Coffee Roast Log Apps Compared: Artisan, Roastmaster and More

The best roast log depends on how much data your setup can capture. If your roaster or a probe connects to a computer, Artisan is the widely used free choice for temperature curves. If you roast by sight, sound and a scale, a simple mobile log or a spreadsheet that records weights, times and tasting notes will do more for your consistency than a tool built for data you can't collect.

Below are the main options, then a list of what to record. We make one of the apps here, Coffee Roast Tracker, and its section lists what it doesn't do. Prices and ratings come from the App Store and Google Play (US) as of October 2026.

Quick comparison

Coffee Roast Tracker (our pick for a quick log)

Coffee Roast Tracker is our app, and it's deliberately small. You start a roast with the bean origin and green weight. After roasting, you enter the final weight, and the app calculates the weight-loss percentage and the roast level it corresponds to, from Light (City-) to French. It keeps a searchable history grouped by date, shows quick stats (average weight loss, most common roast level, total roasts), and includes a reference chart of weight-loss ranges for each level. There's no account, and your data stays on your device.

What it doesn't do: there's no timer, temperature log, crack markers or roast curve. If you want those, Artisan, CrackLog or a spreadsheet will serve you better. Coffee Roast Tracker suits roasters who mainly judge roasts by weight loss and want a quick, tidy record of every batch.

It's $0.99 on iPhone and free on Android, with no ads or in-app purchases.

Spreadsheets and paper logs

Many home roasters stick with a notebook or a Google Sheet, and that's a reasonable choice. You decide the columns, you can chart anything, and it costs nothing.

Downsides: typing numbers into a spreadsheet on a phone next to a hot roaster is awkward, and the weight-loss formula is one more thing to get right. A good compromise is to jot times on paper during the roast and enter everything afterward.

There's a ready-to-copy column list in the "What to track" section below.

Artisan

Artisan is open-source roasting software released under AGPLv3. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi. Its site lists support for roasting machines from 80+ brands and 50+ devices. It calculates rate of rise, development time ratio and area under the curve, and it can detect events and project phases. An optional paid cloud platform, with a three-month free trial, adds inventory management.

Where it's strong: it's free, it has a large user base, and it supports a wide range of hardware.

Trade-offs: it's desktop software, and it's most useful when it's reading temperatures from a connected roaster or probe. If you roast in a popcorn popper with no probe, most of its features go unused.

Pick this if you have, or plan to buy, a probe or a connected roaster.

Roastmaster

Roastmaster, from Rainfrog, is a long-running Apple app. It covers green coffee inventory and purchase planning as well as roast logging. You can log temperatures from supported probe hardware or DIY Bluetooth electronics, or enter readings by hand, then build profiles from past roasts. It's free to download, and features vary by subscription tier. In-app purchases include Data Logging ($14.99) and monthly tiers from $4.99 (Basic) to $39.99 (Premium), with yearly options. It's rated 3.9 from 32 ratings on the App Store and needs iOS 26 or later.

Where it's strong: one of the most complete roasting apps on iPhone, especially if you manage a lot of green coffee.

Trade-offs: it's Apple-only, and its higher tiers are aimed partly at roasting businesses, so a casual home roaster may not need everything they include.

Beanconqueror

Beanconqueror is a free, open-source coffee companion that's mostly about brewing. It also lets you add green beans, roast them in batches with the variables you care about, and pass finished roasts into your brew log. It's rated 4.9 (139 ratings) on the App Store and 4.8 (754 reviews) on Google Play.

Pick this if you want one app that follows a bean from green to cup.

CrackLog, RoastTrace and Coffee Roaster Pro

Three smaller apps to consider if you log by hand:

• CrackLog (iPhone and Android, free) gives you a big button to tap at first and second crack while you type in temperatures as you read them. It draws a curve as you go, works out total time and development time ratio, and saves each batch as a card. There's no account, logs stay on your phone, and you can export them to a file. An optional one-time Roaster's Kit ($7.99 on iPhone) adds a replay guide and multi-curve overlay. It doesn't connect to probes by design.
• RoastTrace (Android, free with a one-time Premium) records beans and batch setup, runs a roast timer, captures events and temperatures, and calculates development ratio and weight loss. It also has cupping notes and JSON backup. The free version has capacity limits that Premium raises.
• Coffee Roaster Pro (Android, $3.49 with in-app purchases, rated 4.8 from 61 reviews) stores coffees, batches, roasts and roasters, shows roasts as charts, and can export and import them. Its listing mentions support for Yocto-Thermocouple and MQTT for recording roast progress.

What to track in a roast log

Whatever tool you use, the same handful of numbers does most of the work. Start with the first group and add more as your setup allows.

Every roast (no special equipment):

• Date, bean name, origin and process
• Green weight and roasted weight
• Weight loss percentage: (green − roasted) ÷ green × 100
• Time of first crack and total roast time
• Roast level or color you were aiming for, and what you got

If you can measure it:

• Roaster, batch size and preheat or charge temperature
• Time to yellowing (end of drying)
• Drop temperature
• Development time (first crack to drop) and development time ratio (development time ÷ total time)
• Heat and fan changes, and when you made them
• Room temperature

After resting and brewing:

• Days rested before brewing
• Brew method and a few tasting notes
• One change to try next time

The last line is the most useful one. A log only improves your roasting if each entry leads to a decision about the next batch.

About weight-loss targets: weight loss is a good, cheap stand-in for roast level, but the numbers vary between machines. Sweet Maria's, for example, notes that its weight-loss figures average air and drum roasters. Treat any chart as a starting point, and build your own reference from roasts you liked.

Which should you pick?

If you roast by sight, sound and a scale and want a quick record of every batch, we recommend Coffee Roast Tracker. It's built to be quick:

• Two numbers per roast. Green weight in, roasted weight out, and the app does the math.
• Roast level from weight loss, matched to a reference chart from City- to French.
• No account and nothing to set up, with your data kept on your device.
• $0.99 on iPhone, free on Android, with no ads or in-app purchases.

Get Coffee Roast Tracker and log your next batch.

If you want more data than that:

• You have a probe or a connected roaster: Artisan.
• You're all-Apple and want inventory, profiles and logging in one place: Roastmaster.
• You also want a detailed brewing log: Beanconqueror.
• You roast by hand and want times, temperatures and cracks on your phone: CrackLog or RoastTrace.
• You want total flexibility and don't mind typing: a spreadsheet.