Trakt Upcoming VIP Renewal Pricing Changes – Effective May 20, 2025

Submitted ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨otter@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://forums.trakt.tv/t/upcoming-vip-renewal-pricing-changes-effective-may-20-2025/56649

I think it’s time for the open source and/or fediverse alternatives to Trakt to get some love.

The price change is listed as going from $30 a year to $60 a year, and they’re also changing everyone to that price:

Starting May 20, 2025, all VIP renewals will move to a standardized price. This means that any legacy, promotional, or grandfathered pricing will no longer apply to renewals processed on or after that date. Instead, all VIP memberships will renew at the new standard rate going forward.

People are not happy on their forum:

forums.trakt.tv/t/…/56676

This user poll suggests that around 97% of respondents (at the time of making this post) will not renew

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Comments

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Fribbtastic@lemmy.world ⁨34⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
Yeah, got the mail yesterday. VIP member for 6 years and immediately cancelled it.

I mean, I am okay with paying for something that I use but double the price just like that? Nope.

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lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I just started self-hosting this: github.com/sbondCo/Watcharr

Seems to work decently and integrates with Plex, and the arr stack

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desmosthenes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
double price bump for something like this kinda touch to swallow; was a paying member for 8/9 years too

Image

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aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
For people outside of the loop,

Trakt has been running since 2010, it got popular because it lets you track and record your watch history with a UI that no one else seems to offer. It connects to Plex and other services so you can scrobble your watches, get notified of new episodes and movies, and has a social layer throughout the site to commune with other users and comment on what you’re watching.

In the past few years, however, there has been one controversy after another.

Trakt abruptly stopping using TVDB for its data due to API costs and now uses TMDB. This created a number of problem with data being mismatched or completely wrong. The leadership of TMDB has a lot of weird ideas about how shows and movies are formatted, splitting episodes into multiple episodes here and merging episodes and entire series together there, or even disqualifying series from being listed over arbitrary technicalities. Trakt blindly follows whatever TMDB does and their admins locked a long-running thread complaining about these issues on their own forums.

Trakt started arbitrarily changing the way the site looks. Including locking the original color scheme behind a paywall, leaving free users a new, gaudy bright purple color scheme that isn’t even complete (random elements of the free site are still the original maroon). The site overall is getting harder to load and uses far more resources than it did just a few years ago. Trakt launched a “lite” version of the site which is not light in size, it’s just the mobile UI for desktop which is just as resource intensive.

Recently, Trakt nerfed crucial features for free users (and even for paid users in certain ways), limiting playlist making and record-keeping to the point where free is almost useless. And the reduction of playlists, which are curated and shared by users on the site, reduces engagement throughout the entire community.

Now this.

The whole company is becoming corporate and as a result been subjected to enshitification.

I am still using it, for now, because I still benefit from the recommendations it gives me based on what I’ve already watched. Once that stops being the case, I’m just going to leave.

I keep text documents of everything I watch. What I enter into Trakt is just a mirror. Trakt does allow all users (including free users) to download their data and just bugger off. So everyone who uses them should go test that feature.

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- semisimian@startrek.website ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I am outside of the loop and I appreciate your break-down. I am all for paying for useful services, but I have such a backlog of media that I need to watch, I don’t benefit from Trakt. I like a paid business model, though
  
  We should all question a “free” app that lets us spend 1 or 2 or 8 hours a day on their platform. We’ve gotten greedy, thinking that everything should be personal data or advertiser supported. It stinks that Trakt is cutting features while raising prices, all for a pretty simple service, but I think subscription services that protect your privacy are worth funding.
  
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- mnmalst@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s really sad, I am a VIP user for 10 years now but a 100% price increase is just too much for me. Are there any valid alternatives? The other commercial ones mentioned here cost pretty much the same so that not really and option for me.
  
  Also, you mentioned you can export your data? Were you referring to third party export tools like traktextract?
  
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  - Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I believe it also has a CSV export
    
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  - aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yep, there’s an export feature built into the site now. It used to be by request only, but now anyone can create a backup from the Settings > Data page on command.
    
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- Alexstarfire@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I used it for a while but I don’t think I ever knew it could do those things. I just used it to manually keep track of what I watched. Was more useful in keeping track of movies but I liked TrackSeries.tv better for keeping track of my shows.
  
  Course, I don’t think it can do any of the things you mention either so it’s certainly not a replacement. It is free though. And I’m not aware of any limits on it.
  
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  - jonesy@aussie.zone ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Sonarr has a calendar that shows you airing days of shows you track if you already use that for managing your library
    
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- paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As I remember things, TVDB is the one with the weird episode splitting and ordering…
  
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- jonathan@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I really don’t think this qualifies as enshittification. There’s no evidence they’ve taken funding or have any shareholders they need to appease. They also only increased prices and have not moved the paid/free boundaries in any way.
  
  I think it’s much more likely this is a side project that simply doesn’t pay for itself well enough, and the alternative would be shutting it down. If people aren’t happy with that, it’s totally reasonable to just cancel.
  
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mac@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Is there something self-hosted I can use to track my movies/TV? I like seeing my monthly/yearly breakdowns and I’ve been using trakt for this for a number of years.

Integration with jellyfin would be a plus.

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- otter@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  This user commented about trying Watcharr earlier in this thread
  
  lemmy.ca/comment/16523668
  
  I also see mentions of Ryot,
  
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Shayeta@feddit.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

This user poll suggests that around 97% of respondents (at the time of making this post) will not renew

Hahaha, I’ll be pleasantly surprised if 10% of them actually quit.

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- otter@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  A 2x price increase (or more for people who are on discounted or grandfathered plans) will likely get people to reevaluate if they really need the service. Based on the comments so far, it looks like a lot of people already have dropped it
  
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  - MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Plus it’s not what I would call a critical service, it’s a nice-to-have service which makes it easier to stop using.
    
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  - FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    This.
    
    It’d be one thing if they increased prices nominally, but a doubling prices, especially at this moment in time when everyone everywhere is feeling drained financially, is just absolutely moronic.
    
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- kameecoding@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Well that’s just not how anything works, also it’s worth mentioning that people upset about this are more likely to respond to the poll thus skewing data
  
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w3dd1e@lemm.ee ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I didn’t even get an email about this. I would have been angry when my subscription auto renewed. I love Trakt but this is too much. I’ll be cancelling too

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BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I like Trakt as a concept, I’ve used it sporadically, but their pricing was always optimistic, even at $30 a year. It has worked for them overall so far because it’s a well made project and people like them, but the value proposition of paying $5 a month now for something like Trakt feels crazy. It’s hard to look at different types of services at that price point and come to the conclusion that Trakt is comparable. There are actual streaming services creating some of the shows that show up on Trakt that are very similar in price (Dropout as a good example).

Only rational thing I can think of with this recent decision is that they’re tired of running Trakt and hoping to sell it off or close it up.

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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Even better: Yamtrack
  Keeps your data locally in a selfhosted format
  
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  - asbestos@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    This needs to be higher up. Does it have scrobbling like Trakt?
    
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Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I cancelled my premium (lite) sub. Don’t need that service for $60 per year

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solrize@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What the heck is this thing? Should many of us care?

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- orclev@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Seems to be some kind of centralized streaming service catalog. Never heard of it before now and no idea why anyone would be willing to pay $30 for it let alone $60.
  
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  - solrize@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Ok I used to feel sorry for streaming box users, but this is in “one born every minute” territory. Thanks.
    
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  - Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Tracking*
    
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- otter@lemmy.ca ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It tracks watch history and allows you to build lists, in a way that should integrate with other services. How well it does that is questionable
  
  Some people might still be using it out of habit or loyalty, but a $30 price jump might change that
  
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- Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I don’t, and I don’t care what they make. I see double in cost, while simultaneously screwing over the founding members who literally funded their company…fuck em. They could make the best heartpacer for all I care. Doubling your cost…get fucked
  
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  - Alexstarfire@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I’m assuming you mean pacemaker.
    
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- CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I used to use it to sync my watch history between Plex and Emby but stopped years ago when I dropped Emby. I can’t imagine what they’re offering that people would want to pay for though.
  
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  - halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I use it to track my watchlist on Emby as well, never even knew there was a paid part of it. No idea what that would even cover.
    
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FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Geez a 100% price increase to the normal price is an insane hike. They must either be either at the point where they think they’ve got enough people locked in who won’t leave that it will get them a bigger margin and profit per user on the books (possibly for a sale of the company), or they’re in absolutely dire financial straits and this was a hail mary to save the company.

I never found enough use in Trakt to pay for it, or even use the extremely limited free version, so this doesn’t affect me. Unfortunately as the cost of living increases dramatically more and more services are going to be doing things like this. Holding off on price increases as long as they can is great, but had they increased it by $10 a year a year ago, they could have done another $10 now and more people would have stuck around.

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kamen@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Things like this incentivise me to sit down and write an alternative. I just wish I had the time and energy to do so.

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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yamtrack is a possibility :)
  Even selfhosted
  
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  - kamen@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Cool, thanks a bunch. Looks like I’ll be installing this right away.
    
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joytoy@feddit.nl ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This explains why they sent me a “we miss you” email the other day. Thanks for sharing, I’ve deleted my account since I don’t use it anymore.

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Thrashin_Victim@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Anyone tried Simkl as a replacement?

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- IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I use simkl after using Trakt, and I prefer it. I can’t remeber what I liked better about it, I guess just the general ux. Oh and it can track Anime, although that can be a bit wonky.
  
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- MaddestMax@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  From quick research, it certainly seems to be the preferred alternative. It’s been around for quite awhile and look to have a legit business model. I also found an open source app that looks decent.
  
  AnymeX
  
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  - mnmalst@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    How is it a replacement when the price is pretty much the same? I am happy with trakt, I am a VIP member for exactly 10 years and like the feature set, I just can’t justify a 100% price increase.
    
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Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I thought I cancelled a couple years ago, so I appreciate them send me an email telling me they were still getting my money.

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hahattpro@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What is trakt do ?

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- otter@lemmy.ca ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This comment gives a good summary, but in short it lets you track what movies and shows you’ve watched / want to watch
  
  lemmy.ca/comment/16513770
  
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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As a heads up in case you didn’t know:
  What is does trakt do?
  
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TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I really wish the kodi addons would start working with overseer/jellyseer or something similar, it seems to me the tech is there.

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- mosiacmango@lemm.ee ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  If youre just looking for watched info, you could use jellyfin as your kodi backend (which is supported put of the both with Kodi), then something like Jellystat for in-depth viewing info.
  
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  - TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Less for tracking watched statuses… and more for say using kodi with addons like thecrew and similar that stream shows from torrents etc… that currently allow you to have a page that is a list of shows/movies on your trakt tv, and you can select from there to watch them.
    
    Marking things as watched is pretty far down on the list of features I care about. Having the addons put new episodes up and have a quick list of my shows rather than having to search them on my firestick using the god awful remote to type in the names and search for them… and actually having it syncronized on my network, would be the main feature I’d like to use anything else for.
    
    Unfortunately I’d guess the first and foremost part of that is, it will need to start with the addons actually adding support for something other than trakt to do that.
    
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- sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I use the basic free Trakt account and it saves my watched episodes and give me recommendations. I agree though, it should have more options
  
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ninekeysdown@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Ooof, I don’t use it enough to justify that price…

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plz1@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
There are open source alternatives? Do they handle Plex/Infuse integration? Trakt’s obsessive march toward enshitification has been pretty predictable, but maybe this price hike will be the last straw.

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- mac@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  I saw RYOT (roll your own tracker) a few months ago but haven’t looked at it since. Will take a deeper look tonight after work
  
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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Dunno about the integrations but Yamtrack might work for you
  
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