Roasteries vs Mensa Balance
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
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.
- Read Mensa card balance
- View last transaction
- Display card ID
- NFC scanning
- Open Source
- Supports many universities
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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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
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.
| Parameter | Roasteries | Mensa Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | — | 90.0% of reviews |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 0 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Martin Suda | Georg Sieber |
In-app purchases
Roasteries
No in-app purchases
Mensa Balance
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Roasteries free?
Is Mensa Balance free?
Do Roasteries or Mensa Balance have ads?
Which is updated more often, Roasteries or Mensa Balance?
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