Comparison

Start.me vs Buchen

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Start.me

Organize your online life by saving and accessing bookmarks, news feeds, notes, and to-do lists. Customize your homepage with widgets and share it with others. This tool helps you save time and create a personalized hub for everything you need online.

Highlights
  • Bookmark saving and access
  • Customizable homepage widgets
  • RSS news feeds
  • Note-taking
  • To-do lists
  • Broken link checker
Features
Read full description

With start.me you can quickly save and access bookmarks to everything you love online. And with many other widgets or features to choose from, you can make your homepage a hub you’ll want to share with your friends, colleagues, or students. start.me goes beyond bookmarking, with features like: - News (RSS) feeds - Notes - To-do lists - Google Analytics & Charts - Broken link checker - Beautiful backgrounds and colors to choose from. start.me is easily the most versatile, complete, and reliable bookmark manager on the market. Creating a free account takes less than a minute. Saving time online has never been easier.

About

Buchen

Manage your web links with this bookmark organizer. Tag, sort into folders, and add notes to your saved sites. Import/export bookmarks and access them via widgets or share sheets.

Highlights
  • Tagging and folder organization
  • Bookmark pinning
  • Add notes to bookmarks
  • Import/export bookmarks (JSON, HTML)
  • Share sheet integration
  • QR code generation
  • App styling and widgets
  • Biometric app lock
Read full description

Buchen (pronounced like bookin’) is a simple bookmark manger that allows you to manage your bookmarks for multiple browsers, tags, and folders. Some of the feature of the app include: - Tag your bookmarks with an interface that allows you to easily add new tags and suggest existing ones. - Organise your bookmarks in folders. Folders can have as many sub-folders as you need to organise your bookmarks. - Pin your bookmarks, tags or folders. - Remove common trackers from URLs with one click when adding / editing a bookmark. - Add notes to your bookmarks. - Import / Export bookmarks as JSON or HTML. When the optional fields added date, tags, or notes are available in either import format, Buchen will use those too. - Shortcuts for adding bookmarks or searching bookmarks. - An “Add Bookmark” action for the Share Sheet. This allows you to add bookmarks directly from Safari and other apps. - A variety of keyboard shortcuts for iPad users. - Create QR Codes in a variety of colours for your bookmarks. You can view or share the QR Code from the bookmark detail view or with a left swipe / long-press on a bookmark. - Choose between different bookmark styles. You can choose different styles in the Bookmarks and Tags sections. - When you choose a bookmark style that shows its tags, you can navigate to that tag from any bookmark. - Choose from multiple colors to style the app and widgets. - Select which browser will open your bookmark. Note: Browsers other than Safari are only an option if they’re installed on the device. Read the help for the list of compatible browsers. - Lock Buchen with Face ID / Touch ID / Passcode. Either fully lock it down or enjoy some convenience and allow widgets and shortcuts to show your data. - Search your bookmarks against their name, URL, notes, browser, tags or even creation date (YY-MM-DD format). Buchen also comes with Widgets in all 4 sizes. Medium, Large and Extra Large widgets let you open links from the Widget. Add lock screen widgets for easy access to bookmarks, tags, and folders. Importing bookmarks can use the Buchen JSON format, Firefox JSON backup files or standard bookmark HTML files. Exporting bookmarks can use the Buchen JSON format or the standard bookmark HTML format. Notes from HTML imports require using the Delicious / Pinboard HTML format.

Screenshots

Start.me3 screens
Buchen4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Start.me at fortnightly against Buchen's every 2 months. Start.me also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 26.0). Buchen's advantage is review sentiment (62% vs 52%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for Start.me against 4.1 for Buchen. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 15 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 52% of Start.me's written reviews are positive against 62% of Buchen's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Start.me ships an update fortnightly, Buchen every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Start.me versus Buchen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStart.meBuchen
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (9 ratings)4.1 (15 ratings) — better
Positive reviews51.6% of reviews61.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings915 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS11.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB11 MB
Age rating17+17+
Developerstart.meWilliam Baer

Customer experience

Start.me

All ratings9 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral11.1%
Negative22.2%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive51.6%
Neutral3.2%
Negative45.2%

Buchen

All ratings15 ratings
Positive73.3%
Neutral20.0%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive61.5%
Neutral23.1%
Negative15.4%

In-app purchases

None

Start.me

No in-app purchases

None

Buchen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Start.me free?
Start.me is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Buchen free?
Buchen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Start.me or Buchen?
Buchen is rated higher. Start.me averages 4.0 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while Buchen averages 4.1 from 15 ratings.
Do Start.me or Buchen have ads?
Neither Start.me nor Buchen shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Start.me or Buchen?
Start.me ships an update fortnightly, and Buchen every 2 months. Most recently, Start.me was updated on October 20, 2026 and Buchen on October 9, 2026.

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