Sonarr vs Prowlarr: Different Tools Explained

Quick Verdict

Sonarr and Prowlarr aren’t competitors — they’re partners. Sonarr manages your TV show library and triggers downloads. Prowlarr manages the indexers (sources) that Sonarr searches. You need both: Prowlarr finds where to download, Sonarr decides what to download.

Overview

People commonly confuse these two because they’re both part of the *arr stack and have similar UIs. Here’s the distinction:

Sonarr is a TV show manager. You add shows, Sonarr monitors for new episodes, searches indexers, sends downloads to your client (SABnzbd or qBittorrent), and organizes the files in your library.

Prowlarr is an indexer manager. It stores your indexer credentials (Torznab, Newznab) in one place and pushes them to all connected *arr apps (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr).

How They Work Together

Prowlarr manages indexers → pushes to Sonarr
Sonarr monitors TV shows → searches via indexers → sends to download client
Download client downloads → Sonarr imports and organizes

Without Prowlarr, you’d add indexers directly in Sonarr’s settings. Prowlarr centralizes this so you configure indexers once instead of in each *arr app.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Sonarr	Prowlarr
Purpose	TV show management	Indexer management
What it monitors	TV show releases	Indexer health
What it downloads	TV episodes	Nothing
Library management	Yes	No
Indexer configuration	Basic (per-app)	Centralized (multi-app)
Search capability	Searches for TV shows	Searches all indexers
Download client integration	Yes	No
File renaming/organizing	Yes	No
Quality profiles	Yes	No
Calendar	Yes (upcoming episodes)	No
*arr app sync	N/A	Yes (pushes to Sonarr, Radarr, etc.)
FlareSolverr support	Via Prowlarr	Yes (native)

Do You Need Both?

You always need Sonarr (or Radarr/Lidarr) — these are the apps that actually manage your media library and trigger downloads.

You don’t strictly need Prowlarr — Sonarr can manage its own indexers. But Prowlarr saves significant time if you:

• Run multiple *arr apps (Sonarr + Radarr + Lidarr)
• Change indexers frequently
• Want centralized indexer health monitoring
• Use FlareSolverr for Cloudflare-protected indexers

The Full *arr Stack

Tool	Role
Prowlarr	Indexer manager (searches)
Sonarr	TV show manager
Radarr	Movie manager
Lidarr	Music manager
Readarr	Ebook/audiobook manager
Bazarr	Subtitle manager
SABnzbd or qBittorrent	Download client

Setup Order

1. Install your download client (SABnzbd or qBittorrent)
2. Install Prowlarr and configure your indexers
3. Install Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr
4. Connect Prowlarr to each *arr app (Prowlarr → Settings → Apps)
5. Connect each *arr app to your download client
6. Add shows/movies/music — everything flows automatically

FAQ

Can I use Sonarr without Prowlarr?

Yes. Add indexers directly in Sonarr under Settings → Indexers. You just need to repeat this for each *arr app if you run multiple.

Can I use Prowlarr without Sonarr?

Technically yes — Prowlarr has a built-in search interface. But it can’t download or organize files. It’s designed to feed indexers to other *arr apps, not work standalone.

Does Prowlarr replace Jackett?

Yes. Prowlarr is the *arr team’s replacement for Jackett. See our Jackett vs Prowlarr comparison.

Related

• How to Self-Host Sonarr
• How to Self-Host Prowlarr
• How to Self-Host Radarr
• Jackett vs Prowlarr
• Best Self-Hosted Download Management