Comparison

Buck The Critics vs Trakt

Buck The Critics and Trakt both land on Depends.

Buck The Critics

buckthecritics.com

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Worth a free try if you want one app tracking movies, TV, games, and books and your friends will join you.

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Trakt

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy it only if you scrobble from Plex/Kodi and will pay the doubled $60/yr VIP.

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Buck The Critics versus Trakt
Compare	Buck The Critics	Trakt
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Tracking movies, TV, games, books in one app	Plex/Kodi/Emby scrobblers
Who it's not for	Anyone wanting a large active community	Casual viewers tracking a few shows
Privacy	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.¹⁰	Shaky record: 2014 breach disclosed years late, user-reported private feed-data exposure, and no public security page found.
Support quality	Solo dev; no support evidence found	No reliable evidence found
Public sentiment	Independent user evidence is thin and much of it traces back to the founder, though a Facebook group post suggests some organic use.^⁴	Long-time power users value the scrobbling ecosystem, but many feel recent pricing and feature changes gutted the free tier.¹⁴
Biggest gotcha	Recommendations only work if friends adopt it; user base appears very small.^⁴	VIP renewal pricing jumped to $60/year effective June 2025 . double the old rate¹³

Pick Buck The Critics when

Tracking movies, TV, games, books in one app
Friend groups adopting a tracker together
Letterboxd/StoryGraph users wanting one app
Anyone wanting a free watchlist app

When Buck The Critics is not a fit

Anyone wanting a large active community
Film-focused users already happy on Letterboxd
Book-only readers . StoryGraph is deeper
Businesses or teams . consumer app only

Pick Trakt when

Plex/Kodi/Emby scrobblers
Binge-watchers who love stats
Media-server power users
Watchlist and list curators

When Trakt is not a fit

Casual viewers tracking a few shows
Anyone unwilling to pay $60/yr
Free-tier streamers . one service connection max
Privacy-sensitive users given breach history

Sources

Buck The Critics . official sitebuckthecritics.com
official
App Store listingapps.apple.com
official
Google Play listingplay.google.com
official
IndieHackers founder postindiehackers.com
review
AlternativeTo profilealternativeto.net
review
FoxData app analyticsfoxdata.com
review
Reddit r/MovieIt founder postreddit.com
review
Crunchbase profilecrunchbase.com
news
Buck blog . StoryGraph comparisonbuckthecritics.com
official
Security page (no page found)buckthecritics.com
security
Trakt.TV doubles annual price of VIP to $60reddit.com
news
Trakt Now Limits Free Users to One Connected Streaming Servicetroypoint.com
news
Upcoming VIP Renewal Pricing Changesforums.trakt.tv
official
Trakt.tv just became useless without a subscriptionreddit.com
review
What's the advantage of using Trakt?reddit.com
review
Trakt tardily notifies users of data breachbetanews.com
security