Sam's Bead Shop vs Barrel of Beads
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sam's Bead Shop
Shop the latest arrivals and promotions from a popular bead store. Easily place orders, manage waitlisted items, and receive email notifications for order fulfillment and shipping.
- Browse new arrivals and promotions
- Easy ordering and checkout
- Waitlist items
- Back-in-stock notifications
- Order fulfillment and shipping emails
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Welcome to the Sam's Bead Shop App! The best way to shop with Sam's Bead Shop on iOS! About Us: Features: - Browse all of our most recent arrivals and promotions - Easy ordering and checkout - Waitlist items and purchase them when they are back in stock - Email notification for order fulfillment and shipping
Barrel of Beads
Discover a vast selection of seed beads and beading supplies. This app aims to make it easy to find the specific colors and shapes you need for your projects, stocking thousands of options. Visit the retail store for an even wider selection.
- Extensive seed bead selection
- Variety of beading supplies
- Thousands of colors and styles
- Retail store location
- Online shopping
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Welcome Fellow Beaders. Thank you for visiting my store. My goal is to provide you with a place to find the best selection of seed beads and beading supplies. As someone who beads myself, I know how difficult it can be sometimes to find all those fantastic colors and shapes you see in the magazines. My hope is that you'll find them here and be back again and again. I enjoy looking through all the thousands of colors available in various seed beads and would love to have every one that is made. To that end, I try to carry as many colors and styles as possible. While I try to provide as accurate images as I can, nothing can compare to viewing them in person. So, please visit my store located at 508 Diamond Hill Rd, Woonsocket, RI. I've just opened the retail location after selling at bead shows along the east coast for a few years. My hope is that the store will allow me to expand my selection even further than the over 4,000 colors/sizes/styles I currently stock. It will be an amazing journey of expansion that I hope you will share. Thanks again for visiting my site and I hope to see you at the store someday. Warmly, Kevin
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Sam's Bead Shop at monthly against Barrel of Beads's every 6 months. Sam's Bead Shop also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 78%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Barrel of Beads's advantage is ratings volume (199 vs 12) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sam's Bead Shop holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Barrel of Beads has 199 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Sam's Bead Shop's written reviews are positive against 78% of Barrel of Beads's.
Sam's Bead Shop ships an update monthly, Barrel of Beads every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sam's Bead Shop | Barrel of Beads |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (12 ratings) — better | 4.8 (199 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 77.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 199 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 69 MB | 187 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CommentSold Apps SIII | Barrel of Beads, Inc |
Customer experience
Sam's Bead Shop
Barrel of Beads
In-app purchases
Sam's Bead Shop
No in-app purchases
Barrel of Beads
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Sam's Bead Shop free?
Is Barrel of Beads free?
Which has better reviews, Sam's Bead Shop or Barrel of Beads?
Do Sam's Bead Shop or Barrel of Beads have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sam's Bead Shop or Barrel of Beads?
Other comparisons
