Cocktail Lab vs Specsmith
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cocktail Lab
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Your personal cocktail assistant. Add the ingredients you already have and instantly see which cocktails you can make, plus smart suggestions for drinks that are only 1 to 3 ingredients away. FEATURES - Explore 440+ cocktail recipes with clear, step-by-step instructions - Build your bar by selecting the ingredients you have at home - Discover cocktails you can make right now based on your ingredients - Get “Almost There” suggestions for drinks missing just 1 to 3 ingredients - Create a shopping list for anything you’re missing - Save your favorite cocktails for quick access - Keep track of the cocktails you’ve made - Use Surprise Me to pick a random cocktail from your available recipes - Choose between light mode and dark mode - Available in 8 languages: English, Türkçe, Deutsch, Español, Français, Português, Italiano, Русский Whether you’re an experienced home bartender or just getting started, Cocktail Lab helps you make more with what’s already in your bar.
Specsmith
This app provides bar teams with instant access to cocktail specifications, prep recipes, and batching calculations. It's designed for quick, at-a-glance readability in a busy service environment, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
- Instant cocktail specs
- Linked prep recipes
- Batching calculations
- Service-ready recipe display
- Multi-workspace support
- In-app recipe editing
- Ad-free experience
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Specsmith is the bar team's spec book, on the floor. Every cocktail program lives in a binder, a shared doc, or someone's memory — and none of those survive a Friday night. Specsmith puts the whole thing in your pocket: the spec, the prep recipe behind it, and the batch numbers, one tap from each other. BUILT FOR SERVICE Pull up a recipe mid-ticket. Measures sit in their own column so you can read a spec at arm's length across a crowded bar, not squint at a paragraph. No loading spinner between you and the drink. PREP THAT CONNECTS An ingredient that is made in house links to the prep recipe that makes it. Tap the honey ginger syrup on a Penicillin and you get the syrup, not a search box. The prep list is there on its own too, alphabetised, for the person doing Tuesday's mise. BATCHING WITHOUT ARITHMETIC Pick a menu, pick a multiplier, get the numbers. The maths happens on the server and matches what the desktop workspace shows for the same menu, so the bar and the office are never quoting different volumes at each other. THE WHOLE WORKSPACE Your menus and your recipes, including recipes that are not on a menu right now. Belong to more than one bar? Switch between workspaces from the menu list; the app remembers which one you had open. EDIT WHERE YOU STAND Fix a spec at the station where you noticed it was wrong. Change measures, methods, glassware and garnish, and photograph the drink with the camera. If a colleague edited the same recipe first, Specsmith says so instead of quietly overwriting their work. MADE FOR A BAR, NOT A PHONE DEMO Big type, one thumb, and a spec you can read without leaning in. No adverts, and no tracking across other apps. Specsmith for iOS is the companion to the Specsmith workspace on the web, where menus get built, costed and printed. Sign in with the account you already have, or create one with email and password, Apple, or Google. Most tools for building menus, managing recipes, and creating prep guides are on the web at getspecsmith.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Cocktail Lab at daily against Specsmith's every 5 days. Cocktail Lab also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Cocktail Lab ships an update daily, Specsmith every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cocktail Lab | Specsmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Sertac Guralp | Jeremy Oertel |
In-app purchases
Cocktail Lab
No in-app purchases
Specsmith
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Cocktail Lab free?
Is Specsmith free?
Do Cocktail Lab or Specsmith have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cocktail Lab or Specsmith?
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