5 Best Coffee Apps That Will Help You Make Better Coffee

Whether you’re a pro or a coffee newbie, all of the things you need to create a great cup of coffee are found IRL. So why would you need a coffee app? Whether it’s discovering new recipes, keeping track of your beans, or just enjoying a really useful timer, there’s more here than meets the eye.

Here are the best coffee apps for iPhone and Android.

Note: we haven’t covered branded apps that connect to a smart coffee maker.

1. Filtru – Best Overall

It’s a timer, it’s a brew guide, it’s a journal. Filtru gives you a great overview of coffee brewing, without going into so much detail that it’s overwhelming. However, it’s not for complete newbies. Why? Because you’ll need a scale to follow the recipes. Still, it’s a great tool for someone with some experience perhaps trying out a new method.

Select your brewing method from the home screen and you’ll be provided with the Filtru recipe. You can read the equipment needed, plus all of the steps involved. Once you press play, you’ll be guided through the recipe in real-time. A visual aid shows you how much water you should be pouring in how many seconds, as well as bloom and extraction time.

Alternatively, you can add your own recipe from scratch and use this as a record-keeping tool. After your brew, the app will calculate an estimated strength and extraction based on your input.

Probably the coolest thing about this app is the option to connect to Bluetooth scales, with around 10 models currently supported. This will give you real-time feedback on your pouring technique, helping you to get exactly the right flow rate for your recipe.

The “discover” page allows you to buy coffee beans, discover recipes from the Filtru community, or read brew guides from coffee celebs.

Available for iOS and Android.

If you want to learn more about coffee and coffee making, then this list of coffee books might just give you the knowledge you need.

2. Brew Timer – Best For Discovery

Brew Timer works in a similar way to Filtru above, only with more flexibility. To start with, you have the choice of 14 different ways to make coffee, plus the option to create custom methods. This is more than any other apps we’ve listed.

Start with a professional recipe or one shared by the community. Again you’ll get the outline of the recipe, where you can quickly adjust quantities using a slider and see the temperature you need. The app will play you through the recipe, using both a timer and audio cues for the steps. You’ll also get coffee brewing tips, such as suggesting you adjust the grind if your brew time doesn’t match the recipe.

What’s great about Brew Timer is just how easy it is to create your own playable recipe. If you’ve found a recipe that’s “almost right”, you can simply clone it and adjust only the parts that need tweaking. Alternatively, you can create your own from scratch, with options for steps such as “invert” or “put the lid on”.

Finally, there’s an option to share any of your creations with the app community. This is the perfect tool for anyone who thinks they have the best Hario V60 recipe and wants to prove it to their friends. Fun, right?

Available for Android only.

3. Bean Conqueror – Best Coffee Journal App

This is one for all the true coffee nerds out there. We do love to stress how important it is to keep notes on your brews. But this app lets you go above and beyond the few specs you might scribble in a notebook!

Unlike the apps we’ve seen already, there are no recipes here. This is all about recording what you’ve made, and with what ingredients, and in what way. To get started with a particular brew, you’ll need to have set up at least one bean, one grinder, and one brew method. But it’s not as annoying as that sounds – you can add a little info as a name and come back with the details later. And when you do, you’ll be impressed by just how much information you can add.

Brewing methods include both standard and inverted AeroPress, as well as a field to add notes on filters or other equipment. And if your favorite coffee maker isn’t listed, you can create a “custom method.” On the bean page is where things get crazy. Here you can add everything from roast level and date, through to elevation, farmer, and even the month the beans were harvested.

Once you’ve completed your brew and saved the details, you have the option to add cupping scores. There are 10 qualities (such as brightness and uniformity) to mark, plus a “cuppers correction” score. The results are displayed in a radar graph for easy comparison with other beans.

Available for iOS and Android.

4. Brew Ratio – Best Single-function App

This app only does one thing, but it does it well. As the name suggests, this app is all about getting the perfect brew ratio. It’s intended for drippers rather than other methods, as your ratio options here range from 1:15 up to the Golden Ratio of 1:18 (1). Once you’ve selected your desired strength, the calculator will spit out how much coffee and water you’ll need to achieve this.

This might not sound so useful until you realize it’s not just the amounts needed for a single cup. You can put in any amount of water and it will tell you exactly how much coffee you need – and vice versa. But that’s not the best part. Weighing your coffee and your water is the most accurate way to measure. But that’s not always possible. Brew Ratio lets you choose between grams, ounces, and tablespoons for coffee, and grams, fluid ounces, or cups for the water. And they don’t have to match. So, if for some reason you want to measure coffee in tablespoons but your water in grams, you’re still going to nail that brew.

Available for Android only.

5. Coffee Dice – Best For Fun

If you’ve found yourself in a bit of a rut with your AeroPress routine, this is the app for you. Inspired by James Hoffman’s short-lived dice, this app will shake up the way you make your morning coffee. All of the variables that go into a brew have been allocated a die, and each side has different options. For example, one die has different brewing temperatures, another has coffee to water ratios, and another lists grind and extraction time.

The idea is that when you roll the dice (virtually in this case), you’re presented with a completely randomized recipe. And if it turns out to be a winner, you can save it to recreate later. We have said this is just for fun, but it is a great way to learn how different variables affect your coffee.

Coffee Dice is for iOS only, but there is a similar Android app, Aeroprecipe.

Final thoughts

Making an excellent cup of coffee doesn’t need to be complicated. But if, like us, you’re interested in the science behind the brew, you might need a little help keeping track of measurements or discovering new methods. These coffee apps can be a great resource for anyone who wants to get geeky with their beans, or even just enjoy the occasional experiment.