Comparison

Ruddarr vs Media Stack

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Ruddarr

Control your movie, documentary, and TV series collections remotely. Browse upcoming releases, manage your media library, and receive notifications. Customize the app's appearance and sync settings across devices.

Highlights
  • Manage movies and TV series
  • Browse upcoming releases calendar
  • Receive fine-grained notifications
  • View activity queue and history
  • Switch between multiple instances
  • Customize app appearance
  • Synchronize settings via iCloud
Features
Read full description

Ruddarr is a beautifully designed, open source, privacy-first companion app for Radarr and Sonarr instances. Manage your movies, documentaries and TV series from anywhere, anytime. Features: • Manage movies and TV series • Browse upcoming releases in the calendar • Receive fine-grained notifications • View activity queue tasks and history events • Switch between multiple instances • Customize the app color scheme and appearance • Synchronize settings/instances between devices (iCloud) • Automate actions using Siri Shortcuts • Connect to reverse proxies using custom HTTP headers • Use Spotlight search to quickly jump to media • Fully localized, ready to be translated Notifications require a subscription to Ruddarr+, because sending push notifications to devices requires reliable server infrastructure, which incurs monthly operating expenses for this free, open-source project. Alternatively, *arrs come with many notification integrations that can be self-hosted. Requirements: • Ruddarr does not provide any media and requires a Radarr or Sonarr instance to interact with. - - - Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Media Stack

Features
Read full description

Bring your media services together in a quiet, native home for iPhone and iPad. Connect as many Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Prowlarr, Seerr and Tautulli services as you need. Keep each server distinct while browsing useful combined views. YOUR SERVICES, IN PERSPECTIVE Arrange Home around service health, upcoming releases, downloads, pending requests and current playback. Search your film, series and music libraries with filters and grid or list layouts. DAILY MANAGEMENT, CLOSE AT HAND Add and edit films, series or artists, choose profiles and folders, set monitoring, compare releases, manage downloads, preview file renames and match manual imports. Search every indexer at once through Prowlarr and send a release straight to a download client. Actions identify their originating service, and file deletion requires an explicit choice. A PLACE FOR WHAT’S NEXT See episode, film and album releases in Month or Upcoming calendar views. Add optional local release reminders. Follow requests and reported issues through Seerr, and view playback details, history and statistics through Tautulli. AT HOME ON YOUR DEVICE Upcoming-release and queue widgets show the last fetched information. Shortcuts open Home, Queue, Calendar, Requests or media search. Light and dark appearances, Dynamic Type, native navigation and an adaptive iPad sidebar make room for your way of working. Optional alerts tell you when a release is grabbed, a download finishes, a file is upgraded, Plex adds a title, a stream starts, a request arrives or a service needs attention. SIMPLY YOURS No ads, subscriptions or Managerr account. Services are stored locally on each device. API keys stay in device-only Keychain. Saved snapshots remain available offline; server changes require connectivity. Try the clearly labelled offline demo without a server. Managerr requires your own supported services for real management and does not supply, host or play media. Some actions depend on service capabilities and permissions. Widgets alerts and local reminders use the information last fetched by the app; there is no hosted push notification service.

Screenshots

Ruddarr4 screens
Media Stack4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Media Stack at none against Ruddarr's 1. Media Stack also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Ruddarr sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $5.99 per year. Media Stack asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ruddarr ships an update monthly, Media Stack every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Ruddarr versus Media Stack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRuddarrMedia Stack
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (696 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings696 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB16 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperRuddarrMann Badal

Bugs and requests

Ruddarr

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Fails with error when trying to add any service
  • Crashes and freezes all the time

Requested features

3 requests
  • Support one time purchase
  • List view not just posters
  • Latest releases or trending lists that could be pulled from trakt or IMDb

Media Stack

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Ruddarr

Subscriptions1
  • Ruddarr+$5.991 Year
None

Media Stack

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ruddarr free?
Ruddarr is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Media Stack free?
Media Stack is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Ruddarr or Media Stack have ads?
Neither Ruddarr nor Media Stack shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ruddarr or Media Stack?
Ruddarr ships an update monthly, and Media Stack every 2 days. Most recently, Ruddarr was updated on October 12, 2026 and Media Stack on October 3, 2026.

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