Limelight vs. JustWatch vs. Letterboxd: An honest comparison
Three apps, three genuinely different jobs. Here's what each one actually does well, where each one falls short, and how to figure out which you need.
I should be upfront: I built Limelight, which means I'm not a neutral party here. I've tried to write this as honestly as I can, and I'll call out where JustWatch and Letterboxd are genuinely better than what I've built. The goal is to give you an accurate read of all three apps so you can figure out which one actually fits how you watch.
The thing I kept noticing before I started building Limelight was that JustWatch, Letterboxd, and apps like them were solving three different problems, and none of them solved all three. JustWatch answers "where do I watch this?" Letterboxd answers "who else loves this film and what did they think?" Neither one answers "what should I watch tonight, and where do I watch it when I decide?" That third question is what I built Limelight for.
These apps are genuinely different tools. The comparison below isn't about which one wins overall. It's about which one fits your actual workflow. For some people, that's one app. For a lot of serious film fans, it's two.
Feature comparison
A quick reference before the deeper breakdown. The nuances matter more than the checkmarks, but this gives you the shape of the comparison at a glance.
| Feature | Limelight | JustWatch | Letterboxd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movie search and discovery | |||
| TV show support | Limited | ||
| Streaming availability | |||
| Ratings (RT, IMDb, Metacritic, TMDB) | TMDB only | User ratings only | |
| Watchlist / seen list | Watchlist only | ||
| Community and social features | |||
| Ad-free | |||
| AI scene recognition | |||
| Price | Free + $2.99/mo or $24.99/yr | Free, ad-supported | Free + $2.99/mo |
JustWatch does one thing extremely well
JustWatch was built to answer a single question: where can I watch this right now? On that narrow brief, it's genuinely excellent. Its streaming database is the largest and most reliable available, with coverage across 50+ countries and nearly every major platform. If you need to know whether a specific title is on Hulu, Prime Video, or available to rent on Apple TV, JustWatch is the fastest answer. I used it constantly before I built Limelight, and I still think it's the best tool for international streaming lookups.
It's also useful for browsing new arrivals on each service. If you want to see what just landed on Max this week, JustWatch surfaces that cleanly. The interface is straightforward and the search is fast. For the specific job it was designed for, it earns its place. For a broader walkthrough of how to find where to watch any movie across the major platforms, that piece covers the workflow in detail.
Genuine strengths
- Largest streaming availability database, with reliable global coverage
- Fast, clean lookup for "where is this streaming right now"
- New arrivals browsing per service is genuinely useful
- International coverage is broader than any competitor
Real limitations
- Ad-supported, and the ads are not subtle. Mid-page banners interrupt browsing
- No rating aggregation: you get a single TMDB score, which tells you little about critical vs. audience reception
- No real discovery engine: JustWatch tells you where to watch something you've already chosen
- No meaningful tracking: no seen list, no watch history, no way to build a useful record
- TV shows are supported but feel secondary to the movie experience
The honest version of JustWatch's limitation: it's a reference tool, not a discovery tool. It answers the question you ask it, but it doesn't help you figure out what to ask. If you already know you want to watch "Past Lives" and need to find it, JustWatch is good. If you're trying to figure out what to watch from among the 400 things on your mental list, it doesn't help at all. There's also the ads problem: you're making a leisure decision about what to spend two hours watching, and you're doing it through a page with banner ads. It's a jarring experience for something that should feel enjoyable.
Letterboxd built the best film community on the internet
This is genuinely true, and I don't say it reluctantly. Letterboxd's community is something that neither I nor JustWatch have built, and something that takes years and the right culture to develop. The writing on Letterboxd ranges from three-word impressions to genuinely insightful criticism. The lists (user-generated collections like "Every film referenced in Twin Peaks" or "Movies where it rains in the final scene") are a legitimate discovery mechanism that no algorithm would produce. The social proof works differently than it does anywhere else: seeing that three people whose taste you trust all rated a film highly tells you more than a Tomatometer score.
The film diary format is also one of the better-designed logging experiences available. Logging a film by date, with your own star rating and optional review, has a satisfaction to it that other apps haven't matched. If you care about keeping a formal record of your watching, Letterboxd's calendar view and diary format are the benchmark, and I've written more on the philosophical case for keeping a movie journal as a long-running practice.
Genuine strengths
- The best film community available: smart takes, real writing, genuine discourse
- Film diary with calendar view is a satisfying, well-designed logging experience
- User-generated lists are a unique discovery mechanism that no algorithm replicates
- Discovery through social proof: seeing what people whose taste you trust rate highly is genuinely valuable
- Free tier is robust and the Pro plan is reasonably priced
Real limitations
- No streaming availability: once you decide on a film, you have to go somewhere else to find it
- TV shows aren't supported in any meaningful way. Letterboxd is movies-only (TV support has been announced but hasn't launched)
- No way to filter by streaming service: you can't ask "show me highly-rated titles on my Netflix subscription"
- The community is the product: if social film-watching isn't your thing, many of Letterboxd's features become noise rather than signal
"Letterboxd's best feature is that it's full of people who care as much about film as you do. That's not something you can build quickly, and it's not something I've tried to replicate."
The practical gap that matters most: Letterboxd won't tell you where a film is streaming. You find a film through its community, you decide you want to watch it, and then you have to open a different app to find out where it lives. For a film diary it works fine, because you're logging films you've already watched. But for actual decision-making about what to watch tonight, the missing streaming layer is a real friction point.
What Limelight is actually built for
Limelight's core bet is that "what should I watch" and "where do I watch it" are the same decision and should be answered in the same place, without ads interrupting the process. I built it because I kept running into the same friction loop: browse Letterboxd to find something, check JustWatch to find where it's streaming, realize it's not on any service I subscribe to, go back and start over. That loop was taking longer than the actual decision warranted.
Beyond the streaming-plus-discovery combination, there are a few specific features I want to be honest about rather than just listing.
Four rating sources, one screen
Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic, and TMDB scores on every title's detail page. No collapsing them into a single number: each one tells you something different, and Limelight shows all four so you can read them with the context you already have.
AI-powered scene recognition
Point your camera at a screen playing any film or TV show and Limelight identifies the title, the scene, and the actors in frame. From there you can add it to your watchlist or check where it streams. Useful for video essays, film discussions, or any time a clip appears somewhere and you can't place it.
Decision-making, accelerated
A swipe-based interface for sorting through your watchlist when you have an hour and need to actually commit to something. Filter by streaming service, genre, or runtime. Designed for the specific situation where the list is long and the decision is hard.
Seen List and Watchlist, both
A permanent record of everything you've watched, alongside a Watchlist that won't turn into a graveyard of forgotten recommendations. Both cover movies and TV shows in the same interface, with no distinction between the two.
Honest limitations
- If community is what you're looking for, Letterboxd is better. Limelight has no social layer, no follower feeds, no public profiles, and that's intentional.
- If you only need to know where to stream a specific title you've already decided on, JustWatch's international database has broader global coverage.
- If you keep a detailed film diary with dates, long-form written reviews, and formal star ratings you share publicly, Letterboxd's diary format is richer and has an audience for that work.
Which app is right for you
This comes down to what you're actually trying to do. Three clear cases:
You need to find where to stream a specific title right now
You already know what you want to watch and need to find it across platforms, possibly across countries. JustWatch is the fastest, most complete answer for this query.
You want to be part of a film community and keep a formal diary
You want to write about films, read what other serious viewers think, follow critics whose taste you trust, and build a public record of your watching. Letterboxd is the right place for all of that.
You want to find something new tonight, check where to stream it, and track what you've seen
You want discovery, streaming availability, multi-source ratings, and tracking in one ad-free app. You don't need a social layer. You just want to actually watch something good.
Most serious film fans end up using more than one of these. Limelight and Letterboxd is a natural combination, and I'd encourage it: use Letterboxd for the community and the diary, use Limelight for discovery and streaming availability. The apps don't meaningfully compete with each other, because they handle different parts of the workflow. Limelight doesn't try to build a community, and Letterboxd doesn't try to tell you where to stream anything. Using both means you're not asking either one to do something it wasn't built for.
The short version: if you're only going to use one app and you want the full picture from discovery through tracking, Limelight is what I'd recommend. If community and film culture matter as much to you as the practical side, add Letterboxd. And if you're doing international streaming lookups regularly, JustWatch is still worth having bookmarked.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Limelight and Letterboxd together?
Yes, and for many serious film fans it's a natural combination. Use Letterboxd for community, writing reviews, and maintaining a formal film diary. Use Limelight for discovery, tracking streaming availability across services you subscribe to, looking up multi-source ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and Metacritic, and using SceneSnap to identify scenes. The two apps don't overlap meaningfully: they serve different parts of the film-watching workflow.
Does Limelight replace JustWatch?
For most everyday use cases, yes. Limelight shows streaming availability across all major platforms on every title's detail page, alongside ratings, cast, trailers, and tracking. If you need international streaming data across 50+ countries for a specific region, JustWatch's database has broader global coverage. But for everyday use in the US and the UK, Limelight handles the same queries without the ads and without having to leave the app to do anything else.
Is Limelight free?
The core app is free with no ads in any tier. Free features include search, streaming availability, Watchlist, Seen List, trailers, cast and crew details, and personalized recommendations. Limelight+ ($2.99/month or $24.99/year) unlocks multi-source ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and Metacritic; SceneSnap AI scene recognition; QuickSort; streaming Top 10s; pinned items; and unlimited custom lists.
Which app is best for finding a movie to watch tonight?
Limelight. JustWatch is built for looking up where a specific title is streaming once you've already decided on it, not for helping you decide. Letterboxd is built for community and logging, and it won't tell you where anything is streaming. Limelight is the only one of the three designed for the full decision workflow: browse recommendations filtered by streaming service, check ratings from multiple sources, and confirm where to watch without leaving the app.
Does Limelight work for TV shows as well as movies?
Yes. Limelight covers movies and TV shows with equal depth. Details, ratings, streaming availability, cast and crew, trailers, and tracking all work the same way for both. Your Seen List and Watchlist hold any mix of films and series, and SceneSnap identifies TV show scenes as well as movie scenes. Letterboxd, by comparison, is movies-only (TV support has been announced but not yet launched). JustWatch does support TV, but its tracking and discovery tools are limited compared to its streaming-lookup function.
Combined discovery, streaming availability, and tracking in one ad-free app
That's what Limelight is built for. Free to download on iOS and Android, with no ads in any tier.
