Comparison

Roasteries vs Mensa Balance

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

Head to head
About

Roasteries

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"Roasteries" - the roasteries-finder does exactly: It finds Roasteries in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. With the surround-search the app finds roasters round the current position (25 / 50 / 100 km radius) - first as a list, and if you wish also as a map (this might produce additional costs in foreign countries, depending on your provider - the app informs you also about this possibility). Perfect, if you need coffee beans during your travel. and for coffee-junkies it would be annoying to miss a roastery on your trip… With the free search you can search for roasters directly or you can search for cities and show the results in the map, perfect for planing a vacation. Other functions: - Shows the webpage of the roasters in a own view or in the browser - Call a roastery directly from the app - Send email directy from the app to a roastery - Add Roasteries to your address book - "Report"-button, to give feedback for a selected roaster: f.e. if direct sale is possible, if the info changed or what your impression of the coffee brand is. - Reference source for the coffee brands (very helpful in foreign countries) - how far the subjective comments from Ralf Duggen (german) about the brands are helpful, is your decision. The database comes from http://www.espressosorten.de The website is a independent, add free catalog of about 1640 Roasteries. Here is it possible to add comments for the brands and informations about "best use before" (will be also implemented in one of the next versions of the app) Note: the completeness and correctness of the datas is not guaranteed. Every feedback will help to keep the datas up to date.

About

Mensa Balance

Easily check your Mensa card balance and last transaction details using NFC. This open-source app supports numerous universities and is free to use.

Highlights
  • Read Mensa card balance
  • View last transaction
  • Display card ID
  • NFC scanning
  • Open Source
  • Supports many universities
Read full description

This app allows you to read the current balance, last transaction and card ID of your Mensa Card via NFC. It is Open Source (https://github.com/schorschii/MensaGuthaben-iOS). I'm happy about suggestions for improvement, pull requests or just a star :) Successfully testet with cards of the following universities: * TU Dresden (Studentenwerk Emeal card and TU Campuscard!) * Uni Leipzig * HS/Uni Flensburg (Studentenwerk SH) * TU Darmstadt * Uni Trier * Uni Greifswald * Leibniz Universität Hannover * Ruhr-Uni Bochum * h_da (hochschule darmstadt) * THOSKA der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Hochschule für Musik „Franz List“ Weimar * THOSKA der Uni Jena * TU Ilmenau * Uni Bielefeld * Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart * Uni Stuttgart * Uni Hohenheim * Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg * Hochschule Furtwangen (HFU) * Studierendenwerk Freiburg-Schwarzwald (SWFR) * Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg * Deutsche Sporthochschule * Uni Würzburg * Universität Oldenburg * Jadehochschule Oldenburg/Wilhelmshaven/Elsfleth * Hochschule Emden/Leer * Hochschule Koblenz * HAW Hamburg * FH Erfurt * TU Braunschweig * Otto-Friedrich Universität Bamberg * HS/Uni Bremen * Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel If your University is not listed, it is possible that the app works anyway. Please try it out and send me a mail if it works.

Screenshots

Roasteries4 screens
Mensa Balance1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Roasteries at 9.0 against Mensa Balance's 13.0. On price, update cadence, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Roasteries ships an update every 7 months, Mensa Balance every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on June 12, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 7 level
Roasteries versus Mensa Balance: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRoasteriesMensa Balance
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 4 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB0 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMartin SudaGeorg Sieber

In-app purchases

None

Roasteries

No in-app purchases

None

Mensa Balance

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Roasteries free?
Roasteries is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mensa Balance free?
Mensa Balance is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Roasteries or Mensa Balance have ads?
Neither Roasteries nor Mensa Balance shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Roasteries or Mensa Balance?
Roasteries ships an update every 7 months, and Mensa Balance every 4 months. Most recently, Roasteries was updated on June 12, 2026 and Mensa Balance on September 21, 2026.

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