Comparison

Tea Timer io vs Steep

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

Head to head
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.

About

Steep

Features
Read full description

Steep is the tea app for people who care how their tea is brewed. Set a precise timer for green, black, oolong, white, or puerh — with smart presets for temperature and time. In gongfu mode, Steep tracks each short infusion in sequence, auto-bumping the next steep and counting down right on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, so your hands stay on the gaiwan. Build your stash by photographing a tin or pouch — Steep reads the label and fills in type, origin, vendor, and harvest year for you to confirm. See your whole collection at a glance, track quantity and value, and mark aging puerh cakes you're saving. Journal every session: log each infusion, dictate tasting notes hands-free, and let on-device intelligence organize them into aroma, body, and finish. Suggestions, never appraisals — your palate stays the authority. When your shelf is worth showing off, export a beautiful tea-shelf card to share with your community. Everything syncs privately across your devices with iCloud. Nothing leaves your phone for our servers. Free to brew with built-in timers and a starter stash. Steep Pro unlocks unlimited teas and sessions, label scanning, AI notes, value tracking, and unbranded cards — monthly, annual, or a one-time lifetime unlock. Steep your tea. Remember it. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://brainrash.com/privacy

Screenshots

Tea Timer io4 screens
Steep4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tea Timer io at none against Steep's 2. Tea Timer io also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence 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. Steep sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Tea Timer io asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tea Timer io versus Steep: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTea Timer ioSteep
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWhite Rabbit SoftwareJustin Pruskowski

In-app purchases

None

Tea Timer io

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Steep

Subscriptions2
  • Steep Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Steep Pro Annual$14.991 Year

Questions

Is Tea Timer io free?
Tea Timer io is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Steep free?
Steep is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Tea Timer io or Steep have ads?
Neither Tea Timer io nor Steep shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tea Timer io or Steep?
Tea Timer io ships an update every 2 months, and Steep every 2 months. Most recently, Tea Timer io was updated on September 15, 2026 and Steep on September 29, 2026.

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