doesn't attempt.
Pricing and free-tier limits
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Trakt VIP: $59.88–$71.88/year, and a monthly option does exist (corrected 2026-09-16 — live pricing at app.trakt.tv/vip shows $4.99/mo billed yearly = $59.88/yr "Most Popular", $5.99/mo billed monthly = $71.88/yr, and a cheaper $3.99/mo billed-every-2-years plan ≈$47.88/yr effective; the "annual-only, monthly removed" claim from secondary sources doesn't hold up against the live page). Free tier shows 1,000 Total List Items, 1,000 Watchlist Items, and 5 Smart Lists on the live upsell — different figures than the 250-per-list number some coverage cites, not fully reconciled.
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Simkl PRO: $34.99/year ($2.91/mo). Simkl VIP: $69.98/year (billed as $34.99 twice a year, $5.83/mo) — both figures live-verified 2026-09-16, unchanged from prior checks. A Lifetime VIP option exists at $249 one-time — Trakt has no lifetime option, though its 2-year plan is the closest thing to a multi-year discount.
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Simkl's free tier is ad-supported; Trakt's is not. Simkl free users can earn temporary free PRO by using the app 20+ days a month — Trakt has no equivalent "earn it" path.
What's actually gated behind payment
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Trakt's free tier is usable but capped — you can use the whole product, just not without limits once your lists grow.
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Simkl's free tier is more restrictive day-to-day: custom lists, rewatch tracking, personalized recommendations, a private profile, and manual CSV backup are all paid-only, and the free plan runs on five fixed default watchlists.
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Simkl paywalls importing from Trakt and TV Time specifically — two of the largest trackers a switcher is likely coming from — behind PRO/VIP, even though it offers 20+ other import sources for free. Trakt doesn't paywall its own import/export.
Automation depth
Trakt's scrobbling integrations (Plex, Kodi, and other media-server plugins) are the more established, longer-running automation story in the category — it's closer to infrastructure than an app. Simkl's automation covers a similar surface (Plex, Kodi, Netflix, Crunchyroll, and more) with the added benefit of pulling anime-specific sources (Anilist, Kitsu, MyAnimeList) into the same account.
Which one, if you have to pick
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Pick Trakt if you want the deepest, most established automation/API story, don't watch much anime, and don't mind a $59.88–$71.88/year charge (cheaper on a 2-year plan) once you outgrow the free caps.
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Pick Simkl if anime is part of your watching, you want the widest single-catalog scope, and you're fine with an ad-supported free tier in exchange for a cheaper entry-level paid plan ($34.99/year PRO, or free/ad-supported if you don't need custom lists).
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Neither solves the question a household or couple actually has most nights — what does everyone want to watch, right now, on what you've actually got. That's a different job than either app is trying to do; CouchReel's comparison pages cover that gap directly if it's the one you're trying to close.