Expiry Tracker vs refrigerDATE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Expiry Tracker
This app helps you manage expirations, track ongoing activities, and monitor inventories. Receive timely reminders, organize items with customizable settings, and sync data across devices. Stay organized and never miss an important date or item status again.
- Expiration tracking with color indicators
- Smart reminders for timely notifications
- Counter tracking for ongoing activities
- Inventory management with custom thresholds
- iCloud sync across devices
- Home Screen widgets for quick overview
- Data export to CSV or calendar
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Never miss an important date again. Expires helps you track expirations, counters, and inventories — all in one simple, powerful app. Stay organized, get reminded at the right moment, and always know what matters most. KEY FEATURES EXPIRATIONS • Color indicators — see what's expiring at a glance • Smart reminders — get notified on time or ahead of time • Recurring items — ideal for subscriptions, medicines, and documents • Fully customizable — set your own rules and color levels • Notes & attachments — add details, files, or photos COUNTERS • Track the time elapsed since any start date • Recurring reminders — weekly, monthly, or yearly • Add notes, files, and images for full context INVENTORIES • Track by pieces, weight, volume, or value • Custom color levels that warn you as stock runs low • History view — see how amounts change over time • Attach notes, files, and images MORE • iCloud sync across all your devices • Home Screen widgets for a quick overview • Export to CSV or your calendar • Tags for flexible organization Stay ahead of every expiration, track what matters, and keep everything under control — all in one app.
refrigerDATE
This app helps you reduce food waste by tracking expiration dates for groceries. Scan barcodes or manually enter dates to receive timely reminders, organize your inventory by location, and sync with your calendar.
- Barcode scanning for product identification
- Manual date entry and voice input
- Expiration date reminders
- Inventory management by location
- Calendar synchronization
- Apple Watch app integration
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Stop paying for food you throw away. refrigerDATE turns your iPhone into a food-expiration radar. Scan a grocery barcode and the app identifies the product by name, then flows straight into reading the printed expiration date — even scrunched packaging stamps like JUL1227. No date on the label? Say it out loud, type it, or log the purchase date instead. YOUR WHOLE FRIDGE AND PANTRY, AT A GLANCE Three little calendars sit at the top of your list — green for fresh, amber for expiring within 3 days, red for expired. Tap one to filter. Drag them into any order. It's a stoplight for your groceries. REMINDERS THAT ACTUALLY REMIND You're notified 3 days before an item expires, again the day before, and again the day of — at 9 AM, when you can still do something about it. Optional daily reminders keep nagging (politely) while an expired item stays in your list. A CALENDAR BUILT FOR FOOD Browse everything you own by day, week, or month with stoplight colors on every date. Add any item to your iOS Calendar with one tap — or flip a switch and every dated item syncs automatically. EVERY FRIDGE AND PANTRY YOU OWN Kitchen, pantry, garage, basement, deep freeze, camper — or invent your own locations. Filter with one tap and see what's expiring soon across all of them. ON YOUR WRIST, TOO The Apple Watch app keeps your list on your arm. Check what's expiring from the grocery aisle, add an item by voice, or fix a date from the couch — everything syncs back to your iPhone automatically. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your items live on your device (and your watch). No account, no tracking. Product names come from Open Food Facts, a free, open, community-maintained food database. Scan it. Date it. Never waste it. Items are stored on device; no accounts, no analytics, no third-party SDKs. - Barcode lookups query the Open Food Facts public API anonymously (the barcode number is sent; nothing identifies the user). - Permissions used and why (already in Info.plist): - Camera — scanning barcodes and expiration dates - Microphone + Speech Recognition — dictating a date when the label won't scan - Calendars (full access) — optional "Add all items to iOS Calendar" sync; the per-item editor uses the system UI and needs no permission - Notifications — expiration reminders
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: refrigerDATE at free against Expiry Tracker's free with in-app purchases. refrigerDATE also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 79%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Expiry Tracker's advantage is ratings volume (147 vs 6) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.5). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Expiry Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and refrigerDATE sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
refrigerDATE holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Expiry Tracker has 147 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Expiry Tracker's written reviews are positive against 100% of refrigerDATE's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Expiry Tracker | refrigerDATE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (147 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 147 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 26.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tomas Pollak | Formatics, LLC |
Customer experience
Expiry Tracker
refrigerDATE
In-app purchases
Expiry Tracker
- Upgrade to PRO version$9.99
refrigerDATE
- refrigerDATE Unlimited$9.99
Questions
Is Expiry Tracker free?
Is refrigerDATE free?
Which has better reviews, Expiry Tracker or refrigerDATE?
Do Expiry Tracker or refrigerDATE have ads?
Which is updated more often, Expiry Tracker or refrigerDATE?
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