Help Me BingeOpen the free app

Simkl vs Help Me Binge

Both are free TV trackers. Both let you record what each streaming service costs you. They are not the same product, and for most of what a tracker does, Simkl is the more capable one. There is exactly one thing this app does that Simkl does not — and if that thing is why you're here, the difference is large.

Where Simkl is genuinely better, and we're not going to pretend otherwise:

The money side, feature by feature

Verified against Simkl's own published documentation and product screenshots, August 2026. Sources at the bottom — check them.

On subscriptionsSimklHelp Me Binge
Store what each service costs youYesYes
Total monthly & yearly spendYesYes
Renewal datesYesNo
Renewal alerts“Coming soon”No
Cost per hour you actually watchedNoYes
Automatically flags a service you haven't opened in 30 daysNo — you decideYes
Dollar figure attached to that flagNoYes
Link straight to that service's cancel pageWritten guides, 10 servicesDirect link, in the app
Free-trial countdown vs. your actual backlogNoYes
Multi-currencyYesUSD first
PriceFree; PRO $34.99/yrFree, all of it
Account requiredYesNo

What that difference actually looks like

Simkl's My Subscriptions screen, shipped March 2025, is a well-made ledger. You add Netflix, type $17.99, pick monthly, and it shows you two computed numbers: Total Monthly Cost and Total Yearly Cost. Its documentation says the point is to “easily identify unused services and cancel unnecessary ones” — and that's accurate: you identify them. The app holds the prices; it doesn't look at your viewing.

Simkl's comparison pages do claim more than that. One says “SIMKL tells you if you're actually using the services you pay for based on your watch logs.” We went looking for that feature and could not find it: not in the March 2025 launch announcement, not in the current feature documentation, and not in Simkl's own screenshots of the subscriptions screen, which show the two totals and nothing about hours. It may well be on their roadmap. As of today it does not appear to be in the product.

The gap, concretely. You pay for four services. Simkl tells you that's $71.96 a month. Help Me Binge tells you that Max cost you $16.99 for 47 minutes of viewing last month — $21.69 an hour — that you haven't opened it since 7 months ago, and that cancelling it keeps $204 a year. Then it gives you the link to cancel.
Same data in, a completely different sentence out. It's the difference between a ledger and an answer.

“But some apps cancel it for you with one tap”

A couple of iOS apps advertise one-tap cancellation. It's worth understanding what that actually involves, because it isn't an integration.

No major streaming service offers a cancellation API. Netflix shut its public API to new developers in 2012 and closed it entirely in 2014, and it never covered billing. Hulu, Max, Disney+ and Paramount+ have never published a developer programme at all. The only programmatic subscription control that exists is reseller APIs behind negotiated commercial partnerships, and the bank-facing vendors in this space — Minna, now owned by Mastercard, and Subaio — sell to card issuers, not to apps. Subaio is candid that its own mechanism is largely email correspondence with the merchant, averaging two days.

So when an app offers one-tap cancellation, what it is really doing is holding your streaming login and your card number — including the CVC — and filling in the service's own checkout form on your behalf. That breaches the terms of use of every service involved: Netflix's terms specifically prohibit automated access and tell you not to reveal your payment method details to anyone, while making you responsible for whatever happens on your account.

We're not going to ask you for your Netflix password or your card. We'll tell you what to cancel and why, put the official cancellation page one tap away, and let you do it on the service's own site where it belongs.

So which should you use?

Use Simkl if…

You want episodes marked watched automatically, you want native apps, you watch a lot of anime, or you want renewal-date reminders. It's a mature, well-built tracker with a real community, and its subscription ledger is a genuinely useful addition.

Use Help Me Binge if…

The money is the reason you're looking. If what you actually want to know is which of these am I wasting money on, that's the question this app was built to answer, and it answers it from your real viewing rather than asking you to eyeball a total. It's free, there's nothing to install, and you don't need an account to start.

And you don't have to choose. Nothing stops you scrobbling in Simkl and running your numbers here.

Try it on your own subscriptions

Add what you're paying for, tick off a few things you've watched, and look at the Subscriptions tab. It'll tell you your cost per hour per service and flag anything you've gone quiet on. Free, no account, works in any browser, and you can export everything you put in.

Open the free app →
Sources, so you can check us.
Simkl subscription tracking documentation and screenshots · Simkl's My Subscriptions launch announcement, 6 March 2025 · Simkl's own comparison pages (docs.simkl.org) · Simkl VIP pricing · Netflix API shutdown (TechCrunch, 2014) · Netflix Terms of Use · Mastercard's acquisition of Minna Technologies (CNBC, Oct 2024) · Subaio's published description of its cancellation process.

Comparison accurate as of August 2026 and based entirely on Simkl's publicly published material — we did not create an account to test private features, so if something has shipped since, tell us at hello@helpmebinge.com and we'll correct this page. We'd rather be right than flattering.
Help Me Binge · TV Time alternative · Trakt alternative · What's free to watch · What should I cancel?