Comparison

Bean Beast vs Coffee Journal

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

Head to head
About

Bean Beast

Record and organize your favorite coffee recipes, including brew parameters and equipment used. Track your coffee beans and roasters, and recall your ratings for specific beans to remember your preferences.

Highlights
  • Recipe tracking with brew parameters
  • Equipment specification for recipes
  • Bean and roaster organization
  • Bean rating history
  • Support for all brew methods
Features
Read full description

Bean Beast helps you create amazing coffee by allowing you to keep track of the recipes, ratings, and beans you like best. Compatible with all coffee brew methods: espresso, pour-over, aeropress, french press, and more. App Features: - Recipes -- Add your favorite coffee recipes and keep track of all the brew parameters. (Grind, dose, temperature, etc) - Equipment -- Have multiple grinders or espresso machines? No problem; you can specify which one you used for each recipe. - Beans & Roasters -- Add your various beans and roasters to keep everything nice and organized, and see recipes for a specific bean. - Bean Ratings -- Do you ever struggle to remember exactly what you thought of a specific bean that you *know* you've had before? Fret not; you can just look at your previous rating for it :) Bean Beast is under active development and I'm working to polish and add more features. To see my development roadmap, you can visit http://beanbeast.com/roadmap Enjoy! Zach

About

Coffee Journal

Log your coffee beans, track brewing parameters, and discover new recipes with AI assistance. This app helps you organize your coffee journey, from bean origin to tasting notes, and even generate recipes from web links.

Highlights
  • AI-powered coffee bean logging
  • Track grind settings and resting time
  • Organize beans with multiple views
  • Generate recipes from web links
  • Explore recipes from top baristas
  • Chat with a coffee expert AI
Read full description

BeanBook is a free coffee app for specialty coffee lovers. Keep a coffee journal, organize your beans with a coffee tracker, explore coffee recipes, and follow the coffee world in the Coffee Feed. Remember what made each cup great. Save your photos, tasting notes, grind settings and brewing details together, from your morning pour-over to a memorable café visit. YOUR COFFEE LIBRARY - Beans, Brews, Recipes and Gear live in one library, a swipe apart. - One + button adds a bag, brew, recipe or gear from any page. - View, sort and filter each page from one menu next to search. - Open My Coffee Wrapped, your coffee year, in one tap (Pro). THE COFFEE FEED - Read facts and real voices from the coffee community on new beans and gear, daily, each with its sources, quotes and key notes. - See what coffee people are arguing about in Hot takes, and vote in the Daily Poll. - Catch new coffee drops and deals from roasters in your region. - Save stories to read later. YOUR COFFEE JOURNAL - Record home brews and café visits with photos, notes and ratings. - Track dose, ratio, grind, water temperature and brew time. - Log the water and mineral drops you brewed with. - Send Brew Calculator's ratio, water and pours straight into a Brew Log. - Attach beans, Gear and recipes to each Brew Log. - Save a setup as a template (gear, recipe, numbers and steps) and start your next brews from it (Pro). - Customize sections and backgrounds to make the journal your own. - Changes save as you edit. - Revisit your cups in list or grid view, see every brew on a check-in calendar and every café on a map. YOUR COFFEE TRACKER - Scan coffee bags with AI to fill in the roaster, origin, process and tasting notes. - Track roast dates, resting time and how each bag is aging. - Pause the roast clock while a bag is frozen. - See how much coffee is left in each bag as you brew. - Match your beans to jars with numbered or custom container labels. - Remember your favorite coffees and keep a history of finished bags. EXPLORE COFFEE RECIPES - Discover brewing methods and save your own coffee recipes. - Keep dose, ratio, grind settings and temperature ready for your next brew. - Start a Brew Log from a saved recipe. - Calculate water amounts for two to five pours with Brew Calculator. - Follow your brew with the built-in timer. Find recipes for Hario V60, AeroPress, Hario Switch, OXO Rapid Brewer, V60 NEO, NextLevel Pulsar, Deep27, Origami, Orea, Chemex, French Press and Cezve. Explore recipes from coffee professionals including James Hoffmann, Tetsu Kasuya, Lance Hedrick, Scott Rao, The Coffee Chronicler, April Coffee Roasters and World Brewers Cup champions. YOUR COFFEE GEAR - Organize grinders, brewers, kettles and scales with photos, notes and ratings. - Save grinder settings for the coffees you brew. - Find related Brew Logs on bean and Gear pages. - Keep a wish list for your next setup. BEANBOOK AI - Scan bags to spend less time entering coffee details. - Ask about origins, processing, flavor notes and brewing techniques. - Get suggestions for grind size, temperature, resting time and extraction. FREE TO START BeanBook is a free coffee app with optional Pro features. Keep up to 10 fully unlocked Brew Logs on the free plan, plus unlimited basic logs with photos, notes, beans, locations and overall ratings. BeanBook Pro unlocks unlimited beans, recipes and Gear, plus advanced Brew Log features beyond the free allowance. Brew, taste, remember. Keep your coffee journey in BeanBook. Terms of Service: https://beanbook.app/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://beanbook.app/policy

Screenshots

Bean Beast4 screens
Coffee Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bean Beast at none against Coffee Journal's 4. Bean Beast also leads on iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Coffee Journal sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $7.90 per month. Bean Beast asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Bean Beast against 4.9 for Coffee Journal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 18 and 30 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 88% of Bean Beast's written reviews are positive against 91% of Coffee Journal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bean Beast ships an update weekly, Coffee Journal every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Bean Beast versus Coffee Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBean BeastCoffee Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (18 ratings)4.9 (30 ratings) — better
Positive reviews88.2% of reviews90.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1830 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size87 MB103 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperZachary SwinehartBitlever

Customer experience

Bean Beast

All ratings18 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive88.2%
Neutral5.9%
Negative5.9%

Coffee Journal

All ratings30 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative9.1%

In-app purchases

None

Bean Beast

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Coffee Journal

Subscriptions4
  • BeanBook Pro Monthly$7.901 Month
  • BeanBook Pro1 Month trial$35.901 Year
  • BeanBook Pro1 Month trial$49.901 Year
Show 1 more
  • BeanBook Pro1 Year trial$49.901 Year

Questions

Is Bean Beast free?
Bean Beast is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Coffee Journal free?
Coffee Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bean Beast or Coffee Journal?
Coffee Journal is rated higher. Bean Beast averages 4.7 out of 5 from 18 ratings, while Coffee Journal averages 4.9 from 30 ratings.
Do Bean Beast or Coffee Journal have ads?
Neither Bean Beast nor Coffee Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bean Beast or Coffee Journal?
Bean Beast ships an update weekly, and Coffee Journal every 5 days. Most recently, Bean Beast was updated on October 26, 2026 and Coffee Journal on October 30, 2026.

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