Top 5 Best USENET Automation Tools
Last Updated: Oct 01, 2025
Top 5 Best USENET Automation Tools
- Discover the best tools for automating your USENET experience, including the powerful “arr” family (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr) and other essential apps for media, ebooks, and comics.
What is USENET Automation?
USENET automation tools help you automatically find, download, organize, and manage content from USENET newsgroups. These apps can monitor your favorite shows, movies, books, or comics, fetch NZB files from indexers, and work with downloaders like NZBGet or SABnzbd to handle everything in the background. The most popular and modern tools are part of the “arr” family, which specialize in different types of media.
The “arr” Family Explained
The “arr” family refers to a suite of open-source automation tools, each focused on a specific type of media:
- Sonarr: TV series automation
- Radarr: Movie automation
- Lidarr: Music automation
- Readarr: Ebook automation
- Mylar: Comic book automation (inspired by Headphones)
These tools share a similar interface and philosophy, making it easy to automate your media library across multiple formats. They integrate with NZB downloaders, indexers, and media servers for a seamless experience.
#1 Sonarr (and the “arr” Family)
Sonarr is the leading USENET automation tool for TV series. It automatically monitors your favorite shows, searches for new episodes, downloads them, and organizes them in your library. Sonarr is part of the broader “arr” family, which includes Radarr (movies), Lidarr (music), and Readarr (ebooks). All these tools share a modern web interface, advanced automation features, and strong community support.
Key Features:
- Automatic episode search and download
- Integration with NZBGet, SABnzbd, and torrent clients
- Advanced post-processing and renaming
- Works with multiple indexers and media servers
- Highly customizable and actively developed
If you want to automate movies, music, or ebooks, check out Radarr, Lidarr, and Readarr—each built on the same foundation as Sonarr.
#2 CouchPotato
CouchPotato was once the go-to tool for automating movie downloads from USENET and torrents. It monitors your wanted list, fetches NZBs, and works with downloaders like SABnzbd and NZBGet. However, development has slowed, and many users now prefer Radarr for movie automation due to its modern features and active community.
Key Features:
- Automated movie search and download
- Integration with NZB and torrent clients
- Customizable quality profiles
- Web-based interface
#3 SickRage
SickRage is a fork of SickBeard, focused on automating TV show downloads. It offers powerful organization features, poster art downloads, and robust failure handling. SickRage uses the same API scheme as SickBeard, so it works with compatible sites and downloaders. While Sonarr has largely surpassed SickRage in popularity and features, SickRage remains a flexible option for advanced users.
Key Features:
- TV show automation and organization
- Poster art and metadata downloads
- Active forums and IRC support
- Highly configurable
#4 LazyLibrarian
LazyLibrarian automates the search, download, and organization of ebooks from USENET and other sources. It works with SABnzbd, NZBGet, and Newznab indexers. While development has slowed, LazyLibrarian is still useful for managing ebook collections. For a more modern experience, consider Readarr from the “arr” family.
Key Features:
- Ebook automation and organization
- Cover art downloads
- Integration with popular downloaders
- Works with Newznab indexers
#5 NZBGet
NZBGet is a high-performance USENET downloader written in C++. It’s designed for speed and efficiency, running on Windows, Mac, Linux, routers, NAS devices, and more. NZBGet supports automatic downloading, par-repair, unpacking, and post-processing. It’s the preferred backend for many automation tools due to its low resource usage and robust API.
Key Features:
- Fast, lightweight, and cross-platform
- Automatic download, repair, and unpack
- Web interface and remote control
- Extensive third-party app support
#6 SABnzbd
SABnzbd is a popular USENET downloader written in Python. It runs on all major platforms and features a user-friendly web interface. SABnzbd automates downloads, repairs, unpacking, and post-processing. It supports RSS filters to fetch NZBs automatically and has a large user community.
Key Features:
- Automatic download, repair, and unpack
- RSS filter support
- Web-based interface
- Large user community
#7 Mylar
Mylar is an automated comic book downloader inspired by Headphones. It’s actively developed and features RSS feed support, post-processing, and comic release monitoring. Mylar integrates with SABnzbd and torrent clients, making it easy to automate your comic book collection.
Key Features:
- Comic book automation and organization
- RSS feed and torrent support
- Post-processing integration
- Active developer community
Conclusion
USENET automation tools make it easy to manage your media, ebooks, and comics with minimal effort. The “arr” family (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr) represents the modern standard for automation, but classic tools like NZBGet, SABnzbd, and Mylar remain essential for a complete setup. Explore these apps to build your perfect automated USENET workflow!
