SickChill

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to SickChill

A curated collection of the 1 best self hosted alternatives to SickChill.

SickChill automates finding, downloading, and managing TV show episodes. It monitors indexers and RSS feeds, requests downloads via Usenet or torrent clients, renames and organizes files, and integrates with media libraries to keep TV collections up to date.

Alternatives List

#1
Sonarr

Sonarr

Automates TV series monitoring, searching, downloading, and post-processing from Usenet and BitTorrent with quality profiles, release management, and integrations.

Sonarr screenshot

Sonarr is an automated TV series PVR that monitors shows you want, finds new episodes via indexers, and sends releases to download clients. It then handles post-processing such as sorting/renaming, upgrading quality when better releases appear, and maintaining an organized library.

Key Features:

  • Series management with calendar, upcoming episodes, and episode/season monitoring
  • Automatic searching and grabbing via indexers (supports Usenet and BitTorrent)
  • Quality profiles and upgrades (e.g., grab better quality when it becomes available)
  • Release handling: preferred words, restrictions, and manual/interactive search
  • Download client integration (e.g., SABnzbd/NZBGet and common torrent clients) with completed download handling
  • Library organization: configurable naming, folder structure, import, and hardlink/copy/move behavior
  • Metadata and artwork fetching (via TheXEM/TVDB-style mappings depending on setup) and notifications
  • Integrations and automation via REST API, webhooks, and rich notification support

Use Cases:

  • Automate a home media workflow: monitor series and keep a TV library up-to-date
  • Maintain quality targets: start with WEB-DL and automatically upgrade to BluRay when released
  • Build an automated stack with Plex/Jellyfin, indexers, and download clients for hands-off ingestion

Limitations and Considerations:

  • Focused on TV series only (movies are handled by Radarr; music by Lidarr)
  • Effective operation depends on correctly configured indexers, download clients, and metadata mappings

Sonarr is widely used as the TV automation component in media stacks, providing consistent series tracking, reliable release selection, and automated post-processing. Its API and integrations make it suitable for both simple home setups and more advanced automated workflows.

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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running