Pick a wine app by job: rating, price or wine notes
A wine app is only useful if it answers the question you actually have. Standing in a shop, one person asks whether a bottle is any good, another asks whether the price is fair, and a third is trying to remember the wine they liked last month. Once you know which of those three jobs is yours, the choice narrows to one app, or two at most.
The suggested app for each job
Every free wine app here sells an optional Premium tier
You don't pay anything to install any of the four apps. Each one offers an optional paid upgrade: Vivino Premium, Wine-Searcher PRO, a CellarTracker subscription and Shelvin's Premium Plan.
That means you can try an app on your own bottles for a few weeks before deciding whether the paid tier is worth it. The upgrades add things like market prices in CellarTracker or more cellar space in Shelvin.
Wine-Searcher is free to use. You can purchase a subscription to Wine-Searcher PRO through an In-App Purchase. — From the listing descriptionView official source →
CellarTracker is a free site/app with paid subscription to access additional features. — From the opening of the articleView official source →
Each wine scanner app reads a label from a phone photo
A label scan means taking a photo of the front label so the app can work out which wine it is. It saves you from typing a producer name and vintage on a small screen, and all four apps support it.
What the scan leads to differs by app. Vivino and Wine-Searcher use it to look the wine up and show ratings or prices. CellarTracker and Shelvin use it to add the bottle to your own records.
Snap a photo of any wine label to unlock ratings, reviews, tasting notes, and food pairings — From the listing descriptionView official source →
Add wines via wine scanner, barcode, label scan, or digital receipt forwarding — From the listing descriptionView official source →
Inventory needs a wine tracker app, not just a journal
Some readers have a different problem: they own dozens of bottles and can't remember which rack each one sits on. That is an inventory job. Looking up ratings or prices won't solve it, because neither records where a bottle is stored.
If that sounds like you, read "Wine Inventory Apps: 5 Cellar Trackers Compared" instead. Shelvin and CellarTracker handle inventory as well as notes.
Instant Wine Registration: Simply snap a photo of the wine label, and our Cloud will automatically identify the brand, vintage, country of origin, and type, completing the registration in seconds. — From the "Label Scanning" section of the listingView official source →
Vivino is the wine rating app to try first
Vivino is a wine rating app: you scan a bottle and see how other drinkers scored it. It is the app to try first for ratings, because the free version already covers scanning, ratings and reviews.
What Vivino includes for free and with Premium in the US
| Plan | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free app | Label and wine list scans, ratings, reviews, a record of wines you tried | $0 |
| Vivino Premium | Paid features added on top of the free app | $4.99/month or $47.90/year |
The Vivino label scanner reads restaurant wine lists too
Take a photo of a label and Vivino shows the wine's ratings, reviews, tasting notes and food pairings. At a restaurant you can photograph the whole wine list, and Vivino points out the bottles that fit your taste.
Every wine you rate stays in the app with your own notes, so Vivino doubles as a simple wine journal. Rate the wines you scan, and its suggestions shift toward what you like. Scanning and the app's cellar features are covered in more detail in "Vivino App: Ratings, Scanning and the Cellar".
Scan full restaurant wine lists to quickly spot the best bottles for your taste ／ Keep a record of every wine you’ve tried, with your own ratings, reviews, and notes — From the listing descriptionView official source →
Vivino Premium costs $4.99 a month on top of the free app
Vivino Premium is the paid upgrade to the free app. In the United States it costs $4.99 a month or $47.90 a year.
iPhone and Android users pay the same price. Premium is added to the free app rather than replacing it. You can keep scanning and rating for free and only upgrade if you find you want more.
iOS: 4.99 USD/month, 47.9 USD/year, Android: 4.99 USD/month, 47.9 USD/year — From the United States row of the price-per-region listView official source →
The Wine-Searcher app is the wine price app to use
The Wine-Searcher app is a wine price app: it shows what different merchants charge for the same wine and where you can buy it. Use it before you pay, to check that a shop's price is in line with what other merchants charge.
What Wine-Searcher shows for a wine you look up
Wine-Searcher scans compare prices from 55,000 merchants
Scan the label or type the name, and Wine-Searcher brings up prices, critic scores, grape and region, and the vintages for sale. According to its App Store listing, a scan searches 8 million offers from 55,000 merchants.
Wine-Searcher's own listing singles out where to buy as the most important thing it shows. For a bottle you are waiting on, you can set an alert for its price or availability. The same search also covers beer and spirits.
Just scan the label and find a wealth of info on 8 million wine offers from 55,000 merchants. — From the listing descriptionView official source →
The Wine-Searcher app is free, with PRO sold in-app
Downloading and using Wine-Searcher costs nothing. Wine-Searcher PRO is a subscription you can buy inside the app if you want more than the free features.
Install it next to Vivino if paying a fair price for a particular bottle matters to you. Vivino tells you whether people liked the wine, and Wine-Searcher tells you whether the shop is charging too much for it.
With the Wine-Searcher app, you can look up a wine to find out prices, critic scores, grape and region information, available vintages, and most importantly, where to buy. — From the listing descriptionView official source →
CellarTracker and Shelvin keep your wine tasting notes
Wine tasting notes are short records of what a wine tasted like and what you thought of it. CellarTracker and Shelvin both store them for free, but a note holds different things in each app. Their free plans also cover different amounts.
How CellarTracker and Shelvin store notes on wines you drink
| App | What a note holds | Free plan |
|---|---|---|
| CellarTracker | Your rating and notes per bottle, next to community notes | Free site and app |
| Shelvin | Rating, notes and the dish you ate, searchable later | Unlimited tasting logs on your phone |
CellarTracker puts your wine notes beside 11M community notes
In CellarTracker you give each bottle a rating and write down what you tasted. The app holds more than 13 million reviews. Of those, 11 million are tasting notes from other users and 2 million come from professional critics.
When other drinkers have written about the same bottle, you get a second opinion to compare with your own. The site and app are free to use.
A subscription for up to 100 bottles costs $40 a year and adds market prices and automatic valuation of your cellar. Check the full price table in "CellarTracker: Languages, Pricing, Free Tier" before you subscribe.
- Add personal wine tasting notes, reviews, and wine ratings for each bottle ／ - Access over 13M wine reviews: 11M community tasting notes + 2M professional reviews — From the listing descriptionView official source →
Wine prices (market, auction, community average) ／ Automatic cellar valuation ／ Up to 100 bottles — From the subscriber-only rows and the annual price table ($40 for that tier)View official source →
Shelvin's free wine journal app keeps unlimited tasting logs
Shelvin registers the bottles in your cellar from a photo of the label. Version 1.9.0, released on September 13, 2026, added tasting logs. A log stores your rating, your notes and the dish you had with the wine, whether you opened it at home or ordered it at a restaurant.
The free plan has no cap on tasting logs, which are kept on your phone, and you can search them later by grape, region or star rating. If all you remember about a wine from last spring is the region, searching by region will still bring it up.
The free plan also holds up to 16 bottles in the cellar, and the Premium Plan costs $6.99 a month. Shelvin is on the App Store. Shelvin (App Store)
Beautifully record and rate wines you've enjoyed—whether opened from your cellar or savored at a restaurant—complete with tasting notes and dish pairings. ／ Price: $6.99 (USD) — From the "Tasting Logs" section and the subscription detailsView official source →
品種や産地、星評価によるスマートな検索にも対応。 ／ 飲んだ記録 無制限（端末保存） ／ セラー登録 16本まで — From the tasting log feature and the Free plan column (the page is in Japanese)View official source →
Delectable and Hello Vino stopped updating their iPhone apps
Some best-of roundups still recommend wine apps that have not received an App Store update in years. Before installing an app you found on a list, open its App Store page and check the date of the latest version in the version history.
Latest US App Store version of two apps still named on best-of lists
| App | Latest version | Released |
|---|---|---|
| Delectable | 5.9.5 | September 14, 2021 |
| Hello Vino | 5.0.11 | September 15, 2017 |
The Delectable wine app was last updated in September 2021
Delectable still appears in roundups of the best wine apps. Its latest App Store version, 5.9.5, was released on September 14, 2021, and nothing newer has followed.
An app that has gone this long without an update may still open, but it is a poor place to start notes you want to keep for years. For ratings, use Vivino. For notes on what you drink, use CellarTracker or Shelvin.
5.9.5 09/14/2021 — From the latest entry in the version historyView official source →
Hello Vino's last iPhone release notes date from 2017
Hello Vino describes itself as a virtual wine assistant that suggests food and wine pairings after asking you a few questions. It is also still listed in roundups, but its latest App Store version, 5.0.11, is dated September 15, 2017.
The release notes for 5.0.11 mention adjustments for iOS 11, which gives a sense of how old the app is. If food pairings are what you want, Vivino's label scan already shows pairings for the bottle in your hand.
<strong> This 5.0.11 release includes a few tweaks for the big iOS 11 update. </strong> — From the latest entry in the version historyView official source →
Start with one free wine app for rating, price or notes
You only need one of the best wine apps: the one that matches your job. Install Vivino to see how a bottle rates, Wine-Searcher to see what it sells for, and CellarTracker or Shelvin to keep notes on what you drank.
If most of your bottles come from a cellar at home, one app can handle both notes and inventory. CellarTracker and Shelvin track the bottles you own as well as the ones you open, so the inventory app comparison linked above is worth a look before you settle on one.
All four apps are free to start, so trying one for a few weeks costs nothing. If your main goal is to remember the wines you open at home and at restaurants, Shelvin's free plan keeps every tasting log and lets you search them by grape, region or rating. Shelvin (App Store)
FAQ
- What is the best free wine app?
- All four apps in this guide are free to download. For ratings, Vivino costs nothing unless you add Premium. For notes on what you drink, CellarTracker's site and app are free, and Shelvin's free plan keeps an unlimited number of tasting logs on your phone.
- Which app tells me what a bottle of wine costs?
- Wine-Searcher. Look up or scan a wine and it lists prices from merchants, critic scores and where you can buy it. The app is free, and a PRO subscription is sold inside the app.
- Can I log a wine I drank at a restaurant?
- Yes. Shelvin's tasting log, added in version 1.9.0, saves your rating, tasting notes and the dish you ate with the wine, for bottles opened at home or at a restaurant. Vivino also saves each wine you have tried, along with the ratings and notes you added.
- How much is Vivino Premium in the US?
- Vivino Premium costs $4.99 a month or $47.90 a year in the United States, at the same price on iOS and Android. The basic app, including label scans and ratings, is free.
Related articles
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