The best beekeeping apps in 2026: an honest roundup by someone who builds one

I keep bees in Chile and I build Beeledger, a voice-first hive-inspection app. It is in this list, labelled as mine, so read this with that in mind. The short answer: there is no single best beekeeping app in 2026, but there is a clear best fit once you know how many hives you keep per apiary, whether you have signal there, and whether you would rather type or talk. Below are ten apps you can install or use today, plus a note on Apiary Book, compared on price, free tier, offline use, languages and, above all, how voice actually works. Every fact is linked and dated.

Short answer

• You want to talk through a whole apiary in one take: Beeledger (mine) is built around that, and HIVESOUND does it too: you name each colony as you move on and each part is filed under the right one. In HIVESOUND the colonies have to be set up in the app first; Beeledger also creates new hives from what you say.
• You want a long-established record keeper with a free app: HiveTracks.
• You keep up to 20 hives and want your own language: ApiManager, free up to 20 hives, in about 35 languages.
• You want AI help one hive at a time: Beentry, HiveBloom, Pasika, ApiNote or BeeKeepPal.
• You want a free notebook that never sends your data to a server: beekeeping.app.

The apps at a glance

Apps are listed alphabetically. “How voice works” uses four plain categories: none; audio notes (a recording saved with the inspection); per-hive AI (you dictate one hive and the app fills in the record); and whole apiary in one recording (one take, split per hive).

App	Free tier	Paid price	How voice works	Offline	Languages
ApiManager	Up to 20 hives	$14.99 to $64.99/year, by hive count	Audio notes, kept on the phone	Yes	About 35
ApiNote	Up to 5 hives	Shown in your app store	Per-hive AI (5 free credits a week)	Voice needs a connection	English, German, French (website)
beekeeping.app	Free	None	None	Yes, data stays on your devices	English
BeeKeepPal	Up to 3 hives	$5.99/month or $58/year	Per-hive AI, one voice inspection per hive per day	Yes	English
Beeledger (I build it)	Free forever, unlimited hives, typed records	$49/year or $6.99/month	Whole apiary in one recording, split per hive	Yes, voice included; syncs later	English, Spanish, French
Beentry	30-day trial	$3.99/month or $39.99/year, AI credits included	Per-hive AI dictation	Records yes; voice needed a connection in my August test	8
HiveBloom	Up to 2 hives	$59.99/year	Per-hive AI fills the form	Yes	English
HIVESOUND	No free plan; 7 or 30-day trial	€58.90/year (2 h of voice a month) or €118.90/year (6 h, 3 people)	Several colonies in one recording, if set up in the app first and named as you go	Yes, after login; audio processed when back online	Voice in over 14 languages
HiveTracks	Free mobile app	Pro $6.99/month or $69.99/year	None	Yes, syncs when back online	English
Pasika	Up to 10 hives	$1.99 or $4.99/month	Per-hive AI, monthly AI allowance	Not stated	9

Checked on 17 October 2026. Prices may have changed.

For talking through a whole apiary in one take

Beeledger (I build it)

Beeledger is built around one recording per apiary visit. You press record at the first hive, put the phone in your pocket and work with gloves on. As you reach each hive you say its name, “Alpha 3” for example, which you have written on the lid with a marker. Beeledger splits the recording into one record per hive. It handles “scratch that”, going back to an earlier hive and thinking out loud, and it does not record an observation you did not confirm. “Come back in two weeks and treat this one for varroa” becomes a dated task. Splits, combines, moves and dead colonies are applied when it is clear they were done. Recording works with no signal; it syncs and is processed when you are back in range.

The free plan is manual logging with unlimited hives and apiaries, photos and export, no card. Voice, video and AI summaries per hive, apiary and operation cost $49 a year or $6.99 a month, taxes included, with up to 3 people on the account and 30 days free for every new account (pricing). You can watch a 10-minute unedited inspection, with its transcript.

Built for: beekeepers who walk a row of hives and would rather talk than stop at each box. Not ideal for: anyone who wants sensors, a disease map, QR or NFC tags, or more than three languages. It is also new on Google Play (October 2026), so it has few reviews yet.

HIVESOUND

HIVESOUND is a German voice app. One recording can cover all the colonies at one location: once every colony is set up in the app, you say the next colony’s name when you move on and it starts a new section; if it cannot tell which colony you meant, the entry is marked unassigned and you reassign it by hand. Its own demo video shows a single recording turned into one card per colony. I have not used it myself. It pulls out to-dos and notes automatically, works offline once you are logged in, and processes recordings when the connection returns. Dictation works in over 14 languages.

There is no free plan. HIVE Starter is €58.90 a year with 2 hours of voice a month and a 7-day trial; HIVE Pro is €118.90 a year with 6 hours a month, up to 3 team members and a 30-day trial.

Best for: beekeepers who want voice inspections in a language Beeledger does not cover, German for example. Not ideal for: a long season on the Starter plan, where 2 hours a month can run short, or anyone who wants a free tier. Colonies have to exist in the app before you record, and I could not confirm whether it handles splits or closes tasks from speech.

For a long-established record keeper

HiveTracks

HiveTracks has been around since 2010 and says on Google Play that it has worked with over 40,000 beekeepers in more than 150 countries. The free mobile app gives you a bee weather forecast to pick inspection days, recommended to-dos, reminders, record templates and guided inspections. HiveTracks Pro, aimed at desktop use, costs $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, with a 30-day trial.

Best for: beginners who want guidance through the season, and anyone who likes structured forms. Not ideal for: talking instead of typing (no voice feature is mentioned), or beekeepers who need a language other than English. Its help center says the mobile app works offline and syncs when the phone reconnects. More in Beeledger vs HiveTracks.

For many languages and a generous free tier

ApiManager

ApiManager is free up to 20 hives with all features. Above that, Basic is $14.99 a year (50 hives), Standard $30.99 (100 hives) and Premium $64.99 (up to 10,000 hives). Google Play shows its in-app items at $17.99 to $74.99, so check the price in your store. Offline mode switches on by itself when there is no connection. Voice is an audio note on the inspection, “only stored locally on your mobile device”: useful as a memory aid, but nothing is transcribed into fields. It lists about 35 languages, Spanish and French included, plus graphs, reports and expense tracking.

Best for: hobby beekeepers with up to 20 hives, and anyone who needs a less common language. Not ideal for: beekeepers who want speech turned into records.

For AI help one hive at a time

These apps let you dictate one hive at a time. You open the hive in the app, speak, and the AI fills in the record. That works well with a few hives; with twenty in a row, it means stopping and tapping twenty times.

Beentry

Beentry, by the Czech company PunkHive, costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year after a 30-day trial (its Spanish page lists lower prices). The subscription includes 100 AI credits every 7 days, shared by dictation, the AI advisor and other AI features; extra credits are charged separately. Dictation fills in the inspection tags, and the AI advisor answers from your records. Beentry also connects to ChatGPT and Claude, with optional write access. Its Google Play listing promises “offline mode with automatic sync”. When I tested it in August 2026, voice recording refused to start without a connection, and a recording made at apiary level stayed one block of text instead of being split per hive. That may have changed since.

Best for: European beekeepers who want a full-featured notebook, an AI advisor and a ChatGPT or Claude connection, in one of eight languages. Not ideal for: dictating at an apiary with no signal, or anyone who dislikes credit limits. More in Beeledger vs Beentry.

HiveBloom

HiveBloom is “free forever for up to 2 hives”, with unlimited inspections and no card. The Individual plan is $59.99 a year for unlimited hives, and club plans start at $199 a year. Voice works per inspection: “Open an inspection, hit the mic, and tell HiveBloom what you saw”, and the AI fills the form. It works offline, supports QR codes and NFC tags, and lets you share apiaries with friends.

Best for: a backyard beekeeper with one or two hives, or a club. Not ideal for: anyone outside English, or a third hive on the free tier. More in Beeledger vs HiveBloom.

Pasika

Pasika is free up to 10 hives, with unlimited inspections and a monthly AI allowance. Hobby is $1.99 a month (up to 50 hives) and Pro $4.99 a month (unlimited). Its Google Play listing describes voice simply: “open a hive, dictate what you see, and the AI assistant writes the inspection for you.” It is available in nine languages, Spanish and French included, and connects to partner hive scales and sensors. Offline use is not stated.

Best for: small apiaries on a tight budget that want AI dictation in their own language. Not ideal for: anyone who needs a confirmed offline mode.

ApiNote

ApiNote is free up to 5 hives, with 5 AI credits every 7 days shared between voice inspections and the assistants. Pro removes the hive limit and the AI cap; the price is shown by your app store and varies by country. You choose an apiary and a hive, then describe the visit, and ApiNote drafts an inspection, a feeding, a treatment, a harvest, a mite wash and follow-up tasks from that one recording, for you to review. Its FAQ is plain: “Voice transcription and analysis require an internet connection.”

Best for: small apiaries with good signal, and anyone who wants several record types from one hive’s recording. Not ideal for: remote apiaries with no signal.

BeeKeepPal

BeeKeepPal is free for up to 3 hives and 1 apiary, with 30 voice inspections and frame scans. Pro is $5.99 a month or $58 a year; Pro Team, with up to 3 more users, is $9.99 a month or $96 a year. Voice is one inspection per hive per day: “Just talk through your inspection. BeeKeepPal transcribes it and fills in the form for you to check and save.” A frame photo scan flags possible varroa, hive beetles and signs of disease. The mobile app works fully offline and syncs later.

Best for: beekeepers who want a photo check of brood frames alongside voice notes. Not ideal for: anyone who needs a language other than English.

For a free notebook that keeps data on your devices

beekeeping.app

beekeeping.app is free. Your data “lives only on your devices” and is “never sent to our servers”; devices sync with each other when you are online. It works offline, with customizable inspection forms, tasks, queens and treatment records. Harvest reports are marked “coming soon”.

Best for: beekeepers who care most about privacy and cost. Not ideal for: voice, AI, or working as a team with shared records.

If you used Apiary Book

Apiary Book is translated into 19 languages, and its pricing shows a free plan for 1 apiary and up to 9 hives, with a hands-free voice assistant for notes, and PRO at €80 a year. On 17 October 2026 its Google Play listing returned “not found”, while the web app at web.apiarybook.com still loads. Its own site says some features are not available in the web app. If you are looking for somewhere to move your records, I wrote an Apiary Book alternative guide.

How to choose: five questions

1. How many hives per apiary? With two or three hives, per-hive dictation or typing is fine. With a row of twenty, stopping to open each hive in the app adds up. That is what Beeledger is built for; HIVESOUND’s FAQ says it can chain colonies in one recording too.
2. Do you have signal at the apiary? If the answer is “not behind the hill”, check offline voice, not just offline records. Beeledger and HIVESOUND save recordings and process them later. ApiNote says its voice needs a connection, and Beentry’s voice did not start offline in my August test.
3. Do you prefer typing or talking? If you like tapping through a form, HiveTracks, ApiManager, beekeeping.app or the free Beeledger plan will do. If your gloves are sticky with propolis, talking wins.
4. What is your budget? Free tiers run from 2 hives (HiveBloom) to 20 (ApiManager), and Beeledger’s free plan has no hive limit for typed records. Paid plans with AI voice run from $1.99 a month (Pasika Hobby) to €118.90 a year (HIVESOUND Pro). Look for caps: credits, hours or one voice note per hive per day.
5. Which language do you work in? ApiManager lists about 35 languages, Apiary Book 19, HIVESOUND dictation over 14, Pasika 9 and Beentry 8. Beeledger works in English, Spanish and French. HiveTracks, HiveBloom, BeeKeepPal and beekeeping.app are in English.

How I compared them

On 17 October 2026 I read each app’s official pricing page and its Google Play listing, and recorded every price and feature with its link and the date. I started from 13 apps and dropped those whose facts I could not confirm. I tested Beentry hands-on in August 2026. I did not test the other apps in the field, so “how voice works” describes what each maker says, quoted where possible. I use Beeledger on my own hives. I did not use review scores, and I did not rank the apps: the right one depends on your apiary. If you spot a fact that has changed, tell me and I will fix it.

FAQ

What is the best free beekeeping app?

It depends on how many hives you keep. ApiManager is free up to 20 hives with all features, Pasika up to 10, ApiNote 5, BeeKeepPal 3 and HiveBloom 2. Beeledger’s free plan has no hive limit but no voice, and beekeeping.app is free with no account on a server.

Which beekeeping apps work without signal?

Beeledger, HIVESOUND, ApiManager, HiveTracks, HiveBloom, BeeKeepPal and beekeeping.app say they work offline, and Beentry says its records do. For voice, check the details: Beeledger and HIVESOUND store recordings and process them later, while ApiNote’s voice needs a connection.

Can an app record a whole apiary in one recording?

Yes. Beeledger is built for it: one recording for the walk, split into one record per hive by the names you say, with new hives created from what you say (a split, a captured swarm). HIVESOUND does it too, for colonies already set up in its app: you name each one as you move on, and anything it cannot place is marked unassigned. The other voice apps in this list work one hive at a time.

Which beekeeping apps are available in Spanish or French?

ApiManager, Apiary Book, Pasika, Beentry and Beeledger list both Spanish and French. ApiNote’s website is in French. HIVESOUND says its dictation works in over 14 languages.