Wine, Beer, Spirits & Cocktails Tracking
Vivino, Untappd, CellarTracker, Distiller, BrewTarget, CocktailDB — log what you drink, what you have, what you brew.
The "I tasted this Pinot in Burgundy in 2019 and want to remember" page. For the brewing-process side (homebrewing, fermentation logs) see Homebrewing & Fermentation Tracking; for coffee see Coffee Roasting & Tracking; for general beverage tracking and water see Water & Beverage Tracking; for alcohol-reduction apps see same.
Wine
- ★ Vivino — paid + free; massive crowd-DB; snap a label, get tasting notes / community rating / price. Marketplace integration is intrusive but the tracker layer is free. Default for casual wine drinkers.
- ★ CellarTracker — paid + small free; the serious-collector pick; massive professional-quality database; cellar tracking with bottle-by-bottle inventory; community tasting notes from collectors. The gold standard if you have a cellar.
- Delectable — paid + free; Drync-acquired; clean UI; smaller DB than Vivino.
- Wine-Searcher — paid + free; price discovery, not a tracker.
- Decanter Premium, Wine Spectator — paid; pro reviewer access.
- Hello Vino — sunset; ignore.
Beer
- ★ Untappd — paid + free; ubiquitous beer-check-in app; ~10M users; gamified ratings; brewery / venue check-ins; Untappd-for-Business is a real revenue line for breweries. Default.
- BeerAdvocate, RateBeer (now closed-ish) — older review communities; web-only.
- TapHunter — sunset; ignore.
Spirits
- ★ Distiller — free + paid; whisky / spirits-flavored review community; clean UI; smaller than Vivino but the right call for whiskey-curious.
- Whizzky, Whisky Connosr, Whisky Notes — niche; whisky-specific.
- Drinks Connect (was DrinkSpiration) — varying status.
- GetDrizly — paid retail; not really tracking.
Cocktails
- ★ The CocktailDB — free OSS-flavored open dataset; community-maintained; 600+ recipes; CC-BY. Powers most cocktail demos / apps. Pairs with Recipe Import & Scrapers.
- ★ Difford's Guide — paid + free; the cocktail bible; deep recipes; bartender-respected.
- Mr Boston Bartender — free + paid; classic-cocktail-flavored; old-school.
- Mixel — paid + free; clean iOS app; built around what's in your bar.
- Make Me a Cocktail — free; web; what-can-I-make-with-these-bottles.
- Cocktail Party — free + paid; iOS-native; minimal.
Self-host / FOSS
- ★ BrewTarget — FOSS homebrewing recipe + recipe-design app; BeerXML; desktop. See Homebrewing & Fermentation Tracking.
- Cellar / wine-trackers in Grocy — Grocy can model a wine cellar at a stretch; not what it's built for.
- Open Beer DB — community SQL dump; powers some apps.
- Open Bar / cocktail-app GitHub repos — varying maturity; nothing has hit Untappd-scale.
Formats and standards
- BeerXML — homebrewing recipe interchange format; supported by BrewFather, BrewTarget, Brewer's Friend.
- WSET tasting note format — Wine & Spirit Education Trust's structured tasting; CellarTracker supports.
- TheCocktailDB JSON — the de facto cocktail-recipe schema; not formal.
Cellar / inventory tracking
- ★ CellarTracker — for serious collections.
- Vivino "My Cellar" — basic.
- Wine Folly app — paid + free; education-flavored.
- Grocy — works at a stretch for liquor inventory.
- Sortly — works for any inventory; barcode + photo. See Inventory & Asset Management.
Restaurant / bar / industry
- BinWise, Provi, BevSpot — paid bar/restaurant beverage inventory + procurement; not consumer apps. See Point of Sale.
- Untappd for Business — drink-list management for breweries / taprooms.
Pricing reality (mid-2026)
| App | Free tier | Paid | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vivino | Generous | Premium ~$70/yr | Casual wine |
| CellarTracker | Limited | Donations encouraged | Serious cellar |
| Untappd | Generous | Plus ~$20/yr | Beer |
| Distiller | Generous | Pro paid | Spirits |
| Difford's Guide | Limited | ~$60/yr | Cocktails |
| TheCocktailDB | Free / OSS | - | Cocktail dataset |
Practical guidance
- ★ One platform per beverage class. Don't try to put cocktails in Vivino; the data models don't fit.
- Photograph the back label, not just the front. Tells you vintage / region / producer cleanly.
- Tasting note shorthand: WSET-lite. Color, nose, palate, finish, score. Three lines per bottle is plenty.
- Cellar size of >50 bottles? CellarTracker. Below that, Vivino's cellar feature is fine.
- Untappd unique-beer counts can become weird incentives. Drink the beer you want; ignore the gamification.
Pick this if…
- Casual wine, just want to remember labels: Vivino.
- Serious collection / cellar tracking: CellarTracker.
- Beer: Untappd.
- Whiskey / spirits: Distiller.
- Cocktails, building an app: TheCocktailDB.
- Cocktails, just curious bartender: Difford's Guide or Mr Boston.
- Homebrewing recipes: see Homebrewing & Fermentation Tracking.