Chicken Scratch vs Backyard Chicken Keeper
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chicken Scratch
This app helps you manage your backyard chickens by tracking egg production, health, and daily tasks. It offers detailed statistics and reminders for feeding and cleaning, making flock management easy and fun.
- Add and manage individual chickens
- Log daily egg output
- Set reminders for care tasks
- Track flock health and medical history
- View charts and statistics
- Local data storage
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Congratulations, you own chickens now. You’re basically a farmer, a zookeeper, and an amateur egg economist. Naturally, you need an app for that. Chicken Scratch is your semi-professional, definitely-overbuilt tool for tracking your backyard flock like you’re managing a Fortune 500 company made of feathers. Features you probably didn’t think you needed: • Add all your chickens (even the one you swear isn’t a rooster) • Log daily egg output like it’s your retirement portfolio • Get reminders to feed, clean, or stop staring at them • Track medical stuff so you feel like a real vet (you’re not) • Charts and stats, because nothing says “fun” like analytics on poop machines Perfect for chicken newbies, casual bird collectors, or people who started with 3 hens and now need a second mortgage to fund feed costs. No logins, no cloud, no crypto, just local data and poultry accountability. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Backyard Chicken Keeper
This app helps backyard chicken keepers manage their flocks. Track egg production, monitor individual bird health, and log incubation progress. It also includes a breed database and expense tracking to understand the true cost of your eggs.
- Daily egg logging
- Individual bird health tracking
- Incubation progress monitoring
- Breed database
- Expense tracking
- Seasonal care guide
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Coop is the backyard chicken keeper's complete companion - track daily egg production, manage flock health, and discover which hen is your best layer. Log eggs in seconds each morning, monitor health events with a built-in conditions reference, and track incubation day by day. The breed database covers 60+ popular breeds with laying rates, temperament, and climate hardiness. Expense tracking reveals the true cost of your eggs (brace yourself). Whether you have 4 hens or 40, Coop turns your flock into a well-managed, data-backed operation. EGG TRACKING Log your daily egg count in under 10 seconds - the fastest morning ritual in the coop. Tap the +/- counter, done. Track individual hens in detailed mode, log egg colors from your mixed-breed flock, and view a calendar heatmap of your production history. Monthly totals, weekly averages, and laying rate trends reveal patterns you never noticed before. FLOCK MANAGEMENT Every bird in your flock, individually profiled. Add photos, track breeds from a library of 60+ varieties, log personality notes, and monitor each hen's status - laying, molting, broody, or sick. Bird profiles feel like character pages, because your hens have characters. HEALTH TRACKING Log health events with severity levels, symptom checklists, treatment notes, and follow-up reminders. The built-in conditions reference covers respiratory illness, digestive problems, egg issues, parasites, and injuries - searchable by symptom. When something's wrong with a bird, answers are one tap away. INCUBATION TRACKER Set eggs on day 0 and let Coop guide you through candling days, lockdown, and hatch day. Milestone notifications fire automatically - you will never miss the day 18 lockdown. Track fertility rates and hatch results. BREED DATABASE Explore 60+ popular breeds with laying rates, egg color, temperament, cold hardiness, broodiness, and care notes. Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Easter Egger, Silkie, ISA Brown, Australorp, and dozens more. Free tier includes 15 breeds. EXPENSE TRACKING (PRO) The true cost of eggs calculator is Coop's most talked-about feature. Log every bag of feed, vet bill, and equipment purchase. Coop divides total expenses by total eggs and tells you exactly what your eggs cost per dozen. The number is usually surprising. Chicken keepers love it anyway. SEASONAL CARE GUIDE Hemisphere-aware seasonal tips update automatically throughout the year - spring broodiness checks, summer heat stress protocols, fall molting guidance, winter frostbite prevention. The app feels alive because it knows what month it is. AI FLOCK ASSISTANT (PRO) Ask anything about your flock and get actionable answers with your birds' history as context. "My hen has a swollen crop that smells sour - what do I do?" or "Goldie stopped laying 5 days ago - what could it be?" Powered by Grok. FREE TIER INCLUDES: - Up to 6 birds - Daily egg logging - Up to 10 health events - 15 breeds in the database - Conditions reference - Seasonal care guide - 1 incubation batch COOP PRO UNLOCKS: - Unlimited birds - Unlimited health events - Full breed database (60+ breeds) - Per-bird egg logging - Expense tracking & cost-per-egg calculator - AI Flock Assistant (Grok-powered) - Export your data (CSV) - Unlimited incubation batches Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Backyard Chicken Keeper at 5.0 against Chicken Scratch's 2.0. Backyard Chicken Keeper also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Chicken Scratch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Backyard Chicken Keeper asks for nothing beyond the download.
Backyard Chicken Keeper holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Chicken Scratch ships an update every 3 weeks, Backyard Chicken Keeper every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | Chicken Scratch | Backyard Chicken Keeper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Ctrl Alt Go Ltd | Karol Jaworski |
Customer experience
Chicken Scratch
Backyard Chicken Keeper
In-app purchases
Chicken Scratch
- Coop Club Weekly3 Days trial$1.997 Days
- Coop Club Yearly3 Days trial$19.991 Year
Backyard Chicken Keeper
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Chicken Scratch free?
Is Backyard Chicken Keeper free?
Which has better reviews, Chicken Scratch or Backyard Chicken Keeper?
Do Chicken Scratch or Backyard Chicken Keeper have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chicken Scratch or Backyard Chicken Keeper?
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