Media tracker apps in 2026: tracking shows, movies and games in one place

We make Trackpile, one of the apps compared here. We stick to facts you can check, link every app so you can judge for yourself, and say where another app does something better.

Most trackers stick to one thing. Your shows live in a TV tracker, films in a movie diary, and games in a backlog app, so you end up with three accounts and three histories that never meet. If you'd rather keep everything you watch and play in one place, there are two ways to do it: an all-in-one media tracker, or the best single-purpose app for each and two apps to keep up with.

This page compares both. The apps are grouped by what each does best rather than ranked, because the right one depends on your devices and on how much of your time goes to each category.

At a glance

How we compared them

We looked at what matters if you want one history for shows, movies and games: whether an app tracks all three, how it handles TV (episode by episode, or in bigger pieces), which devices it runs on, and what the free version leaves out. Every claim below comes from the app's own website, help pages, code repository or store listing, checked on the date at the top of this page. Each name links to the app's site so you can check for yourself.

Prices and limits change. If you spot one that has, tell us at [email protected] and we'll fix it.

One app or two?

One app gives you one search, one account and one place to see what's next, whatever it is. Two specialist apps usually go deeper in their own category, and you can pick the best of each. If you mostly watch TV and play the occasional game, two apps may suit you fine. If you keep up with all three, a single history is easier to live with.

Sequel, NeoDB and Ryot below are all-in-one trackers, and so is Trackpile, which is ours and comes last. In between are two TV and film trackers and a games tracker that you can pair up instead.

Sequel: best for Apple devices, books included

Sequel is a media tracker made for Apple's platforms. It keeps the movies, shows, games, books and audiobooks you want to get to in one wishlist, then tracks them as you go: mark off episodes as you watch them, and mark a game as Playing or a book as Reading for quick access.

• Tracks: shows, movies, games, books and audiobooks.
• Runs on: iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro, synced through iCloud.
• Free vs paid: the free version saves and tracks unlimited items, with up to 5 collections. Sequel+, an optional subscription, adds Trakt sync, where to watch, release reminders for your wishlist, unlimited collections and how long games take to finish.
• Worth knowing: it's Apple-only, with no Android or web version.

NeoDB: best for books and music too, on the fediverse

NeoDB is open-source and community-run, part tracker and part social network. One shared catalog covers books, movies, TV shows, music, games, podcasts and performances. You mark each item as wishlist, in progress, complete or dropped, rate and review it, and can share your reviews to Mastodon and the rest of the fediverse, or to Bluesky.

• Tracks: shows, movies, games, books, music, podcasts and performances.
• Runs on: the web, on a community server you sign up to (neodb.social is the main one, run by NeoDB's developers). Several apps for iPhone and Android work with it, but they're made by others, not by NeoDB.
• Price: free. The main server asks for donations.
• Your data: export your full archive at any time, and import from Goodreads, Letterboxd and a few other sites.
• Worth knowing: TV is tracked a season at a time. Each season is one entry, where you can note the episode you're up to and comment on single episodes, but there's no episode-by-episode checklist.

Ryot: best for running it on your own server

Ryot, short for "Roll Your Own Tracker", is open-source software you host yourself. It tracks movies, TV shows, anime, manga, books, audiobooks, podcasts, music and video games, and it logs workouts too if you want your training next to your watch history. It can import from Trakt, Goodreads, MyAnimeList and more, and integrations with Jellyfin, Plex, Kodi and Emby track what you play there automatically.

• Tracks: shows, movies, games, anime, manga, books, audiobooks, podcasts and music, plus workouts.
• Runs on: your own server, used in a web browser and installable on a phone as a web app. Ryot also sells a hosted cloud plan if you'd rather not run a server.
• Price: the Community Edition is free to self-host. Ryot Pro is paid, either as a cloud plan or as a licence for your own server, and adds profile sharing, personalized recommendations and more.
• Worth knowing: unless you pay for the cloud plan, you need a server to run it on. If Ryot is more than you need, Yamtrack is another free, open-source, self-hosted tracker. It covers movies, TV, anime, manga, games, books, comics and board games, imports from Trakt, Simkl, MyAnimeList, AniList and Kitsu, and exports everything to CSV.

Trakt: best for automatic TV and movie tracking

Trakt is a tracker for shows and movies, and the hub of a large set of connected apps. Media center add-ons such as its Kodi plugin can log what you play to your Trakt history without you lifting a finger. Its own iPhone and Android apps were rebuilt and relaunched in January 2026.

• Tracks: shows and movies. No games.
• Runs on: the web, iPhone and Android.
• Free vs paid: core tracking is free. The free plan caps your watchlist at 250 items and allows 5 personal lists of up to 250 items each. VIP, the paid plan, raises those limits.
• Worth knowing: for games you'll need a second app, such as Backloggd below.

Simkl: best for anime alongside TV and movies

Simkl tracks TV, anime and movies in one account, with anime as its own category rather than filed under TV.

• Tracks: shows, anime and movies. No games.
• Runs on: the web, iPhone and Android.
• Free vs paid: there's a free tier. Paid plans remove the ads and add extras.
• Worth knowing: as with Trakt, games need a second app.

Backloggd: best for a journal of games only

Backloggd is a journal for video games. Log what you've played, keep a backlog of what you own but haven't started and a wishlist of what you want, rate and review, and follow friends to compare notes.

• Tracks: games only. Each game can be marked Played, Playing, Backlog or Wishlist.
• Runs on: the web. There's no mobile app yet, but the site is built to work on a phone screen.
• Price: free. Backing it on Patreon is optional and adds a badge to your profile.
• Worth knowing: pair it with Trakt or Simkl for TV and film, and you have the two-app setup.

Trackpile: best for shows, movies and games on web, iPhone and Android

Trackpile is ours. Shows, movies and games each get their own tab in the same account. Follow a show and tap episodes off as you watch; an Upcoming tab lists the episodes on the way, grouped by day. Movies have a watch list and a watched list. Games sort into Wishlist, Backlog, Playing, Completed and Dropped. Custom lists can mix all three, and your profile counts shows, movies and games together. If you collect figures, there's a shelf for those too: wishlist, preordered and owned.

• Tracks: shows (anime included), movies, games and your figure collection.
• Runs on: the web, iPhone, iPad and Android, all synced.
• Price: free. A paid Plus tier is planned but isn't available yet.
• Your data: export your shows, movies and games as a single backup file at any time.
• Worth knowing: there are no books, music or podcasts, no Trakt or Steam import or sync yet, no new-episode notifications yet, and no comments or social feed. If you read as much as you watch, Sequel or NeoDB is the better fit; if you want release reminders today, Sequel+ has them.

Newer apps we're keeping an eye on

A few phone apps that cover all three are newer than the ones above: Wecult (iPhone and Android, books included), which its site still labels a beta, and LaterRex (iPhone, also books, music and podcasts), whose first version came out in July. We'll look at them again when we next update this page.

Which one should you pick?

• Everything you own is made by Apple, and you read too: Sequel.
• You want books and music in the same history, and to share it on the fediverse: NeoDB.
• You run a home server and want your data on it: Ryot, or Yamtrack.
• You'd rather have each category's specialist: Trakt or Simkl for TV and film, plus Backloggd for games.
• You want shows, movies and games in one free account on the web, iPhone and Android: Trackpile.