Best Beekeeping Apps and Apiary Management Software Compared

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For most hobby beekeepers, HiveTracks is the easiest beekeeping app to start with: a free mobile app with guided inspections, reminders and an optional paid web dashboard. If you want to talk your notes instead of typing with sticky gloves, look at HiveBloom or Apiary Book. If you use hive sensors, the BroodMinder Bees app is built around them. And if you are on iPhone and want everything stored offline, Apiarist is worth a look.

This list is based on each app’s published features and store listings, checked on 29 September 2026. We have not tested every app hands-on in a bee yard, and pricing changes often, so we describe the pricing model (free, freemium, subscription, one-off purchase) rather than quoting figures. Check the current price in the app store before you commit.

Beekeeping apps compared

The apps, one by one

HiveTracks

HiveTracks is one of the longest-running beekeeping apps. The US company says its free mobile app is used on around 50,000 hives. The app walks you through an inspection so you don’t forget to check for the queen, eggs, stores or pests, then suggests when to inspect next and reminds you. It also has a “bee weather” forecast to help you pick a good inspection day, a seasonal to-do list, multi-apiary support, and a plant and pollinator identifier added in 2025.

Who it suits: first- and second-year beekeepers who want prompts, not just a blank notebook. Limits: the web dashboard and data export sit behind the Pro subscription, and the App Store listing notes that you cannot edit data after the free trial ends without subscribing. Independent comparisons describe its offline support as limited, so test it in your yard before you rely on it.

Apiary Book

Apiary Book is made by a Romanian developer and is popular across Europe; it reports more than 260,000 installs and is available in 19 languages. You can log inspections, treatments, feedings, harvests, colony moves and hive weights. The voice assistant lets you dictate notes and reminders while your hands are full, and you can print QR codes or use NFC tags so the app opens the right hive when you scan the box. Records export to CSV and PDF.

Who it suits: beekeepers with several apiaries, and anyone who wants the app in a language other than English. Limits: the free version is capped at one apiary with a small number of hives. The developer says some features are not available on iPhone, iPad, Huawei devices or the web app, so Android users get the fullest version.

HiveBloom

HiveBloom is a newer journal-style app. Its main trick is AI dictation: you describe what you see and the app fills in the inspection form. It also tracks each queen (age, lineage, milestones), sends reminders, shows apiaries on a map, and gives “mentor” prompts about timing for jobs like varroa treatment and requeening. You can share hives with a mentor or partner, and there are plans for clubs.

Who it suits: beginners working with a mentor, and bee clubs running shared or teaching apiaries. Limits: the free tier only covers a couple of hives, and its website does not say clearly how you export your data, so ask before you build years of records in it.

ApiNote

ApiNote (listed in the stores under names such as “Beekeeping Diary: ApiNote”) covers inspections, queen status, feeding, treatments and honey harvests, with voice-logged inspections, apiary weather and cloud storage that you can share with family or a beekeeping partner. The free version includes most features for a handful of hives; a low-cost monthly plan removes the hive limit.

Who it suits: hobbyists with a few hives who want a clean, cheap app. Limits: no web dashboard, and it is a small developer, so check the store listing for recent updates before you commit your records.

Apiarist – Beekeeper Assistant

Apiarist is an Apple-only app (iPhone, iPad and Apple-silicon Macs). It tracks unlimited apiaries, hives, inspections and harvests, records voice notes and photos, supports QR and NFC hive tags, tracks income and expenses, and lets you customise which inspection fields you use. Everything works offline, with iCloud keeping your devices in sync. Data can be imported and exported.

Who it suits: iPhone users whose bees sit where there is no phone signal. Limits: no Android or web version, so it is a poor fit if anyone else who helps with your hives uses Android.

BeeScanning

BeeScanning comes from Sweden and does something the others don’t: you photograph a brood frame covered in bees, upload the pictures, and image-recognition software counts the varroa mites it can see on the bees. Over time you get a mite trend per hive, and there is a regional varroa map. It also has basic hive records, queen details and task planning.

Who it suits: beekeepers who want an extra, non-destructive look at mite levels between proper counts. Limits: it only sees mites on the outside of adult bees, not the ones breeding under cappings, so treat it as a screening tool. Use an alcohol wash or sugar roll for treatment decisions; our guide to getting an accurate varroa mite count explains how. After a free trial it needs a subscription.

BroodMinder Bees and MyBroodMinder

BroodMinder makes hive sensors, and its Bees app collects the readings from them over Bluetooth, even offline, and uploads them to your MyBroodMinder account on the web. It replaced the older BroodMinder Lite and BroodMinder Apiary apps. The web platform shows graphs of hive temperature, humidity and weight, logged once an hour, and has paid membership tiers for more features. BroodMinder also runs a free community data project at beecounted.org.

Who it suits: beekeepers who already own, or plan to buy, BroodMinder sensors or a scale. Limits: it is a monitoring app first, not a full inspection diary, and it does nothing without the hardware.

BeePlus Beekeeping Manager

BeePlus is a one-off purchase with no subscription. It covers inspection records with frame counts and photos, queen history, honey harvests, equipment, swarm traps, finances, maps and to-do lists. It works offline, syncs through iCloud, uses QR hive IDs, and exports your records as TXT or CSV files.

Who it suits: people who want to pay once and keep their data on their own phone. Limits: as of September 2026 the iOS version had not been updated since 2021. It still works, but an app that gets no updates can stop working after a future iOS release. Export your data regularly if you use it.

Names you may see on older lists

Older “best beekeeping apps” articles often include apps we left out because we could not confirm they are still maintained:

• HiveKeepers: the Android app’s last recorded version dates from 2018, and the hivekeepers.com domain now belongs to an unrelated honey-extraction business.
• BroodMinder Lite and BroodMinder Apiary: both replaced by the BroodMinder Bees app.
• Arnia: the UK acoustic hive-monitor maker. Its websites were not loading when we checked, so we could not confirm it is still selling.

There are also many new AI-driven beekeeping apps launched in 2025 and 2026. Some look promising, but we have only included apps with an established track record or clear, checkable store listings.

Hive monitors and scales that pair with apps

A record-keeping app stores what you observe. A hive monitor records what happens when you are not there. The two do different jobs, and most hobbyists only need the first.

• Hive scales are the most useful sensor for most people. A rising weight shows a nectar flow; a sudden drop of several pounds in an afternoon usually means a swarm left; a slow slide in late winter warns you the colony is running out of stores. BroodMinder sells scales that feed its app. See our BroodMinder W scale review and our guide to weighing a beehive.
• Temperature and humidity sensors placed above the brood nest show whether the colony is raising brood (brood nest held around 93–95 °F / 34–35 °C) and whether a winter cluster is still alive.
• Acoustic and bee-counting monitors (Arnia pioneered these for hobbyists) are aimed more at researchers and commercial operations.

Sensors do not replace opening the hive. They tell you when to look, not what is wrong. For more on where gadgets help and where they don’t, read our piece on beekeeping and technology.

What to look for in a beekeeping app

Offline use in the bee yard

Many apiaries sit at the back of a field or in woodland with poor signal. An app that saves locally and syncs later is far less frustrating than one that spins while you hold a frame. Apiarist, BeePlus and HiveBloom all advertise offline use; test any app with your phone in airplane mode before your first real inspection.

Voice notes or dictation

Typing in gloves, with propolis on your fingers and bees on the screen, is miserable. Voice input is the single feature that makes people keep using an app. Apiary Book, HiveBloom, ApiNote and Apiarist all offer it in some form.

Inspection templates that match how you inspect

You want quick taps for the basics: queen or eggs seen, brood pattern, temperament, stores, frames of bees, signs of disease or swarm cells. Guided templates (HiveTracks) help beginners; customisable fields (Apiarist) suit experienced keepers. If you are not sure what to record, our beehive inspection guide lists what to check on each visit.

Treatment records you may be legally required to keep

Honey bees count as food-producing animals. In the UK and the EU, beekeepers must keep a record of any veterinary medicine used on their colonies (product, batch number, date, dose and which hives) and keep it for at least five years. In the US, most states do not require hobbyists to keep treatment logs, but many require hive registration; your state apiarist can tell you the local rules. Either way, check that the app has a proper treatment log with dates, product and batch fields, and that you can export or print it for an inspector.

Multiple apiaries and hive IDs

Once you have more than one site, you need apiaries on a map and a reliable way to tell hives apart. QR or NFC tags on each box (Apiary Book, Apiarist, BeePlus) stop you logging an inspection against the wrong colony.

Export, so your records outlive the app

Small apps disappear. Before you enter years of records, make sure you can get them out as CSV or PDF. Apiary Book, BeePlus and Apiarist offer export; HiveTracks puts it in the paid Pro tier. Export once a season and keep a copy somewhere else.

Paper notebook or app?

Plenty of good beekeepers still use a card under each hive roof or a notebook in the kit bag. With one to three hives, paper is perfectly adequate. Apps start to pay off when you run several apiaries, need tidy treatment records, or want reminders. A common compromise is to jot notes on paper at the hive and type them into an app back at the house. Our guide to keeping beehive records covers what is worth writing down, whichever method you choose. You’ll find the rest of the kit you need in our beekeeping tools section.

FAQ

Is there a free beekeeping app?

Yes. HiveTracks has a free mobile app, and Apiary Book, HiveBloom and ApiNote all have free tiers limited to a small number of hives or one apiary. For one or two hives, a free tier is usually enough. You pay when you want more hives, a web dashboard or data export.

What is the best beekeeping app for beginners?

HiveTracks is the most beginner-oriented because it guides you through each inspection and tells you when to go back. HiveBloom is a good alternative if you have a mentor, since you can share your hives and records with them.

What is the difference between a beekeeping app and apiary management software?

Mostly scale. “Apiary management software” usually means a web dashboard for many apiaries, several users, reports and exports, while a beekeeping app is the phone tool you use at the hive. Most products here offer both: an app for the field and a web view (HiveTracks Pro, Apiary Book web, HiveBloom web, MyBroodMinder) for planning.

Can an app detect varroa mites?

BeeScanning estimates mite levels from photos of bees on a frame, which is a useful screening tool. It cannot see mites breeding under capped brood, so a standard alcohol wash or sugar roll is still the most reliable basis for deciding when to treat.

Do I need a hive monitor to use a beekeeping app?

No. Record-keeping apps like HiveTracks, Apiary Book or Apiarist work entirely from what you type or say. Only sensor apps such as BroodMinder Bees need hardware. A hive scale is the most useful first sensor if you want one.

Which beekeeping apps work without internet?

Apiarist, BeePlus and HiveBloom advertise offline use, and the BroodMinder Bees app can collect sensor data offline and upload it later. Offline behaviour can change between versions, so put your phone in airplane mode and try a test inspection before you rely on any app.

Whichever app you pick, the habit matters more than the software. A short note after every inspection, in any format, will teach you more about your bees than the most polished app you never open. For more on keeping colonies healthy through the year, browse our bee care guides.