A pub stocktaking app has one real exam: a cellar with no signal, one free hand, and a phone balanced next to a set of scales at half eleven on a Sunday night. Plenty of apps pass the screenshot test and fail that one. Here's what's actually in the app stores for UK pubs, what each one costs where anyone will admit it, and why I built StockTap as a web app you install from the browser instead.
I run a pub in Washington, Tyne and Wear, and I count my own stock on my own phone. So this is a working licensee's tour, not a directory scrape. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price I'll say so rather than guess.
What's actually in the app stores
Search either store for pub stocktaking and the honest shortlist is small.
365 Pub Stocktaking is a UK app on both iPhone and Android, pitched as fast, professional stocktaking. What I can't tell you is the price, because the website doesn't publish one, and it doesn't state its counting method either. I checked on 24 August 2026. It may be decent. I just think you shouldn't have to enquire to find out what a stock app costs.
StockTake Online is an established name with apps on both stores, aimed more at multi-site and restaurant operations. Everything sits behind a demo booking, including the price. If you run a group with a head office that enjoys calls with sales teams, it's built for you. If you run one pub, the buying process alone tells you who the customer is.
Bar Patrol publishes its price, $49 to $69 a month, and credit where due for that. It's American, there's no free trial, and it thinks in ounces, which means every UK measure needs translating and your 25ml world never quite fits.
Partender is the tap-the-bottle one, you slide your finger to where the level looks. Quick, genuinely. But it's visual tenths at speed, so it's the same kind eye that flatters every back bar, just faster, and there's no published UK pricing. Not weight-based.
BarBrain runs €52 to €99 a month with a 30-day trial. European, polished, visual estimating again. I've written it up properly in the BarBrain comparison.
The pattern, in one table
| App | Runs on | Price on the website | Counting method |
|---|---|---|---|
| 365 Pub Stocktaking | iPhone, Android | Not published | Not stated |
| StockTake Online | iPhone, Android | Not published, demo first | Manual entry |
| Bar Patrol | iPhone, Android | $49–$69/month, dollars | Visual tenths, ounces |
| Partender | iPhone, Android | Not published for the UK | Tap-the-bottle tenths |
| BarBrain | iPhone, Android | €52–€99/month | Visual estimate |
| StockTap | Any phone with a browser | £19/month founding rate, £39 standard | Bottle weighing, plus tenths and dipstick |
Three of six publish a price. Two of six do anything other than ask your eye to guess. Draw your own conclusion about where the effort goes in this market.
Why StockTap isn't in the App Store
StockTap is a progressive web app, a PWA. In plain English: you open stocktap.net on your phone, tap install, and it sits on your home screen and runs full screen like any other app. On Android that's Chrome offering the install. On iPhone it's Share, then Add to Home Screen.
I went that way for reasons that show up in the price. There's no app store taking a cut of every subscription, and that cut would otherwise be inside your £19. When I fix something, the fix is live the same day, not queued behind a store review. And one build runs on your iPhone, your relief manager's Android, and the tablet in the office, without me maintaining anything twice.
The bit that actually matters in the cellar: it's built offline-first. The cellar is a concrete box, mine has no signal past the second step, and the count carries on regardless and syncs when you're back upstairs. A stock app that needs signal in a cellar is an app built by someone who's never been in one.
The honest downsides of a PWA
Fair's fair. There's no App Store page full of ratings to reassure you before you commit, and that store listing is a trust signal I don't get to show you. The iPhone install is two taps that Apple doesn't advertise, so I have to tell every new user about Share, then Add to Home Screen, and some people never quite believe a browser can install an app until they've watched it happen. And if you want the truly native feel, Face ID gating and all, a store app still feels a shade slicker. That's the trade. I took the lower price and the same-day fixes.
What to actually test before you commit
- Take the phone into the cellar, turn the signal off, and try to finish a count. Offline that works beats a feature list every time.
- Weigh one bottle of spirits and see if the app can turn grams into millilitres against a known empty weight. If it can't weigh, your eye is the instrument, and your eye is kind.
- Check draught handling. Cask and keg calibration, and an allowance for froth, or the tool will invent shrinkage weekly. The calibration guide covers why.
- Count one shelf one-handed. If the app needs two thumbs and a flat surface, it fails the Sunday night exam.
- Find the export. Your numbers should leave as a CSV whenever you want them, no ransom.
- Read the contract. Monthly and cancel-anytime, or a term. Anyone confident in their product lets you leave.
Run that test on anything in the table, mine included. StockTap's trial is 14 days, no card, so the test costs you one count and nothing else. If another app passes the cellar exam better for how you run your bar, buy that one, you'll get no argument from me.
Sources
- 365 Pub Stocktaking — platforms and positioning, no public pricing shown, checked 24 August 2026.
- App Store and Google Play listings — store availability, checked 24 August 2026.
- Bar Patrol, Partender and BarBrain vendor websites — published pricing and counting methods as stated in the table, checked 24 August 2026.
- Author’s own experience running a wet-led site in Washington, Tyne and Wear, counting on a phone in a cellar with no signal.