Movary vs Ryot
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Movary
Self-hosted movie watch history and statistics tracker
VS
Ryot
Self-hosted tracker for movies, shows, books, games, and more
| Feature | Movary | Ryot |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 779 | ★ 3,606 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Letterboxd, Trakt | Trakt, Goodreads |
What are Movary and Ryot?
Movary
Movary is a self-hosted web application to track and rate watched movies and view detailed statistics about viewing habits. It supports importing from Trakt, Letterboxd, and Plex, and syncing with Jellyfin and Emby.
- Movie watch history
- Detailed statistics
- Trakt and Letterboxd import
- Plex and Jellyfin sync
Ryot
Ryot is a self-hosted application for tracking everything you consume, including movies, TV shows, video games, books, podcasts, and fitness. It provides a unified dashboard with metadata from many providers.
- Tracks many media categories
- Unified consumption dashboard
- Fitness tracking included
- Multiple metadata sources
Movary vs Ryot: key differences
Movary is written in PHP, while Ryot is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Movary versus GPL-3.0 for Ryot. Movary is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Ryot. Ryot has the considerably larger community, at 3,606 GitHub stars versus 779.
Why pick each one
Choose Movary if…
- Rich statistics
- Many import sources
Watch out for
- Movies only
- Tracking, not playback
Choose Ryot if…
- Very broad tracking
- Active development
Watch out for
- Not a media player
- Setup has options to learn
Frequently asked questions
Is Movary or Ryot better?
Neither is universally better. Ryot has the larger community, while Movary is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Movary and Ryot free and open-source?
Yes. Movary is licensed under MIT and Ryot under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Movary and Ryot with Docker?
Movary: yes. Ryot: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Movary or Ryot?
Movary has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Ryot. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.