sofa.watch

What It Is

Sofa is a self-hosted movie and TV show tracking tool built around the idea that “your watchlist belongs to you.” It runs on your own server and helps you manage your watchlist, track movie and episode progress, and integrate with an existing home media stack. The page clearly links to GitHub, but the main text does not specify a license.

Core Features and Ecosystem

Sofa focuses on episode-level tracking, letting users record exactly which episode they have reached in each series. It can automatically log viewing activity via Webhooks from Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby, and it can export watchlists as import lists for Sonarr and Radarr. This makes it especially suitable for users already relying on the *arr ecosystem for automated downloads and media management. Sofa provides both a web interface and native iOS and Android apps, with multi-device sync under the same account.

Deployment, Self-Hosting, and API

Deployment is very lightweight: a single Docker image is enough to get started, with no external database or additional sidecar services required. Persistent data is stored under /data, including the SQLite database, backups, image cache, and avatars. The first registered account automatically becomes the administrator, and registration is disabled by default afterward. The documentation also covers reverse proxy setups with Caddy, nginx, Traefik, and others, as well as automatic database migrations, a health check endpoint at GET /api/health, built-in backups, and openapi.json/API Reference. Overall, the operational documentation is fairly complete.

Pricing and Usage Costs

The main text does not mention paid plans, a hosted cloud version, or enterprise support, so it appears to be primarily aimed at free self-hosted use. In practice, users need to apply for a free TMDB API Read Access Token and prepare a Docker/Docker Compose environment. If deploying it on the public internet, you will also need a domain name, reverse proxy setup, and HTTPS configuration skills.

Pros, Cons, and Best-Fit Users

Its strengths are data ownership, simple deployment, and clear integration with home media ecosystems, especially for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Sonarr, and Radarr users. The downside is that the barrier to entry is still higher than a typical SaaS product: you need to know how to configure environment variables, Docker, and a reverse proxy, and it depends on the TMDB API. The page does not provide information about official commercial support, a stable release policy, or a detailed permissions system.

Access from China

The main text does not provide information about access from China. In real-world network environments, the domain, GitHub Container Registry, and TMDB API may be subject to uncertainty, so access is assessed as “unknown.” If access or payment is restricted, alternatives to consider include Overseerr, Jellyseerr, Trakt, or directly using Plex Watchlist together with Sonarr/Radarr list features.