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The Movie Database (TMDB) Review

Worth it

Should I use The Movie Database (TMDB)?

The Movie Database (TMDB) is a popular, user editable database for movies and TV shows. - themoviedb.org

· 1 month ago

Buy if you need free movie and TV metadata for personal or non-commercial projects; it is the de facto community standard. Do not build a commercial product on it without business API approval, and don't expect polished support or editorial control.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~30 public sources; many Reddit snippets truncated, so sentiment is directionally reliable.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Non-commercial API

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
API for BusinessCustom

Best for

  • Personal movie/TV tracking tools
  • Media center metadata (Kodi, Stremio)
  • Hobby dev projects needing free metadata
  • Data analysis and ML datasets

Not for

  • Commercial apps wanting self-serve licensing
  • Teams needing guaranteed data accuracy or SLAs
  • Anyone requiring paid support
  • Buyers needing published security posture

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Commercial API use is not self-serve; you must contact TMDB for business terms.

medium

Community moderation can remove content unpredictably; users report unexplained purges.

medium

Trustpilot sits at 2.0/5; support satisfaction looks poor.

medium

No published security page; limited transparency on practices.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free API for non-commercial use
  • Large community-built catalog anyone can edit
  • Deep ecosystem: Kodi, Stremio, Coda, Maltego, MCP integrations
  • Covers movies, TV shows, and rich metadata for scrapers and analysis
  • Business API path exists for commercial use

Cons

  • Weak Trustpilot rating: 2.0/5 from 24 reviews
  • Commercial use requires approval and custom pricing
  • Users report arbitrary content purges
  • No public security page
  • Letterboxd users complain about metadata control

Sources & method

- 10 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x6review x3security x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free API and community data
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Widely integrated; simple developer docs
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Movies, TV, images; scrapeable, dataset-ready
  • Support quality: 2/5. 2.0/5 Trustpilot across 24 reviews
  • Security posture: 2/5. No public security page found
  • 2.0/5 Trustpilot rating 24 reviews
  • $0 Starting price Free API for non-commercial use
  • Yes Free tier Website browsing and API access free
  • 5+ Known integrations Kodi, Stremio, Letterboxd, Coda, Maltego

Pricing

Non-commercial API

Free

  • Personal and non-commercial use
  • Attribution required per API terms

API for Business

Not disclosed

  • Commercial rights
  • Contact TMDB for pricing

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Users value the free, comprehensive catalog but complain about arbitrary content removals, moderation, and metadata linking issues.

“TMDb is ruining Letterboxd for me”
Reddit, r/Letterboxd
“TMDB just purged a bunch of RLM content”
Reddit, r/RedLetterMedia
“[TMDB] The Movie Database only linking series”
Reddit, r/StremioAddons

Companies that use it

  • Letterboxd³
  • Kodi
  • Stremio
  • Emby
  • Maltego
Full analysis

Based on ~30 public sources; many Reddit snippets truncated, so sentiment is directionally reliable.

Free, community-built movie/TV metadata used by Kodi, Stremio, Letterboxd. Great for hobby projects; commercial use needs approval.

Methodology

Based on ~30 public sources; many Reddit snippets truncated, so sentiment is directionally reliable.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. The Movie Database (TMDB)themoviedb.org
    official
  2. The Movie Database Reviews - Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  3. TMDb is ruining Letterboxd for me - Redditreddit.com
    review
  4. TMDB just purged a bunch of RLM content - Redditreddit.com
    review
  5. API for Business - TMDBthemoviedb.org
    official
  6. API Terms of Use - TMDBthemoviedb.org
    official
  7. TMDB Developer FAQdeveloper.themoviedb.org
    official
  8. TMDB TV Shows Scraper - Apifyapify.com
    official
  9. The Movie Database Pack - Codacoda.io
    official
  10. Security page - themoviedb.orgthemoviedb.org
    security

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