The best app to manage your movie and TV watchlist in 2026

The best movie and TV watchlist app in 2026 depends on your profile: Kino to replace TV Time with a 1-click import, Trakt for power users, Simkl to track everything, Letterboxd for movie buffs. TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026: if you exported your data before the shutdown, you can import it into your new app.

You’ve spent years checking off episodes, rating films, tending your to-watch list. And now TV Time has closed for good, on July 15, 2026. The panic is fair, but here’s the good news: if you saved your export in time, you can move everything to something better.

We compared the 6 apps that actually matter in 2026, with real prices, real limits, and the one criterion everyone forgets (movies AND series in the same app). In this article you’ll find which app to choose for your profile, how the TV Time export worked, and how to re-import your archive without losing a scrap of your history.

The short answer: the app you need, by profile

For most people leaving TV Time, Kino is the most natural pick: movies and series in the same app, 1-click TV Time import, free for the essentials. Trakt suits fans of stats and integrations, Simkl the anime crowd, Letterboxd the cinema purists. Here’s the full comparison.

Every profile has its winner, and we break it all down below. But first, a word on why this choice deserves five minutes of thought.

Why your watchlist deserves a real app in 2026

An app to track your series and movies is no longer a gadget: streaming has never been more fragmented, with new titles every week across a dozen platforms and databases like TMDB powering their catalogs. Keeping it all in your head is impossible. A good app centralizes what you’ve watched, what you want to watch, and where to watch it.

The trigger in 2026 is, of course, the TV Time shutdown. The app had more than 26 million installs according to TechCrunch, before parent company Whip Media pivoted to AI. The official message was blunt: “it was no longer viable to keep the service running as a free app, and there wasn’t enough demand for a paid one.”

Users reacted hard. The shutdown, confirmed by MacRumors, left the same worry everywhere: years of history hanging in the balance, and one question on everyone’s mind, where do I go now? We retraced the full story in our article on the TV Time shutdown, and the rest of this article exists precisely to avoid the worst-case scenario.

💡 Keep in mind: TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026, but your history isn’t doomed: if you ran the official GDPR export before the shutdown, you can re-import all your data elsewhere.

The 6 best apps to manage your watchlist in 2026

Here are the 6 apps that dominate movie and TV tracking in 2026: Kino, Trakt, Simkl, BetaSeries, Letterboxd and JustWatch. They all lean on solid databases like TMDB for their catalogs. We stress-tested them on four criteria: TV Time import, movies + series together, real free tier, quality of discovery.

Kino: the TV Time replacement, built for migration

Cards on the table: Kino is us. But it’s also the only app designed from day one as a TV Time replacement, with a 1-click library import, explained step by step in our import guide. Movies and series live in the same app, and the “For You” feed learns your taste to suggest your next gem. Vertical-format Clips add TikTok-style discovery, 100% legal (trailers and official content).

The free tier covers full tracking and an unlimited watchlist. Premium (€1.99/mo, €19.99/yr or €59 lifetime, 7-day trial, details on the pricing page) adds fine-tuned recs, unlimited AI and streaming alerts. Honest limit: the app is young, and streaming availability isn’t 100% perfect yet.

Trakt: the most powerful, not the most welcoming

Trakt is a benchmark TV and movie tracker: ultra-detailed history, deep stats, sync with Plex or Kodi. But let’s be honest: the interface is a bit rough on the eyes, and plenty of features sit behind VIP at around $5/month. An excellent tool for power users, less so for everyone else. We broke down the differences in our Kino vs Trakt comparison.

Simkl: the Swiss army knife, anime included

Simkl tracks everything: series, movies and anime, with TV Time import available. Its strength is completeness; its weakness, a dense interface that can put you off. If you watch a lot of anime, that’s a real argument. For the rest, Kino vs Simkl helps you decide based on your usage.

BetaSeries: the French-speaking veteran

BetaSeries remains the historical French-speaking community for TV tracking: comments in French, release schedule, badges. The app is series-first, its movie side is lighter, and the free tier comes with ads. Our head-to-head with BetaSeries goes into detail.

Letterboxd: the cinephile’s paradise… movies only

Letterboxd is gorgeous for rating and reviewing films, with a passionate community. Its deliberate choice: no series at all. If your usage mixes both, you’ll need a second app, and that’s the whole point of Kino versus Letterboxd.

JustWatch: the streaming guide, not a full tracker

JustWatch excels at answering “where can I watch this film tonight?”: its platform coverage is an industry reference. Episode tracking and history, however, stay basic. Perfect as a complement, not enough on its own if you want to check off your episodes.

✅ Good practice: before settling anywhere, test importing your TV Time archive into the app you’re eyeing. If the import fails or stays partial, you’ll know before rebuilding your list by hand.

Which app replaces TV Time without losing your history?

Here are the 6 apps that can replace TV Time in 2026:

1. Kino: 1-click TV Time import, movies + series, personalized feed.
2. Trakt: import possible, powerful stats, technical interface.
3. Simkl: TV Time import, anime coverage included.
4. BetaSeries: French-speaking community, partial import.
5. Letterboxd: movies only, no TV Time import.
6. JustWatch: where to stream, without real episode tracking.

The real criterion isn’t the feature list: it’s the ability to swallow your TV Time export without losing anything (watched episodes, ratings, watchlist). Kino recreates your history automatically from the official file; we detailed point by point what changes in Kino vs TV Time. And if you’re still torn between two apps, our detailed app-by-app comparisons lay it all out, no spin.

🚀 Your TV Time history deserves better than a forgotten ZIP. Download Kino and import your data in 1 click

How the TV Time data export worked (before July 15, 2026)

Here’s how exporting your TV Time data worked, in 4 steps:

1. You headed to TV Time’s official export portal, which no longer responds reliably today.
2. You signed in with the account linked to your TV Time profile.
3. You requested the export of your personal data (GDPR right).
4. You grabbed the ZIP file sent by email and kept it safe.

That file holds everything: followed series, checked episodes, ratings, to-watch list. It’s what your next app will read to rebuild your history. The Kino side of the process is described in our step-by-step guide to importing your TV Time library: you drop the file, the app finds each title in its catalog, and your list comes back to life in a few minutes.

⚠️ Warning: since July 15, 2026, the TV Time servers are closed and the export is no longer available. Everything now rests on the ZIP you saved in time: keep a copy in two places.

Movies and series in the same app: the criterion that really decides

A genuinely useful tracking app handles movies and series in one place. It’s the most underrated criterion in the choice: most apps are series-first (BetaSeries, the late TV Time) or movies-first (Letterboxd), and you end up with two apps, two watchlists and two histories to maintain.

Think about your real usage. You binge a season during the week and a film on Saturday night? Then a unified watchlist app saves you the double entry and cross-pollinates your taste: what you rate on the movie side feeds the series recs, and vice versa. That’s what Kino’s feed does, and it’s also why we built the app as the natural successor to TV Time rather than yet another film journal.

Bottom line? If you watch movies exclusively, Letterboxd stays an excellent choice. For everything else, favor an app that handles movies and series in the same app: Kino, Trakt or Simkl depending on your leaning.

Key takeaways

• TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026: new exports are no longer possible.
• Kino imports your TV Time library in 1 click, for free.
• Trakt for stats, Simkl for anime, Letterboxd for movies.
• Choose an app that handles movies and series together.

Conclusion: your watchlist deserves a second life

Ten years of checked-off episodes shouldn’t die with a server. If you exported your TV Time file before the shutdown, choose the app that fits your profile, import, and pick your current show back up exactly where you left it. “Happy watching, forever,” said TV Time’s farewell message: it’s up to you to write what comes next.

Download Kino and import your TV Time history today. So, which app is going to inherit your watchlist?