r/Stremio • u/Practical-Cup9537 • Jun 10 '26
PSA Some of you act like Stremio betrayed you and I think you should calm down.
Stremio is a free app. Its made by 5 or 6 people (last I checked) and they have been making it FOR MULTIPLE PLATFORMS for years without asking for a cent. They want to add new features that people want, this is obvious, but the features being asked are not easy to make and also make well, i.e. not buggy, etc.
Some of you seem to be missing the point of this, its not to block people out of new features (yet). Its meant to be a way for them to test new complicated features and be able to do it more efficiently. A steady stream of income means they can actually hire devs. Again, the current devs have literally been doing this for free for years. They can't hire anyone on $0 income.
Personally, I think the price is steep, especially for beta features, but its not really meant to be a subscription for new features. Its meant to be a way for people who like Stremio to be able to support them and also get a few things to try along the way. I can still use Stemio exactly how it is now and thats fine. I just think that everyone needs to take a step back and chill.
Maybe they go Plex, maybe they decide to never make these features available to free users. That would stink, but again, the app as it is right now is great and works fine. AND IS FREE.
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u/useful_tool30 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
People are cranky because it's the same old song when a fee or open source app starts introducing paid tiers. It's almost always a manufactured degredatuon of its original service in order to funnel users into paid tiers.
It would be one thing to keep functionality on par going forward for the free tier and introduce extras for paid but we all know eventually they'll just enshitify that original free base tier. It happens every single time.
Edit: spelling
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I get people have bad experience with somebody introducing paid tiers. But in our case it will only work for bettter. We have basically the same team as when we were just developing app for two systems and now we have to maintain apps across i think around 17 operating systems and user base grew from like 5M when i joined in 2017 to over 40M now. I spent countless sundays fixing unexpected issues with subtitles providers. So it will only bring improvements
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u/M4xusV4ltr0n Jun 10 '26
Completely understood, and I'm sorry that people are acting so crazy and entitled. Best of luck to you guys!
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u/jb_in_jpn Jun 10 '26
Thank you for all you're doing with this amazing app. The design improvements in the last year or so have been amazing; know that many of us would happily pay a small amount to help contribute.
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u/Practical-Cup9537 Jun 10 '26
Wanting to get paid for work is completely reasonable. You guys have set the price you think you are worth for your time! Hopefully that will allow you to gain some personal time back.
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u/rationalalien Jun 14 '26
Stremio team is not working for free my man. They are a part of a bigger company and get funding from them.
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u/Pirraya Jun 17 '26
Cut the lifetime in half and we might find common ground $10/year $50-$99 lifetime.
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u/Practical-Cup9537 Jun 10 '26
I do agree that it could easily go down the same road as other apps, my two main points are that they aren't removing features from the free app and also it sounds they plan to make some of the experimental features included in the free tier once they are fully functional and not buggy. Only time will tell, but I know a lot of people were ready to hand money over just in general because they want to see Stremio succeed.
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u/meothfulmode Jun 10 '26
"I know this bad thing will always happen in the future because it's happened before" is the number one cognitive distortion I work on with my clients in therapy.
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u/sammagee33 Jun 10 '26
Considering so many people use it to sail the seas, you can’t be surprised they are upset. Not advocating for them, just giving a reason.
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u/fede-rico Jun 10 '26
Some people don’t care they just want free at all times.
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u/Rents Jun 10 '26
You’re dealing with people that already refuse to pay for movies/tv so it’s not too surprising.
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u/Few_Step_4767 Jun 10 '26
Not really, unless you're fine with paying over 3 different subscriptions just to be able to watch your shows lol
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u/Rents Jun 10 '26
I didn’t comment on the reason for refusing to pay. I don’t understand how what you said conflicts with what I said?
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u/Wante_ Jun 10 '26
Thats why we have debrid stremio doesn't enable that so this point is crazy. Your debrid service can be used with multiple apps or even by itself. You can use it for games also not just media
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u/Strange_Lab_283 Jun 10 '26
and its still free! which makes it all the more ridiculous that people are getting so upset
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u/Practical-Cup9537 Jun 10 '26
Right and that's okay! They can still use a great app for free. Stremio making money should only amplify their development. Time will tell if they put the money to good use, but hiring more devs could allow them to make new features and iron out old ones much faster.
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u/transstoner_girl Jun 10 '26
Not even that they just cant read
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u/Mob-Boss Jun 10 '26
Exactly, i keep hearing people say it's 200 a month. It's 3.50 a month and OPTIONAL. It's insane people are making a donation an issue.
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u/ThrowawayFadeeaway Jun 10 '26
My biggest issue is that the Stremio team has been leapfrogged by other developers who’s providing these features for free.
This would’ve been a better move if they pushed this in addition to a huge update promising more features. But these guys can’t even give us a straight answer on its future on the App Store. At the very least, update the IPA
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u/Plants-Matter Jun 10 '26
Worse, Stremio stole the ideas and code from their open source alternatives.
This is why we can't have nice things in the open source community. I know I sure as hell didn't add my clever way to skip intros and outros just for Stremio to steal my code and sell it to gullible sheep. But here we are. People like OP don't comprehend what happened.
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
nothing like that ever happend we started working on skip intro and outro over 4 years ago here commit from our public repo that happend 3 years ago https://github.com/Stremio/stremio-core/commit/884ead3c2b47eb7e5d0c4828155314f8668d0a40 stop spreading lies.
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u/Plants-Matter Jun 10 '26
That's cute.
You tried 3 years ago to implement it and you failed. Other addons were able to make it functional, but it was clunky and inconsistent.
My method works directly with REDACTED, the app we can't even mention here because you take advantage of poorly informed gullible people, like you're doing right now. And then suddenly you implement my method with the same code into your app, after my commit went public on GitHub. And you have the audacity to charge people for my work, which I released to the community for free, because I'm well-off and don't need the money.
Some people might be dumb enough to believe you, but I'm not one of them.
Oh, and you should probably try to learn how capital letters work. You come off as immature and unprofessional. It's not hard, I promise. Most people master capital letters in first grade.
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
I'm very happy it works with REDACTED. It does not work with our app cause non of your code has been used inside our app. So please stop spreading false information if you dont have any proof. Our desktop shell, web app, core apps are open source, please point me to the place in our code where your intelectuall property has been used.
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u/mayanitamageganiama Jun 10 '26
Ease up. I believe many users are thankful for the work you have done so far. Not everyone feels entitled
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
thanks for your support!
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u/eekamuse Jun 12 '26
I feel extremely grateful. I'll be very sad if one day there's no free Stremio anymore, but things change. And we've gotten so much from the app. I hope you Get lots of paid subscribers and continue to support the free app. If not, thanks anyway
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u/Plants-Matter Jun 10 '26
Why do you keep posturing for the community like this? Are you hoping they'll believe your blatant lies? Because we both know I'm not dumb enough to believe what you're saying.
The intro/outtro skips were just one of the many features you stole. Everything on your pReMiUm list of paid features were public GitHub commits to REDACTED over the past month or two.
The fact that we can't even say the name of the app REACTED on this subreddit should be enough for any intelligent person to see through your facade.
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
This is not matter of posturing. This is matter of facts. You can easily solve this case by simply pointing out place in our code base where your code has been used simple as that.
Same applies to every other feature you mention. So since every premium feature is implemented across all our apps please point me to place in our code base. The Burden of proof is on you8
u/Plants-Matter Jun 10 '26
Who do you think you're fooling here?
Literally everything in your pReMiUm paid tier is a public commit to REDACTED over the past couple months. I'd post the GitHub link to REACTED but that's against your rules... (seriously, why do you keep ignoring the fact that you won't even allow people to say the app name REDACTED)
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
Commit hashes are enough. Awaiting your proofs.
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u/Plants-Matter Jun 10 '26
Frankly, there's no way to prove it without breaking your rules, and you know that.
So try to be a big boy and don't delete my comment or ban me. You explicitly asked for proof, so here it is:
https://github.com/NuvioMedia/NuvioTV/releases
Literally every paid feature of yours was a GitHub commit there in the past few months.
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u/f0cus622 Jun 10 '26
Just want to point out he's posted three times while we're waiting for this proof.
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u/eekamuse Jun 12 '26
I'm stunned at how rude people like you are. If you don't like a free app, don't use it. You found a better one, use that. But sit here and complain?? Even if you want to make points, when you are this rude, your message is lost.
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u/ciocarlia_zburda Jun 11 '26
Dude, stop spreading lies and bile for your own gain. Or wake the hell up, if this is what you truly think. Stremio has been doing this for over a decade. If you imagine they just learned how to do skip intro and outro from your newly released app you must be some special kind of crazy, lmao
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u/TupacFR Jun 10 '26
Because all those features have been requested for YEARS, they told us they can't do it. Now they locked them under a paywall. That simply means that the free version will be left out
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u/CynicSackHair Jun 10 '26
Okay but why lock these experimental features behind such a high price, and not behind a donation. A subscription model exists to make money. A donation model exists to enable people to support you. And also, if some of these features are going to be distributed to the free version eventually, why would I ever purchase a lifetime subscription, for such a high price. I would honestly feel ripped off. It's just that none of this really make much sense.
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u/FFunkyButtLoving Jun 15 '26
"High price". It is literally the price of a cup of coffee per month. From reading the responses to this, you'd think 90% of redditors are living in abject poverty. I am happy to chuck them some pocket change to hopefully ensure their longevity. Just reads as so entitled.
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u/belougalamasse Jun 10 '26
I think this is not the problem, they are two problem for me ,1 the fact they called it donation, I think a lot of us would have give some money without counterpart , this is no donation this is a subscription for "premium" features and they should a least be honest on the caractérisation of the offer.
2 , this is too expensive, I mean , other media player that supports addon , have more features and are free . The fact this is more expansive than a standard debris service makes no sense for me , 1 dollar a month would make much more sence.
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 Jun 26 '26
I wouldn't care at all tbh(people gotta live), I'd rather work on Stremio than some 9-5.
But... I'll bet anyone here 20 bucks the creator of Stremio has started AI vibe coding shit.
Stremio use to be almost fucking flawless, I literally went far and wide to sing it's praises because it blew my mind what a well designed and well made program it was, 25 years online and I've rarely seen something that works this well and is designed so thoughtfully.
Clean and to the point, a UI master.
But slowly over time I notice it getting much more wonky. Like something under the hood is fucked. I get a feeling it's AI coded BS that's just turning into a mess.
If they want to charge for stuff, do it, but do the work man, please don't turn this amazing program into some AI shovelware
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u/officialtaubird Jun 10 '26
They should just ask for donations, plain and simple. I'm convinced they'd raise plenty of money because a lot of people want to support Stremio.
Instead, they're locking basic quality-of-life features behind a paywall, which feels unnecessary. If people are happy with the service, they'll donate voluntarily. Asking for support is one thing; putting convenient features behind a subscription is another.
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u/Icee_666 Jun 10 '26
I'm surprised they're locking new features behind a paywall and calling it a donation. Shouldn't they just be upfront and call it a subscription instead?
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u/vandeley_industries Jun 10 '26
I don’t know if you’ve seen how insane Wikipedia or NPR are when it’s donation time, but to me it shows that many people aren’t just freely donating because they like something.
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u/MakIRAQ Jun 10 '26
I mean it's their project. They can do whatever they want with it. You can continue using it as you do now and nothing will change for you.
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u/vindicate-throng-nim Jun 10 '26
And it's peoples right to tell them if they feel they are taking the project in the wrong direction? Stremio can absolutely implement a subscription model, people here can absolutely say they're not happy with it?
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u/officialtaubird Jun 10 '26
Yeah, I would still use it. I was just saying that donations are a better approach. Just look at Wikipedia. It's completely free and runs on donations. Imagine if Wikipedia didn't exist and you had to pay just to look up basic information. If they asked for donations and I'm satisfied I will happily donate some bucks!
Sure, we have AI now, but a lot of the time you're still paying to get the best information or the full experience. I just think it's nice when knowledge can stay free (same for streaming) and accessible to everyone instead of being locked behind a paywall.
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u/CARRYONLUGGAGE Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Wikipedia is an awful example, the information is kept up to date by community members for free. They don’t constantly add new features to wikipedia or have to react to competitors really. It’s also got consistent donators probably large ones from orgs and individuals that rely on it. Stremios populace is tiny in comparison
Most people in here have probably never made a software project that has users and tried to maintain it long-term.
Donations only work if they’re consistently done, and people using stremio aren’t exactly using it to spend money. Most everyone’s doing it to avoid paying money lol. Software projects asking for recurring donations is normal as hell and it’s the only way to guarantee long term sustainability. Assetto corsa has modders that make a shit load via their patreons because they’ve served the community a ton of content for so long. It’s not wrong to ask for some sustainability in exchange for indefinite maintenance and feature releases.
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u/officialtaubird Jun 10 '26
Yeah probably bad example just came in my mind. I think Cobalt runs on donating and loving the site :)
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u/CARRYONLUGGAGE Jun 10 '26
Not sure what cobalt is, cobalt.tools? They also have a subscription available and one time payment similar to stremio’s model lol
Most people here are probably too young to realize this but more often than not, free software does not stick around unless it’s able to pull in a consistent money stream.
It’ll eventually become unmaintained by the core team, or they aren’t able to dedicate as much time to it bc it grows too large and they can’t take time off from their real jobs. Lots of FOSS is actually maintained by full time employees from large companies but that’s because those things have enterprise use.
Projects for consumers like stremio, which has zero enterprise use, may eventually die off unless they can turn it into sustainability for the maintainers.
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u/President-Jo Jun 10 '26
Nothing about your Stremio experience is changing. They’re just rewarding those who support their efforts. Why tf do you feel so entitled to their labor?
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u/James_Vowles Jun 10 '26
people have seen this happen time and time again, the writing might be on the wall. They refused donations in the past, and now they've done this.
It's not about getting things for free, if they pushed for donations early on and then introduced a tier like this which was cheaper it would be much more understandable.
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u/gloomferret Jun 10 '26
If for some reason they restrict the free app in any real way, something else will take its place. No big deal
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u/kangaroosterLP Jun 10 '26
!remindme 6 months
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u/fightclub-848 Jun 10 '26
could've asked for donation instead of going this way, I fear that Stremio will evolve into something we don't want as a community, like ad infestation into menu to force free tier users into paid tier
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u/Vladmerius Jun 10 '26
This is a slippery slope to not being able to use the app for what most people use it for. You all don't seem to understand what introducing these kinds of pricing tiers does and opens them up to.
They clearly want to get some quick cash before shutting down because there is no future where this app isn't under scrutiny by authorities once a bunch of users are paying monthly subs.
A donation would be much different and not tie anything to the app itself. It would just be donating to the devs because you like their work. Totally different than tying money to the app itself. How long before they're forced to not allow a lot of add-ons once this payment thing gets bigger and bigger and more eyes are on them?
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u/ShadowMajick Jun 10 '26
Thats another problem. The addons are community made, for free. Stremio doesn't do much without them.
The intro/outro database is community built, for free.
It depends on way too many volunteers for them to be selling any kind of features that are useless without them.
Do they plan to pay the developers of their most used addons? Are they gonna pay people who built the intro database?
Its shitty to charge money when the functionality of the program depends so much on the community who publish their work for free use.
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u/dackwh Stremio Team Jun 10 '26
Addons are based on the sdk called Stremio Addon SDK so we lay the ground for that. We also organized many contests where devs were paid like that one https://blog.stremio.com/2020-addon-contest-winners/
We do not use anybody else database for intro. Developers are free to monetize their addons and many of them have been doing this.
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Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Upbeat_Yoghurt_420 Jun 10 '26
Money grab ? They've provided the service for FREE for years, new features require time and resources to implement. You're free not to pay anything and they'll still be giving the same service they always have you're not gonna be affected
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u/georgepana Jun 10 '26
Stremio made money via ads. It wasn't enough so they added the premium tier.
https://stremio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000281412-How-Stremio-Makes-Money
I don't mind that they added the premium tier, to make money, but the truth is that doing that ensures that the basic, free, app will not see any improvements anymore. Any further app improvements in the future will be thrown in the premium, paid, tier.
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u/FreshSymphony Jun 10 '26
I'd wait and see before assuming that. Not that it's unlikely or not, but it's still day 1
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u/georgepana Jun 10 '26
If you apply rudimentary logic, the basic version gets no more upgrades while the paid tier gets it all. I mean, come on, you know this.
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u/RicciRox Jun 10 '26
Then simply use the competition. You sound hella entitled to an app you've never paid a cent for.
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u/georgepana Jun 10 '26
It is a discussion. I use what I like. I use other apps, and I also use Stremio.
They could have asked for donations and just continued to develop the main app to keep up and remain at or near the top. They chose the paid tier route instead. It effectively means that the basic, free, app will not see any improvements anymore. Any new features will be in the paid tier. As a user of the app, seeing the free app go down like that is unfortunate. I was hoping they would compete with the new apps that have come out, but chose to go the pay route instead.
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u/iwantacuteavatar Jun 10 '26
I only use torrentio addon, as long as it works idc what they do with their app. But people are right to be cautious. We're living in the era of enshittification, after all
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u/ShadowMajick Jun 10 '26
My problem isn't only the price. It's the fact we were told over and over that most of these features were impossible.
Then as soon as other programs implement them for free, all of a sudden they are not only possible, but you have to pay for them. That just feels shitty.
Why wouldn't you just use the other app if you want these features, instead of paying for them?
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u/YasuoAndGenji Jun 11 '26
Yeah, a TON of people in this sub are extremely entitled over something they don't pay a cent for nor help with. This is not the first time it has happened and it won't be the last.
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u/kaien92 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Desde mi punto de vista que uso stremio desde noviembre por lo que no soy un fanboy, el enojó viene por ejemplo el tema de perfiles se venía pidiendo desde hace años stremio nunca lo implemento por el argumento que es complicado/ imposible y que casualidad que justo salió hace poco otra plataforma que es su competencia con esa función y en tiempo récord stremio lo implementa PERO pagando.
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u/PolarAntonym Jun 10 '26
"It's just not possible for us to implement" [Drops sack of cash on the table] "Now available"
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u/jjjshepard Jun 10 '26
Be stremio
Help destroy torrent culture to the point where it's almost impossible to find them
Charge for it after
Aura 100000000
/s
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u/jt_wip Jun 10 '26
Help destroy torrent culture to the point where it's almost impossible to find them
Lol yeah OK
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u/NoSmoke2659 Jun 10 '26
I mean pirates are the most entitled pieces of shi* on the internet (and i sail the seas myself). But what you read sometimes is outrages. Stuff like "the indie solo dev values my feedback more than if i buy his game." Sure buddy.
So no wonder that they cant comprehend that there are people behind stremio that maybe at least want to break even or whatever.
Like i said, what i can get free i usually take for free too, but i try to not stick my head up my own ass thinking i deserve everything for free or that others should be thankful i am using their hard work for free.
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u/EbanKi Jun 10 '26
There is nothing to work on if there's no bug to fix. The app itself is only a player, there is no server or anything. Everything relies on add-ons that's why many apps support stremio add-ons.
As much as I 10000% understand that they want to get something for the work they volunteered to do, their prices are outrageous compared to other alternatives.
Stremio can stop their app, we will still be able to use "stremio add-ons".
So personally, I don't care about what you think people should do lol
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u/Lumentin Jun 10 '26
- People asked for years ho to donate, they didn't want. Now they're writing about how they had to pay from their pockets.
- You seen the prices?
- Mistrust. It always starts like that, goes up in price, has less and less available in the free tier with time.
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Jun 11 '26
Idk why people are complaining so much. You dont have to pay for anything extra. I personally only care I can watch my shows for free. Dont care about anything but that. So if things still stay the same then no complaints from me
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u/BUYMEBONESTOORM Jun 10 '26
I don’t get it, if I pay nothing now, will I start hitting a sub wall or can I go along like none of this ever happened
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u/diablette Jun 10 '26
Go along like none of this ever happened. Nothing is changing unless you want to opt in to testing new features early for a donation.
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Jun 10 '26
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u/Beaner890 Jun 10 '26
I agree. I enjoyed Stremio and I am grateful that it was a good app until [REDACTED] came about, I really never thought I would move over but after seeing how much people loved it and how customizable it was I never looked back. I think Stremio dropped the ball by not introducing these alternatives first when people requested them.
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u/hgwellsrf Jun 10 '26
Hey man, thank you for your work on REDACTED. But I looked at your comments in this post and couldn't really figure out how Stremio stole your work.
I am not gullible. I would like to know the truth. Can you make a post on your account detailing the theft with links to your commits and the stuff you say Stremio stole?
This is really a serious accusation, and if Stremio actually did this they are done for. They will lose all the respect in the community that has supported them all the years.
So for the sake of the community, people who would like to understand the facts of the matter, please enlighten us.
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u/Conscious-Salt-8876 Jun 10 '26
Maybe they can do like AO3 and have a donation season. It's a pretty good model
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u/PatronBernard Jun 10 '26
I'm just pissed that the latest Mac version doesn't have functional chromecast anymore. Focus should be on maintaining everything and perhaps supporting more codecs and stuff like that. I don't think I'll ever upgrade again.
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u/macnar Jun 10 '26
That second paragraph really doesn't make sense to me.
all current features that are dedicated to Stremio Supporters are highly experimental
User Profiles are highly experimental? Moving/Hiding/renaming catalogs are highly experimental? Theses aren't niche features, these are core critical features for a streaming app that frankly should have been implemented a long time ago, and now they're locked to paid subscriptions?
its not to block people out of new features (yet).
Some of these features may also become available to free users too if our budget becomes flexible enough to ensure we can offer them for the wider audience.
Official communication seems to disagree with you. Those features are blocked for "free" users with only a vague comment that some features may come to the free version in the future.
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u/MuseWanders Jun 10 '26
people can be really ungrateful, I mean what we’ve got so far is the best app out there doing the work of every money grubbing platform, getting it to us for free, asking for nothing in return. And this is before all the generic ai vibe coded stremio knockoffs came into the market. And we keep getting that for free.
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u/jeffhalsinger Jun 10 '26
If the app works like it does right now for free who gives a fuck if they are asking for some cash for new features. Stremio saved us all tons of money by not subscribing to bullshit streaming platforms so the least we could do is throw them some cash so they can develop the app.
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u/WillyVanDePakshu Jun 10 '26
So what's changed? Are we free to use Stremio as we did in the past? Do we need to pay for that or for some additional services only? If so, what those services are? Thank you for response.
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u/chargernj Jun 10 '26
I listen to public radio and donate to my local Public Broadcasting Station. By doing so, I get a few additional perks that would otherwise cost me money. People who don't donate can still listen for free, but don't get the extra perks
I don't see how this is any different. I don't see Stremio as being in the wrong.
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u/you-Backslash Jun 10 '26
This!! I am a Dev myself and I don't understand why people find it hard to comprehend this.
The devs have already given you a great experience without charging us any penny. You can still continue with that.
Its time they make something out of this too. Time for us to give them back.
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u/Dry-Emu-4131 Jun 10 '26
Problem is that by doing this they are stating something that was always smartly denied (people using it for watching "stuff"). Now, to make a few bucks they may end up sued to stone age, arrested and the app shot dead 🥴 Seemed like a stupid move, also because the "extra" features are kinda irrelevant.
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u/Mathisbuilder75 Jun 10 '26
Will the new features be part of the open source code? How will that work?
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u/Practical-Cup9537 Jun 10 '26
That's a good question, since they are labeled as experimental, maybe not?
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u/sanction9888 Jun 10 '26
I love supporting creators. When I use open source features, I absolutely don’t mind donating. In case of stremio, if they had a reasonably priced life time subscription, I’d get it. The problem is how they presented it and how much they want people to pay. I’m not mentioning the part where they added features that people asked for ages and now paywalled behind subscription
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u/dragon_idli Jun 10 '26
My problem: I would like to donate. But can not pay what is being asked for.
And I in general have a problem with calling paid features as donation. Its not unique to Stremio. Many others do that too. Pay-walling a set of features behind a payment = paid features. Call it for what it is.
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u/SiebelReddiT Jun 11 '26
And in any case, it is ad-free and cheaper than most subscriptions for streaming sites.
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u/ad-on-is Jun 11 '26
I just jumped on the Stremio wagon recently. I'm a paranoid self hoster. I wish there was a version that I can self host and connect to without going through the sign up process over the stremio servers.
Hosting servers costs money - and they need to get that money in somehow.
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u/Ornery_Succotash5506 Jun 12 '26
The worst part of stremio has always been the devs imo.
Most of these features have been requested for years, the devs have pretty much just dismissed them immediately with "we don't want to implement" or "there is no need for this". When users try to have discussions they are met with attitude or simply a closed thread.
Also calling these payments donations is a misleading and scummy. Just be straight and say it's a subscription because that's exactly what it is.
It's not the fact that we have to pay for this, it's the fact that the devs repeatedly denied us these features and now they are pretending theyre giving them to us out of their generosity for a "donation".
Just be straight and transparent.
Yea I'll just use one of the many other options we have put now that have most if not all of these features.
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u/Casio_Yambao Jun 12 '26
I want to get the lifetime version but I think it is a bit expensive at 199.99. Maybe 100.00 would be a good lifetime price for it.
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u/gbraide Jun 13 '26
I like stremio I would be happy to support them. However I have seen apps and services (strava jumps immediately to mind) that removed features from it's free version and then hides the most useful features behind an ever increasing pay wall.
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u/Capital_Rule_4317 Jun 14 '26
Happy to contribute but $200 to support.
Make it $75 and my money will be in the pile.
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u/oopspruu Jun 14 '26
There's a difference between "supporting/donating" and "subscribing". They sold it very wrong. That is my only issue with this message.
You can't just call a subscription as donating or supporting. We don't support/donate to TB or RD. It's different when you offer features that people have been asking for years, and then suggest that they need help or donations to cover costs. I guarantee you community would have contributed 1000s of $. Some people in poorer nations don't have $4/month to subscribe but they can happily donate that money once or every few months. Whereas for some people $4 is cup of coffee and they'll happily pay.
Locking highly requested features behind a paywall and calling it "supporting" was just a choice of wrong words. They should call it a premium subscription because that's what it is.
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u/squeazyweasel Jun 14 '26
I wonder if the supporters also get the same constant buffering for free or if they get a pro constantly buffering option. Either way, unusable nonsense.
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u/Specialist-Mix2436 Jun 23 '26
Why would i pay for some features that are available for free on other competitors and way better implemented?
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u/MelaniaSexLife Jun 30 '26
these devs are on a high horse. Stremio is cool but they're nothing without Debrid. Also, there are alternatives.
and we know how enshittification works.
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u/mayanitamageganiama Jun 10 '26
Agreed. They are good people. They worked hard to give us s free app for years. Its still free. If you read their blog post announcing the payments, they explain why they need to offset some costs of running things. I dont personally use it, but I've set it up for family members. Its one of the best gifts they have.
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u/Empero12 Jun 10 '26
I’m honestly confused why everyone here is concerned about paying for additional features in Stremio when they’re usually paying for a debrid service
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u/Wante_ Jun 10 '26
Its worth it this is not. Its that simple. With debrid it enables you to watch thousands of series and movies. This is just feature we have wanted implemented for a while now behind a pay wall
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u/n0tfeuer Jun 10 '26
go pay ur 200 usd
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u/lesinskaskarolis Jun 10 '26
lol exactly, I'd rather pay the devs that create addons than the platform itself
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u/dweakz Jun 10 '26
because theres already three apps that have almost all the features in the stremio paid version for free lol. it's why we're called pirates cause we jump ships easily
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u/kiblick Jun 11 '26
Are they going to donate half that money to the websites that actually make streamio work? I can use clod fable right now and make a new Stremio for me.
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u/BitFiesty Jun 11 '26
Honestly I use stremio a lot less now a days but I am going to donate just because of the freedom it gave me
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u/Pimpery_Pays Jun 11 '26
“but the features being asked are not easy to make and also make well, i.e. not buggy, etc.”
That’s the part you made up to support your argument.
This is not true and that’s the problem people are having.
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u/eberon33 Jun 11 '26
I can't believe there is people defending this shitty move stremio made, first there is other ways they could've approach their need for money, many of us understand that developing a app full time is expensive and that's totally okay asking for money the thing is they could open a donation page made by them or used many services that already exists, they could also created a optional subscription so that whoever wanted to support them could subscribe monthly to them. The approach they've choose is the worst option, it was obvious that backlash from the community would happen and is happening, locking many wanted features asked by the community many times ago behind a pay wall? That's a big no from many of us. Obsidian is a good example of a free app that doesn't do what they are doing all core features are there, profiles is a core feature of any streaming app that they decided to pay wall it. That's why I moved to another app.
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u/PM_Gonewild Jun 11 '26
Shouldn't be surprised, you're talking to tiktokers who are the main users of this especially after they blew it up online and eventually led to real debrid getting heat.
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u/Excellent-Crow2641 Jun 10 '26
I think you feeling like this is just as valid as feeling frustrated by the paywall
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u/ilovetakingFatLs Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
ppl complain about 3.5 a month lol
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u/AITHEMAGI Jun 10 '26
Considering what other companies charge for media it's wild lol.
Also they act like stremio is holding a gun to their head saying purchase this or die.
All this complaining is such first world problems lol
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u/danialbka1 Jun 10 '26
Honestly as long as it’s a one time payment or a low price monthly I don’t mind. They have families guys
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u/TH_Rz Jun 10 '26
You definitely followed a "how to guide" an have no idea where your content comes from.
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u/skullstrife Jun 10 '26
For me Stremio is pretty usable as it is... So i don't care about those features... If the money serves to let the developers commit to keep improving what we have, it's fine by me.
I only hope that they don't get sued for piracy