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Bazarr
GPL-3.0Bazarr automates subtitle downloads and audio synchronization for Sonarr and Radarr libraries, eliminating manual searches and paid API subscriptions.
Overview
Operating as a companion daemon for Sonarr and Radarr, Bazarr automates subtitle discovery, downloads, and audio synchronization across 184 languages. Instead of indexing media storage directly, it communicates with upstream management APIs, monitors indexed video files, and queries community subtitle providers in the background. It saves matching subtitle files alongside media assets on disk, keeping playback accessible across local network players without ongoing cloud subscriptions.
Where Bazarr fits
Home media servers like Plex or Jellyfin typically fetch subtitles on demand during playback. While native scrapers offer convenient on-the-fly downloads, they often pull mismatched releases, store files in temporary per-user caches, or hit free-tier API quotas. Commercial subtitle services monetize higher download allowances and captcha bypasses with VIP tiers, adding recurring fees to maintain large libraries. Bazarr eliminates those ongoing costs by pooling dozens of free community providers and saving standardized subtitle files directly to disk for every network client.
The trade-off shifts from recurring software fees to local setup and compute investment. Unlike on-demand media server fetchers that run in seconds, Bazarr operates as a background pipeline requiring API links to Sonarr and Radarr, provider credentials, and language profiles. Aligning unsynchronized tracks locally with its embedded ffsubsync engine saves users from paying for commercial synchronization tools, but it consumes CPU cycles and memory on the host server. For homelab operators, dedicating modest server resources for an unmetered subtitle pipeline is an economical choice.
What it does well
- Provider pool aggregation: Queries dozens of community subtitle providers and private indexers, falling back across alternative endpoints when services suffer downtime or rate caps.
- Audio-based synchronization: Uses
ffsubsyncto extract audio streams and align subtitle timestamps automatically, fixing out-of-sync community tracks without manual editing. - Library API integration: Imports series and films from Sonarr and Radarr automatically without requiring independent filesystem scans.
- Local filesystem storage: Writes subtitle files directly alongside media assets using standard language tags, ensuring playback compatibility across all network clients without vendor lock-in.
