Comparison
7 Best TV Time Alternatives in 2026
TV Time closed on July 15, 2026 and took your watch history with it. Here is where the people who used it every night have gone.
The closest TV Time alternative is Serializd, which does episode tracking and season reviews the same way. If what you actually miss is the ratings, Shortlist replaces them with head-to-head ranking. If you want tracking that runs itself, Trakt. Those three cover almost every reason someone goes looking after a tracker shuts down. The other four on this list are companions rather than replacements.
One thing to be honest about up front: none of these can restore your TV Time history. Whip Media deleted personal watch data when the service closed, and no third party has a copy of it. Every option below starts you from an empty list, so the question is not which one recovers the most, it is which one you want to spend the next few years filling.
The Best TV Time Alternatives
#1
Serializd
The closest replacement
Serializd is the nearest thing to what TV Time was: episode-level tracking, season reviews, and a community that is actually active. If what you miss is ticking off episodes and writing a line about a season finale, this is the switch that asks the least of you. It is television only, so films go somewhere else.
Best for: Picking up your episode tracking where TV Time left it
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#2
Shortlist
For settling which shows were best
Shortlist is not an episode tracker, and it is worth saying that plainly. It answers the other half of what TV Time was for: you rated shows out of five stars, and after a hundred of them almost everything you liked sat at four. Shortlist shows you two titles and asks which you prefer, then builds the ranked list out of your answers. Movies and TV in the same list, free on iPhone and Android.
Best for: Turning years of watching into an order you would defend
#3
Trakt
For tracking that runs itself
Trakt scrobbles in the background: connect it to Plex, Kodi or your streaming apps and your watch history fills itself in. It is the least social option here and the most complete one on data, which is the trade TV Time never made. The interface is rougher than the app you just lost.
Best for: Media servers, and never marking an episode watched again
#4
IMDb
The reference option
IMDb has every show and every episode, a watchlist, and ratings on a 10-point scale. It is a reference work with tracking bolted on rather than a tracker, and the social side is nothing like TV Time was. It earns a place here because it will still exist in ten years, which is not nothing after this year.
Best for: A watchlist you never want to migrate again
#5
Letterboxd
For the film half of your watching
Letterboxd is the busiest film community there is, and it does not do television at all, deliberately. It is on this list because a lot of TV Time users were tracking films in it too, and this is where that half goes. Pair it with Serializd or Shortlist for shows.
Best for: Films, reviews, and a community that never sleeps
#6
JustWatch
For "where is this streaming?"
JustWatch does not replace the tracking, it replaces the other thing TV Time was quietly useful for: telling you which service a show is on this week. Free, no account needed to search, and it covers every major region.
Best for: A companion app alongside whichever tracker you pick
#7
Reelgood
For juggling five subscriptions
Reelgood pulls your streaming services into one watchlist and one recommendation feed. Lighter on community than TV Time, heavier on deciding what to put on tonight. The tracking is a side effect of the watchlist rather than the point.
Best for: Subscribers with more services than evenings
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What Happened to TV Time
TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026. Whip Media closed the service, pulled the apps from both stores, and replaced the site with a farewell page. Its own explanation, given to TechCrunch: it was no longer sustainable to run the service as a free app, and there was not enough demand for a paid one.
Personal watch data was deleted rather than handed over, so there is no export to import. If you are reading this hoping for a migration path, there is not one, and any site offering you a TV Time importer is guessing. The practical move is to seed a new tracker with the shows you are mid-way through and let the rest fill in as you watch.
How the Seven Compare
TV Time did three jobs at once: it tracked episodes, it held your ratings, and it gave you somewhere to react to a finale. No single app on this list does all three the same way, which is the real reason the replacement question is annoying. The middle column is the one to read twice.
| App | Covers | Built around | Free to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV Time closed July 15, 2026 | Movies and TV | Episode tracking and ratings | No longer available |
| Serializd | TV only | Episode tracking and reviews | Yes |
| Shortlist | Movies and TV | Head-to-head ranking | Yes |
| Trakt | Movies and TV | Automatic scrobbling | Yes, with limits |
| IMDb | Movies and TV | 10-point ratings and a database | Yes |
| Letterboxd | Films only | 5-star logging and reviews | Yes, with limits |
| JustWatch | Movies and TV | Streaming search | Yes |
| Reelgood | Movies and TV | Unified watchlists | Yes, with limits |
Exact prices are on each card above. Letterboxd, Trakt and Reelgood are free to use with an optional paid tier; Serializd, Shortlist, IMDb and JustWatch have no paywall on the parts described here.
Which One Should You Pick?
Sort by what you were actually using TV Time for:
- Ticking off episodes as you watch? Serializd
- Rating shows, and frustrated that everything ended up the same score? Shortlist
- Tracking without doing the tracking? Trakt
- Films as well as shows? Shortlist or Letterboxd
- Working out where something is streaming? JustWatch
- Too many subscriptions and one watchlist? Reelgood
The Rating Problem TV Time Left Behind
This is the part most replacement lists skip. TV Time asked you to score a show out of five stars, and after a couple of hundred shows the scores stop separating anything: everything you genuinely liked is a four, everything you loved is a five, and there are forty fives. The record says you enjoyed them. It does not say which one you enjoyed more.
Shortlist gets at it from the other side. You are shown two titles and pick one. Do that a handful of times and the ordered list falls out of your answers, with every position earned against something else. Five titles takes 6 to 8 choices, which is the exhaustive result over all 120 possible orders through the same ranker running below. Ten takes about 22. You never score anything, and there is no scale to calibrate.
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There is more on how head-to-head ranking works in our TV show tier list guide, the same method applied to film in our movie tier list guide, and the wider field in our movie ranking app comparison and our Letterboxd alternatives roundup.
Can You Use More Than One?
Most people who took TV Time seriously end up with two. A common pairing after the shutdown:
- Serializd or Trakt for the episode tracking
- Shortlist for ranking the shows and films you have finished
- JustWatch for working out where the next one is streaming
TV Time was unusual in doing several of those in one app, which is part of why nothing feels like a clean swap. Pick the one that covers the job you did daily, and let the second app cover the rest.
TV Time Alternatives: Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to TV Time?
TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026. Whip Media closed the service, pulled the apps from the App Store and Google Play, and replaced tvtime.com with a farewell page. The company told TechCrunch it was no longer sustainable to run the service as a free app and there was not enough demand for a paid one.
What is the best TV Time alternative?
Serializd is the closest match in shape: episode-level tracking, season reviews and an active community. Shortlist is the better answer if what you used TV Time for was rating shows, because it replaces the five-star scale with head-to-head comparisons and gives you an ordered list instead of a pile of fours. Trakt is the one to pick if you want tracking that fills itself in from Plex or your streaming apps.
Can I get my TV Time watch history back?
No. Personal watch data was deleted when the service closed rather than made available for export, and no third party holds a copy. Any site offering a TV Time importer is guessing at your list. The practical approach is to seed a new tracker with whatever you are part-way through and let the rest build up as you watch.
Is there a free TV Time alternative?
Yes, all seven on this list are free to start. Serializd, Shortlist, IMDb and JustWatch have no paywall on the tracking and ranking features described here. Letterboxd, Trakt and Reelgood are free with an optional paid tier on top.
Is there a TV Time alternative that ranks shows instead of rating them?
Shortlist. Rather than asking what a show is worth out of five, it shows you two titles and asks which you prefer, then builds the ranked order out of your answers. Five titles takes six to eight choices and ten takes about twenty-two. It covers movies and TV in the same app and is free on iPhone and Android.
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Rank the shows you already watched
Shortlist is free on iPhone and Android. Movies and TV in one list, ranked by head-to-head comparison instead of stars.