Comparison

DrinkControl vs Cinder

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

Head to head
About

DrinkControl

This app helps you track your alcohol intake, calories, and expenses. It converts drinks into standard alcohol units and provides insights into your drinking habits to help you cut back or stay mindful. Features include history tracking, dry day streaks, and personalized statistics.

Highlights
  • Track drinks, alcohol units, and calories
  • Monitor alcohol expenses
  • View drinking history in a calendar
  • Mark dry/sober days and streaks
  • Analyze alcohol and calorie consumption trends
  • Sync with Apple Health
  • Personalized drink infographics
Features
Read full description

More than a log — it’s your accountability partner. Track what, when, and how much you drink. Non-judgemental with full privacy (data is on your device only). DrinkControl helps you stay accountable and notice patterns in your drinking habits. Whether you're trying to cut back, stick to certain days, or simply stay more mindful, this app keeps you on track. “This app helped me reduce my drinking by simply making me aware.” We think and drink in glasses, cans and bottles — not alcohol units. But not all beers, wines, or cocktails contain the same amount of alcohol. DrinkControl takes the guesswork out of the equation by converting every drink into standard alcohol units / grams of pure alcohol, based on real guidelines from health institutions. “Really opens your eyes when you see how many units are in a few ‘innocent’ drinks.” Alcohol doesn’t just affect your liver — it affects your waistline and wallet too. Drinks are full of empty (without any nutritional value) calories. DrinkControl helps you stay aware of the amount of calories in your drinks, making it easier to manage your weight, cut down for health reasons, or save money. “This app helped me lose weight and drink less at the same time.” Features: - Easily and quickly track your drinks and alcohol expenses - Track and see your drinking history in calendar - Stay within low-risk/moderate alcohol limits - Mark your dry/sober days and streaks - Charts, trend-line and statistics on alcohol/calories consumed, money spent on drinks - Sync alcohol units (standard drinks) and alcohol calories with Apple Health - Get your personal infographic on drinks consumed Premium features include: - Add DrinkControl widgets for your homescreen - Set and customize drink tracking reminders/notifications - Get statistics and charts for previous months/weeks, quarters or years - Look back in the history, create an infographic for full month or year - Customize with your favourite types of drinks and serving sizes - Export data to .csv file for use in Excel/Numbers - Back up your data to iCloud or Dropbox - Select one of many alternate app icons Terms, Conditions and Privacy: https://drinkcontrolapp.com/privacy

About

Cinder

This app helps you track your smoking habits by logging each cigarette or vape. It visualizes your progress with a growing forest and provides insights into your smoking patterns and spending. The core tracking features are free, with an optional Pro version for deeper historical analysis and iCloud sync.

Highlights
  • Log cigarettes and vapes
  • Track spending and yearly cost
  • Visualize progress with a growing forest
  • Analyze smoking patterns by event and time
  • No account or data collection
  • Optional iCloud Sync
  • Free core features
Features
Read full description

Cinder counts what you smoke. That's all it does, and it does it carefully. Tap when you have one, say what was going on — coffee, work, waiting. Two taps, and you're done. Behind the numbers is a hand-drawn forest. Go longer between cigarettes and it grows. Go shorter and it falls back. It measures you against your own recent normal, not a target somebody else picked, so it moves slowly and it means something when it moves. No scores. No streaks to protect. No badges. WHAT YOU SEE · How long since your last one, next to your usual gap · What you've spent this month, and what that comes to over a year · Per day, time of day, weekday vs weekend, your longest stretches · Which event you smoke with most — coffee, stress, drinking, whatever you named it · Cigarettes and vapes, counted apart · Eight languages, your own currency NO ACCOUNT. NOTHING COLLECTED. No sign-up, no email, no password, no profile. Your records sit on your phone, in Cinder. We never see them, because they never reach us. iCloud Sync is off until you turn it on yourself. Turn it on and your records go into your own private iCloud — your account, your storage, still not ours. Leave it off and nothing ever leaves this phone. NO LECTURE Cinder doesn't tell you to quit. It doesn't congratulate you and it doesn't scold you. It writes down what happened and draws the forest. What you make of that is yours. FREE, AND CINDER PRO Counting is free. Tapping, the forest, your events, today's numbers — all of it, for as long as you want. Nothing you record is ever held back from you. Cinder Pro is for looking back over it: per day across your whole history, what you spent every month, the complete timeline, cigarettes and vapes counted apart, and iCloud Sync. Monthly, yearly, or paid once and never again. The exact price appears in the app, in your currency, before you agree to anything. The subscriptions renew until you cancel; cancel any time in Settings → your Apple Account → Subscriptions. The one-time purchase does not renew. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://altrivx.github.io/cinder/privacy.html

Screenshots

DrinkControl4 screens
Cinder4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: DrinkControl at 4.4K against Cinder's 2. Cinder's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. DrinkControl sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Cinder sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cinder holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DrinkControl has 4.4K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of DrinkControl's written reviews are positive against 100% of Cinder's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DrinkControl ships an update every 3 weeks, Cinder every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
DrinkControl versus Cinder: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrinkControlCinder
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.4K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews94.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4.4K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB30 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperE-protectALTRIVX LLC

Customer experience

DrinkControl

All ratings4,355 ratings
Positive94.9%
Neutral3.2%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews659 reviews
Positive94.4%
Neutral3.0%
Negative2.6%

Cinder

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

DrinkControl

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Calendar view shows incorrect day colors
  • Email button opens wrong mail app

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add custom drink size and ABV options
  • Allow users to set their own drink limits
  • Improve overall UI and UX
  • Implement time-of-day tracking for drinks

Cinder

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

13 purchases

DrinkControl

Subscriptions7
  • Monthly tip/donation$0.991 Month
  • Premium$2.991 Month
  • DrinkControl Plus (monthly)$3.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • DrinkControl Premium (monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Premium$6.991 Year
  • DrinkControl Premium (yearly)$11.991 Year
  • DrinkControl Plus (annual)$14.991 Year
One-time6
  • Generous Tip$2.99
  • Premium features (promo)$4.99
  • Premium features$9.99
Show 3 more
  • Premium, lifetime$14.99
  • Premium, lifetime$19.99
  • Premium, lifetime$24.99
3 purchases

Cinder

Subscriptions2
  • Cinder Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Cinder Yearly$12.991 Year
One-time1
  • Cinder Pro Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is DrinkControl free?
DrinkControl is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cinder free?
Cinder is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DrinkControl or Cinder?
Cinder is rated higher. DrinkControl averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.4K ratings, while Cinder averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do DrinkControl or Cinder have ads?
Neither DrinkControl nor Cinder shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DrinkControl or Cinder?
DrinkControl ships an update every 3 weeks, and Cinder every 8 days. Most recently, DrinkControl was updated on November 1, 2026 and Cinder on October 18, 2026.

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