Comparison

Sourdough Starter vs StarterLog

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

Head to head
About

Sourdough Starter

This app helps you track and care for your sourdough starter and other ferments. It uses your phone's camera to analyze your starter's progress and provides personalized feeding schedules and troubleshooting advice. It also includes recipes and calculators for various fermented foods.

Highlights
  • Camera-based starter analysis
  • Personalized feeding schedules
  • Troubleshooting for ferment issues
  • Recipes for starter and other ferments
  • Ferment tracking for multiple types
  • Bake planning and calculators
  • Voice and widget controls
Features
Read full description

Your sourdough starter is alive. Fermento treats it that way. Klaus — or whatever you name yours — has a face. Leave him too long and he looks hungry. Feed him and he beams. It sounds silly right up until you realise you haven't killed a starter in months. A PHOTO INSTEAD OF A GUESS With Plus, hold the jar up to the camera. Bubbie reads the bubbles, how far it climbed, the crust drying on the glass — six things a camera can genuinely judge, not ten invented ones. Then she says what it means for your next feed, and moves it. Photograph a cut loaf and she reads the crumb the same way. SIX JARS, ONE SHELF Sourdough starter, brine pickles, kombucha, kraut and kimchi, yogurt and kefir, ginger bug. Each gets its own character, rhythm and checklist. FROM FLOUR AND WATER Three day-by-day recipes raise a starter from scratch: the grams for each day, and what you should be seeing. Around day four it looks dead in every one of them — Fermento tells you that before you throw it out. REMINDERS THAT READ THE ROOM Free jars run on a fixed rhythm you choose. With Plus, tell Fermento how warm your kitchen is and it pulls the next feed forward on hot days, pushes it back when it's cold. Quiet hours are respected — nothing pings you at 3 a.m. Burp reminders for pickles, fizz checks for kombucha, a wake-up when a jar leaves the fridge. FEED BY THE SCALE Tell Fermento once what the empty jar weighs and every feed names the number to watch for instead of an amount to guess at. Your jar can hold a blend — 70 % wheat, 30 % wholegrain rye — and Bubbie says whether that ratio carries it to the next feed. WHEN SOMETHING LOOKS WRONG Grey liquid on top? White film? No rise? Photograph it, or pick what you see from a list. Bubbie explains what it actually is, and with Plus installs a real fix: a changed ratio, a shorter schedule, a set number of feeds. The jar stays in rescue mode until it's back on track. IT LEARNS YOUR STARTER Log a rise and Fermento remembers how long it took. The countdown to the peak is free and runs on your Lock Screen. With Plus it drops the rule of thumb and uses your jar's own measured curve instead. PLAN A BAKE BACKWARDS Say when the dough goes together and Fermento names the feed time and the ratio so the starter peaks exactly then. One plan a month is free. WHEN YOUR HANDS ARE FULL "Hey Siri, feed my starter in Fermento." A widget and a Control Centre button do the same in one tap. On bake day the step you're in counts down on the Lock Screen. EVERYTHING YOU DID, KEPT A calendar that fills itself and, with Plus, a photo timeline per jar and a monthly recap to share. Dough and brine calculators. Discard recipes so nothing goes in the bin. Your whole log exports as CSV — free, because it is your data. BADGES YOU EARN Twenty milestones and twenty-one outfits for your jars. None of them can be bought — they only come from actually looking after your ferments. WHAT LEAVES YOUR IPHONE No account, no sign-up, no ads, nothing sold on. Your jars, photos and history live on the device and sync through your own iCloud if you want them to. A photo sent for a reading is resized, stripped of its location, and stored nowhere — not on the server, not in a log. The weather heads-up is optional and sends a rounded-off region, never an address. Anonymous counts show where people get stuck; a switch in Settings turns them off. FERMENTO PLUS Unlimited jars, full history, the photo readings, the bake planner, rescue plans, temperature-aware reminders, photo timelines and the bake book. Free keeps two jars and 30 days of history. Fermento is a logbook, not a lab. It won't tell you whether something is safe to eat - when in doubt, throw it out. Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms of Use: https://jonaspolenz368.github.io/Fermento/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://jonaspolenz368.github.io/Fermento/privacy.html

About

StarterLog

Features
Read full description

StarterLog is a sourdough starter log built for bakers who are tired of paying a subscription for what should be a simple feeding log. Log a feeding in seconds — ratio, flour, water and temperature — and start the rise timer with one tap. A Live Activity tracks the rise on your Lock Screen; mark it peaked and the rise duration is saved to that feeding automatically. Tell the bake planner when you want the bread ready, and it counts back through feed, rise, mix, bulk ferment and bake to show exactly when to start — based on your own starter's recent rise times, not a guess. FEEDING LOG - Track one or more named starters, each with its own feeding history - Log ratio, flour type, water amount and temperature per feeding - Feeding reminders on a schedule you set - Attach a photo to any feeding from your Photos library RISE TIMER - A Live Activity that tracks the rise after every feeding - One tap to mark it peaked — the rise duration is logged automatically - Every estimate shows its arithmetic: "from your last 3 rises, 4h 10m – 6h 30m" BAKE PLANNER - Enter when the bread should be ready and get a full count-back schedule: feed, rise, mix, bulk ferment, bake - Built from your starter's own rise history, not a generic timetable BAKER'S TOOLS - Hydration and levain calculator, independent of the log - A home-screen widget showing the active starter's last feed and next feeding due PRICE StarterLog is free to download. Logging feedings, the rise timer Live Activity, feeding reminders, and the hydration and levain calculator are free forever, for one starter. A single one-time purchase of USD 3.99 — StarterLog Unlimited — adds unlimited starters, the bake planner, the photo log and the widget. No subscription, no ads, ever. No AI scan, either: StarterLog reads your starter's health from the log you already keep, not a photo classifier. No account. No tracking. Your data stays on your device.

Screenshots

Sourdough Starter4 screens
StarterLog4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: StarterLog at daily against Sourdough Starter's every 3 days. 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Sourdough Starter sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.49 per month and StarterLog sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sourdough Starter ships an update every 3 days, StarterLog daily. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Sourdough Starter versus StarterLog: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSourdough StarterStarterLog
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJonas PolenzSoin

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Sourdough Starter

Subscriptions2
  • FermentoPlusMonthly7 Days trial$4.491 Month
  • Fermento Yearly7 Days trial$35.991 Year
1 purchases

StarterLog

One-time1
  • StarterLog Unlimited$3.99

Questions

Is Sourdough Starter free?
Sourdough Starter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is StarterLog free?
StarterLog is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Sourdough Starter or StarterLog have ads?
Neither Sourdough Starter nor StarterLog shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sourdough Starter or StarterLog?
Sourdough Starter ships an update every 3 days, and StarterLog daily. Most recently, Sourdough Starter was updated on November 10, 2026 and StarterLog on October 29, 2026.

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