Comparison

Tea Journal Brew Timer vs Tea Timer io

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

Head to head
About

Tea Journal Brew Timer

Features
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Steep is the beautiful tea journal for serious tea lovers. Track every brew session, perfect your technique, and discover what makes each cup exceptional. From your first gongfu session to your thousandth infusion, Steep captures every detail. BREW TIMER - Precision countdown timer for gongfu and Western brewing - Infusion tracking with automatic time increments - Per-infusion notes and mini ratings - Smart presets: gaiwan, teapot, kyusu, mug TEA COLLECTION - Build your personal tea library with unlimited entries (Pro) - Track vendor, origin, harvest year, and quantity - Flavor tagging with 40+ descriptors - Visual quantity tracker (full, half, empty) SESSION JOURNAL - Detailed tasting records for every brew - Rate aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, aftertaste, sweetness, and cha qi - Flavor descriptor tags - Session notes and photos INSIGHTS AND STATS - Track your daily brewing streak - Most-brewed teas and brewing history - Tasting evolution over time GO PRO - UNLOCK EVERYTHING - Unlimited tea collection (free tier: 5 teas) - Unlimited session history (free tier: 20 sessions) - AI Tea Advisor - personalized recommendations powered by Grok - Advanced tasting analytics and palate evolution - Session comparison side by side - CSV export and sharing Whether you brew longjing at 75 degrees or aged pu-erh at full boil, Steep honors the ritual. Warm parchment design, airy spacing, no clutter. Just you and the tea. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Tea Timer io

This app provides precise brewing parameters for various teas, including temperature, ratio, and steep time. It supports multiple brewing styles and offers customizable settings for eleven different tea types. Enjoy a guided brewing experience with notifications and haptic feedback, all without ads or requiring an account.

Highlights
  • Precise temperature, ratio, and steep time
  • Supports standard, gongfu, Japanese, and cold brew styles
  • Presets for 11 tea types
  • Multi-infusion timer
  • Adjustable and saved brew settings
  • Offline functionality
  • Local notifications and haptic feedback
Features
Read full description

The tea timer that respects how tea is actually brewed. Whether you're pouring a quick cup of black tea or running a five-infusion gongfu session, Tea Timer gives you the exact temperature, ratio, and steep time for the tea in your cup. Not a generic 3-to-5-minute guess. Four brewing styles in one app • Standard. Single steep, the way most of the world drinks tea. • Gongfu. Sequential short infusions, each pour timed individually. • Japanese. Shorter, hotter, traditional Japanese style. • Cold Brew. Long, gentle extraction in the fridge. Eleven teas, dialed in Green, white, oolong, black, pu-erh, herbal, sencha, gyokuro, genmaicha, hojicha, and matcha. Each preset has a research-backed default temperature (°C or °F), a tea-to-water ratio in grams, and a per-infusion time. Add your own varieties under any tea type, each with its own temperature, ratio, and timing. Built for the brew, not the cup • Multi-infusion timer that walks you through every steep. • Adjust temperature, ratio, and time per tea, saved automatically. • Visual session progress so you never lose your place mid-flight. • Local notifications when your tea is ready. • Haptic feedback at start, finish, and each infusion change. • Works offline. No account required. Tea Timer now learns how you like your tea. • Rate a steep as too weak, just right, or too bitter, and future steep times adjust to your taste. See the adjustment, undo a stray rating, or reset it anytime. • Score a finished brew on aroma, flavor, body, and more. Every scale explains what it measures and what a good score looks like. • History logs every brew: steeps, sessions, teas tried, and your daily streak, with your tasting notes a tap away. • Keep your own teas under any type, like a Dragonwell under Green, with separate settings per brew style. • Time steppers on every brew style, and an option to end a gongfu session early. • New Midnight dark theme, plus five more. Designed to disappear into the ritual Calm color palette. Big, legible numbers. No ads. No social feed. No login. Open the app, pick the tea, hit start. That's it. For people who care about tea If you've ever ruined a cup because you forgot the timer, lost track of which infusion you were on, or wished your kitchen timer knew the difference between sencha and gyokuro, this app is for you. Tea Timer also runs free on the web at teatimer.app. Same presets, same brew, on whichever device is closest to your kettle. Brew better. Every cup.

Screenshots

Tea Journal Brew Timer4 screens
Tea Timer io4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tea Timer io at none against Tea Journal Brew Timer's 3. Tea Timer io also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17). Tea Journal Brew Timer's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Tea Journal Brew Timer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Tea Timer io asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tea Journal Brew Timer ships an update fortnightly, Tea Timer io every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Tea Journal Brew Timer versus Tea Timer io: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTea Journal Brew TimerTea Timer io
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—6 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS1715.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKarol JaworskiWhite Rabbit Software

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Tea Journal Brew Timer

Subscriptions3
  • Steep Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Steep Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
  • Steep Pro Yearly - Intro Offer1 Year trial$39.991 Year
None

Tea Timer io

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tea Journal Brew Timer free?
Tea Journal Brew Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tea Timer io free?
Tea Timer io is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Tea Journal Brew Timer or Tea Timer io have ads?
Neither Tea Journal Brew Timer nor Tea Timer io shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tea Journal Brew Timer or Tea Timer io?
Tea Journal Brew Timer ships an update fortnightly, and Tea Timer io every 2 months. Most recently, Tea Journal Brew Timer was updated on October 28, 2026 and Tea Timer io on November 5, 2026.

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