Radarr Review, Pricing & Features

Explore Radarr, the free open-source movie manager that automates downloading, sorting, and quality upgrades. Features, pricing, and FAQs inside.

Category
Media & Audio/Video Tools
Pricing
Free and open source (self-hosted, donation-funded), from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2016
Headquarters
N/A (open-source community project)
Web AppOpen SourceSelf-Hosted

Overview

Radarr is a free, self-hosted movie collection manager that automates the entire lifecycle of building and maintaining a personal movie library, from discovery and downloading through renaming, organizing, and quality upgrades. It began as a community fork of Sonarr around 2016, adapting Sonarr's proven PVR architecture from TV shows to movies.

As part of the broader Servarr (*arr) suite, Radarr is maintained by volunteer developers and funded via community donations rather than a company. It has no license fees, and its GitHub organization and Open Collective page serve as the project's public home for releases, issue tracking, and funding transparency.

Key Features

Radarr continuously monitors configured indexers and RSS feeds, automatically grabbing releases that match a movie's quality profile and sending them to a connected download client. Once downloaded, files are imported, renamed, and sorted according to user-defined naming conventions and folder structures.

Quality profiles and custom formats give fine-grained control over what gets downloaded: users can define allowed resolutions, set upgrade cutoffs, and score releases by codec, HDR metadata, release group, or regex pattern. Radarr also integrates with Plex, Kodi, and Emby for automatic library refreshes and supports notifications through Discord, Telegram, email, and Pushover.

Pricing

Radarr is entirely free and open source under the GPLv3 license, with no paid tiers or feature restrictions. It is typically self-hosted on a home server, NAS, or VPS, often alongside companion tools like Prowlarr and a download client.

The only costs associated with running Radarr are infrastructure (server or NAS hardware, storage, bandwidth) and any third-party services a user chooses to pair with it, such as indexer or download-client subscriptions. The project itself accepts voluntary donations through Open Collective to support ongoing development.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Completely free and open source with active, frequent development
  • Powerful custom formats give granular control over release selection
  • Deep integration with Plex, Kodi, Emby, and the wider *arr ecosystem
  • Automatic quality upgrades keep a library improving over time without manual work
  • Runs on almost any platform, including low-power devices like Raspberry Pi
  • Large, active community for support via Discord, Reddit, and wiki

Cons

  • Requires self-hosting and some technical setup (Docker, indexers, download clients)
  • No official company or commercial support contract
  • Primarily used alongside third-party indexers, which vary in legality and reliability by region
  • Configuration can be complex for newcomers unfamiliar with the *arr ecosystem
  • No native cloud-hosted or managed-service option
  • Depends on external download clients and indexers to function

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Radarr free to use?

Yes. Radarr is completely free and open source under the GPLv3 license, with no paid tiers, and is funded by voluntary community donations.

What is the relationship between Radarr and Sonarr?

Radarr began as a community fork of Sonarr around 2016, adapting Sonarr's TV-show automation architecture to work with movies instead.

Does Radarr download movies itself?

No. Radarr monitors indexers and RSS feeds, then hands matching releases off to a connected download client such as SABnzbd or qBittorrent to actually download the file.

Can Radarr automatically upgrade movie quality?

Yes. Using quality profiles and cutoffs, Radarr can continue monitoring for and replacing existing files with better-quality releases, such as swapping a DVD rip for a Blu-ray version.

What platforms does Radarr run on?

Radarr runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Raspberry Pi, and is commonly deployed via Docker on NAS devices like Synology or Unraid.

Does Radarr work with Plex?

Yes, Radarr integrates natively with Plex, Kodi, and Emby to refresh libraries and sync metadata after new movies are added.

Who maintains Radarr?

Radarr is maintained by volunteer open-source contributors as part of the Servarr (*arr) project family, funded through Open Collective donations rather than a company.

Is Radarr the same as the Radarr social analytics company?

No. There is an unrelated social media analytics company that also uses the name Radarr; this entry refers only to the open-source movie collection manager at radarr.video.

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