# Serializd vs Trakt: Which TV Tracker Fits How You Watch? **Published:** June 10, 2026 **Author:** Achriom **URL:** https://www.achriom.com/blog/serializd-vs-trakt > Serializd vs Trakt: honest comparison for TV trackers in 2026. Serializd wins on design, Trakt wins on scrobbling. Here is which one fits how you watch. **Tags:** tv tracking, serializd, trakt, comparison, media apps --- Serializd and Trakt solve the same problem from opposite ends. Serializd is a social diary: you log episodes by hand, write reviews, and follow other people's watching. Trakt runs in the background, scrobbling what you play on Plex, Kodi, or Jellyfin so your history fills itself in. Pick Serializd if you like writing about shows and seeing what your friends watch. Pick Trakt if you want automatic tracking, a calendar of upcoming episodes, and an API that plugs into your media server. If you track more than television, neither one is built for that, and the rest of this post covers what to do instead. ## What to look for in a TV tracker Before comparing the two, it helps to know what actually separates a tracker you keep using from one you abandon after a week. **How history gets recorded.** Manual logging gives you control and a reason to reflect. Automatic scrobbling gives you a complete record with zero effort. Most people have a strong preference once they try both. **Episode-level versus show-level.** Some apps mark a whole season done in one tap. Others track every episode, which matters if you watch three shows at once and lose your place. **Social or private.** A public feed makes logging feel like posting. A private log makes it feel like a journal. Neither is better, but they attract different people. **What it covers.** A TV-only tool is sharp at one job. If your media life also includes films, books, and albums, a single-format tracker leaves most of your taste uncatalogued. **Recommendations.** A good tracker should eventually tell you what to watch next, not just record what you finished. ## Serializd Serializd is the closest thing TV has to Letterboxd. It is built around the act of logging an episode, rating it, and writing a short review that lands in a public feed. (For the film side of that same rivalry, see [Trakt vs Letterboxd](/blog/trakt-vs-letterboxd/).) The diary is the heart of it. You mark episodes as you watch, leave a star rating, and your activity becomes a timeline you and your followers can scroll. Reviews are the social currency. People follow each other for the writing as much as the data. It now handles films alongside television, so a single account can cover most of your screen time. Lists are flexible, the interface is clean, and the community skews toward people who genuinely like talking about shows like **Severance** and **The Bear** scene by scene. ![The Bear (2022)](/blog/assets/serializd-vs-trakt/the-bear-tv.jpg) ![Severance (2022)](/blog/assets/serializd-vs-trakt/severance-tv.jpg) What it does not do is track for you. Every episode you watched happened because you opened the app and logged it. If you fall behind, the gap stays a gap until you backfill it. For people who enjoy the ritual, that is the appeal. For everyone else, it becomes a chore. ## Trakt Trakt is the automation engine of TV tracking. Connect it to Plex, Kodi, Jellyfin, or Emby, and it scrobbles what you play without you lifting a finger. Your watch history becomes a complete, timestamped record. The calendar is the feature people stay for. Trakt knows which shows you follow and tells you exactly when the next episode of **Shōgun** or anything else airs. Combined with progress tracking, it always knows the next unwatched episode in every series you have going. ![Shōgun (2024)](/blog/assets/serializd-vs-trakt/sh-gun-tv.jpg) Its API is the most powerful in this space, which is why dozens of other apps and dashboards pull from Trakt under the hood. There is a free tier and a paid VIP tier that unlocks unlimited lists, advanced stats, and a few quality-of-life features. The tradeoff is depth of setup. Scrobbling works best if you watch through a connected media server. If most of your viewing happens on streaming apps on a smart TV, automatic tracking covers less than you would hope, and you end up checking shows in manually anyway. The writing and community side is also thinner than Serializd's. Trakt is a database with a calendar, and it is very good at being one. ## A third option if you track more than TV Both apps assume television is the thing you want to catalogue. For a lot of people it is one of several. You finish a series, then read the novel it was based on, then fall down a soundtrack rabbit hole, and three different apps each hold one slice of that. Achriom takes the opposite approach. One library holds your TV, films, books, and albums together, and an AI librarian inside ChatGPT can actually talk about it. You can ask why you keep returning to slow-burn character dramas, or what to read after finishing **Breaking Bad**, and get an answer that draws on everything you have logged, not just one format. ![Breaking Bad (2008)](/blog/assets/serializd-vs-trakt/breaking-bad-tv.jpg) It is private by default. There is no public feed and no followers. The point is reflection and discovery across your whole taste, rather than posting. It does not scrobble from a media server the way Trakt does, so it suits people who want to understand their collection more than they want a hands-off recording of every episode. See the [Achriom TV tracker page](/tv-tracker/) for the full TV-specific breakdown. If your watching is the only thing you care to track, a dedicated tool will serve you better. If your TV habit is part of a wider taste in books, music, and film, a cross-media library is the thing single-format trackers cannot give you. Achriom tracking a show season by season, with the current episode marked and where-to-watch streaming availability

Want all of it in one place? Achriom tracks your shows alongside your films, books, albums, and anime, with an AI librarian that finds the patterns. That is the part no TV-only tracker can do.

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## Serializd vs Trakt vs Achriom | | Serializd | Trakt | Achriom | |---|---|---|---| | Best for | Writing and sharing TV reviews | Automatic, complete watch history | Taste across TV, film, books, music | | How tracking works | Manual logging | Scrobbling plus manual | Manual, conversational | | Coverage | TV and film | TV and film | TV, film, books, albums, anime | | Social or private | Public feed | Following plus calendar | Private | | Recommendations | Community-driven | Basic | AI librarian, cross-media | | Upcoming episodes | Limited | Strong calendar | No | | Price | Free, optional premium | Free, paid VIP tier | Free tier, in ChatGPT | ## Which should you use If you love writing about shows and want other people to read it, use Serializd. The diary and the feed are the reason it exists, and nothing else here matches that experience. If you want your history to fill itself in and never miss a premiere, use Trakt. Connect it to your media server, set the calendar, and let it run. If television is one part of a broader taste you want to understand, and you would rather have a conversation about your collection than maintain a public profile, look at Achriom. You can [import and organize what you watch](/blog/how-to-track-movies-across-streaming-services/) and then ask your AI librarian what it all adds up to. Plenty of people use two of these together. Trakt for the automatic record, Serializd for the writing, Achriom for the connections across everything they read, watch, and hear. ## The honest answer Serializd and Trakt are both good, and they barely compete. One is a place to write about TV in public. The other is a place your watching quietly records itself. Choose based on whether you want logging to feel like journaling or like nothing at all. The bigger question is whether a TV tracker is even what you are looking for. If your shelves and playlists matter as much as your watchlist, the tool that holds all of it together will tell you more about yourself than any single-format tracker can. That is the gap Achriom fills, and it is worth knowing the option exists before you commit to organizing your life one format at a time. ## Common questions **Does Serializd track movies, or only TV?** It started as a TV-first diary and now supports films as well, so one account can cover both. Television is still where its community and features are strongest. **Does Trakt track your watching automatically?** Yes, through scrobbling. Connect Plex, Kodi, Jellyfin, or Emby and it records what you play. Watching through streaming apps on a smart TV is harder to scrobble, so some manual check-ins are still needed. **Is Serializd or Trakt free?** Both have free tiers. Trakt sells a VIP subscription for unlimited lists and advanced stats. Serializd is free to use with optional premium features. **Can I use Serializd and Trakt at the same time?** Yes, and many people do. Trakt handles the automatic history and calendar while Serializd handles reviews and the social feed. They serve different needs without much overlap. **What if I track books and music too, not just shows?** Neither app is built for that. A cross-media library like Achriom keeps TV, film, books, and albums in one place, and its AI librarian can talk about connections across all of them. See [the wider comparison of tracking apps](/blog/best-movie-tracking-apps/) for more. **Which has better recommendations?** Trakt offers basic suggestions and a strong calendar of what is next. Serializd leans on community reviews. For recommendations that account for your taste across formats rather than one, an AI librarian that knows your whole collection goes further. Compare every TV tracker at the [full media tracker comparison](/compare/).