Methodology · Updated 17 Oct 2026
How the scores work
Each category score mixes measured facts, a timing model and a few judged inputs, all listed on this page. The overall score is a weighted average of the seven categories.
Seven categories
| Category | What goes in |
|---|---|
| Pour speed | 60% modeled screen time from opening the recipe to the garnish (fastest app = 10, twice as slow = 5), 20% clear measures, 20% step-by-step help for a drink you don't know |
| Finding | 50% modeled time to reach the recipe (fastest app = 10, twice as slow = 5), 50% search and browse quality |
| Library | 60% recipe count on a log scale (100 = 0, 20,000 = 10), 40% curation |
| Bar tools | Share of 13 tools documented; partly counts half |
| Pro features | Share of 3 pro features documented; partly counts half |
| Price | 50% first-year cost, averaged over the cheapest plan with every recipe and the plan that unlocks everything ($0 = 10, $60 = 0), 50% value without paying. Where a developer doesn't say which plan includes every recipe, the assumption is stated on the compare page |
| Upkeep | 40% days since the last update (today = 10, three years = 0), 20% store rating pulled toward 4.0 by 50 placeholder ratings so small counts can't swing it, 20% platforms, 20% App Store privacy label |
Weights
Four presets, each a set of whole-number weights from 0 to 10. The overall score is the weighted average of the category scores. The home page lets you set your own.
| Category | General | Behind the bar | Home bar | Equal weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pour speed | 4 (20%) | 6 (30%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (14%) |
| Finding | 3 (15%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (14%) |
| Library | 4 (20%) | 2 (10%) | 5 (25%) | 3 (14%) |
| Bar tools | 3 (15%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (14%) |
| Pro features | 1 (5%) | 4 (20%) | 0 (0%) | 3 (14%) |
| Price | 3 (15%) | 1 (5%) | 4 (20%) | 3 (14%) |
| Upkeep | 2 (10%) | 1 (5%) | 2 (10%) | 3 (14%) |
The timing model
The pour test estimates screen time for one new drink. See the results
screen time = find + open + first read + look-backs
find = touches × 0.33 s + 2 decisions × 1.35 s
(+ 1.35 s to dismiss an ad)
open = each scroll or tab × 1.68 s
first read = words × 0.25 s (icons count as words)
look-backs = 6 × 1.0 s
+ each off-screen look × 1.68 s
Mojito text: 16 words of ingredients, 40 of method,
3 for glass and garnish
Constants and assumptions
- 0.33 s per touch, from 36.2 words per minute of phone typing at five characters per word (Palin et al., 2019).
- 1.35 s per decision or new screen, the mental-preparation operator of the keystroke-level model (Card, Moran and Newell, 1980).
- 0.25 s per word, from 238 words per minute of silent reading (Brysbaert, 2019).
- 2 typed letters before predictive search offers the drink, in every app.
- An icon reads like a word: 6 Imbiblia icons for the Mojito.
- 6 look-backs while building, 1 s each; one is off-screen on a scrolled page and two on a tabbed page.
- 8,500+ Drink Recipes adds an ad to dismiss at launch and 1.35 s for units that vary by recipe.
- BarGenius and Bartender's Suite share Cocktails Guru's modeled layout, because nothing public separates them.
Computed inputs
Scores out of 10, worked out from the facts on each review page. Ratings are pooled across stores, then pulled toward 4.0 by 50 placeholder ratings so a handful of reviews can't swing them.
| Input | Imbiblia | Cocktails Guru | BarGenius | Bartender's Suite | 8,500+ Drinks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen-time score, recipe to garnish (pour) | 10.0 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.0 |
| Time-to-recipe score (find) | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 7.2 |
| Library size score | 7.7 | 10.0 | 8.7 | 8.5 | 8.4 |
| Days since last update | 291 | 37 | 3 | 784 | 551 |
| Update recency score | 7.3 | 9.7 | 10.0 | 2.8 | 5.0 |
| Combined store rating | 4.75 (92) | 4.60 (9,000) | 4.80 (89) | 5.00 (1) | 4.70 (32,000) |
| Rating score | 8.7 | 9.0 | 8.8 | 7.5 | 9.2 |
| First-year price score | 4.8 | 8.3 | 6.7 | 9.8 | 1.7 |
| Bar tools documented | 9.5 of 13 | 8 of 13 | 4.5 of 13 | 2.5 of 13 | 1.5 of 13 |
| Pro features documented | 3 of 3 | 1 of 3 | 1.5 of 3 | 0 of 3 | 0 of 3 |
Judged inputs
Scored 0 to 10 from store listings, developer sites and reviews. 5 means no public evidence either way.
| Input | Imbiblia | Cocktails Guru | BarGenius | Bartender's Suite | 8,500+ Drinks | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear measures | 9 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | Unit conversion between oz, ml, cl, cups and liters (Imbiblia); metric measures and barspoons on its Mojito page (Cocktails Guru); units that vary from recipe to recipe, per a 2017 review (8,500+). 5 means no public evidence either way. |
| Step-by-step help | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 3 | Numbered steps and Academy lessons (Cocktails Guru); lessons and flashcards (BarGenius); step-by-step instructions for every drink (Bartender's Suite); the method shown as icons, with notes on history and method (Imbiblia); separate ingredient and instruction tabs, as AppleVis described the app in 2014 (8,500+). |
| Search and browse | 8 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 3 | Search plus IBA, classic, regional and alcohol-free collections, a Top 100 and My Bar matching (Cocktails Guru); search by name, ingredient and flavor, per its website, though a 2022 review says misspellings return nothing (Imbiblia); a 2017 review says search only matches the start of a word (8,500+). 7 means ordinary search and browse, with nothing public for or against. |
| Curation | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | Classics cross-checked against about 75 books, per BCBusiness in 2021 (Imbiblia); IBA sets alongside community recipes (Cocktails Guru); a "largest collection in the world" claim at 10,000+ (BarGenius); recipe data last updated in 2016 (Bartender's Suite); every kind of drink, with units that vary by recipe (8,500+). |
| Value without paying | 8 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 3 | A free tier a 2024 reviewer called extensive, and no ads (Imbiblia); free to use with sponsor placements, plus a Premium plan whose contents aren't listed (Cocktails Guru); full access needs Pro (BarGenius); everything for one $0.99 payment (Bartender's Suite); ads and locked content (8,500+). |
| Platforms | 8 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, with the Android build last updated in May 2024 (Imbiblia); the same plus the web (Cocktails Guru); Apple devices only (the other three). |
| Privacy label | 10 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 4 | Data not collected = 10; data not linked to you = 7; data used for third-party advertising = 4. |
Robustness
To see how much the ranking depends on the weights, we drew 20,000 random weightings, spread evenly over every possible mix of the seven categories (seed 7), and counted how often each app lands in each place. Imbiblia ranks first under 81% of random weightings, Cocktails Guru under 18%. See the full tables
Limits
- Screen times are modeled, not measured on devices.
- Features count only when an app documents them publicly, so an app may do more than its listing says.
- Recipe counts are each developer's own figures. None was audited.
- Ratings come from different stores. Cocktails Guru's is its website's figure across the app stores.
- Where a developer doesn't say which paid plan includes every recipe, the price score assumes one; the compare page says which.
- Judged inputs are judgment calls. Their basis is listed above, and the weights on the home page let you discount any category.
- Prices are US App Store prices on the date above.
Sources
Pages consulted between 15 and 16 October 2026.
Imbiblia
- App Store listing and reviews
- Google Play listing
- imbiblia.com
- BCBusiness, November 2021
- Product Hunt listing
Cocktails Guru
BarGenius
Professional Bartender's Suite
8,500+ Drink Recipes
Research
Changelog
- Imbiblia's search score now credits the flavor search its website documents (7 to 8).
- Imbiblia counted at 5,879 recipes and 4,957 ingredients. The alternate 1,000+ library count is gone.
- Disclosure rewritten in the publisher's words: why the site compares the cocktail apps with the most recipes, including Imbiblia.
- First edition: five apps, seven categories, the pour test, and ten head-to-head comparisons.