Comparison

bartender.live vs Cocktailarium

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

Head to head
About

bartender.live

Discover cocktail recipes based on ingredients you have. Browse over a thousand drinks, star favorites, and share creations. Learn drink histories and find new concoctions.

Highlights
  • Ingredient-based drink discovery
  • Browse 1000+ cocktail recipes
  • Favorite drinks for quick access
  • Share recipes with friends
  • Learn drink history
  • Discover new cocktails
Features
Read full description

bartender.live tells you what you can make with what you already have. Check off the bottles in your bar and the app narrows a library of more than a thousand cocktails down to the ones you can pour tonight - complete, with nothing missing. Free. WHAT'S FREE - The whole drink library, with photos, honest measures, glassware, and the story behind each drink. New recipes almost every day. - My Bar: track as many bottles as you like, synced across your devices with iCloud. - I Can Make: the filter that started it all. One tap and you see only the cocktails your shelf can already pour. - Favorites and sharing: keep the good ones and send the recipe to whoever is thirsty. - Ingredient pages: what each bottle is, how it tastes, and every drink that calls for it. TOP SHELF One purchase, kept forever, no subscription: - The Almost filter: every cocktail you are exactly one bottle away from making, with the bottle named. - Home Screen widgets. - The daily cocktail suggestion. - Suggestions limited to what you can actually make. - Custom icons for your favorites. FOUNDERS Bought the app back when it cost money? You are a Founder: every Top Shelf feature is yours automatically, forever. The first round was on you, and the house does not forget that. Cheers!

About

Cocktailarium

Discover and learn to craft cocktails with a vast recipe library and personalized bar inventory. Explore curated collections, create your own drink lists, and get ingredient suggestions based on what you have on hand.

Highlights
  • Extensive recipe library (350+)
  • Search by name, ingredient, mood, and tags
  • Personalized 'My Bar' inventory tracking
  • Ingredient-based recipe suggestions
  • Shopping list creation
  • Curated cocktail collections
  • Bilingual (English/Spanish)
Features
Read full description

Our app offers you a way to learn, discover and enjoy the world of craft cocktails. Here are some of our features, completely for free: - Lesson guide that will teach you how to make cocktails. You can get started even if you don't have any experience or specific bartending tools! - Over 350 recipes which can be searched for based by name, ingredient, "mood", glassware, and more. You can also search by tags which can include anything from "3 ingredients", "bittersweet", "Whiskey", or even "Disco". - A "My Bar" section which allows you to keep track of all the bottles and ingredients you have. The app will be able to tell you what you can make based on the ingredients you have in stock. Additionally, it offers a shopping list section so you know what to get on your next trip to the store. - Create and sort a drink collection to keep track of drinks you want to try. - Curated collections so that you can try new cocktails based on a particular theme. These themes range from "Exploring Tequila", to "By the Pool" and more. - Available in English and Spanish. - Dark and Light Theme. If you've ever wanted to learn how to make cocktails, or if you have a hard time coming up with what to drink next, then give Cocktailarium a try!

Screenshots

bartender.live4 screens
Cocktailarium4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cocktailarium at none against bartender.live's 1. Cocktailarium also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). bartender.live's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (388 vs 18). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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. bartender.live sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cocktailarium asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for bartender.live against 4.8 for Cocktailarium. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: bartender.live has 388 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of bartender.live's written reviews are positive against 67% of Cocktailarium's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

bartender.live ships an update every 8 days, Cocktailarium monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
bartender.live versus Cocktailarium: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameterbartender.liveCocktailarium
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (388 ratings)4.8 (18 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.7% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings388 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB65 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperJacket Industries, LLCGiancarlo Pigati

Customer experience

bartender.live

All ratings388 ratings
Positive95.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral14.0%
Negative9.3%

Cocktailarium

All ratings17 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral5.9%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

bartender.live

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Search returns no results for valid queries (e.g., 'Gin Campari')
  • 'New' tab in drinks list remains grayed out
  • New drink notifications not accessible if alert is missed
  • Missing ingredients in some recipe descriptions despite correct images
  • Inconsistent notification delivery for daily drink feature

Requested features

15 requests
  • Search/filter by specific spirit or ingredient (e.g., mint, bourbon)
  • Ability to add personal notes and modify recipes
  • Quantity tracking for inventory items
  • Filter drinks by number of missing ingredients (1-3 missing)
  • Ingredient suggestions to unlock more drinks
Show 10 more
  • Non-Twitter method to submit new recipes (email preferred)
  • Filter 'In My Bar' section by spirit or ingredient
  • Seasonal categorization (summer/winter/spring/autumn)
  • Back-to-top button or persistent search bar
  • Grocery list generation based on inventory
  • Expand spirit varieties (spiced rum, different gin brands, etc.)
  • Correct recipe errors (e.g., classic vs. modern martini definitions)
  • Quality control feedback feature for recipe corrections
  • Notification system for new daily drinks
  • iOS 10.0 compatibility for older devices

Cocktailarium

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

bartender.live

One-time1
  • Top Shelf$4.99
None

Cocktailarium

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is bartender.live free?
bartender.live is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cocktailarium free?
Cocktailarium is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, bartender.live or Cocktailarium?
Cocktailarium is rated higher. bartender.live averages 4.8 out of 5 from 388 ratings, while Cocktailarium averages 4.8 from 18 ratings.
Do bartender.live or Cocktailarium have ads?
Neither bartender.live nor Cocktailarium shows ads.
Which is updated more often, bartender.live or Cocktailarium?
bartender.live ships an update every 8 days, and Cocktailarium monthly. Most recently, bartender.live was updated on October 21, 2026 and Cocktailarium on October 15, 2026.

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