Cinema Circle vs Letterboxd for movie clubs

Letterboxd is the best place to keep your own film diary. Cinema Circle is made for a group: a club, a Discord server or friends who watch films together and want one shared score, one archive and one place to plan the next night.

If you only want to log films for yourself, stay on Letterboxd. If your group is keeping scores in a spreadsheet or a chat, this is the gap Cinema Circle fills. Many people use both.

Side by side

	Cinema Circle	Letterboxd
Built around	A group	Your own profile
Ratings	0 to 10 in 0.25 steps	0.5 to 5 stars
Group score	Each member's vote, club average and distribution	Site-wide average, plus people you follow
Shared history	One archive per club, with filters and stats	No club archive; a list kept by one person is the closest thing
Shared lists	Up to five per club, every member can add films	Several members can't edit the same list
Choosing the next film	Picker wheel, film polls, shared watchlists	Not a feature
Planning nights	Next cinema night card, weekly or monthly	Not a feature
Voting together	Live voting room, votes appear as they come in	Not a feature
Audience and discovery	Small and young	Huge: critics, popular reviews, follower network
Personal stats	Basic	Deep, with stats for each year on paid plans
Apps	Web, installable on the phone; Android in closed beta; no iOS app yet	iOS and Android apps
Price	Free, no ads	Free with ads, paid plans available

Letterboxd details change over time: check its site for the current plans and features. Comparison checked against Letterboxd's own help pages in November 2026.

Choose Letterboxd if

• You watch mostly alone and want a personal diary.
• You want to follow critics and read popular reviews.
• You care about a large public audience for your reviews.

Choose Cinema Circle if

• You watch with the same people and want to see how the group voted.
• You want a shared history of what your club has watched.
• Someone has to pick the next film and you want that to be fair.
• Your group lives on Discord: the bot posts new films, votes and reviews in your channel.

Using both

The two don't compete for the same moment. Keep your diary on Letterboxd and use Cinema Circle for the films you watch as a group. You can import a Letterboxd CSV export into a personal list. The import goes one way: Cinema Circle doesn't write back to Letterboxd.

FAQ

Is Cinema Circle a Letterboxd alternative?

For groups, yes. For a personal film diary, no: Letterboxd does that better. Cinema Circle covers what happens when several people watch the same films.

Can I bring my Letterboxd data?

Yes. Export your data from Letterboxd and import the CSV into a Cinema Circle personal list.

Is Cinema Circle free?

Yes. There are no paid plans and no ads, and user data is not sold.

Cinema Circle (cinemacircle.mov) is not affiliated with the CinemaCircle Discord bot at cinemacircle.app.

Cinema Circle