Drinqly vs Drinkly vs Drinkist: Which One Do You Want?
Three names that sound almost identical and do three different jobs. Here's which one you're actually looking for.
These are three unrelated apps that happen to sound alike. Drinkly is a recipe app: it teaches you to make a drink, it does not remember one for you. Drinkist is a real drink-tracking journal, the closest thing to an actual competitor, with AI label scanning and a 30-drink free limit. Drinqly is a check-in journal too, free and unlimited, built around real venue check-ins and a friends feed. If a search engine sent you to one of the other two by mistake, this is probably the one you meant.
Drinqly is a free download for iPhone.
Get Drinqly on the App StoreMaking sure that my audience can find me (drinQly) is an important part of brand distinction. So of course I was so bummed when I went to go do a Google search and it said, "showing results for drinKly." Oh no, that's not who we are. Good thing is, if you're like me and you did catch this, then you were able to get back on track and find your way back to the drink journal you were looking for.
Three different names, three different jobs
Before any head-to-head comparison, it helps to know these are not three flavors of the same thing. One of them is not even in the same category.
| App | What it is | The job it does |
|---|---|---|
| Drinkly | A drink-recipe app (drinkly.co) | Helps you build and follow cocktail & mocktail recipes |
| Drinkist | A personal drink-tracking journal | Logs drinks you have already had, with AI label scanning |
| Drinqly | A social drinking journal | Logs drinks you have already had, tied to real venues, with friends |
Drinkist and Drinqly are the real comparison; they do the same basic job. Drinkly is doing something else entirely, so it gets a shorter answer first.
Drinkly isn't a tracker at all
If what you actually want is somewhere to remember a drink you already had, Drinkly will not do it, and it is not trying to. It is a recipe app: you browse cocktail and mocktail recipes, save the ones you like, and build your own to follow later. It is aimed at the person standing at their own bar cart wondering what to make, not the person trying to hold onto a memory of a drink from last Friday. There is no check-in, no rating, no history of what you have actually tasted. Different job, different app, and if a search engine sent you here by accident, Drinkly was never going to be the answer.
Drinqly vs Drinkist: the real comparison
Drinkist is the one worth actually comparing against. It is a well-built personal drink journal: log a drink manually or point your camera at the label and let AI fill in the brand, vintage, and ABV, organize everything into collections like wine, beer, coffee, and spirits, and see stats on what you have logged and what you have spent. The free plan holds up to 30 logged drinks before it asks you to pay for more. Where it and Drinqly split is what happens after that log entry: Drinkist keeps it as a private, personal record; Drinqly ties it to a real venue, adds a rating your friends can see, and keeps logging free with no cap.
| Drinkist | Drinqly | |
|---|---|---|
| Free logging limit | 30 drinks, then paywalled | Unlimited, always free |
| AI photo / label scan | Yes, auto-fills brand & ABV | No label scanner |
| Real venue check-ins | A text location note | Tied to a real bar or cafe via Google Places |
| Discover venues nearby | No | Near Me venue browsing |
| Friends & social feed | Personal log only | Friends feed + public worldwide feed |
| Sober / non-alcoholic mode | A generic Tea/Coffee collection | Full sober mode, type-specific fields |
| Platforms | iOS & Android | iPhone (Android in progress) |
| Spend & currency tracking | Yes, 18 currencies | Not tracked |
Notice the rows we handed Drinkist. The AI label scan is a real, useful feature Drinqly does not have, it runs on Android today and Drinqly does not yet, and if you want to track what you are spending across currencies, that is genuinely Drinkist's strength. An honest comparison says so.
Where each one wins
Drinkist wins if…
- You want AI photo scanning to fill in a label
- You're on Android
- You want to track spend by currency
- A private, personal log is all you want
Drinqly wins if…
- You want unlimited logging for free
- You check in at real bars, cafes, or restaurants
- You want friends to see what you're drinking
- You want a sober mode built for the drink, not a generic tag
And if what you actually wanted was a recipe to follow tonight, not a memory to keep, none of this applies. That's Drinkly, and it's a perfectly good app for that job.
Common questions
Is Drinkly the same app as Drinqly?
Is Drinkist the same as Drinqly?
Which app should I download if I want to remember what I drank?
Does Drinqly scan drink labels like Drinkist?
Is Drinkist free?
