Untappd is a social discovery and journaling app for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, available on iOS.
Product velocity
Intense
Daily rank 🇺🇸
#63
▼9Food & Drink · grossing
Sentiment
4.9
209k reviews
Nemesis
Vivino: Drink The Right Wine
The App DNA
What makes this app unique?
Users hire Untappd to track their personal consumption history and locate local venues with real-time menu availability.
For Drink enthusiasts and craft beverage consumers seeking to track preferences and discover local venues.
Key features
Digital journal for logging and rating beverages.
Direct in-app purchasing of spirits and craft beverages.
Locates nearby bars with real-time menu updates.
How much does it cost?
Consumer scale drives B2B data-subscription revenue, but aggressive ad-monetization in the free tier is currently eroding user sentiment.
Velocity
Intense developmentShow more...
5 versions in history. Development pace: intense.
Who built it?
User Sentiment
What do users think recently?
The recent review mood reads thrilled. Users appreciate long-term users value the ability to track personal beer consumption and discover new craft varieties and social connectivity features allow users to share experiences and follow friends across different locations.
How are ratings & reviews evolving?
What users say, by theme
- Long-term users value the ability to track personal beer consumption and discover new craft varieties
- Social connectivity features allow users to share experiences and follow friends across different locations
- Venue integration provides real-time visibility into beer menus at local establishments for better planning
- Aggressive monetization through excessive ads and badge promotions detracts from the original user experience
49 of 49 recent reviews analyzed · high confidence · Thrilled overall
Read the full review analysisUnlock 2 more frustration themes and 2 user requests, each backed by review evidence.
Access the full report for freeCompetition
Competitive landscape for Untappd: Find Drinks You Love
How's the Food & Drink market?
Untappd holds a #25 Grossing position in its category in the US, but its ranking volatility across international markets suggests a weakening grip on global discovery. The gap between its high rating (4.86) and the increasing complaints regarding ad-clutter indicates that monetization is currently outpacing user-experience investment.
Read the market outlookThe rivals identified
By Vivino ApS
Vivino dominates the beverage discovery space with a massive, highly active user base and a superior frequency of feature updates.
- Leverages a massive proprietary database of wine labels for instant visual recognition and pricing
- Integrates direct-to-consumer wine purchasing pathways that bypass traditional retail friction points
- Maintains a high-velocity release cadence with thirteen updates in the last six months
Unlock the head-to-head verdict: where this rival wins, and where it loses.
Access the full report for freeThe Analyst's Read
Key takeaways for Untappd: Find Drinks You Love
Where is it heading?
The beverage discovery market is shifting toward retail-integrated utility, and Untappd's current focus on ad-inventory expansion is failing to keep pace with the feature-velocity of rivals like Vivino. Without a shift toward technical stability and user-centric monetization, the app will likely see a decline in active-user sentiment through the next two quarters.
- Maintenance-only update cadence leaves the app vulnerable to Vivino's high-velocity feature shipping, which directly drains the discovery-focused user base.
- Persistent VPN connectivity issues prevent privacy-conscious users from accessing the app, creating a direct churn path to less restrictive alternatives.
The SWOT
- Proprietary drink database creates high switching costs for long-term users
- B2B retail-menu integration provides unique local-discovery utility
- AI-driven drink prioritization for familiar venues could simplify user workflows
- Event-finder integration would capture local-activity search intent
Next best moves
Audit ad-frequency in the check-in flow because user complaints flag ad-clutter as a top frustration → stabilize long-term retention
+ 1 more prioritized moveThe counter-intuitive read
The app's high rating is a lagging indicator…
Read the full takeFeature gaps
Visual label recognition (available in Vivino but absent here) +1
Since the last report: The platform is experiencing a disconnect between its high user rating and increasing friction caused by ad-heavy monetization and technical regressions.
Bottom line
Untappd's database is a strong retention lever, but the current ad-heavy monetization is alienating the power users who build that data. The PM should prioritize technical stability and ad-frequency reduction over new feature expansion to prevent churn to retail-integrated rivals.
Unlock 2 critical frictions, 2 market threats, 1 more prioritized move and the analyst’s take.
Access the full report for freeFAQ
Is Untappd free to use?
How does Untappd compare to Vivino?
Does Untappd work with a VPN?
What is a good alternative for spirit reviews?
Sources
Report last updated