Comparison

Pocket Wine vs Wine Cellar Database

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

Head to head
About

Pocket Wine

Enhance your wine knowledge and enjoyment with a comprehensive guide to wine styles, grape varieties, and food pairings. This app offers a unique cellar management tool to track your collection visually, discover your taste profile, and access an extensive glossary of wine terms.

Highlights
  • Cellar management with visual tracking
  • Explore wine styles and grape varieties
  • Food pairing recommendations
  • Personal taste profiling tool
  • Extensive wine glossary
  • Sync across iPhone and iPad
Features
Read full description

“The Ultimate App for Wine Enthusiasts” – iPhoneLife Magazine Take your wine knowledge and enjoyment to the next level with our comprehensive app. It is one of the most popular wine apps in the USA, UK and Canada and is probably the best investment you can make in wine. Simple and easy to use, the app provides you with insights that would otherwise take years to acquire. For example, understanding wine styles is a revelation and will enable you to approach wines with confidence, like a professional. After using the app for a short while, every wine store you walk into will become an Aladdin’s Cave of hidden treasures. The unique cellar management function allows you to record and track your wines in a highly visual and meaningful way. Style icons are assigned to each wine and essential details can be seen at a glance. You can save as many photos as you like for each wine and add as much, or as little, information as you want, including notes and ratings. Editing is easy, and search and sort functions allow you to view your wines in multiple ways. In addition, you can explore a range of dedicated sections in the app on wine styles, grape varieties, food pairing and a unique taste profiling tool to reveal the wines you love based on the foods you like, which is both fun and informative. Key benefits include: • Record all your wines by adding them to the app (add as many wines as you like, there is no limit). View them in a highly visual and meaningful format and profile your cellar in multiple ways. • Sync your wines between iPhone and iPad – you can add the app to your other Apple devices free of charge. • Gain a revealing insight into wine styles through clear and easy to understand definitions. • Unlimited access to over 100 grape varieties and blends, showing key attributes, detailed descriptions, regional information and food pairing advice for each. • Dedicated Food Pairing section with expert advice and pairing recommendations for hundreds of meal types. • Discover your personal taste profile, and those of your friends and family, in the unique My Taste guide. • Access an extensive Glossary of wine terms, specifically written for the app. • Frequently Asked Questions section answers all the important questions you may have. Please note that Pocket Wine does NOT try to sell you wines or review individual wines. The app is dedicated to maximizing your enjoyment and understanding of wine, while providing a professional platform to record your wine experiences and manage your cellar. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Wine Cellar Database

Manage your wine collection with flexible inventory tracking. Search online databases for wine details, add custom categories, and track bottle valuations. Supports multiple photos and international currencies.

Highlights
  • Online wine search and recommendations
  • Customizable wine categories and sorting
  • Add unlimited photos per wine
  • Multi-device transfer via Dropbox
  • Import/export from spreadsheets
  • Real-time cellar valuation statistics
Features
Read full description

Every cellar is kept differently. This one lets you keep yours your way. Wine Cellar Database is an inventory app for a real collection: what you own, how many bottles, where it is stored, what you paid, what you thought of it. You decide which of those it asks about. Add a column, rename one, hide one, put them in the order you want, and every wine in the cellar picks up the change. Version 5 is a rebuild. Everything below is new or rewritten. FIND A WINE WITHOUT TYPING IT OUT A catalog of 210,000 wines from 38,000 producers ships inside the app. Search it, tap a wine, and the producer, region, sub-region, vineyard, designation and color are filled in for you. It makes no network request. It works on a plane, and in a cellar with no signal. YOUR COLUMNS, NOT OURS • Add columns of your own: text, large text, number, yes/no, year or date • Rename and reorder the ones that came with the app, and hide the ones you never use • Choose which columns appear under a wine's name in the list • Your own spreadsheet headings are remembered, so an export comes back the way you sent it ONE CELLAR ON TWO DEVICES (BETA) Turn on iCloud Sync and your iPhone and iPad keep the same cellar: wines, photographs, columns and saved filters. It goes to the private database of your own iCloud account, not to a server of ours, because there isn't one. It stays off until you turn it on, and it will not turn on until you have taken a full backup. A BACKUP YOU CAN HOLD One file holds the whole cellar: every wine, every column, every photograph. Save it to Files or iCloud Drive, put it on a Mac, or mail it to yourself. Open one later and look at the wines inside it before you restore anything. Spreadsheets too. Import a CSV from Cellar Tracker or from a spreadsheet you keep yourself, and export the cellar back out under your own headings. FIND THE BOTTLE • Search as you type • Filters you build and save, on your columns, by text, number or date • Favourites and Wishlist, each its own list • Sort by name or vintage, in either direction AND • As many photographs per wine as you like: the label, the back label, the receipt • Prices in your own currency, converted at current rates • A dark appearance, and type that scales with the rest of your phone • On iPad, your cellar and the wine side by side — and it shares the screen, in Split View or Slide Over WHAT IT COSTS Ten spaces are free. A space is one unique wine, however many bottles of it you have: a 2007 and a 2008 of the same wine are two spaces, and twenty-eight bottles of the 2008 are still one. More spaces are a one-time purchase, and any purchase also removes the ad at the bottom of the list. No account. No subscription. No sign-in. Your cellar lives on your device and goes nowhere you do not send it.

Screenshots

Pocket Wine4 screens
Wine Cellar Database4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pocket Wine at 4.7 against Wine Cellar Database's 3.5. Pocket Wine also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (90% vs 58%). Wine Cellar Database's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 7 months). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. Pocket Wine sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Wine Cellar Database sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pocket Wine holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Wine has 656 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Pocket Wine's written reviews are positive against 58% of Wine Cellar Database's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Wine ships an update every 7 months, Wine Cellar Database every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Pocket Wine versus Wine Cellar Database: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket WineWine Cellar Database
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (656 ratings) — better3.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews — better57.7% of reviews
Number of ratings656 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 8 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB43 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperTime Marketing LimitedAdysseus

Customer experience

Pocket Wine

All ratings656 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral2.7%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews160 reviews
Positive90.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative7.5%

Wine Cellar Database

All ratings4 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews142 reviews
Positive57.7%
Neutral10.6%
Negative31.7%

User reviews

Pocket Wine

From 656 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Detailed and informative wine information
  • 🍷 Helpful for learning about wine and pairing with food
  • 💻 Clean, easy-to-use interface
  • 📚 Comprehensive grape variety and region details
  • 🤖 Accurate 'My Taste' feature to recommend wines

Room to improve

  • 🔍 Lacks ability to search/filter wines by specific properties
  • 📸 No label scanning or auto-population of wine details
  • 🔢 Limited inventory/selection of wines available in the app
  • 🌐 Lacking coverage of some wine regions and grape varieties

Wine Cellar Database

From 4 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use and intuitive interface
  • 📱 Syncs across multiple devices (iPhone, iPad)
  • 🔍 Customizable fields and categories
  • 💾 CSV import/export functionality
  • 🌐 Online wine database lookup

Room to improve

  • 🚫 App no longer receives updates or support
  • 💥 Crashes on newer iOS versions (14+)
  • 🔗 Online search/database lookup broken
  • 📵 Non-responsive developer/support team
  • 🔄 Syncing issues between devices

Bugs and requests

Pocket Wine

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional crashes or freezes reported by some users
  • Compatibility issues with older devices mentioned

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to scan wine labels and auto-populate details
  • Implement more advanced filtering/search options for wines
  • Expand coverage to include more wine regions and grape varieties
  • Add a 'My Cellar' feature to easily track and manage personal wine inventory

Wine Cellar Database

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App crashes on iOS 14.2 and later
  • Online wine search no longer functions
  • Dropbox sync failures
  • Data corruption and loss
  • Restore function broken
Show 7 more
  • Purchased storage spaces not recognized
  • App won't open after iOS updates
  • Syncing between iPad and iPhone fails
  • Support website links to expired domain
  • App defaults to old file versions
  • Incorrect wine deletion when removing entries
  • Missing color and region fields in some versions

Requested features

15 requests
  • Barcode/label scanning functionality
  • OCR technology for automatic data entry
  • Automatic cloud syncing (not manual)
  • Web-based access to cellar database
  • Visual cellar layout/location mapping
Show 10 more
  • Expanded international wine database
  • Notifications for optimal drinking dates
  • Cellar value/worth calculation
  • Data export to web dashboard
  • API access for data extraction
  • Printing functionality
  • Expanded food pairing suggestions
  • Duplicate wine entry for different vintages
  • Copy/paste functionality for data entry
  • Tutorial for new users

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Pocket Wine

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$0.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription7 Days trial$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Subscription$19.99
10 purchases

Wine Cellar Database

One-time10
  • 10 More Spaces$0.99
  • 40 More Spaces$0.99
  • 20 More Spaces$1.99
Show 7 more
  • 100 More Spaces$1.99
  • 30 More Spaces$2.99
  • 50 More Spaces$3.99
  • 225 More Spaces$3.99
  • 500 More Spaces (Most Popular)$9.99
  • 1000 More Spaces$9.99
  • Infinite Spaces$24.99

Questions

Is Pocket Wine free?
Pocket Wine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Wine Cellar Database free?
Wine Cellar Database is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Wine or Wine Cellar Database?
Pocket Wine is rated higher. Pocket Wine averages 4.7 out of 5 from 656 ratings, while Wine Cellar Database averages 3.5 from 4 ratings.
Do Pocket Wine or Wine Cellar Database have ads?
Wine Cellar Database shows ads; Pocket Wine does not.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Wine or Wine Cellar Database?
Pocket Wine ships an update every 7 months, and Wine Cellar Database every 8 days. Most recently, Pocket Wine was updated on October 14, 2026 and Wine Cellar Database on October 6, 2026.

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