The Movie Database (TMDB)
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you need free movie and TV metadata for personal or non-commercial projects; it is the de facto community standard.
New check
Comparison
The Movie Database (TMDB) and Letterboxd both land on Worth it.
Buy if you need free movie and TV metadata for personal or non-commercial projects; it is the de facto community standard.
Buy if you watch films regularly and want to log, review, and discover with a 26M+ community . free to start, cheap to upgrade.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Worth it |
| Best for | Personal movie/TV tracking tools | Regular film watchers building a diary |
| Who it's not for | Commercial apps wanting self-serve licensing | Privacy-first viewers . every log feeds a public profile |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.10 | One disclosed breach (March 2024); publishes security notices; uses encryption in transit.14 |
| Support quality | 2.0/5 Trustpilot across 24 reviews | Paddle case study cites transparent support |
| Public sentiment | Users value the free, comprehensive catalog but complain about arbitrary content removals, moderation, and metadata linking issues.³ | Fans call the app and community near-perfect, while critics point to social posturing and missing features. |
| Biggest gotcha | Commercial API use is not self-serve; you must contact TMDB for business terms.⁵ | March 2024 security incident: change your password if affected13 |