What I’d really like to see here is more detailed comparisons, particularly things that would show what the real similarities (or identities) and differences are between add-ons and their components. I would love to see a chart showing the differences between the various scrapers…including when there is no difference whatsoever and two or more addons use the same scrapers, etc. I would like to know which add-ons are clones, forks, being maintained, being developed, orphaned (like Kingpin appears to be), or have significant functional differences other than their user interfaces. Due to the Trakt debacle, I learned how much various add-ons (and particularly Seren) rely onTrakt in different ways, which is one of the things I’d like to see described when the information for installing them or reviews are presented. Take, for example, the add-ons 9Lives, Gaia 6 and The Watcher. Do they do anything better or different from each other, or from the most common add-ons or are they just fungible alternatives? Will they be maintained and developed? Are they doing anything new or going in any new directions? With the myriad of good add-ons already out there, is there any special reason to avoid or use them?
You are asking for a lot of info that can be found on our reviews and kodi’s website. You are asking for to much info i feel. The one thing you need to know is this:
Most to all addons relay on trakt for its metadata. The info and pics you see on movies and shows comes from that api. The only difference in all honesty is if an addon uses real debrid or orion. Free vs paid.
Info on Gaia can be found on there website, along with most of these addons. You are asking to be spoon fed and when alot of this info is available. Troypoint cant do everything and i feel they do such a good job at providing you what is free and paid. We up date the kodi secton all the time with new and current info so im not sure what more you want its all there. The addons are not maintained by kodi but by the devs you develop those addons. With kodi, all you need is an adddon t hat supports RD/Orion and you will get everything you need. Any addon that is free and uses free scrappers wont get you the content you look for as much as RD does. This info is out there.
The addons are pretty much the same thing, it just depends on what api they use and if they support RD. Trakt is a huge metadata program which is why almost all addons use it.
So what you seem to be saying is that as long as you have RD there is little, if any, significant differences between add-ons and their search and scraper functions–it’s all just a question of which one’s eye candy you find most appealing? (The Umbrella & Fen developers are on Reddit, and they, at least, seem to be working on significantly developing their add-ons’ functionality. Also, they both rely onTrakt less than Seren.) If I search a film/episode through a variety of different add-ons, I will get somewhat different, though usually overlapping, lists of links from each, so they must be doing something differently. Though the set-up information Troypoint provides for each add-on is thorough and useful, the Kodi Addon Description & Details section for each addon has very little information, particularly when it comes to why you would want to install that specific addon rather than another one. If you have working add-ons, what if anything would you gain by adding another or replacing one of them with a different one?
Best Kodi Addons December 2022 (Free & Working) (troypoint.com)
In Troy’s list, he mentions the sections and features of each add-on. I’m not sure what else you are looking for. In my opinion, the ratings of the add-ons in this list are based on this criteria (Troy can correct me if I’m wrong):
-Dependability
-Longevity-Has been around and stood up to the test of time
-Features-Most have movies/shows, is there IPTV, sports, catchup, replays, etc
-How well it pairs with mainstays like RD, Trakt, etc
-How user friendly it is- search, professional look of the app/menus
-Content-4k movies/shows? Has a great selection?
If paired with Real Debrid (and Orion if applicable), most add-ons will get you newer and popular movies and shows. Some use different scrapers,etc. It is just a matter of the above criteria to how they separate themselves from add-ons that come and go. Most of the cord cutting experience is about trial and error and gathering your own concrete evidence as to why an add-on, an apk, a service is better than the other. If you were going to help us do that comparison, I think it would be a fun read and we could get feedback from the myriad of Kodi users here.
I would love to be able to contribute. Unfortunately, I’m a non-programmer and everything I do with Kodi is by trial and error, and that just isn’t enough to truly understand what’s going on. Take scrapers, for example. I don’t understand how they work, what the differences between them are or can be, or even why they are called scrapers. I don’t know what the connections between searching and scraping are, if any. It appears that in Seren search relies on Trakt, whereas in Umbrella it relies on TMDB–does this have anything to do with scraping? When I look at the various add-ons’ settings menus I always find choices that I can’t make because I’m not sure what the differences they indicate are, and don’t know what information I need to have to understand what’s going on or where to get it. I try to piece things together and find references and instructions online when I can, and after a few years I’ve picked up a fair amount, but it’s still all bits and pieces that may or may not fit together.
Trakt and TMDB are just movie lists for searching for a movie or show. If you have a Trakt account (free or paid), it has features that will allow you to track what movies you watch, set up watchlists for yourself (and mark them “watched” after you are done viewing them).
Scrapers are what scours the net for sources of the content that you searched for above. The definitions of a lot of the terms you hear are a bit daunting, but it really isn’t difficult if you hear them in layman’s terms. Real Debrid is a “hoster” which carries the links to content on unrestricted servers. The “scrapers” will search for and find these if you have RD authorized on the add-on/apk. That will allow you to stream on your device at a very high quality to hopefully avoid buffering. The link below is a good source for some of the questions you may have as well. You can also ask specific questions here about any of this, and we will get you an answer. There are so many that are super knowledgeable about this stuff around Troypoint, that’s why it is so great!
Here is a link to some of the acronyms used in video stuff. It helps to have a reference source so you can put terms into perspective when reading, and it helps to understand the whole concept of streaming. It’s only a small piece of the puzzle, but every extra piece makes the end picture easier to see.
Thanks! So if I understand correctly what scrapers do is get links from hosters and/or servers, and the differences between the scrapers are basically which hosters and servers they interrogate? So that if you have RD all addon scrapers that work with RD will interrogate it in the same way, and the differences between the scrapers in different add-ons will lie in which additional hosters/servers they query?
Yes, I think you have the basic idea lmao. Think we lost our “layman’s terms” in the process. 
Thanks. This looks useful.
Fyi “crawling” or “searching” the web is looking for URLs(sites) for you. Scraping is obtaining data from the net for you to use.
As with life itself streaming is bit like “ suck it and see” some addons will suit you and some won’t. I am forever downloading new app or apps then deleting them if they don’t suit my needs
Insert apks into second app haha
Well that’s a good thing, and exactly what I do as well. Enjoy your day.
Just choose the first source from RD at the very top of the list. If it plays you are all good and don’t need to worry about all that other mumbo jumbo!
I deleted my mubo jumbo sorry!!
Dracoo, I couldnt agree more, the only thing I struggle with that I cannot seem to find (please accept my apologies of it has been covered somewhere) is how you get back to original version of Kodi (i.e. build view) once you have applied the skin settings. For me I was looking to add “The Watcher” to my existing builds (given the Trakt issues) however cant figure out how to get back to the build menu to add “add-ons”.
Love all of the work you guys do and cannot thank you enough. Couldn’t have imagined 7 years ago I would be cable free and running things off “weird boxes” - Nvidia Shield’s.
Miki, I’m not sure I understand the relationship between scraping and searching. If I search for, say, WonderfulOhSoWonderfulBoyOhBoyWonderfulMovie: The Sequel, is that search information then passed on to the scraper, which then actually makes the connection with the hoster/server to stream the link? If that’s correct, it would seem to imply that the differences, if any, in the content you can obtain depends more on a given addon’s individual search function (or saved searches, etc.) than on the scrapers, which are actually just back ends for the process. Am I missing or misconstruing something here? Thanks.
The answer is in what I posted. “search” looks for site “URLs” and “scraping” collects “data” for you to use. That data can be almost anything.
Sorry if I’m being dense here. So Search finds the URLs for the data, which scraping then collects? Or are the two processes somehow separate?