Backbar vs Bar In Control
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Backbar
This application streamlines bar and restaurant management by simplifying inventory counting, vendor purchasing, and menu costing. It helps reduce costs and improve efficiency for beverage programs. Features include real-time syncing across devices, barcode scanning, and integration with over 1,300 beverage suppliers.
- Real-time inventory syncing
- Barcode scanning for products
- Streamlined vendor purchasing
- Menu costing and pricing optimization
- Digital invoice management
- Staff education on beverages
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Backbar helps restaurants and bars increase profitability, decrease COGS, and run a more efficient beverage program. Backbar, the only free bar inventory app, saves hours on counting inventory and simplifies bar management. Backbar not only solves inventory management, but also streamlines vendor purchasing and tracking, menu costing, and financial tracking. Here are some of the many features of Backbar: - Quickly count inventory across many locations, devices and users, syncing in real-time - Count inventory in multiple locations and on multiple devices simultaneously - Scan barcodes to instantly find and count products - Streamline purchasing by sending orders to all your distributors with a single tap - Track past orders and invoices for all your distributors - Connect to your point-of-sale (POS) system for real-time inventory depletions - Save digital invoices easily by taking a photo - Connect to over 1,300 beverage suppliers for automated product updates and cost changes - Educate staff with tasting notes and drink information - Cost out cocktail recipes and optimize menu pricing - Quickly add a new item from our global database of over 300,000 wines, beers, spirits and other beverages Download the app today and make beverage management easier with Backbar
Bar In Control
This app helps bar owners track and control their alcohol inventory to reduce losses. It aims to prevent excessive spillage and theft, turning liquor into a quantifiable asset. The goal is to significantly cut down on the financial impact of lost alcohol.
- Alcohol inventory tracking
- Loss reduction
- Profit maximization
- Beverage intelligence
- Liquor cost control
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Most bar owners are meticulous when it comes to the cash side of their business, but as for regulating booze, their skills can sometimes be impaired. Even establishments with Class A liquor licenses lose 30% of their alcohol on average. We think of your liquor as money, and liquor lost is money down the drain. It is not uncommon for a bar to lose $1000 per week. When the math is done, that’s $52,000 per year.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bar In Control at 5.0 against Backbar's 3.6. Bar In Control also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Backbar's advantage is ratings volume (33 vs 1). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bar In Control holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Backbar has 33 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Backbar ships an update every 3 weeks, Bar In Control fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Backbar | Bar In Control |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (33 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 33 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 12.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Backbar | BAR IN CONTROL LLC |
Customer experience
Backbar
Bar In Control
In-app purchases
Backbar
No in-app purchases
Bar In Control
No in-app purchases









