Choosing Between Letterboxd Pro and Patron

Letterboxd is the go-to platform for cataloguing your movie watching, but its free tier comes with limits. For casual users, the core features are typically enough, but some members might be looking for more. That’s where Letterboxd Pro ($19/year) and Patron ($49/year) come in. They offer advanced filters, always-available stats, custom posters, and more. The question is: are those extras worth paying for?

Here’s a breakdown of every feature, followed by our verdict.

Features for Everyone

Basic Features

Every Letterboxd account, free or paid, comes with the essentials: you can log films, add to your watchlist, write reviews, create lists, and follow other members.

Pro and Patron Features

No Ads

Free members see ads throughout the site and app. Pro and Patron subscribers get an ad-free experience.

Stats Pages

Free members only get a yearly “Year in Review” stats page, which is basically Letterboxd’s version of Spotify Wrapped. Pro and Patron members can access full stats at any time, including graphs, charts, and breakdowns of your viewing habits.

Below is a (very long!) screenshot of a yearly stat page. You can access this for each year you’ve been active on Letterboxd, as well as an all-time stat page.

Note the section highlighted in yellow that shows some films you’ve rated noticeably higher/lower than the Letterboxd community average; this section is only for Patron subscribers. The rest is for both Pro and Patron subscribers.

Custom Activity Feed

Pro and Patron subscribers can filter their activity feed by type. Free members see the default combined feed.

Filter by Streaming Service

With Pro or Patron, you can filter films across Letterboxd by what’s currently available on the streaming services you’ve selected.

Filter by Owned Films

Pro and Patron subscribers can also mark which films they own and filter their watchlists or searches by that collection.

Watchlist Alerts

Pro and Patron subscribers can get notified when a film on their watchlist becomes available on one of their preferred streaming services. This makes it easy to know when to watch without constantly checking.

Clone Lists

Pro and Patron subscribers can copy another user’s list, making it easy to remake or build upon. Free accounts can only create lists from scratch.

Change Username

Pro and Patron subscribers can change their usernames (every 90 days). Free members are locked into the name they chose at sign-up.

Showtimes

Pro and Patron subscribers can see real-time listings of films playing in nearby theaters for the upcoming week, directly from the film’s page.

Patron Features

Change Posters and Backdrops

Patron subscribers can customize any film’s poster or backdrop and apply them across their profile, diary entries, lists, reviews, and favorites.

Bulk Add to List/Watchlist

Patron subscribers can add all visible films on a page to a list or watchlist at once (web only). This is a big time-saver when browsing lists.

Early Access to Features

Patron subscribers often get to try out new Letterboxd tools before anyone else.

Is Letterboxd Pro Worth It?

If you plan to use Letterboxd regularly (multiple times a week, say) to find new movies to watch, upgrading to Pro is probably worth it. The ability to filter and sort by streaming services — and get an email alert when something on your watchlist becomes available to stream — is a game changer on its own. Other services can do that, sure, but having it built right into the app is a huge time saver. Not to mention the year-round stats, if you’re into tracking your viewing habits.

Is Letterboxd Patron Worth It?

The price for Patron is steep. I’m a Patron subscriber myself, but only because Letterboxd has been my most-used app (besides email) for a decade. And changing posters is weirdly addicting — who knew? That said, for the vast majority of Letterboxd enthusiasts, Pro is the sweet spot. Most of the features and perks you’ll ever need are there. Patron should really be reserved for the heads and sickos.