# Barcoa vs Palate Journal

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Barcoa at none against Palate Journal's 2. Barcoa also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). Palate Journal's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Palate Journal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Barcoa asks for nothing beyond the download.

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

Barcoa ships an update fortnightly, Palate Journal every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Barcoa | Palate Journal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [5.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/barcoa/id6755482442/reviews) | [5.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palate-journal/id6763765669/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Every 4 days** |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Size | 94 MB | 45 MB |
| Requires iOS | **16.4** | 26.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Jeppe Thy](https://appshunter.io/developer/1854143510) | [The Ivy Studios LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1461937417) |

## What reviewers say

### Barcoa

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/barcoa/id6755482442)

Discover new restaurants and places by seeing where your friends have been and what they thought. Share your own experiences and explore a personalized feed and interactive map of visited spots.

**Highlights:** Track visited restaurants, Follow friends' visits, Interactive map of spots, Personalized feed of recommendations, Share thoughts on places

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none


### Palate Journal

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palate-journal/id6763765669)

Create a private, personal guide to your favorite dining experiences. Log meals, dishes, and companions with custom tier marks. Generate an annual PDF summary of your culinary year.

**Highlights:** Editorial tier system, Visit log with details, Dish-of-the-year highlighting, Annual PDF guide generation, Cross-device sync, Private by design

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Palate Pro | $4.99 | per year |
| The 2026 Edition | $9.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Barcoa free?

Barcoa is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Palate Journal free?

Palate Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Which has better reviews, Barcoa or Palate Journal?

Barcoa and Palate Journal are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.

### Do Barcoa or Palate Journal have ads?

Neither Barcoa nor Palate Journal shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Barcoa or Palate Journal?

Barcoa ships an update fortnightly, and Palate Journal every 4 days. Most recently, Barcoa was updated on October 15, 2026 and Palate Journal on October 14, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*