FlickPicker · last verified 2026-07-26

FlickPicker vs Trakt

Trakt is the app most people land on after TV Time, and it is a reasonable default. This page is the honest case for when it is the right pick and when it is not — written by the people who make the other app, with Trakt's numbers taken from Trakt's own pages.

Who wrote this. FlickPicker did — and FlickPicker is one of the apps below, so read us with that in mind. We have tried to earn your trust the only way that works on a page like this: we do not rank ourselves first, we state plainly what we do worse than the alternatives, and every price, star rating and version number was read off the publisher's own App Store or pricing page on 26 July 2026 with the source linked. No affiliate links.

The difference in one paragraph

Trakt is infrastructure. FlickPicker is a decision. Trakt's value is that it is the canonical record of what you have watched, and that dozens of other apps can read and write it. FlickPicker's value is that it takes your history, your streaming services, your region and the people on the sofa with you, and produces something to watch in the next two minutes. If you want an archive, Trakt. If you want an answer, FlickPicker. Plenty of people should use both, and FlickPicker imports from Trakt for exactly that reason.

Side by side

	FlickPicker	Trakt
Platforms	iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Mac. No Android, no web tracker.	iOS, Android, web
Free tier	Full tracking, imports, discovery, Pick Together	100,000 watched history, 10,000 ratings, 250 watchlist items, 5 lists
Paid price	$4.99/month, $29.99/year	$5.99/month, $59.99/year (iOS)
iOS rating	Too few ratings for Apple to display an average yet	4.0 stars, 1.2K ratings, v3.8
Track record	Newer app, version 2.5 shipped 20 July 2026	Established, with a decade of history
Films and shows	One library, per-episode progress	One library, per-episode progress
TV Time import	Yes, with match preview and exclusions	Yes, free and first-party
Other imports	Letterboxd, IMDb, Trakt, CSV, pasted watchlists	Various, via community tools
Third-party ecosystem	None — FlickPicker is the app, not a backend	Largest in the category, but free accounts limited to 1 connected app since 22 July 2026
Recommendations	AI grounded in your history, taste profile, services and region	Basic related titles
Group decisions	Pick Together voting rooms	No
Streaming availability	By region and by the services you subscribe to	Limited
Canon list progress	Film Buff — IMDb Top 250, award winners, filmographies	Lists, manually
Export	Contact support	CSV, iCal and RSS on VIP

Where Trakt is straightforwardly better

Four things, and they are not small:

Portability. Trakt is the closest thing this category has to a standard. VIP exports CSV, iCal and RSS (Trakt). FlickPicker has no self-service export yet — you have to ask us. If never being locked in is your priority, that is a real argument for Trakt.
Platforms. Trakt runs on Android and the web. FlickPicker does not. If you use an Android phone, or want to log from a laptop, this comparison ends here.
Track record. Trakt has been running for over a decade. FlickPicker has not, and Apple has not yet gathered enough ratings to show an average for it. For a decade of watch history, longevity is a legitimate thing to weight.
Free-tier headroom. 100,000 watched-history items is more than almost anyone will ever record (Trakt's 2026 limits).

Where Trakt has got weaker in 2026

Two changes are worth knowing before you commit, both from Trakt's own announcements:

Free accounts are now limited to one connected community app as of 22 July 2026. Trakt's stated reason: "Using Trakt as the central data source across several apps creates significantly more syncing, API traffic, and infrastructure costs" (Trakt). Trakt's own apps do not count. But the ecosystem was the main reason to choose Trakt, and on the free tier most of it is now gated.

The v3 rewrite removed features. You can no longer rate a season, and the 10-point rating scale is gone. Trakt acknowledged that "a few things have stepped back for now", and users have documented the rest at length (v3 feedback thread). The 4.0-star iOS rating reflects it.

Separately, on price history: Trakt raised legacy VIP prices by up to 300% in 2025 after its co-founder had said existing VIPs were "grandfathered in at your price point" (Neowin). We mention it because price stability matters when you are choosing where to keep years of data — not to suggest the current price is unfair.

Where FlickPicker is better

The deciding. This is the whole point. Trakt tells you what you watched and what airs next. FlickPicker answers "something tense, under two hours, on a service I already pay for, that I have not seen" — grounded in your actual ratings and history rather than generic popularity.
Watching with other people. Pick Together rooms let everyone vote on a tailored shortlist and reveal the match. Trakt has no equivalent, and neither does anything else in this category.
Streaming reality. Recommendations are filtered to the services you actually subscribe to in your region, and you get warned before a saved title leaves them.
Price. $29.99/year against $59.99/year for equivalent paid tiers.
Import safety. The importer previews matched titles so you can exclude wrong matches before they enter your library — useful for older or ambiguously-titled shows.
Canon progress. Film Buff tracks how far through the IMDb Top 250, award winners and specific filmographies you are, with progress updating automatically as you mark things watched.

Pick Trakt if...

You are on Android, or you want to log from a web browser.
You want your history in the most portable, widely-supported format available.
You want a decade-old service rather than a newer one.
You are happy to choose what to watch yourself.

Pick FlickPicker if...

You are on iPhone or iPad.
The hard part of your evening is deciding, not recording.
You watch with a partner, family or friends and the negotiation is the problem.
You want streaming availability and recommendations that respect what you pay for.
You would rather pay $29.99 than $59.99 a year.

Or use both

This is a genuinely sensible option and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Keep Trakt as the long-term archive, and import into FlickPicker for day-to-day deciding. Because FlickPicker imports from Trakt as a one-off rather than staying permanently connected, it does not consume the single community-app connection Trakt now allows free accounts.

Try FlickPicker free on iPhone

TV Time alternatives — the full field, eight apps compared.

Best TV show tracker apps in 2026 — ranked on price and platform.

What FlickPicker actually does — full capability list.

How we checked. Prices, star ratings, rating counts, version numbers and release dates come from Apple's App Store listings and each publisher's own pricing pages, read on 26 July 2026. Feature claims come from the publisher's own documentation. Criticisms are drawn from public reviews and the publishers' own forums, and are attributed. Where we could not verify something we say so rather than guessing.

Frequently asked questions

Is FlickPicker or Trakt better?

They are built for different jobs. Trakt is a tracking backend with the largest app ecosystem and a free tier that allows 100,000 watched-history items — pick it if you want your data to be portable across many apps. FlickPicker is a decision tool that happens to track — pick it if your actual problem is choosing what to watch, especially with other people, and you are on iPhone. Trakt is the safer institutional choice; FlickPicker does more of the deciding for you.

Is FlickPicker cheaper than Trakt?

Yes, at list price. FlickPicker Premium is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Trakt VIP is $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year on iOS — almost exactly double annually. Both have usable free tiers, so compare what you actually need paid features for rather than the headline price.

Can I use FlickPicker and Trakt together?

Yes. FlickPicker imports from Trakt, including history, ratings, progress, watchlists and lists, so you can keep Trakt as your long-term archive and use FlickPicker for day-to-day deciding. This matters more since 22 July 2026, when Trakt limited free accounts to one connected community app — a one-time import does not tie up that slot the way a permanently-connected app does.

Does FlickPicker require a Trakt account?

No. FlickPicker has its own account and library and works fully standalone. Trakt is only one of several places it can import from, alongside TV Time, Letterboxd, IMDb and CSV files.

Which one imports my TV Time data better?

Both read the official TV Time GDPR ZIP. Trakt's importer is free, first-party and well tested, covering history, watchlist and ratings. FlickPicker's adds a preview step so you can inspect matched titles and exclude wrong matches before committing, which matters for older or ambiguously-named shows. If you only care about getting the data somewhere safe quickly, Trakt is the lower-risk choice.

Does Trakt work on iPhone?

Yes, Trakt publishes an official iOS app, currently version 3.8 and updated within days. It rates 4.0 stars across 1.2K ratings — the lowest of the actively-maintained trackers — largely because the v3 rewrite removed season ratings and the 10-point rating scale.