Movary vs Watcharr
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
Watcharr
Self-hosted watch-list and media tracking server
| Feature | Movary | Watcharr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 779 | ★ 1,514 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Letterboxd, Trakt | Trakt, Letterboxd |
What are Movary and Watcharr?
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
Watcharr
Watcharr is a self-hosted watched list and tracking application for movies, TV shows, anime, and games. It tracks viewing progress and ratings with data from TMDB and IGDB through a clean web interface.
- Movie and TV watch tracking
- Ratings and reviews
- TMDB and IGDB metadata
- Multi-user support
Movary vs Watcharr: key differences
Movary is written in PHP, while Watcharr is built with Go.
Why pick each one
Choose Movary if…
- Rich statistics
- Many import sources
Watch out for
- Movies only
- Tracking, not playback
Choose Watcharr if…
- Clean modern UI
- Tracks many media types
Watch out for
- Tracking only, no playback
- Younger project
Frequently asked questions
Is Movary or Watcharr better?
Neither is universally better. Watcharr has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Movary and Watcharr free and open-source?
Yes. Movary is licensed under MIT and Watcharr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Movary and Watcharr with Docker?
Movary: yes. Watcharr: yes.