Choose Vivino when discovering and reviewing wines is your main job. Evaluate InVintory when maintaining the bottles you own is the harder job. Both scan labels, both have cellar functions and both offer guidance. The useful comparison is what happens after identification: checking stock, finding a physical bottle, recording consumption and retrieving the note later.
The details below come from official product information checked on 5 October 2026. They are a starting point for your own evaluation, not a claim that we have timed the apps or transferred a live collection. Prices and offers should be checked in your country and on the device you will use.
Compare the whole bottle journey
| Task | Vivino | InVintory | What to check yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify an unfamiliar bottle | Label scanning with community context | Label scanning and wine search | Producer, wine, vintage and size after recognition |
| Record owned bottles | Cellar tools with a current free and Premium distinction | Unlimited bottles on Free | Quantity changes and the fields you maintain |
| Find a bottle in physical storage | Check whether the current cellar record meets your location needs | Collection storage plus paid VinLocate 3D | Whether the recorded position gets you to the bottle |
| Remember a wine you drank | Ratings and reviews in a personal profile | Reviews and past-bottle records | Retrieval, privacy and export scope |
| Ask what to open | Premium guidance and drinking-window tools | Vincent and collection filters, with plan gates | Whether the answer uses your actual stock |
Avoid judging the choice by a feature count. A collection only stays useful if you update it when wine arrives, moves or leaves. A beautiful map of last month’s stock still sends you to an empty space.
Vivino: discovery can stay the centre of the habit
Vivino’s current experience guide describes label recognition, community ratings and personal wine discovery. It also describes Premium cellar tools, drinking windows, wine-list scanning and an assistant. It is more than a scanner, so a comparison that says Vivino cannot help with stored wine or recommendations misses its present offer.
Vivino makes particular sense if you already save the wines you try there and use community descriptions while shopping. Check the exact vintage before acting on a rating. Then read the descriptions: a widely liked rich red may still be the wrong style for your meal or preferences.
The guide distinguishes a limited free cellar from fuller Premium functions without establishing a single free bottle allowance for every reader. Check the offer in your account before moving stock. Do the same for the features you expect on desktop versus your phone. Paying for guidance is worthwhile only if it helps with the decisions you make.
InVintory: evaluate the collection routine
InVintory’s plan guide includes unlimited bottles, reviews and CSV export on Free. Label scanning is available across plans. Paid plans add VinLocate 3D and other collection tools. You can therefore assess the core record before deciding whether spatial storage is worth paying for.
A location tool earns its place when several bottles share a wine identity but sit in different places. One Rioja may be at home and another offsite. The useful question is whether you can select the bottle available tonight and update its location when you move it, without altering the other bottle’s record.
InVintory also has Vincent, an assistant that can use your collection and notes. Free includes one conversation; further conversations and some bottle-specific access have paid gates. This makes owned-wine guidance a real comparison point, not a capability to dismiss. Read any proposed action before confirming it.
Try five bottles before trusting a large record
Use a small selection that exposes the awkward cases. This fictional set is a checklist, not a report of results from either app:
| Test bottle or record | Why include it | A satisfactory result |
|---|---|---|
| Rioja 2018, 750 ml, two bottles | Duplicate wine with separate storage | Both quantities and locations remain clear |
| Rioja 2020, 750 ml, one bottle | Same label, different vintage | Recognition does not collapse the vintages |
| Riesling 2023, 750 ml, one bottle | A wine you will open during the test | Consumption reduces stock and keeps your note |
| Red blend 2019, 1,500 ml, one bottle | A non-standard format | Bottle size stays correct throughout |
| A restaurant glass, no owned bottle | A journal entry outside the cellar | A review does not create stock you do not own |
Add the records using the route you expect to use regularly. Correct any mistaken identity before saving. Move one bottle, then find it physically from the record. Open another and check both the new quantity and the resulting history.
For the restaurant glass, decide whether the note should be private. InVintory’s restaurant guide describes a review without adding a bottle and says reviews start private. In either app, inspect the visibility setting rather than assuming your personal memory and a community review are the same thing.
Finally, close the app and come back a few days later. If the remaining quantity or note is confusing, resolve that before multiplying the record by hundreds of bottles.
Check your actual device
InVintory’s Android guide describes an open beta sharing the same collection as iPhone and web. It documents core bottle actions and CSV export, with some features still absent. Android availability and complete platform parity are different questions.
Run your test on the phone and computer you will keep using. A household may need one person to add deliveries on a phone and another to review stock on the web. Check both actions, plus any paid location or guidance feature, before selecting a subscription.
Inspect the transfer boundary
InVintory’s Vivino import guide describes a web import of Vivino’s cellar.csv. It carries wine identity and quantity, but excludes ratings, reviews and wines already drunk. The guide also says sizes, purchase details and bin locations are absent, so imported bottles need review rather than an assumption of a complete history.
Keep the original export and any separate notes. Check the current export route in your Vivino account, then inspect the actual file. For a small test, compare quantities, vintages and formats against the source and physical bottles. Ask the destination how to handle an initial sample before adding the full collection, since repeated imports can create duplicates.
The cellar-switching checklist covers backups, field review and reconciliation. InVintory’s export documentation distinguishes current bottles from a separate past-bottle export. Keep both if consumption history matters to you.
Stay, combine or change with a reason
Stay with Vivino if discovery and your current record already work. Choose InVintory if its stock and location routine solves a recurring problem and the required plan is worth the cost. Using both can also be reasonable: one record can remain the source of owned stock while the other helps with discovery. Avoid maintaining two inventories unless you have a reliable habit for keeping them consistent.
If you also want to evaluate Sommo, I build it, so treat that as a separate option to test. Sommo connects a personal journal with a Premium cellar and owned-wine pairing. Free journal access covers the last 30 days; older history requires Premium. Start with one useful entry, then assess the features you need. There is no reason to move a working collection just to try a different journal.
Which job is making you compare these apps?
