Apiary Book alternatives: six apps for your hive records in 2026

Apiary Book’s app-store listings were gone when I checked on 17 October 2026. If your hive records lived in it on your phone, here are six alternatives compared on price, voice, offline use and languages, plus a plain way to move your records. I build Beeledger, one of the six, so read this with that in mind. I have tried to be fair, and every fact about the other apps links to its source.

What I found on 17 October 2026

On 17 October 2026, Apiary Book’s Google Play page returned “Not Found”, for the United States in English and also in Spanish and Romanian. Apple’s lookup service returned no app for its App Store ID in the United States, Spain, France, Romania or Germany. Apiary Book’s website is still online and still links to both store pages, and its web app still opens its sign-in page. I found no announcement about the phone apps on the site.

The Internet Archive’s last saved copy of the Google Play listing, from 23 January 2026, showed the app live, with more than 100,000 downloads and a last update dated 31 August 2024. I do not know why the listings are gone or whether they will come back. If they return, I will update this page.

Who this is for

You used Apiary Book at the hive: hive cards, queens, treatments, maybe the voice assistant or QR codes on the boxes. Perhaps you changed phones and could not install it again. If Apiary Book still does the job for you, there is no rush.

What to look for in a replacement

• Works with no signal. Apiaries sit behind hills. Check what works offline: typing only, or voice as well.
• Your language. Apiary Book’s site lists 19 languages. Few apps come close, so check yours first.
• A way out. Pick an app that exports your records to a standard file, so you are never stuck again.
• Price and hive limits. Apiary Book’s free plan covered 1 apiary with up to 9 hives, and PRO was €80 a year. Elsewhere, free tiers go from none to unlimited hives.
• How voice works. “Voice” means very different things: an audio note you type up later, dictation into one record, or one recording for a whole apiary.

The alternatives at a glance

App	Free tier	Paid price	How voice works	Offline	Languages
Apiary Book (for reference)	1 apiary, up to 9 hives	PRO €80/year or €50 for 6 months	Voice assistant for notes, reminders, treatments	Not stated	19
ApiManager	Up to 20 hives, all features	$14.99, $30.99 or $64.99/year, by number of hives	Audio notes kept on the phone, typed in later	Yes, syncs later	35, plus 2 regional variants
HiveTracks	Mobile app free	Pro $6.99/month or $69.99/year	No voice input listed	Yes, syncs later	English
Beentry	None (30-day trial)	$3.99/month or $39.99/year, with weekly AI credits	AI dictation into one record	Records yes; voice needed a connection in my August 2026 test	8
HIVESOUND	None (free trial)	€58.90/year (2 h of voice a month) or €118.90/year (6 h)	Several colonies in one recording, if set up in the app first and named as you go	Yes, processed when back online	Voice in more than 14
beekeeping.app	Free	None	No voice	Yes, data stays on your devices	Not stated
Beeledger	Manual logging, unlimited hives, export	$49/year or $6.99/month	One recording per apiary, split into one record per hive	Yes, processed when back in range	English, Spanish, French

Checked on 17 October 2026. Prices may have changed.

The alternatives, one by one

ApiManager

ApiManager is the closest match to how Apiary Book worked: a full record keeper in many languages. Its home page lists 35 languages plus Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, which covers every language on Apiary Book’s list except Russian. It is free up to 20 hives with all features, then $14.99 a year up to 50 hives, $30.99 up to 100 and $64.99 up to 10,000. Its FAQ says it works with no connection and syncs later, and it exports everything to Excel or CSV. It also uses QR codes, if you are used to scanning boxes. Voice is an audio note: recorded at the hive, kept on your phone, typed in at home.

Best for: beekeepers who want the Apiary Book way of working, in their own language, at a low price. Not for: anyone who wants spoken notes turned into records without typing.

HiveTracks

HiveTracks says on its store listing that it has worked with beekeepers since 2010. The mobile app is free; Pro adds desktop dashboards, multi-user access and exportable reports for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, after a 30-day trial. Its help center says the app works offline and syncs when the phone reconnects. It is in English, with no voice input that I could find. Details in Beeledger vs HiveTracks.

Best for: English-speaking hobbyists who like guided forms and a free app with a long track record. Not for: anyone who chose Apiary Book for its languages, or who wants to talk instead of tap.

Beentry

Beentry, made by PunkHive in the Czech Republic, uses AI to turn dictation into an inspection record, and adds an AI advisor, a disease map with nearby alerts and a connection to ChatGPT and Claude. There is no free plan: after a 30-day trial it costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year on its English site, with 100 AI credits every 7 days shared by dictation and the other AI features. It comes in 8 languages, Spanish and French among them. Its site says it works offline. When I tested it in August 2026, voice recording refused to start without a connection, and a recording made for a whole apiary stayed one block of apiary notes instead of being split per hive. That may have changed since. More in Beeledger vs Beentry.

Best for: beekeepers who want an AI advisor and disease alerts at a low yearly price. Not for: anyone who wants a free plan, or voice that records with no signal (going by my test).

HIVESOUND

HIVESOUND, from Germany, is built around voice. One recording can cover all the colonies at one location, once they are set up in the app: per its FAQ, you say the next colony’s name as you move on, and anything it cannot place is marked “unassigned”. Its own demo video shows one recording turned into a card per colony. I have not used it myself. Recordings made with no signal stay on the phone and are processed when you reconnect. It says voice works in more than 14 languages, without listing them. It costs €58.90 a year for 2 hours of voice a month, or €118.90 a year for 6 hours and up to 3 team members, with a 7-day or 30-day trial. It also says it imports data from Excel “with the right format”, which could help with an Apiary Book export. I have not tested that.

Best for: beekeepers who want voice inspections and want to try bringing their old records along. Not for: anyone who needs a free plan, or who talks for more than 2 hours a month on the cheaper plan.

beekeeping.app

beekeeping.app is a free side project by a beekeeper and developer named Sebastian. It opens in the browser, needs no account, works offline and keeps your data only on your own devices, which you pair with a one-time code to sync. There is no voice. The other side of “no server” is no backup yet: its help page says an opt-in server backup will come later.

Best for: small hobby apiaries, and anyone who wants their records to stay off other people’s servers. Not for: anyone who cannot risk losing a season of notes with a lost phone, unless a second device is paired.

Beeledger

Beeledger is the app I build, made for inspecting with gloves on. Press record at the first hive, keep the phone in your pocket, say each hive’s name as you reach it, and Beeledger splits the recording into one record per hive. It records with no signal and processes the recording when you are back in range. “Come back in two weeks and treat this one for varroa” becomes a dated task, and splits, combined colonies, moves and dead colonies are recorded when you say they were done. Short AI summaries per hive, per apiary and for the whole operation point out what needs action first.

The free plan has manual logging with unlimited hives and apiaries, photos and export, no card. The Voice plan is $49 a year or $6.99 a month, taxes included, for unlimited voice inspections (fair use), the summaries, video and up to 3 people. New accounts get 30 days of the paid features. Details on the pricing page; to see it working, the film is a 10-minute inspection, unedited, with its transcript.

Best for: beekeepers who would rather talk than tap, especially with a long row of hives and no signal, in English, Spanish or French. Not for: anyone who needs more than those three languages, QR codes or NFC tags on the boxes, a disease map or sensor data. It is also new, public since October 2026, with few reviews yet.

How to move your records

1. Export first, while you can. Apiary Book’s product page says the app exports your data in .csv format, and its older Google Play description listed “Print/Export to PDF, CSV”. If the app still opens on your phone, export now and copy the files off the phone. Apiary Book lists cloud storage and its web app under PRO; I could not check the web app’s export options without an account.
2. Keep the export as an archive. A folder with the CSV files, plus a printout of last season’s hive history, is enough to look things up.
3. Check whether you can import. Beeledger has no import feature. HIVESOUND says it imports data from Excel in the right format; ask them before you count on it. ApiManager’s pages do not mention importing.
4. Or start fresh. In Beeledger, a new apiary gets a letter from the phonetic alphabet (the first is Alpha), and each hive you add takes the next number: Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Alpha 3. Write the name on each lid with a marker. Setting up an apiary takes a few minutes. Old QR stickers can stay on the boxes; Beeledger does not use them.

How I checked

On 17 October 2026 I loaded Apiary Book’s Google Play page in four language and country settings, queried Apple’s lookup service for its app ID in nine countries, and read its website, web app and user manuals. For the alternatives, I read each maker’s own pricing, FAQ and help pages the same day. The Beentry voice findings come from my hands-on test in August 2026. I have not used ApiManager, HiveTracks, HIVESOUND or beekeeping.app in the field, and I did not test any import. For a wider list, see the best beekeeping apps.

FAQ

Has Apiary Book shut down?

I cannot say. On 17 October 2026 its Google Play and Apple listings were not found, while its website and web app were still online. I found no announcement either way.

Can I still get my data out of Apiary Book?

Its site says the app exports your records in CSV format, and its older store description also listed PDF. If the app still opens on your phone, export now and copy the files off the phone.

Which Apiary Book alternative is free?

ApiManager is free up to 20 hives with all features. beekeeping.app is free, HiveTracks’ mobile app is free, and Beeledger’s free plan covers manual logging with unlimited hives. Beentry and HIVESOUND offer trials but no free plan.

Can I import my Apiary Book records into Beeledger?

No, Beeledger has no import feature. Keep your Apiary Book export as an archive and start fresh: a new apiary takes a few minutes to set up, and one inspection gives every hive a current record.