FileBot is a premier tool for renaming and organizing your media collection. By utilizing online data sources, FileBot searches your files for the appropriate metadata, ensuring you can discover and rename media files with consistent titles, making them perfect for media servers like Plex, Kodi, and Jellyfin.
While FileBot remains highly effective, it is a paid application. For users seeking free, open-source, or different premium feature sets, exploring alternatives is a must.
Read below to learn more about the best FileBot alternatives available today.
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Table of Contents
Key Update: FileBot is Paid Software
The original article mentions FileBot “requires a license to be unlocked” but the surrounding text is unclear. Here is the current licensing structure:
| Platform | License Requirement (2025) | Pricing (Approx.) |
| Windows & macOS | Purchase via the App Store (Microsoft Store / Mac App Store). | Varies by region, typically $6 – $20 USD (one-time). |
| Linux & Command Line Interface (CLI) | Requires a universal license file. | $8.00 USD/year or $80.00 USD/lifetime. |
If you are a Linux or advanced CLI user, the annual universal license is a key cost consideration when comparing alternatives.
Top 8 Filebot Alternatives
Here is an updated list of the best alternatives to FileBot, highlighting their key features and status in 2025:
1. Tiny Media Manager (TMM)
Tiny Media Manager is often considered the best all-around free alternative to FileBot for serious media organizers.
- Key Feature: A robust, Java-based media management application that is cross-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS).
- Renaming/Metadata: Excellent for automatically renaming files and creating NFO files for movies and TV shows to ensure perfect library compatibility with Kodi, Plex, and Emby/Jellyfin.
- Organizational Features: Allows organizing movies into collections, scraping data from multiple sources (TheMovieDB, IMDb, TheTVDB), and deep customization of NFO data.
- Status: Active and regularly updated (currently in v5+). It is free to use, though the developers accept voluntary donations.
2. Media Center Master (MCM)
Media Center Master is a powerful, veteran application for Windows users seeking extensive automation.
- Key Feature: Primarily focuses on movies and TV shows and offers an automated workflow for finding metadata, artwork, and even subtitles.
- Licensing: Offers both a free edition (sufficient for most users, handling core functions like finding info and support) and a Premium plan for advanced features.
- Premium Benefits: Includes multi-threaded parallel fetching, immediate metadata integration into videos, and the ability to extract video frames for automatic screenshots.
- Status: Active and a strong choice for Windows users who prefer an all-in-one HTPC manager.
3. The Renamer
This is a simple, straightforward option best for quick and easy batch renaming of TV series.
- Key Feature: A very user-friendly, FileBot-free alternative primarily focused on indexing and categorizing TV series.
- Renaming Logic: Uses advanced logic to automatically detect the show name, season, and episode number from poorly named files.
- Usability: Features a drag-and-drop interface that is helpful for quickly organizing a disorganized media library.
- Status: Generally available as free software, relying on donations.
4. Shoko Anime
Shoko is a highly specialized tool for Anime collectors, going far beyond what standard renamers offer.
- Key Feature: The premier anime-focused media manager and FileBot alternative.
- Data Source: Titles are automatically matched against the AniDB database (Anime Database), ensuring highly accurate, specific anime metadata.
- Advanced Features: Allows organizing libraries by characters and linked series, and has tools to clean up duplicate files or locate missing episodes.
- Integration: Works seamlessly with Plex (via ShokoMetadata agent) and Kodi (via Nakamori Add-on).
- Status: Actively developed and the standard choice for managing large anime collections.
5. Ember Media Manager (EMM)
Ember Media Manager is a solid, Kodi-focused media manager designed to be a local metadata repository.
- Key Feature: Excellent at building a local database of media assets, including artwork and NFO files, designed specifically for use with Kodi.
- Platform: Windows-only utility.
- Workflow: Scans a user-specified location, builds a database, and allows users to browse and manually edit file names, artwork, and metadata before Kodi scrapes the content.
- Scraping: Highly effective for matching TV shows and movies, offering detailed control over the local NFO files.
- Status: Active, catering to users who want granular, local control over their Kodi metadata.
6. TV Renamer
Despite its similar name to others, this is a distinct, free, and open-source option for simple TV show organization.
- Key Feature: Free-to-use and open-source software dedicated to cleaning up and organizing TV episode file names.
- Batch Processing: Allows users to rename multiple files simultaneously and select custom renaming patterns.
- Simplicity: Best suited for users who only need batch-renaming without the heavy metadata and artwork scraping features of TMM or MCM.
7. Rename My TV Series 2
An upgraded, straightforward utility for fixing poorly named TV show files.
- Key Feature: Focuses primarily on renaming media files that have incorrect or unusual titles, utilizing TVDB API support in the second version.
- Interface: Features an improved user interface over the first version, focusing on simplicity and efficiency.
- Licensing: Free to use, with optional donations accepted via PayPal or Bitcoin.
8. Ant Renamer / Ant Movie Catalog
While often grouped together, these are simple batch renaming tools and a cataloging app, not full media managers.
- Key Feature (Ant Renamer): A general-purpose batch file renamer that can apply various naming rules to multiple files at once. It’s a useful utility but lacks the automated media-matching intelligence of FileBot.
- Key Feature (Ant Movie Catalog): A separate program that helps catalog movies, even older media like VHS and DVDs.
- Use Case: Best if your only need is simple batch file manipulation after you’ve already obtained the correct media information manually.
FAQs
What is the best free alternative to FileBot?
The Tiny Media Manager (TMM) is widely regarded as the best free and actively developed alternative to FileBot. It is cross-platform and includes robust features like NFO creation and multi-scraper support for Plex, Kodi, and Jellyfin.
What tool should I use to rename files for Plex?
Both FileBot (paid) and Tiny Media Manager (free) are excellent choices for Plex. They can automatically identify your content, rename it according to the strict Plex Media Naming guidelines, and generate necessary metadata.
How can I rename several movie files at once?
Dedicated media managers like FileBot and Tiny Media Manager can rename hundreds of files in a single batch operation by automatically scraping the correct titles. For simple manual renaming, use a tool like Ant Renamer or the basic file explorer feature: select all files, press F2, and type the new base name.
What is the main purpose of FileBot?
FileBot is a simple GUI and CLI tool designed to scrape video files against reliable online databases (like TheTVDB, IMDb, etc.) to get accurate titles, download subtitles, fetch artwork, and automatically rename and organize media files for use in media center applications.
Conclusion
While FileBot is a powerful, reliable tool, its move to a paid licensing model—especially for Linux and command-line automation—has made its alternatives more relevant than ever.
For most users seeking a free, fully-featured replacement, Tiny Media Manager is the best choice. For specialized anime collections, Shoko Anime is unmatched. Ultimately, the best tool depends on your operating system, whether you prioritize automation, and if you are willing to pay for premium features.
See also: Top 7 GetIntoPC Alternatives You Must Try (2025 Edition)
