FAQ
Questions, answered
Last updated 14 August 2026
Reelist ranks the films you have seen by comparing two at a time, so you never have to invent a star rating. These are the questions people ask about how that works, what the scores mean, and what the app does with what you tell it.
What is Reelist?
Reelist is an iPhone app that ranks the films you have seen by comparing two at a time instead of asking you for star ratings. You log a film with one tap for how you felt about it, answer a few head to head questions, and it takes its place in one ordered list of everything you have watched. You can also follow friends, see what they are ranking, and get a predicted score for films you have not seen yet.
How does ranking movies without star ratings work?
Instead of inventing a rating, you answer which of two films you liked more. Each answer places the new film against films you have already ranked, and after a handful of them it has a definite position in your list. The score you see is read off that position, so you never have to decide what a 7.5 would mean.
How many comparisons does it take to rank a movie?
At most ten, and usually fewer. The first tap sorts a film into one of three bands, which means the comparisons only ever run against films you already feel roughly the same way about. That cap holds whether your list has twelve titles or twelve hundred.
What do the scores mean, and why is there one decimal?
A Reelist score is a 0 to 10 number derived from where a film sits in your own list, never from an engine's opinion of the film. The band you put it in sets the range its score can fall in, and its position inside that range sets the decimal. There is one decimal and not two because comparisons can honestly tell an 8.4 from a 7.9, and nothing can honestly tell an 8.42 from an 8.43.
What are the three bands?
The three bands are Liked it (6.7 to 10.0), It was fine (3.4 to 6.6), and Didn't like it (0.0 to 3.3). You pick one with a single tap when you log a film, and that band decides the range its score can fall in. The ranges are published rather than hidden, because a floor you cannot see is how people end up wondering why their least favourite good film is a 6.7.
Can two movies tie?
Yes. If two films are genuinely level for you, you can say so, and Reelist records the tie as a real answer rather than forcing a winner out of you. A tied pair is never put in front of you again, and two films can share the same score with the order underneath it still exact.
What if I cannot decide between two films?
Skip the pair. A skip is a legitimate answer rather than a failure to answer: Reelist moves on to a different comparison and still finds the film its place. Between ties and skips, you should never be stuck on a question you do not have an answer to.
Is Reelist a Letterboxd replacement?
No, and it is not trying to be. Letterboxd is the best film diary there is, with reviews, lists and a community nothing else comes close to, and Reelist is a ranking, which is the one thing Letterboxd has deliberately never done. Plenty of people will run both. There is a longer comparison of Reelist and Letterboxd if you want it.
Is there a Beli for movies?
Yes: Reelist is the Beli idea applied to films. Beli showed that ranking restaurants by comparison beats asking people for star ratings, and Reelist does the same thing for the films you have seen, with one advantage its subject cannot offer: you have already watched hundreds of films, so your back catalog is rankable in the first session. There is more on what Reelist takes from Beli and what it does differently.
Does Reelist rank or score people?
Never. Reelist ranks films and only films: there is no score attached to a person, no leaderboard, and no way to rank members against each other. Your list is your own answers in your own order, and no part of it is blended with anyone else's.
Does Reelist have ads or streaks?
No ads, no streaks, and no leaderboards. There is no advertising in the app and no ad network inside it, nothing to keep alive by logging in daily, and nothing to climb. The only thing the app asks of you is that you rank films you have already watched.
What does Reelist do with my data?
Reelist collects your phone number so you can sign in, and the films you choose to log. We measure how the app and this website are used so we can improve them, and that is the whole of it: no advertising, no data brokers, no tracking across apps, and no location. You can delete your account and everything in it yourself, from Settings, at any time. The privacy policy spells out the whole of it, including the two things that deliberately survive a deletion.
What platforms is Reelist on?
Reelist is an iPhone app. There is no Android version and no web app, and your ranking lives on your account rather than on the device, so it follows you to a new phone. The note at the foot of this page has the App Store details.
Can I see what my friends think?
Yes. Follow someone and you see what they are ranking and what they made of it, plus a taste match with them worked out from the films you have both ranked. When enough people whose taste matches yours have ranked something you have not seen, Reelist shows you a predicted score for it, which is the quickest answer there is to what to watch tonight.
Reelist for iPhone
Rank the films you have seen, two at a time. Reelist is coming to the App Store; the home page has the details.