Comparison

BonAppi vs SmoulderLab

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

Head to head
About

BonAppi

Order food and drinks directly from your seat and pay via your phone. Enjoy convenient table delivery or use the Click & Collect option for takeaway. Access exclusive offers and plan your next visit with room availability checks and table reservations.

Highlights
  • Order food and drinks from your seat
  • Pay directly from your phone
  • Table delivery service
  • Click & Collect for takeaway
  • Access exclusive offers
  • Check room availability
  • Reserve tables
Features
Read full description

Sit back, relax and let the drinks flow. With BonApp you can order from the comfort of your seat and pay directly from your phone. Have your drinks and food delivered straight to your table. Some sites will also be offering a Click & Collect facility, for our new takeaway menu. Now that’s what we call service.   Order food & drink in the app and pay from the comfort of your seat (Apple/Google Pay compatible) Get access to exclusive offers for app customers Check room availability and plan your next stay Reserve a table in our Bistros and Brasseries Listen to our Spotify channel Be the first to know about upcoming events

About

SmoulderLab

This app provides a customizable grilling grid with live temperature probe integration and AI assistants for cooking advice. It features a recipe library, allergen filtering, and planning tools for pitmasters of all levels.

Highlights
  • Customizable grill grid timers
  • Live temperature probe integration
  • AI cooking assistants
  • Filterable recipe library
  • Allergen profile management
  • Food planning calendar
  • Connected tool integration
Features
Read full description

SmoulderLab is built differently. The multi-timer screen is a spatial grill grid you configure to match your actual rig — 2×2 for a kettle, 3×6 for a serious offset, and anything in between. Each slot tracks its own cook, with live temperature probe readings flowing into the cells where the food actually sits. Rotate to landscape and run the whole rig at a glance. Active grids save to your account on every change, so a flat battery or a closed app does not lose your cook. Two AI assistants are built in. — Ask the Chef — a conversational BBQ expert in your pocket. Temperatures, timings, wood pairings, what to do with a brisket that has hit the stall ask anything BBQ-related and get a straight answer. — What Can I Cook? — tell it the ingredients you have and the time you have got; it tells you what to cook. The staring into the fridge problem, solved. The recipe library currently sits at 142 and growing. Filterable by ingredient (beef, pork, fish, poultry, lamb, vegetables, sauces, sides, starters, desserts, drinks), by difficulty, and automatically against your allergen profile. Import recipes from the web and enter your own with curated ingredient lists. On allergens — SmoulderLab covers all 14 UK legal allergens, not the usual top five. Set your profile once and every built in recipe across the app filters automatically. Cooking for guests? Add their allergens for the session without overwriting your own. The Connected Tools subsystem hooks into MEATER (Plus, Pro, Pro Duo, Pro XL, Block) and FireBoard (2, 2 Pro, 2 Drive) via the manufacturers official public APIs — so the temperature you see is the temperature their own apps show. Thirty five food tips and method guides round out the technique library — short, written without filler, focused on the why behind the how. Extensive food planning calendar, pantry and shopping list functions to make life easier. Exports shopping lists, calendar cook entries and more. SmoulderLab is a subscription. £3.49 a month or £27.99 a year — save over four months with annual. No ads, no banner upsells, with a functional free tier. Designed for beginners through to cooks who care about whether their wood is oak, beech or apple, who know that low and slow is doing real work, and who would rather understand the cook than blindly trust the timer. If that sounds like your kind of cook, SmoulderLab is on the other side of the download button. Terms of Use : https://smoulderlab.com/terms

Screenshots

BonAppi3 screens
SmoulderLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: SmoulderLab at 100% against BonAppi's 5%. SmoulderLab also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 months) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). BonAppi's advantage is monetization model (ad-supported vs subscription). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BonAppi ships an update every 6 months, SmoulderLab every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
BonAppi versus SmoulderLab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBonAppiSmoulderLab
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.5 (34 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews4.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings34 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB77 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperMalmaison & Hotel du VinWoodside Advisors Ltd

Customer experience

BonAppi

All ratings34 ratings
Positive29.4%
Neutral11.8%
Negative58.8%
Written reviews82 reviews
Positive4.9%
Neutral3.7%
Negative91.5%

SmoulderLab

Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

BonAppi

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Fields for cards aren’t getting recognised for AutoFill
  • App won’t load
  • Unable to reset password, link doesn’t work
  • Payment processing issues
  • Password reset response time is very poor
Show 1 more
  • Completion took 19 mins, then payment screen was incorrect

Requested features

23 requests
  • Accept Apple Pay
  • Accept PayPal
  • Allow guest checkout
  • Improve AutoFill recognition
  • Integrate with Apple account
Show 18 more
  • Faster sign-up process
  • Allow ordering at the bar
  • Simplify account creation
  • Improve password reset functionality
  • Add dark mode option
  • Improve app loading speed
  • Reduce data collection
  • Faster order processing
  • Improve payment options
  • Enable ordering at the bar
  • Make sign-in process easier
  • Allow ordering without an account
  • Improve app design
  • Streamline ordering process
  • Offer table service
  • Allow ordering via website with Apple Pay
  • Improve password reset response time
  • Upgrade the app

SmoulderLab

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

BonAppi

No in-app purchases

None

SmoulderLab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BonAppi free?
BonAppi is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SmoulderLab free?
SmoulderLab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do BonAppi or SmoulderLab have ads?
Neither BonAppi nor SmoulderLab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BonAppi or SmoulderLab?
BonAppi ships an update every 6 months, and SmoulderLab every 2 days. Most recently, BonAppi was updated on November 3, 2026 and SmoulderLab on October 31, 2026.

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