Comparison

Bean Book vs Dial

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

Dial

Features
Read full description

Every new bag of coffee is a puzzle. You spend the first third of the bag hunting for a grind setting, and by the time it tastes great, it may be almost gone. Dial is built to fix that. Brews on Dial are public, so when you open a new bag you can see how other people have brewed that same coffee: their grinder, grind setting, dose, ratio, recipe, and how it turned out. Start from a brew that worked instead of a guess. And if you're the first, you're the one who saves the next person the hunt. LOG YOUR BREWS Pour over, espresso, immersion: any method, any gear. Log the coffee, brewer, grinder, grind setting, dose, ratio, recipe, brew time, rating, and notes. Track TDS and extraction yield if you measure them, or hide those fields entirely. Use the built-in timer, or skip it. Dial never asks you to make up numbers just to fill a form. Dial remembers your history. Pick a coffee and the form fills itself from your most recent matching brew, down to the recipe. Adjust what changed, log, done. Made something great last week? Rebrew it in one tap. YOUR CELLAR Keep track of every bag you own: days off roast and how much is left, tracked automatically as you brew. Freeze a bag (or split one for the freezer) and Dial tracks freeze and thaw dates so days off roast stays honest. EXPLORE Browse recent brews, coffees, roasters, and people. Every coffee has its own page collecting the community's brews on it, and every page gets more useful as more brews come in. Can't find your coffee? Add it, and the next person who buys that bag starts from your work. PUBLIC BY DESIGN Openness is the point. Your brew logs help the next person dial in the coffee you just finished, and theirs help you. Everything you log is public and searchable from day one. NO NOISE, JUST BREWS No likes, no streaks. Everything Dial does serves the brew. Dial is built by one person who logs every single brew they make. Whether you're chasing a specific extraction or just want tomorrow's cup to be better than today's, Dial gives you a place to keep your brewing memory and a community to borrow from.

Screenshots

Bean Book4 screens
Dial4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Dial at none against Bean Book's 3. On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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 Book sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Dial asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bean Book ships an update fortnightly, Dial every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Bean Book versus Dial: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBean BookDial
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB42 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperStefan HaileySixteen Grams Corporation

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Bean Book

Subscriptions2
  • MyBeans Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • MyBeans Pro Annual7 Days trial$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • MyBeans Pro Lifetime$79.99
None

Dial

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bean Book free?
Bean Book is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dial free?
Dial is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Bean Book or Dial have ads?
Neither Bean Book nor Dial shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bean Book or Dial?
Bean Book ships an update fortnightly, and Dial every 10 days. Most recently, Bean Book was updated on November 5, 2026 and Dial on October 31, 2026.

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