Comparison

CultureBloom vs Fermentation Lab

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

Head to head
About

CultureBloom

Features
Read full description

CultureBloom helps you start fermenting at home with confidence. Follow simple recipes, track each phase of your ferment, and understand what’s happening at every step. Check your setup before you begin and avoid common mistakes from day one. Whether you're just starting or trying again after failed attempts, CultureBloom guides you with practical tips, reminders, and clear explanations. No guesswork. Just real fermentation, made simple. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Fermentation Lab

Features
Read full description

Fermentation Lab is the cellar notebook for people who ferment at home. Pick a ferment and a recipe: the app weighs the ingredients, tells you what to do each day and keeps track of temperature, pH and salt, jar by jar. Start from a recipe 95 recipes for 39 ferments – sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, yogurt, miso, shoyu, koji, tempeh, cured meats, cheese, vinegar, beer, wine, mead and more – plus bread recipes and pizza styles. Ingredients arrive already weighed and stay in proportion: change how much you make, or one line, and the rest follows. Next to each ingredient you see whether it is in your pantry; what is missing goes to the shopping list. Or write your own recipe and keep it for next time. The right step, every day Each type has its own care sheet: the phases, the task of each phase and the checkpoints – minimum salt, pH by the expected day, temperature limits, humidity, weight loss. Home follows what is fermenting and reminds you of today's task, with a notification when it is due. Short ferments such as bread, koji or yogurt are counted in hours. Log it, understand it Temperature, pH, gravity, notes and photos in one tap. Every reading is read for your ferment: whether it is within the limits of its care sheet, whether it is too early to tell, what counts besides that number. Measuring guides explain how to read pH and Β°Brix properly. You can connect an Inkbird Bluetooth sensor for temperature and humidity. Bread and pizza Baker's percentages on total flour, hydration, sourdough starter, biga and poolish. The method is part of the recipe: autolyse, folds, a night in the fridge, the pan. Doughs made in pieces are asked in pieces – four 250 g dough balls – and the step-by-step recipe has timers. The water temperature that brings the dough to the right temperature is one tap away from Home. The Laboratory Pantry and supplies, a shopping list with a barcode scanner, your cultures, the archive of finished ferments, statistics across batches, a calendar and timers. The Library Problems and doubts ("is it mold?"), techniques and microbes, with a search that reads inside the cards. Share An Instagram story or post with the jar's photo, log or recipe, plus a link to its web page. The Community Your profile is your lab: a jar for every ferment in progress. A weekly leaderboard, daily quests, culture swaps and a swap map. Others see only the types and progress of your lab – never names, notes or photos – and you can hide it. The Brigade, for kitchens A shared lab for kitchen teams: tickets on the rail, shift handovers, the week's HACCP checks, roles. And more Eight languages, a paper or cellar theme, and a predicted flavor profile and umami score (they are estimates). Fermentation Lab helps you keep count and not skip a check. Its values are the common ones of home fermentation: a number within limits says that number is within limits, not that a food is safe or ready. When in doubt, don't taste it.

Screenshots

CultureBloom4 screens
Fermentation Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Fermentation Lab at none against CultureBloom's 2. Fermentation Lab also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. CultureBloom sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Fermentation Lab asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CultureBloom ships an update every 2 months, Fermentation Lab fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
CultureBloom versus Fermentation Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCultureBloomFermentation Lab
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 β€” better15.1
Further details β€” not scored
Size91 MB84 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEXCUSASTUDIO PTE. LTDAntonio Lice

In-app purchases

2 purchases

CultureBloom

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium1 Month trial$39.991 Year
None

Fermentation Lab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CultureBloom free?
CultureBloom is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fermentation Lab free?
Fermentation Lab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do CultureBloom or Fermentation Lab have ads?
Neither CultureBloom nor Fermentation Lab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CultureBloom or Fermentation Lab?
CultureBloom ships an update every 2 months, and Fermentation Lab fortnightly. Most recently, CultureBloom was updated on October 31, 2026 and Fermentation Lab on November 5, 2026.

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