LoafNote vs BakePlanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LoafNote
This app helps sourdough bakers manage their starter, adjust bulk fermentation based on kitchen temperature, and plan bakes. It offers timed reminders, recipe import, and a built-in learning course for beginners.
- Starter care and health tracking
- Temperature-adjusted bulk fermentation timing
- Bake planning and backward scheduling
- Recipe import from links, text, or photos
- Timed step reminders
- Bake logging and learning
- Beginner sourdough course and glossary
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Sourdough runs on your kitchen's temperature, not the recipe writer's clock. Tell LoafNote when you want warm bread and it plans the whole bake backward from that moment, tuned to your kitchen and scheduled around your sleep. PLAN THE BAKE BACKWARD Pick a finish time. LoafNote works back through every step: when to feed, when to mix, when to shape, including cold proofs. If a schedule would have you folding dough at 3am, it bends the plan so the work lands while you're awake. When that isn't possible, it says so. BULK THAT WATCHES THE TEMPERATURE Tell LoafNote your kitchen temperature and it adjusts the bulk window with guidance for every rise along the way. YOUR STARTER, LOOKED AFTER Keep one starter or several. LoafNote tracks each feed and shows you at a glance whether a starter is hungry, rising, or at peak, so it's ready when you are. NO STARTER YET? MAKE ONE Mix flour and water and LoafNote takes it from there: what to feed each day, what the jar should look like, and why the quiet day 4 is normal. In about a week, a readiness check walks you through the signs that it can raise bread. A NUDGE WHEN IT'S TIME Start a bake and put the phone down. Step timers and reminders tell you when the dough needs you, and the current step sits on your lock screen with its countdown running. RUN MORE THAN ONE BAKE A boule for Saturday and a focaccia for tonight can run side by side. Each bake keeps its own timers and its own lock screen countdown, and Home lists every active bake in one place. When the day gets away from you, pause a step and resume when you're back at the counter. RECIPES WITHOUT THE SCROLLING Paste a link, paste text, or import from a photo. You get the ingredients and timed steps, with hydration and baker's percentages worked out with everything measured in grams. Your recipes stay on your phone forever and you can share them with friends with one tap! EVERY LOAF TEACHES THE NEXT Rate the crumb and note what you'd change. That note greets you the next time you start the same recipe. LEARN BEFORE BAKING New to sourdough? A built-in course walks you through the basics, and a glossary covers the terms bakers actually use. No question is too small. FREE FOR A MONTH Try everything free for a month. Long enough to wake a starter up and put a few real bakes behind you. After that, LoafNote is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year, and the subscription includes the whole app. What you're paying for is the planning: a schedule built backward from when you want bread, bent around your sleep, with bulk timing tuned to your kitchen. A timer alone doesn't do that. No ads, no account needed, and your baking data stays on your device. Terms: https://loafnote.com/terms.html Privacy: https://loafnote.com/privacy.html
BakePlanner
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When does the sourdough have to go on so the bread comes out of the oven at 6 pm on Saturday? BakePlanner works it out and reminds you of every step. In BakePlanner a recipe is not just a list of ingredients but steps with durations. You choose “Done by” or “Start from”, and the app calculates the start time for the scald, the sourdough, kneading, folding, shaping and baking. “Turn on the oven” it adds by itself. Every step comes with a reminder on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The next step sits as a widget on the Home Screen and as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen. IN THE KITCHEN Bake Mode shows one step in big type, with its ingredients at the planned serving size, and reads it aloud if you like. Ask Siri for the next step, mark it done or push it back without touching the screen with doughy fingers. BAKER’S CALCULATORS • Starter TA: the recipe wants a starter at TA 150 and you keep yours at TA 200? The app converts the amount of starter and the water in the main dough. • Replace flour: spelt instead of wheat, wholegrain instead of white. The water follows the new flour, with advice on handling it. • Dough temperature: the water temperature for the dough temperature you want, with preferment and friction factor. • Serving size or dough weight, as you like. Dough yield, hydration and baker’s percentages are calculated along. CARING FOR THE SOURDOUGH Recurring recipes such as refreshing the starter are planned anew by the app after each time. In the feeding diary you note the time to peak, the float test and remarks. RECIPES Photograph a recipe from a book or share a web page from Safari: BakePlanner reads ingredients, components and steps and turns “fold every 30 minutes, 4x” into timed steps. In the shared recipe database you find recipes from other bakers. They are translated on the device, with a glossary that gets scald, bulk fermentation and starter right. Your own recipes stay on the device until you publish them. No account is needed; signing in with Apple is voluntary. SHOPPING AND KEEPING RECORDS The shopping list is sorted by shelf and takes the amounts at the chosen serving size. The baking history keeps a photo, measurements and the result of every baking day. The top list shows what turned out best. BakePlanner – say when the bread should be ready. The app works out the rest.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BakePlanner at none against LoafNote's 2. LoafNote's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. LoafNote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. BakePlanner asks for nothing beyond the download.
LoafNote ships an update every 6 days, BakePlanner every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LoafNote | BakePlanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bruin Labs LLC | Hans-Peter Mueller |
In-app purchases
LoafNote
- LoafNote Monthly1 Month trial$3.991 Month
- LoafNote Annual1 Month trial$29.991 Year
BakePlanner
No in-app purchases









