TV Time shut down on July 15, 2026

The Plex watchlist vs a real tracker

People associate Plex with a personal server and miss the point: its universal watchlist works with a plain free account, nothing installed. It is a more serious competitor than its reputation suggests — and the comparison plays out elsewhere.

Checked on August 15, 2026

Plex and WatchTrail, point by point

Criterion	Plex	WatchTrail
What you need to start	A free account is enough: no server, no subscription	An account, also free
What the watchlist gathers	Your own library, Plex's free catalogue and streaming services, with each title's availability	Your library, independent of any platform
Episode marking	Yes, down to seasons and episodes under a show's detail page	Yes, with the watch date kept
The price of the rest	Plex Pass is $7 a month or $70 a year; the lifetime pass went from $250 to $749.99 on 1 July 2026	Free, and the price does not move because there is none

What Plex does better than us

**The watchlist is free and needs no server** — the most widespread misunderstanding about Plex, and it works against them.
**It says where each title is available**, mixing your own library with streaming services: nobody else does exactly that.
**Marking reaches the episode** under a show's detail page.
If you already run a Plex server, the integration with your files is an argument we can never match.

Where Plex falls short

The rest of the ecosystem is paid, and the lifetime pass tripled on 1 July 2026 — that kind of move deserves to be known before settling somewhere.
The tool is built around media playback: writing about what you watched is not its subject.

Plex is the right pick if…

If you run a Plex server and your files are at the centre of your viewing life, stay with them: nothing we do replaces that integration.

So where does WatchTrail fit?

WatchTrail reads no files and never will. What it brings alongside: extended universes, per-episode ratings and reviews, a complete TV Time import — and a price that cannot triple, since there is none.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Plex server for the watchlist?

No. A free account is enough — the most common misunderstanding about this tool.

Is Plex Pass needed to track shows?

Not for the watchlist itself. It unlocks the rest of the ecosystem.

Can Plex and WatchTrail live side by side?

Yes: Plex to play, WatchTrail to keep the record of what was watched.

The real criterion: your history

Whatever tool you pick, check that it takes your TV Time export — and how. On WatchTrail, every show is matched by its ID, not by its title.

See how to move my history

Other comparisons

Other services' pricing and features change over time: this page shows when it was last checked. When in doubt, the service's own page is authoritative.