Alkimi vs Forager's Field Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Alkimi
Identify plants with your camera and discover step-by-step recipes for cooking, healing, skincare, and crafting. Explore over 1,200 community-generated ideas for every plant you find, from food to natural dyes.
- Instant plant identification via camera
- Step-by-step recipes for cooking, healing, and crafting
- Community-generated recipe library
- Safety information for edibility and toxicity
- Personal plant collection and journaling
- Location-aware identification
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Point your camera at any plant and get step-by-step recipes for cooking, healing, skincare, dyeing, and making things from scratch. Not just food. A nettle becomes a pasta dish, a hair rinse, or a natural fabric dye. Lavender becomes a salve, a cleaning spray, or a pressed botanical print. Alkimi shows you everything a plant can become — and exactly how to make it. With over 1,200 community-generated recipes already in the library — tinctures, natural dyes, herbal remedies, foraged meals, skincare formulations, and more — there's already something waiting for every plant you find. — WHAT YOU CAN MAKE WITH EVERY PLANT — • Kitchen — teas, syrups, ferments, foraged meals, and infused oils • Medicinal — tinctures, poultices, herbal teas, and remedies • Beauty — facial oils, serums, scalp treatments, and salves • Craft & Home — natural dyes, botanical prints, candles, cleaning products, and textile projects • Guides — seasonal field guides curated by foragers, herbalists, and makers — IDENTIFY ANY PLANT INSTANTLY — Point your camera at any plant or upload a photo from your library. Get a full identification in seconds — common name, edibility, toxicity level, and medicinal properties. Two AI models run simultaneously for accuracy. Safety information is always shown, never hidden. — FOR FORAGERS — Found something on the trail? Alkimi cross-checks two AI models, flags toxicity immediately, and gives you safe handling and recipe guidance on the spot. Location-aware identification biases results toward plants that actually grow near you. — FOR HERBALISTS & MAKERS — Whether you're brewing tinctures, formulating your own skincare, dyeing fabric with foraged plants, or making natural cleaning products — Alkimi generates detailed, step-by-step guides tailored to what you actually found. — FOR HOME COOKS — That herb growing in your garden has twenty uses you've never thought of. Alkimi connects what you find to what you can cook, brew, and ferment — with exact ingredients, measurements, and steps. — YOUR PLANT COLLECTION — Save every plant you identify. Build a personal collection of recipes, guides, and discoveries. Journal your makes with photos and notes. Everything in one place, growing with you. — THE COMMUNITY — See what people are finding and making near you on the community map. Follow other foragers, herbalists, and makers. Share your own finds and finished recipes. — ALKIMI PRO — Unlock all recipes and guides for every plant you identify. • Full recipes across all five categories for every plant • Complete medicinal and cosmetic guides • Curated seasonal collections from experts • Unlimited saves to your plant collection • Advanced foraging tips and field notes $7.99/month · $59.99/year · $149.99 lifetime Safety information is always free. Always. Subscriptions renew automatically. Cancel anytime in iOS Settings → [Your Apple ID] → Subscriptions. Terms: https://alkimi.app/terms Privacy: https://alkimi.app/privacy-agreements
Forager's Field Notes
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Forager's Field Notes is a private foraging journal and field log book for mushroom hunters and wild-food foragers. Log every foraging find, save your secret patches on an offline map, and — with Field Notes+ — see when your spots come back into season, worked out on your phone from your own foraging diary. No account. No ads. Your spots never leave your phone. SAFETY FIRST: A FORAGING JOURNAL, NOT AN IDENTIFIER Forager's Field Notes never identifies a plant or mushroom and never tells you that anything is edible or safe to eat. You name every find yourself — you are the forager. Never eat anything based on this app: always confirm a find with a qualified local expert and reliable references first, and when in doubt, throw it out. LOG A FIND IN SECONDS - Your own name for what you found, plus a category: mushroom, greens, berry, nut, herb, root - Quantity or yield, habitat, notes and a photo from your library - Dated automatically when you save, and attached to a patch if you like - Your whole foraging log, newest first, with the photo right in the list REMEMBER EVERY PATCH - Save a secret foraging spot once and attach finds to it - Drop a GPS pin only when you tap "use my location" — no background location, no tracking - A tile-free map of your foraging patches that works in airplane mode: nothing to download, no signal needed CONFIRM — DON'T IDENTIFY (always free) Before you mark a find "self-confirmed", work through a checklist of your own foraging observations: spore print, gills or pores, ring and volva, habitat, bruising and smell for fungi; leaves, smell, sap and growth habit for plants. The app reminds you to rule out the deadly lookalike and asks you to confirm that you, not the app, decide what is safe. "Self-confirmed" records your own diligence — never a verdict. OFFLINE LOOKALIKE CARDS (always free) Six "deadly twin" cards help you rule a find out: true vs false morel, chanterelle vs jack-o'-lantern, puffball vs young Amanita, wild garlic vs lily-of-the-valley and autumn crocus, elderberry vs pokeweed and water hemlock, wild carrot vs poison hemlock. Education, not identification. FIELD NOTES+ (optional) Three rule-based insights built only from your own foraging journal, right on your phone — no AI, no network, no account: - Patch-return reminders in the app — "last September you found chanterelles at Cedar Creek: time to check" - Seasonality — the weeks each find turns up in your foraging spots, and whether you are in the window now - Your foraging year — finds, species, busiest month and top patch Logging, patches, the map and the whole safety layer stay free forever — no card required. LOG HANDS-FREE WITH SIRI On iOS 16 or later, say "Log a find in Forager's Field Notes" and add a note — it's waiting in your journal the next time you open the app. (Siri phrases are in English.) INVITE A FRIEND Share your invite code and you both get 30 days of Field Notes+ free. The invite shares only anonymous ids and the code — never your finds or your spots. HONEST PRICING - Annual, with a 7-day free trial - Monthly - Lifetime — one payment, no subscription All three unlock the same Field Notes+. Prices show in your own currency in the app, and billing is handled by the App Store — cancel anytime. Terms of Use (EULA): https://adelyons.com/apps/foragersfieldnotes/eula.html Privacy Policy: https://adelyons.com/apps/foragersfieldnotes/privacy.html PRIVATE BY DESIGN - No account, no sign-up, no ads - Finds, patches, pins and photos stay on this device - Works offline on every foraging trip, even in airplane mode Important: Forager's Field Notes is for recording and learning only. It does not identify species and does not assess whether anything is edible or safe. Never eat any wild find based on this app; always confirm with a qualified local expert and reliable references before consuming anything you forage.
Screenshots
Verdict
Alkimi and Forager's Field Notes are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Alkimi sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Forager's Field Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Alkimi ships an update every 8 days, Forager's Field Notes weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Alkimi | Forager's Field Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Charlotte MacKinnon | Adelyons Software LLC |
In-app purchases
Alkimi
- Alkimi Pro Monthly7 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Alkimi Pro Yearly7 Days trial$59.991 Year
- Alkimi Pro Lifetime$149.99
Forager's Field Notes
- Monthly$3.991 Month
- Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Lifetime$39.99
Questions
Is Alkimi free?
Is Forager's Field Notes free?
Do Alkimi or Forager's Field Notes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Alkimi or Forager's Field Notes?
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