Comparison

Bean Book vs Bean AI

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

Head to head
About

Bean Book

Log and analyze your coffee experiences with detailed tracking, advanced tasting notes, and AI-powered flavor analysis. Discover new roasters, get personalized brewing recommendations, and visualize your coffee journey with comprehensive analytics.

Highlights
  • Detailed bean tracking
  • Advanced tasting and rating system
  • AI-powered flavor analysis
  • Personalized brewing recommendations
  • Comprehensive analytics dashboard
  • Smart bag scanning
  • Roaster discovery
Features
Read full description

Bean Book is your coffee journal and brewing companion, with optional Apple AI enhancements for understanding each bag, improving espresso, and discovering what to try next. BUILD YOUR COFFEE LIBRARY Save roaster, origin, region, roast date, process, price, bag size, tasting notes, and photos. Scan a bag label, import a roaster product page, or enter details yourself. Review filled fields before saving. Optional AI helps interpret labels and product information, while OCR and built-in parsing remain available without it. AI DIAL-IN ASSISTANT Turn espresso shot history into practical next steps. Record dose, yield, time, grind, temperature, and taste, then analyze your shot for an extraction assessment, confidence, suggested adjustment, and explanation. Apply supported adjustments to the next shot and track your progress for each bean. PUCK PHOTO DIAGNOSIS Attach a puck photo to your espresso log. On supported Apple image-model runtimes, visual findings can add context about possible channeling and puck preparation, with explanations alongside shot analysis. You can always save the photo and use built-in shot analysis when image AI is unavailable. UNDERSTAND YOUR TASTE Explore your Taste Profile, preference drivers, flavor signals, and trends from scored tastings. Optional AI insights interpret your coffee history and suggest new directions. Generate personalized coffee recommendations with reasons based on the origins, processes, and flavors you enjoy. MAKE EVERY BREW A RECORD Keep multiple tastings, recipes, scores, and notes for each coffee. Explore the flavor wheel, origin maps, roaster statistics, freshness, spending, and Year in Review. Export and import your records, including saved price currencies. QUICK ACCESS Use widgets, Control Center, Siri, Shortcuts, and Spotlight. Supported actions let you log a shot, retrieve your active bean or last shot, and start dialing in. OPTIONAL PRO AND APPLE AI MyBeans Pro is the optional upgrade inside Bean Book. It unlocks supported Apple AI enhancements, with free previews for eligible features. Apple AI requires iOS 27 or later, compatible hardware, Apple Intelligence enabled, and downloaded model assets. Image analysis has separate device and runtime requirements. Manage AI enhancements in Settings. Core journaling, OCR scanning, and built-in insights remain usable without Apple AI. YOUR JOURNAL, ON YOUR DEVICE No app account is required. Coffee records and photos are stored locally, and AI processing in this build runs on device. Core journaling works offline; roaster discovery and website imports require internet access. Includes dark mode and iPad support. Bean Book was previously published as MyBeans. Existing coffee records are preserved. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Manage or cancel subscriptions in your Apple Account settings. A lifetime purchase is also available. Any trial is available only to eligible customers as shown at purchase. Terms of Use: https://shailey27.github.io/MyBeansLegal/terms-of-service.html Privacy Policy: https://shailey27.github.io/MyBeansLegal/privacy-policy.html

About

Bean AI

Catalog your coffee beans with AI. Scan labels to extract details like origin and roast, then use AI to enrich information and generate personalized brewing recipes. Track freshness and organize your collection.

Highlights
  • AI-powered label scanning
  • AI enrichment of coffee details
  • Personalized brewing recipes
  • Freshness and peak flavor tracking
  • Star ratings and sorting
  • Full-text search
  • Share coffee details
Features
Read full description

Five bags open and no idea which one is at peak. Bean AI reads the bag, tracks the rest window, and builds a V60, Aeropress or espresso recipe for that specific coffee. Point your camera at a label and it fills in origin, process, varietal, roast date and tasting notes in a few seconds, on your phone. SCAN OR TYPE Point your camera at any coffee bag and Bean AI extracts every field from the label in seconds using on-device OCR and Apple Intelligence. No bag handy? Add coffees manually — type the roaster name and coffee, and let AI do the rest. CLAUDE AI ENRICHMENT Tap the AI button and Claude fills in what the label didn't tell you: country of origin, region, altitude, varietals, certifications, tasting notes, and even a product photo. It draws on knowledge of thousands of specialty roasters worldwide. Requires an internet connection. BREWING RECIPES Every coffee gets a Brewing tab with recipes tailored to that specific bean — its roast level, origin and process method all factor in: • V60 at 15g and 18g — water temp, bloom, pours, total water, brew time • Orea O1 — base recommendation, pour schedule, bypass, flavour notes • Aeropress — orientation, steep, stir, press duration • Espresso — dose/yield/time, turbo vs standard, temperature • SOUP (Spro Only Unpressurized) — dose, yield, time, character PEAK FLAVOR WINDOW Every coffee shows how many days to rest it after roast before you open the bag, and the window when it's at its best. A visual bar on each detail page shows exactly where you are in that window. DECENT DE1 SYNC Running Decenza on the tablet attached to your Decent DE1? Push any bean straight into its bag list, so a coffee you scanned here is waiting for you at the machine — including the bag photo. Set your tablet's address under Settings. Bean AI is not affiliated with Decent Espresso. SHARE ANY BEAN Tap share on any coffee to send a formatted summary — origin, roast, tasting notes, peak flavour window and bag photo — to any app via the iOS share sheet. YOUR COLLECTION • Star ratings with half-star precision • Sort by rating, roast date, or date added • Filter by roast level — Light, Medium or Dark • Full-text search across every field • Archive finished bags without deleting them • Replace bag photos at any time • Process methods: Washed, Natural, Honey, Semi-Washed, Anaerobic, Co-Ferment PRIVACY Scanning and label extraction happen entirely on your device using Apple Intelligence — nothing is sent anywhere. Claude enrichment sends only the coffee name and roaster to our server to generate suggestions. No account required. No tracking. FREE AND PRO Free includes two separate limits: • 5 coffees in your collection at once — archived bags don't count toward it • 20 AI lookups in total, shared between Claude enrichment and generating brewing recipes Everything else is free and unlimited: scanning, ratings, filters, search, archive, sharing and iCloud sync. Pro removes both limits — unlimited coffees and unlimited AI. $0.99/month · $9.99/year · $19.99 lifetime Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Bean Book4 screens
Bean AI4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bean Book at none against Bean AI's 3. Bean Book also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Bean AI sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Bean Book asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bean Book ships an update every 2 weeks, Bean AI every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Bean Book versus Bean AI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBean BookBean AI
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStefan HaileyFernando Caprio

Customer experience

Bean Book

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bean AI

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Bean Book

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Bean AI

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Bean AI Pro — Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is Bean Book free?
Bean Book is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bean AI free?
Bean AI is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bean Book or Bean AI?
Bean Book and Bean AI are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Bean Book or Bean AI have ads?
Neither Bean Book nor Bean AI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bean Book or Bean AI?
Bean Book ships an update every 2 weeks, and Bean AI every 8 days. Most recently, Bean Book was updated on October 8, 2026 and Bean AI on October 24, 2026.

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