Comparison

Bean Stuff vs Third Wave

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

Head to head
About

Bean Stuff

Discover highly-rated specialty coffee shops near your current location or a specified area. Filter results by a "snob score" to find the perfect brew based on your preferences. This app streamlines the search for quality coffee, saving you time and effort.

Highlights
  • Location-based coffee shop discovery
  • Filter by "snob score"
  • Map view of nearby shops
  • Web search for comprehensive data
  • Customizable search criteria
Features
Read full description

What does this app do? Based on your location or an entered location, it will find all the coffee shops around you, rank them, and then list them out for you. It filters them based on a criteria with the goal of only showing you "specialty" coffee shops. When you just Google "coffee shops," you get everything bad coffee shops, chains, and it is hard to see what is actually good. This app is for coffee snobs. The problem I want to solve with this app. I am passionate about coffee, so when I travel, I like to find great local coffee spots. Being in a new place, I would have to use Google and look for coffee shops. This was ok, but Google and I disagree on what good coffee is. So I would have to spend time sifting through results, finding ones that looked good, and then see where they were located and how far from me they were. Instead of doing all of this, I wanted an app that I could open and instantly see where good coffee shops are and have it be based on objective reasoning, not what others thought, as they may have a different opinion of good coffee. How does the app solve this problem? The app has an algorithm that uses your location and searches the web for coffee shops in your area (it does not have a single data source). It then lists the coffee shops in the app and plots them on a map so that you can see where they are in relation to you. It also assigns a "snob score" to each coffee shop that you can then filter on. So now you can decide how much of a snob you want to be, filter based on that, and then see what is close by. Could you do all of this with Google? Yes. Not saying I invented the wheel here. But this takes the work out of it, and for someone who loves coffee, having an almost instant and reliable way to find the best coffee around is huge!

About

Third Wave

Discover high-quality coffee shops focused on serious brewing and knowledgeable staff. Find nearby cafes with real-time opening hours, seating information, and user ratings specific to each location. Contribute your own reviews and suggestions to maintain a curated list of exceptional coffee experiences.

Highlights
  • Discover quality coffee shops
  • Real-time opening hours
  • Detailed shop information
  • Location-specific ratings
  • User reviews and suggestions
  • Map view of coffee spots
Features
Read full description

Third Wave is a guide to coffee shops worth going out of your way for. Not every cafe. Not a directory. Every shop here has been checked against one standard: coffee taken seriously — a real pour-over or manual brew, roasters who care where the beans came from, and people behind the bar who know what they're doing. FIND SOMEWHERE NOW Open the app and it answers the question you actually have: where can I get good coffee, near me, right now. Shops are sorted by distance and filtered to what's open, using real opening hours for each individual storefront — so one branch can be open while another across town has already shut. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Every shop lists what's worth knowing: how much seating there is, whether there's outdoor space, food, and whether they'd rather you didn't bring a laptop. ON THE MAP See every storefront at once, or tap a single one for directions. The map shows only coffee — no clutter of other businesses. JUDGED BY THE ROOM, NOT THE NAME Ratings belong to an address, not a brand. A shop that's wonderful on one corner and ordinary on another is scored that way, and a branch nobody has rated yet says so rather than borrowing its siblings' reputation. RATE, COMMENT, CONTRIBUTE Rate the shops you visit and leave a note for other people. Found somewhere that belongs here? Suggest it — type the name and the address fills itself in. Every suggestion is reviewed before it appears, which is what keeps the standard. NO ACCOUNT NEEDED The app works straight away. Sign in with Apple only if you want your ratings to survive a reinstall. YOUR LOCATION STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Distances and the map are worked out on your device. Your location is never sent to us. There's no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. Starting in New York and growing worldwide!

Screenshots

Bean Stuff4 screens
Third Wave4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Third Wave at every 3 days against Bean Stuff's every 3 weeks. Bean Stuff's advantage is ratings volume (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.5 vs 26.0). On price, rating, 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bean Stuff against 5.0 for Third Wave. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bean Stuff ships an update every 3 weeks, Third Wave every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Bean Stuff versus Third Wave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBean StuffThird Wave
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB14 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperReed AllenGudBud Enterprises LLC

In-app purchases

None

Bean Stuff

No in-app purchases

None

Third Wave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bean Stuff free?
Bean Stuff is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Third Wave free?
Third Wave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bean Stuff or Third Wave?
Bean Stuff and Third Wave are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Bean Stuff or Third Wave have ads?
Neither Bean Stuff nor Third Wave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bean Stuff or Third Wave?
Bean Stuff ships an update every 3 weeks, and Third Wave every 3 days. Most recently, Bean Stuff was updated on October 24, 2026 and Third Wave on October 25, 2026.

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