# Stremio

23 Hacker News commenters recommended Stremio and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free app that gathers streaming catalogs into one place and plays high-quality video; critics say plugin outages and poor results without a debrid service are common.

## Why people recommend it

- Free catalogs without subscriptions (2 comments): "It works great with a nice stremio setup for live streaming. No subscriptions necessary anymore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359195)) "things like stremio give you the catalogs of all streaming services for free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903740))
- High-quality video, including 4K (2 comments): "Highest quality available for every media. Bluray remuxes are a game changer, when available." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48699515)) "has had everything I've tried to watch in high bitrate 4k" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616073))
- Runs on many devices (3 comments): "I've achieved comparable results on my Android TV with Stremio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46363382)) "Install apps such as Plex, Stremio, etc. without hassle." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554482)) "I recommended Stremio to a friend on an iPhone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47423981))
- Feels like Netflix or Spotify (2 comments): "This is my preferred option—this is the Spotify of movies and TV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736083)) "provides basically an identical experience to Netflix" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45867027))

## What people warn about

- Often a poor experience (2 comments): "Stremio without Debrid (or equivalent) is kind of a terrible experience most of the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50111542)) "I tried it once and it barely worked at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50113917))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [VLC media player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vlc-media-player.md): 172 recommend
- [mpv media player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mpv.md): 82 recommend
- [Infuse video player](https://hackerapproved.com/p/infuse.md): 78 recommend
- [Kodi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kodi.md): 64 recommend
- [TV Explorer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tv-explorer.md): 37 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Stremio", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stremio/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).