x4u and Stash
x4u is a Stash-Lite. It has everything you need to curate a great collection and start enjoying it quickly, without the setting up. Stash is for the metadata and organisation enthusiast, and it's wonderful at it.
Where x4u comes from
x4u owes a lot to Stash. Its developer got their start in the Stash community, and x4u names your videos with StashDB, the catalogue of scenes that volunteers from that community build and keep up, one fingerprint at a time. Every scene x4u identifies for you is there because someone took the time to add it.
So this isn't a page about one being better than the other. They're made for different people, and plenty of people will be happiest with Stash.
Two different jobs
Stash: for the enthusiast
A free, open-source home for your whole collection, built to be shaped exactly your way. Deep metadata, community scrapers for sites well beyond StashDB, image galleries alongside videos, plugins, themes and a full API. If you love getting every tag, studio and date right, and tuning how it all works, Stash is made for you.
x4u: for enjoying it
A streamlined app for watching. Point it at your folders, add a StashDB key, and it names, organises and previews everything in the background while you start watching. It still organises well, with performers, studios, playlists, moments and what you're missing, but its focus is the next scene you'll enjoy: a feed to swipe, and a VR theatre built in.
Side by side
| Stash | x4u, the Stash-Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Collecting, curating and organising in depth | Watching and enjoying, with organising taken care of |
| Getting started | Flexible: choose the scrapers, plugins and tasks that suit you | Add your folders and a StashDB key; the rest runs on its own |
| Naming videos | StashDB and other stash-box servers, plus community scrapers for many sites | StashDB, by each video's fingerprints |
| Organising | Rich and detailed: tags, studios, performers, markers, galleries, filters and statistics | Performers, studios, tags, playlists, moments, and the scenes you're missing |
| Images | Image galleries as well as videos | Videos only |
| Watching | Grid and wall views of your scenes, with previews | A feed to swipe through, one scene per screen, learning what you like |
| VR | With VR players such as HereSphere and DeoVR, through community companion apps | A theatre built in, in a Quest's own browser |
| Compilations | Mark where each scene starts | Find scenes splits them into separate scenes |
| Making it yours | Plugins, themes, custom CSS and a full API | Made to work as it comes, with a few settings |
| Price | Free and open source, always | Through Patreon, from one developer |
Which is for you
Stash, if you
- enjoy organising as much as watching
- want every detail exactly right
- keep image galleries, or use sites StashDB doesn't cover
- like to tinker, extend and contribute
- want it free and open
x4u, if you
- want to be watching in minutes
- would rather it organised itself
- browse by mood, in a feed
- watch VR on a Quest
- have compilations to split into scenes
Or both: x4u only reads your videos and never changes them, so it can sit beside Stash on the same folders.
Giving back
Whichever you use, the scenes you see named come from StashDB and its volunteers. If you can, help them: add and fix scenes on StashDB, join the Stash community, or support the project through Open Collective or GitHub Sponsors, which pays for Stash, stash-box and the servers they run on.
Questions
Can I use both on the same videos?
Yes. x4u only reads your videos and never moves, renames or changes them, so Stash and x4u can look at the same folders side by side.
I already use Stash. What happens if I try x4u?
Point x4u at the same folders and it names your videos from StashDB on its own, by their fingerprints, so the ones Stash matched through StashDB come out as the same scenes. Your ratings, play counts and markers in Stash stay in Stash; x4u keeps its own.
Does x4u use StashDB the same way?
Yes: you add your own StashDB API key, and x4u sends StashDB each video's fingerprints to identify it, never file names or what you watch. See Help for exactly what's sent.
Is x4u open source?
No. x4u is its own app, written from scratch, and sold through Patreon; patrons keep any version they've downloaded.