Cordcut
A subscription auditor and free-alternative finder for TV viewers — link your streaming and IPTV services, see what you actually watch, get matched to free legal alternatives (Pluto TV, Tubi, library apps, Mediatheken), and cast any web video to your TV in two taps.
Cord-cutters and budget-conscious TV viewers tired of paying for streaming and IPTV subscriptions they barely use
- Subscription audit: see how many hours you actually watched per service last month and what you spent per hour of viewing
- Free-alternative matcher that suggests Pluto TV, Tubi, ARD/ZDF Mediathek, library apps, and YouTube channels as replacements for the shows you watch
- Two-tap 'cast this to my TV' helper that works with any smart TV on your Wi-Fi without Chromecast or AirPlay hardware
- Monthly 'money report' showing savings vs. last month and a one-tap cancel link for services you no longer use
Castor hit 107 points on HN as a 'better and cheaper than IPTV' terminal tool, surfacing real demand for cheaper, simpler TV viewing; the audience for this is everyone who has ever opened a streaming app, scrolled for ten minutes, and given up.
Castor's HN hit (indexed in July 2026 Zeli digest at 295 position with the same 'Better and Cheaper than IPTV' framing) confirms real appetite, and the streaming-subscription tracker category has multiple 2026 listicles (Subsly, ReSubs, Bobby, Rocket Money) signaling sustained user interest.Hacker News Digest · July 19, 2026 | Zeli ↗Best Subscription Tracker Apps in 2026 | Ranked & Reviewed ↗Castor: A Better and Cheaper Alternative to IPTV for Streaming ↗
The two core primitives are already crowded: JustWatch and Reelgood own 'where to watch' discovery across 300+ services, and 50+ Rocket Money alternatives (Bobby, Subtrack, Trim, Subsly) own subscription tracking — the combined 'audit + free-match + cast' wedge is novel but each leg has deep incumbents.Reelgood - Streaming Service Search Engine ↗Rocket Money Alternatives: Top 12 Subscription Trackers ↗21 Best Streaming Search Engines in 2026 - PrivacySavvy ↗
Rocket Money proves users will pay ~$6-12/mo for premium cancellation/savings features, but free aggregators (JustWatch, Reelgood) monetize via affiliate/ads and compress premium pricing; willingness to pay for an audit-only tool is moderate and very competitive.Best Subscription Tracker Apps in 2026 | Ranked & Reviewed ↗Reelgood Competitors & Alternatives (2026) | Product Hunt ↗
Subscription fatigue is structural (multiple ongoing tracking apps) and free AVOD (Pluto, Tubi, library apps) is expanding, so the free-alternative angle stays relevant; casting via Chromecast/DLNA is a durable need even as protocols evolve.GitHub - stupside/castor ↗Reelgood - Streaming Service Search Engine ↗
Cast + TMDB lookup is straightforward (Castor does the hard streaming extraction in Go), but the subscription-audit leg requires bank-linking via Plaid or screen-scraping, adding legal/compliance friction (PCI, TOS of financial institutions) that meaningfully raises solo-build complexity.GitHub - stupside/castor ↗Castor Lets You Cast Any Web Video to Your TV From the Terminal ↗