Wine Inventory Apps: 5 Cellar Trackers Compared

Inventory apps track bottles, locations and drinking windows

A wine inventory app tracks three things: which bottles you have, where each one is stored, and when it is ready to open. Not every app handles all three, so it helps to see who covers what before comparing them head to head.

What each of the five apps tracks

Bottles

All five can add a bottle by scanning it

Location

Shelvin, InVintory, CellarTracker and Oeni record where a bottle is stored

Drinking windows

Oeni, InVintory, CellarTracker (enhanced for subscribers) and Vivino show when to open

Bottle lists built from label scans and searches

Every app here can start an entry from the camera. Point Shelvin at a label and it enters the wine's type, region, vintage and brand, so a new bottle goes in without typing a producer name.

Shelvin's inventory report then groups the collection by type and region. InVintory draws on a database of more than 2 million wines, so a bottle can be found either by scanning its label or by typing a name.

Where each bottle sits, down to the rack and shelf

Four of the five apps let you attach a location to a bottle, and they do it at different levels of detail. Shelvin works at the level of the shelf itself: you register each cellar, then mark the row and tier a wine sits in.

InVintory files a bottle by cellar and then by rack, bin or case, or under a location name of your own. CellarTracker keeps a storage location for each wine even when the collection is split between several places, while Oeni lays bottles out inside a 3D model of your cellar. For ways to plan the layout itself, see "Wine Cellar Organization: Zones and Coordinates".

Drinking windows and notes on the bottles you open

Guidance on when to open a bottle comes in several forms. Oeni works out when a bottle should be opened as soon as you enter its vintage. InVintory's free plan shows drinking windows for select wines in its database, and CellarTracker reserves its enhanced drinking windows and alerts for subscribers.

Vivino's US listing ties opening times to its cellar, so anything you add there is listed with its drinking window next to the rest of your stock. Since version 1.9.0, Shelvin also keeps a tasting log with ratings, notes and food pairings for bottles opened at home or ordered at a restaurant. For the aging side of the question, see "When to Drink Wine: Drinking Window and Aging".

Four points decide which wine cellar app to pick

The five apps differ most on four points: how precisely they record location, how bottles get added, what the free tier covers against the paid price, and which devices they run on. Deciding your answer on each point first makes the comparison table much quicker to read.

Four points to compare before picking an app

Location detail

Shelf row and tier, rack and bin, or a 3D cellar, and whether 3D costs extra

Adding bottles

Label scans, plus barcodes or forwarded receipts

Free tier and price

How many bottles the free plan holds and what the paid plan costs in USD

Platforms

iPhone, Android, Mac or a web browser

Shelvin maps shelves for free; InVintory charges for 3D

If the goal is to stop hunting through racks, look at the smallest unit of location each app supports. Shelvin records row and tier, and that shelf mapping is part of its free plan.

InVintory's 3D view rebuilds your cellars and wine fridges on screen so you can spot a single bottle inside them. That view belongs to Premium at $149.99 a year. Multiple storage locations, on the other hand, come with every plan.

Ways to add bottles beyond pointing the camera at a label

All five apps can add a bottle from a scan, so the camera alone won't separate them. CellarTracker widens the options: besides its wine scanner, it reads barcodes and accepts forwarded digital receipts.

Free tiers range from 16 bottles to no cap at all

Free plans range from a small starter allowance to no cap at all. Shelvin's free plan holds 16 bottles, and its Premium Plan removes the limit for $6.99 a month in the US. InVintory's free plan has no bottle limit and allows up to 10 cellars or fridges.

CellarTracker keeps inventory free and charges for extras such as market prices and automatic valuation. The yearly price follows cellar size: $40 for up to 100 bottles, $60 for up to 250 and $80 for up to 500. Vivino Premium costs $4.99 a month or $47.90 a year in the US, and Oeni lets you try Oeni Plus free for 30 days.

Four of the five also run on Android or the web

Platform support splits the list in two. InVintory runs on iOS, Android and the web, Vivino and Oeni both offer Android apps, and CellarTracker works on desktop, mobile web and its app for every user.

Shelvin is distributed through the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Macs with Apple M1 or later, and Apple Vision, and its listing mentions no Android version. If your household runs on Android, look at the other four.

The 5 best wine inventory apps compared side by side

Putting the five apps against those four points gives the table below. Short profiles follow, each ending with the kind of collector the app suits.

Location and platforms

App	Location detail	Platforms
Shelvin	Shelf row and tier (free plan included)	iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision
InVintory	Cellar, rack, bin or case; 3D view on Premium	iOS, Android, web
CellarTracker	Storage locations across multiple sites	App, desktop, mobile web
Oeni	3D cellar	iOS, Android, Apple Vision
Vivino	Not described in the listing	iOS, Android

Free tier and US price

App	Free tier	Paid plan
Shelvin	Up to 16 bottles	$6.99 a month
InVintory	Unlimited bottles, up to 10 cellars or fridges	$149.99 a year
CellarTracker	Inventory tracking	$40 to $500 a year by cellar size
Oeni	Part of the app	Oeni Plus, 30-day free trial
Vivino	Core app	$4.99 a month or $47.90 a year

Shelvin: shelf rows and tiers, free for up to 16 bottles

Shelvin is built around the physical shelf. You register one or more cellars, place each wine on a row and tier, and switch its status between "In Storage" and "Available" so open slots show up once a bottle is gone.

The free plan holds 16 bottles and allows two label scans a week. Premium, at $6.99 a month in the US, removes the bottle limit and raises scans to 50 a month; the app itself is available in English and Japanese.

It suits collectors on Apple devices who want to walk to the right shelf without searching, and who can start small before paying. Shelvin (App Store)

InVintory: no bottle cap on the free plan, 3D is paid

InVintory's free plan puts no limit on bottles, which makes it an easy place to load a large collection without paying. It also allows up to 10 cellars or fridges and lets you add family members or other collaborators.

Premium costs $149.99 a year and brings the 3D cellar, bottle-finding inside that model and up to 20 cellars or fridges. It runs on iOS, Android and the web. InVintory fits collectors who want every bottle logged for free, or who manage their wine from an Android phone or a web browser.

CellarTracker: free inventory, paid tiers by cellar size

CellarTracker pairs inventory tracking with a database of more than 5 million wines. Inventory tracking stays free. The app also covers storage locations and stock held across several sites.

The subscription price climbs with cellar size, reaching $160 for up to 1,000 bottles, $320 for up to 2,500 and $500 beyond that. You can also pay a different amount, and going over your tier carries no penalty. It suits collectors who want a very large wine database and are comfortable paying by the size of their cellar.

Oeni: a 3D cellar with suggested times to open

Oeni places your bottles inside a 3D cellar and suggests when to open each one once its vintage is entered. It also refreshes the market value of your bottles every month.

Part of the app is free, and Oeni Plus can be tried for 30 days. The iPhone app needs iOS 13.0 or later, and Oeni offers an Android app too. It fits collectors who care most about opening bottles at the right moment and following what the cellar is worth.

Vivino: ratings first, with a cellar for bottles you own

Vivino is mainly a ratings and discovery app: it scans labels and even whole restaurant wine lists. Its cellar lists the bottles you own with their drinking windows, broken down by type, grape and region.

Vivino Premium costs $4.99 a month or $47.90 a year in the US. The listing doesn't mention recording which shelf a bottle is on. Vivino suits people who mostly look up ratings and want a simple record of what they have at home.

Moving an existing collection into a new app

Once an app is chosen, the first job is getting your current bottles into it. How smooth that is depends on whether you already track wine in a spreadsheet, plan to scan bottle by bottle, or share the cellar with other people.

Three things that decide how the move goes

Import

Whether a spreadsheet or another app's data can come across (InVintory does this on its free plan)

Scan limits

Whether the free plan caps label scans (Shelvin allows two a week)

Sharing

Whether the free plan lets family or staff use the same cellar

Importing a spreadsheet or another app into InVintory

A collection already kept in a spreadsheet shouldn't have to be retyped. InVintory's free plan imports a spreadsheet or another platform's export through a template, and it can pull collections from CellarTracker or Vivino.

It also exports your data as a CSV file, so the list isn't locked in. If your spreadsheet still needs tidying before the move, "Wine Inventory Excel: Columns and Where It Breaks" covers the column setup.

Scanning labels one at a time on a free plan

Without a spreadsheet, bottles go in one at a time by scan or search, and free plans may ration scans. Shelvin's free plan allows two label scans a week, so filling its 16-bottle allowance by camera alone takes eight weeks. Premium raises the scan limit to 50 a month.

Sharing one cellar with family members or staff

If more than one person pulls bottles from the cellar, check which plan includes sharing. Shelvin invites people by showing them a QR code, and its pricing lists team sharing under Premium.

InVintory's free plan already lets you add family members or collaborators with access levels you set. For a closer look at four apps side by side, see "Wine Inventory App Sharing: Four Apps Compared".

Your devices and cellar size decide the best wine cellar app

Pick by how you store and use your wine. Shelvin fits Apple users who want each bottle tied to a shelf row, and InVintory fits large collections you want to log for free or manage from Android and the web.

CellarTracker suits collectors who want its large database and don't mind paying by cellar size. Oeni is for anyone focused on opening times and cellar value, and Vivino for people who mainly check ratings.

If spending nothing matters most, InVintory's free plan takes unlimited bottles and CellarTracker's free membership also tracks your inventory. Because Shelvin's free plan includes shelf mapping, you can try it on a handful of bottles before deciding. Shelvin (App Store)