Tasting Grounds vs CafeConnections
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tasting Grounds
This app helps specialty coffee enthusiasts brew better coffee by logging brew details, tasting notes, and ratings. Connect with friends and the wider coffee community to share experiences, discover new coffees and roasters, and learn about coffee origins and processing methods.
- Log brew details and tasting notes
- Rate coffees like a professional
- Share brews and methods with friends
- Discover coffee origins and processing
- Explore new roasters and brewing techniques
- See community tasting notes and ratings
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Brew Coffee Together! Tasting Grounds is the specialty coffee app designed to connect the coffee community and help everyone brew better coffee together. - Log and rate your brews - record the details of your brewing process (such as brewer, water to grounds ratio, brew time, and more), the flavors you are tasting, and scoring notes like a coffee professional. - Share with your friends and the community - share your coffees and brewing methods, see what your friends are drinking, and discuss how we all enjoy our coffee differently. - Learn more about your coffee - see details about where your coffee was grown, how it was produced, and what flavors your roaster tastes as well as how others are brewing the same beans, what others are tasting, and how others are rating their brews. - Discover new things - discover similarities in the coffees that you do or don’t enjoy, explore new roasters from around the world, and find new ways to brew better coffee. We hope you enjoy using Tasting Grounds! Don’t forget to give us feedback at https://tastinggrounds.com/contact or follow us on Twitter (@tastinggrounds) and Instagram (@tastinggrounds)! TOS: https://tastinggrounds.com/terms
CafeConnections
Log your coffee experiences, discover new cafes, and connect with friends. Track your favorite drinks, earn badges, and explore a world of coffee, even offline. Enhance your home brewing and learn more with daily quizzes and detailed guides.
- Log coffee check-ins with ratings and photos
- Discover nearby cafes and trending spots
- Connect with friends and see their coffee activity
- Earn badges for various coffee achievements
- Offline logging capabilities
- Home brew tracking and tasting notes
- Coffee Academy with quizzes and guides
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Log every cup. Discover new cafés. See what your friends are sipping. CafeConnections is where coffee lovers log their adventures, connect with friends, learn the craft, and find their next favorite spot — all in one app. YOUR COFFEE JOURNEY Log Every Cup Check in at any café in seconds: rate your drink from 1–5 stars, tag flavors like Vanilla, Lavender, or Caramel, note the temperature, and add a photo. Build a personal coffee passport of everywhere you’ve sipped. Your Month in Coffee, Wrapped Every month, get a beautiful Coffee Wrapped recap — your top café, top drink, cups counted, and your flavor profile. One tap to share it with friends. Each December, relive your whole year in coffee. Earn Badges Earn 44 badges across six categories: Visits, Explore, Social, Quality, Wishlist, and Home Brew. Unlock “First Sip” with your first check-in, become a “Neighborhood Nomad” by visiting cafés across 15 zip codes, or earn “Espresso Expert” by growing your following. Works Offline Perfect for cafés with spotty WiFi. Check in offline and your data syncs automatically when you’re back online. Privacy First Create a unique username to keep your identity private. Every check-in has its own sharing choice: Everyone, Friends, or Only me. Add what you paid if you like; prices feed your own stats and are never shown to anyone else. COFFEE’S BETTER WITH FRIENDS Social Feed See what friends are drinking in real time. Give cheers to their best finds and leave comments on their check-ins — real recommendations from people you trust, not ads. Follow Friends Build your coffee community. Get follow suggestions, tag friends on a check-in, and discover new cafés through their check-ins and favorite spots. DISCOVER AND EXPLORE Find Your Next Spot Discover cafés nearby with smart recommendations. See what’s trending in your area based on real community check-ins. Your Cafe Wishlist Save the cafés you want to try and tick them off as you go. Your Passport maps every café you’ve visited. Today’s Pick Get a daily recommendation for a highly-rated café near you — perfect for breaking out of your routine. Top Rated Browse the best-reviewed cafés nearby, or search any city or ZIP code. Filter by distance, minimum rating, open now, and type of place. DIAL IN YOUR HOME BREW Brewing at home? Log your beans, roast, grind size, water temperature, brew time, and brew method — plus your tasting notes — so your best cup is always repeatable. COFFEE ACADEMY Menu Decoder Learn the difference between a cortado and a flat white. Covers 29 drinks across 4 categories — from espresso classics to regional specialties. Daily Coffee Quiz Test your knowledge with fresh questions every day, across beginner, intermediate, and expert levels. Level Up Your Knowledge Deep dives into beans, roasts, brewing methods, and coffee lingo. WIDGETS Add coffee stats to your home screen — check-in count, favorite café, and badge progress at a glance. Quick check-in with one tap, right from your home screen. FREE AND PREMIUM Free: - Daily Coffee Quiz (1 per day) - Unlimited check-ins at cafés, plus 3 at any other place on the map - Follow up to 100 coffee friends - Save up to 30 cafés, wishlist up to 10, Passport map of 10 - Home brewing log, Menu Decoder, Coffee Wrapped, and badges - No ads, for everyone Premium — unlock the full experience: - Check in anywhere on the map - Unlimited daily quizzes - Unlimited following - Unlimited saved cafés, wishlist and Passport map - Priority support Premium is an auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Prices are shown in the app. LEGAL Terms of Use: https://cohesionbrew.com/apps/cafeconnections/terms-of-service.html Privacy Policy: https://cohesionbrew.com/apps/cafeconnections/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Tasting Grounds at free against CafeConnections's freemium. Tasting Grounds also leads on ratings volume (47 vs 15) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). CafeConnections's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 84%) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Tasting Grounds sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and CafeConnections sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Tasting Grounds against 4.8 for CafeConnections. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 47 and 15 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 84% of Tasting Grounds's written reviews are positive against 100% of CafeConnections's.
Tasting Grounds ships an update every 9 days, CafeConnections every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tasting Grounds | CafeConnections |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (47 ratings) — better | 4.8 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 84.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 47 — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 130 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tasting Grounds, LLC | Cohesion Brew LLC |
Customer experience
Tasting Grounds
CafeConnections
In-app purchases
Tasting Grounds
- Tasting Grounds Pro - Monthly$2.991 Month
- Tasting Grounds Pro - Yearly$24.991 Year
CafeConnections
- Premium Monthly$2.991 Month
- Premium Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime$49.99
Questions
Is Tasting Grounds free?
Is CafeConnections free?
Which has better reviews, Tasting Grounds or CafeConnections?
Do Tasting Grounds or CafeConnections have ads?
Which is updated more often, Tasting Grounds or CafeConnections?
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