Joule vs Specsmith
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Joule
This app provides access to sous vide recipes and allows remote control of a sous vide device. It guides users through the cooking process with features like Visual Doneness and precise temperature management, ensuring perfectly cooked food.
- Exclusive sous vide cooking guides
- Visual Doneness selection
- Step-by-step cooking instructions
- Remote Bluetooth/Wifi control
- Precise temperature control
- Cooking notifications
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Get access to the best sous vide recipes and control Joule, the world’s smallest, most powerful sous vide tool, with the Joule App. From raw to ready, the app coaches you through the whole process, so cooking sous vide is simple. Just pick what you want to cook, and we’ll walk you through the rest. The Joule App includes groundbreaking features like Visual Doneness, precise temperature control from anywhere, and a robust collection of recipes and cooking guides created by the ChefSteps team. Joule and its app were built and designed from scratch to work together, and we’re just as dedicated to the quality of our products as we are to the food we make with them. You can read more about Joule and the Joule App in publications like CNET, Wired, Lifehacker, Food & Wine, and Network World. HOW DOES THE JOULE APP WORK? You tell us what you’re cooking, we tell you when it’s ready. Making a two-inch steak? Great. Just tap the Start button, and Joule will set a timer for perfect doneness. Get notified when your steak is ready—and we’ll also tell you how much longer it can stay in the water without overcooking. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE JOULE APP? • Exclusive access to our cooking guides: The app comes with step-by-step guides for everything from perfect fried chicken, to succulent salmon, to the best steak you’ve ever had in your life, helping you unlock the power of sous vide. What’s even better? We’ll keep adding new guides (and updating old ones) all the time. • Visual Doneness: Choose exactly how you want your food to look when it’s done, then press go, and Joule does the rest. No more filtering through online forums to get the information you need. Visual Doneness takes the guesswork out of sous vide. • Step-by-step instructions, so you can learn as you go: Every cooking guide comes loaded with quick videos that’ll teach you new techniques and help you get the best results. • Notifications that let you know when your water is hot and your food is done, no matter where you are. Not ready to eat? We’ll tell you how much longer your food can stay in without overcooking. • Bluetooth and Wifi control, so you can cook from anywhere. WHAT IS SOUS VIDE COOKING AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Chefs have been cooking sous vide for decades to get perfect proteins and amazing new textures. But, it’s not fancy or complicated—Joule heats water to a very specific temperature, so you can cook food gently, with super-human precision. The water never gets hotter than you want the food to be, so it won’t overcook. HOW DO I GET JOULE? Visit chefsteps.com/joule to learn more. CAN I STILL USE THE JOULE APP IF I HAVE ANOTHER SOUS VIDE TOOL, LIKE NOMIKU, SANSAIRE, OR ANOVA? Absolutely! You can still use our sous vide guides and Visual Doneness in the Joule App to figure out your favorite times and temperatures, then manually set your other tool and make amazing meals at home. LEGALESE: Terms of Use and Sale - https://www.chefsteps.com/terms Limited Warranty - https://www.chefsteps.com/joule/warranty EULA - https://www.chefsteps.com/eula Privacy Policy - https://www.chefsteps.com/privacy By downloading, installing or using the Joule app, you agree to the End User License Agreement. Currently, this app is only available in English.
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 rating: Specsmith at 5.0 against Joule's 2.6. Specsmith also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly). Joule's advantage is ratings volume (732 vs 1) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
Specsmith holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Joule has 732 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Joule ships an update monthly, Specsmith every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Joule | Specsmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.6 (732 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 19.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 732 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | ChefSteps Inc. | Jeremy Oertel |
Customer experience
Joule
Specsmith
In-app purchases
Joule
No in-app purchases
Specsmith
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Joule free?
Is Specsmith free?
Which has better reviews, Joule or Specsmith?
Do Joule or Specsmith have ads?
Which is updated more often, Joule or Specsmith?
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