Beeledger vs HiveBloom: two voice beekeeping apps, two ways to inspect

If you are choosing between Beeledger and HiveBloom, you are choosing between two ways of using your voice at the hive. HiveBloom fills in one hive’s inspection form from what you dictate. Beeledger is built around one recording for the whole apiary, with the phone in your pocket. I build Beeledger, so read this with that in mind. I have tried to be fair, and every fact about HiveBloom is linked to its source.

Short answer

• Choose HiveBloom if you keep one or two hives and want a free app with no time limit, or if your bee club wants one subscription that covers every member.
• Choose HiveBloom if you want weather-aware inspection reminders, detailed queen records, NFC or QR tags on your boxes, and an app with years of store reviews behind it.
• Choose Beeledger if you want to walk a row of hives, talk as you work, and get one record per hive without touching the phone.
• Choose Beeledger if you want splits, combines, moves and tasks recorded from what you say, and voice that records with no signal.
• Choose Beeledger if you keep more than two hives and want free manual logging with no hive limit, or if you inspect in Spanish or French.

At a glance

	HiveBloom	Beeledger
Yearly price	$59.99	$49, taxes included
Free plan	Up to 2 hives, unlimited inspections, no time limit	Manual logging, unlimited hives and apiaries, photos, export
Trial of paid features	30 days	30 days, no card
How voice works	Open one inspection, tap the mic, describe what you see; AI fills the matching fields	One recording for the whole apiary, split into one record per hive
Voice on the free plan	AI form-filling is listed among the app’s upgrade prompts (see below)	No, voice is in the paid plan
Offline	App works offline; offline dictation not confirmed	Recording, photos and typing work with no signal; processed back in range
Languages	App interface in 11 languages, Spanish and French included; dictation languages not confirmed	English, Spanish and French, in the app and in what you say
AI beyond voice	AI Field Notes (a recap of each hive), coaching on what to do next	Summaries per hive, per apiary and for the whole operation
Colony changes	Split and combine from the hive menu	Splits, combines, moves, dead colonies, new colonies, from speech
Hive identification	NFC or QR tags (paid plan)	Spoken name: a letter and a number written on the lid
Sharing and teams	Share an apiary by link (paid plan); club plans from $199 a year	Up to 3 people on the account (paid plan)
Data export	CSV export, paid plan	Export everything, both plans

Checked on 17 October 2026. Prices may have changed.

One hive at a time, or the whole row in one take

HiveBloom’s dictation works inside an inspection. According to its FAQ, you start a new inspection, tap the dictation button and describe what you see. HiveBloom “parses your words and fills in the matching inspection fields (queen status, brood pattern, temperament, stores, and more)”. You review what was captured and save. Fields you never mention stay blank for you to fill by hand. Since a May update it also understands frame counts: say “six frames of brood, four of honey” and the form fills in.

That is a sensible design for one hive. The review step is right there on the screen, before you close the box. The FAQ is also candid about where dictation works best: “in a quiet spot away from the bees, but a short recap at your truck after the visit works too.”

Beeledger starts from a different field situation. Twenty hives in a row, gloves sticky with propolis, bees up. I press record at the first hive, put the phone in my pocket and talk as I work: “OK, Alpha 3… she’s here, I can see eggs, they’re a bit light on stores.” Then I move to Alpha 4 and keep talking. Beeledger splits that one recording into one record per hive. If I say “scratch that”, or go back to Alpha 3 because I forgot to mention the queen cells, it follows me. If I think out loud (“maybe she’s failing, I’m not sure yet”), it does not turn a doubt into an observation I never confirmed.

The trade-off is real. With HiveBloom you see the result of each dictation before you move on. With Beeledger you see the records after the walk, and you correct them then if needed. You can judge for yourself in the 10-minute unedited inspection film, transcript included.

Splits, combines and tasks from what you say

Both apps track colony changes. In HiveBloom, splitting or combining is a menu action: open the hive, tap the three dots, choose “Split Hive” or “Combine Hive”. The inspection history is kept on both sides, which is what you want.

In Beeledger, you say it. “Made a split from Alpha 3, the half with the queen is in a new box” creates the new hive. Combining two colonies, moving a hive to another apiary, a dead colony, a swarm caught and housed in an empty box: all of these come from the recording, and Beeledger applies them when it is clear they were done. “I should split this one next week” is recorded as a plan, not carried out.

Tasks work the same way. “Come back in two weeks and treat this one for varroa” becomes a dated task. Two weeks later, when I say “Alpha 3, the strips are in”, Beeledger can mark that task done. When the match is uncertain, it shows a suggestion to confirm instead of ticking it silently. HiveBloom has tasks and inspection reminders too. Its FAQ describes dictation as filling inspection fields, and I found nothing about creating or closing tasks by voice.

No signal behind the hill

HiveBloom’s FAQ says the app “works fully offline”, with changes saved on the phone and synced when you reconnect. That covers logging in the field. I could not confirm whether its AI dictation works without a connection: the site does not say, and I did not test it.

Beeledger records voice, photos and typed notes with no connection. Everything is saved on the phone, then synced and processed when you are back in range. So you can record a whole out-apiary with zero bars, but the per-hive records appear once you have signal again.

Free plans: two hives, or no hive limit

This is where the two apps differ most, and it is easy to get wrong, so here it is precisely.

HiveBloom is free for up to 2 hives with unlimited inspections: “No trial period, no credit card required, no expiration.” Shared apiaries, advanced analytics, NFC and QR tags, data export and harvest tracking are in the paid plan. Its public pages do not say which plan includes dictation. In the app, the upgrade prompts include “Upgrade to let AI fill your inspection form from dictation”, so as far as I can tell AI form-filling is a paid feature, with a 30-day trial.

Beeledger’s free plan has no hive limit: manual logging for unlimited hives and apiaries, photos and export, no card. Voice is not free, though. Voice inspections, AI summaries and video are in the paid plan, and every new account gets 30 days of them without a card.

So with one or two hives, HiveBloom gives you more for nothing. With five or fifty hives and a paper notebook you want to retire, Beeledger’s free plan goes further. If voice is why you are reading this, expect to pay for it in Beeledger, and most likely in HiveBloom too.

Languages

HiveBloom’s website and blog are in English. The app itself is translated: its latest release notes on Google Play mention “all 11 languages”, and Spanish and French are among them. I could not confirm whether its dictation understands Spanish or French speech.

Beeledger works in English, Spanish and French, in the interface and in what you say. For a beekeeper in Chile, Spain or France who wants to talk to the app, that is probably the deciding row.

Where HiveBloom is better

• Track record. HiveBloom has been on Google Play since 2019 and shows 10K+ downloads and 4.6 stars from 161 reviews (checked 17 October 2026). Beeledger went public on Google Play in October 2026 and has few reviews so far.
• Bee clubs. One club membership covers every member, with an officer console in the browser, a join code and a printable QR flyer for the meeting hall. Plans start at $199 a year for up to 30 members (club page). Beeledger has nothing like this.
• Sharing. You can share an apiary with a mentor or friends by link, and they get full access to add and edit hives and inspections (paid plan). Beeledger allows up to 3 people on one account.
• Weather. Inspection reminders follow the forecast and skip windy, rainy or unusually hot or cold days. Weather alerts warn you about sustained heat or cold at each apiary.
• Queens. Each queen gets her own page with lineage, raising milestones and placements, and you can move a queen from one hive to another. Frame-count sliders and a hive designer complete the picture.
• Tags and maps. If you like scanning a tag on the box, HiveBloom supports NFC and QR (paid plan); Beeledger uses spoken names instead. HiveBloom also pins your apiaries on a map.
• More interface languages: 11 against 3.
• A cheaper monthly plan: $5.99 against $6.99.
• Two hives, free, for good. For a beginner with one or two colonies, that is generous.

Pricing

	HiveBloom	Beeledger
Free	Up to 2 hives, unlimited inspections	Manual logging, unlimited hives and apiaries
Yearly	$59.99	$49, taxes included
Monthly	$5.99	$6.99, taxes included
Trial	30 days	30 days, no card
Groups	Club plans: $199 (up to 30 members), $449 (31 to 75), $699 (76 to 150), $1,199 (151 to 300), custom above	Up to 3 people on one paid account

Checked on 17 October 2026. Prices may have changed.

HiveBloom’s yearly price is on its home page; the monthly price comes from the upgrade screen in its app. Over a year, Beeledger costs $10.99 less. Month to month, HiveBloom costs $1 less. Neither charges per hive. Beeledger’s plans are on the pricing page.

Who should pick which

Pick HiveBloom if you are starting with one or two hives and want to stay free, if your club wants to cover its members, if you share hives with a mentor, or if you prefer to dictate a recap at the truck and check the form before saving.

Pick Beeledger if you inspect rows of hives with gloves on and want your hands on the frames, if you work out-apiaries with no signal, if you want colony changes and tasks recorded as you say them, or if you inspect in Spanish or French.

If you are unsure, try both: each gives you 30 days of its paid features.

How I compared them

On 17 October 2026 I read HiveBloom’s home page, FAQ, club page and blog posts, its Google Play listing and release notes, and the plan and upgrade messages built into its app at app.hivebloom.com. I did not create a HiveBloom account and did not test its dictation in the field, so everything above about HiveBloom comes from what it publishes. I could not confirm whether HiveBloom’s dictation works offline, or in languages other than English. The Beeledger facts were checked against its code and live pricing page on the same day.

For the wider field, see my comparison of beekeeping apps, Beeledger vs HiveTracks and Beeledger vs Beentry.

FAQ

Is HiveBloom free?

Yes, for up to 2 hives with unlimited inspections, no card and no expiry, according to its FAQ. More hives, shared apiaries, analytics, NFC and QR tags, export and harvest tracking need the $59.99 yearly plan. The app’s upgrade prompts suggest that AI dictation is part of the paid plan too.

Does HiveBloom have voice input?

Yes. You open an inspection, tap the dictation button and describe what you see, and AI fills the matching fields, which you review before saving. It works one inspection, so one hive, at a time. Beeledger takes one recording for the whole apiary and splits it per hive.

Does HiveBloom work offline?

Its FAQ says the app works fully offline and syncs when you reconnect. It does not say whether AI dictation works without a connection, and I could not confirm it. Beeledger records voice with no signal and processes it once you are back in range.

Is HiveBloom available in Spanish or French?

The app interface is, among 11 languages, according to its release notes. Its website and blog are in English, and I could not confirm whether its dictation understands Spanish or French speech. Beeledger works in English, Spanish and French, voice included.

Which is cheaper, HiveBloom or Beeledger?

Yearly, Beeledger: $49 against $59.99. Monthly, HiveBloom: $5.99 against $6.99. On the free plans it depends on your hive count: HiveBloom is free up to 2 hives, and Beeledger’s free manual logging has no hive limit.