Comparison · September 2026
What Make Me A Cocktail Premium costs, and what Barello gives away
Barello is a home cellar and bar app that tells you what to open tonight, what to keep, and what you can mix from what you have. Make Me A Cocktail is a cocktail website with thousands of recipes, and an app that works out what you can make from the bottles you've got. Starting from your own shelf is where the two overlap.
Make Me A Cocktail Premium is $8 a month, $80 a year or $149 for life. What to buy next is behind it, and so is bar photo scanning after three free scans. In Barello both are free, and the wine sits on the same shelf as bottles with drinking windows.
The short answer
| Make Me A Cocktail | Barello | |
|---|---|---|
| See what you can make from your shelf | Yes | Yes |
| What to buy next | Premium | Free, in the cocktail finder too |
| Add a whole bar from one photo | Three free scans, then Premium | Free |
| Wine | An ingredient in the bar | Bottles with drinking windows, moved for where you keep them |
| One shelf for the whole house | Not in its listing | Yes |
| More than one bar | Premium | No |
| A voice that reads each step | Yes | No |
| AI chat | Limited, unlimited on Premium | No |
| Adverts | Some, none on Premium | None |
| Price | Free, or Premium at $8 a month, $80 a year or $149 for life, after a 7-day trial | Free |
Make Me A Cocktail's prices and what Premium includes were read off its own upgrade screens on an Australian account on 23 September 2026; its other features come from its App Store listing. Its ratings, 255 in Australia, 2,294 in the US and 780 in Britain, come from the App Store the same day. The app's been on the store since December 2020.
What's free in Barello
Which bottle to buy next is free: tick what you've got in the cocktail finder and it names the one bottle that would open up the most new drinks, no account needed. The app does the same against the shelf it keeps for you, and adding a bottle is one photo.
Barello holds the wine as bottles rather than an ingredient to tick. Each one carries a drinking window, drawn from the grape and the style and then moved for where you keep it: a cupboard runs a bottle's clock faster than a wine fridge, and the dates move to match. More on keeping both in one place.
So the shelf that says what you can mix tonight also says which bottle of wine is ready, and the whole house shares it.
Vermouth, aperitifs and liqueurs fade once they're open, so Barello asks when you opened one and says when it's worth tasting first. Give a bottle a price and a size and it works out what a nip costs.
It's free to use. Here's what joining early gets you.
See it against your own shelf. Takes about thirty seconds to join.
Join freeWhat Make Me A Cocktail does well
Range, and help while you mix. Thousands of recipes on the website and in the app, a voice that reads each step out while your hands are sticky, and an AI you can ask when you're out of something. Premium adds more than one bar, for a holiday house or the office. If a big library with a guide beside you is what you want, that's a fair reason to pay for it.
What Barello doesn't do
No voice guide and no AI chat, and it's one household's shelf rather than several bars. Barello isn't a library to browse for its own sake either: it matches recipes against the bottles you own. If range is the point, Make Me A Cocktail is built for it.
Questions people ask
How much is Make Me A Cocktail Premium?
$8 a month, $80 a year or $149 for life, after a 7-day free trial, read off its upgrade screen on an Australian account on 23 September 2026. Premium adds what to buy next, more than one bar and unlimited AI search and chat, and takes the adverts away. Bar photo scanning gives three free scans, then needs Premium.
Is there a free alternative to Make Me A Cocktail?
Barello. It's free to use. Which bottle to buy next is free, and so is adding bottles from a photo, where Make Me A Cocktail stops after three free scans. It keeps the wine on the same shelf, with a drinking window that moves for where you keep it.
What cocktails can I make with the ingredients I have?
Tick the bottles you've got in Barello's free cocktail finder and it shows every drink you can make now, the ones you're a single bottle away from, and which one bottle would open up the most new drinks. No sign-up. The app does the same sums against the shelf it keeps for you.
Does Barello make cocktails with wine in them?
Yes. Sparkling wine and vermouth are bottles on the same shelf, so a French 75, a Kir Royale or a Negroni turns up as soon as you've got what it needs.
See your own shelf do this. About thirty seconds to join, one photo per bottle, and it's free to use.
Join freeNot ready for that? The cocktail finder is free and needs no sign-up. Still weighing it up? There's a roundup of the best cocktail apps, and Barello against Cocktail Flow and noflair. What's free in Barello.