RoastSource vs. the alternatives

Everything you need to monitor, rate, and perfect your roast — in one app, for a fraction of the cost of the pro tools.

Not every roaster needs every feature. Home includes all three views — find the one that fits how you roast today, knowing you can switch any time without losing a thing.

Which roaster are you? Pick one to highlight your view
🔥 Craft Roast by feel Your roaster type

“I roast by smell, sight, and sound. I want to enjoy it — not babysit an app.”

What Home gives the Craft roaster
  • Quick Roast — tap first crack, keep going. No forms or prompts mid-roast.
  • A roaster-specific starting recipe — time, temp & dose for your machine
  • Your own recipe: save the heat, fan & time you already trust and roast it again in a tap
  • Roast by sight, smell & sound — no probe, no wiring
  • Weight-loss & roast-level targets with simple live cues
  • Roast quality: a plain-English read on each finished roast — clean, or something to watch — nothing to fill in
  • Inventory: a green-bean shelf showing what’s fresh and what to roast next
  • Ratings: a one-tap “did I like it?” — find that roast again instantly
  • Brewing: guides & dial-in calculators for every method
  • Learn: an interactive map of 49 origins — processing, varieties & the science
  • Any roaster, offline, no account

Why it’s different: Artisan and Cropster assume a probe and a wired rig. Craft is the only way to roast entirely by feel — and it’s already included.

📖 Journey Get better, batch by batch Your roaster type
Everything in Craft, plus the roadmap between the milestones

“I know what I should do. I want to get better at knowing how to do it.”

What Journey adds
  • Choose your roast — Quick or Adaptive: stay with tap-and-go Quick Roast, or switch to a guided Adaptive Roast that picks a flavor profile & roast level and builds a heat/fan plan for your controls
  • Real-time feedback during the roast: Adaptive watches your live curve and tells you to nudge heat or fan the moment it drifts — catching a stall or a fast run before it costs the cup
  • Start an Adaptive Roast from a prior roast or a favorite — build on what already worked
  • Your own recipes: a growing library you name and refine as you learn what works
  • Roast quality: the Roast Quality Score with predicted cup scores and plain-language “here’s what to fix” guidance
  • Ratings & cupping: full notes organized by coffee, method, roast level & origin, with a flavor wheel
  • Blending: build a blend from beans in your stock, match it to your taste, or turn recent roasts into recipes — ratios done for you
  • Equipment advisor: the right next roaster or upgrade for how you roast
  • Side-by-side roast compare — see what changed between two batches
  • Temperature-probe logging (Mastech) when you’re ready to add one

Why it’s different: this is the guided roadmap Artisan Plus charges a yearly subscription for — here it’s the same one-time price.

🔬 Science Every number on the table Your roaster type
Everything in Journey, plus full control and every metric live

“I want every data point, my own recipes, and a profile that reacts to what’s actually happening in the roaster.”

What Science adds
  • Run it your way — Quick, Adaptive or your own recipe: tap-and-go, a fully adaptive profile, or heat / fan / time authored prompt-by-prompt
  • Live, trajectory-aware recs — the app watches Rate of Rise & phase timing and nudges you if the roast drifts
  • Bean-type & processing-aware targets (Gesha, Pacamara, naturals…)
  • Environmental & power-aware adjustments (room temp, humidity, gas / electric)
  • Development-time-ratio (DTR) & drop-timing targets
  • Roast quality, in full: the Roast Quality Score & Calculator plus flavor wheel, spider charts & full 100-point SCA cupping — nothing summarized away
  • Import your roasts (coming soon): bring in Artisan (.alog), RoasTime, Cropster & any CSV — your existing curves sit right alongside your RoastSource history
  • Every metric, chart & cupping view on screen, live — ratings by coffee, method, level & country
  • Control — suggestions you can take or overrule, never decisions made for you

Why it’s different: the depth roasters reach for Cropster to get — without the monthly bill or the required account.

All three views ship with Home — $19.99, one time. Switch between them whenever you like; your beans, roasts and ratings carry across every mode.

RoastSource Expert — coming soon

Everything in Home, plus the depth serious and professional roasters ask for — component-level roast analysis, live multi-probe logging, cross-roast analytics, native iOS & desktop apps, and multi-device cloud sync. In active development; most of it is already built and in testing.

CVA cupping — 2024 SCA standard

Score cups on the current Coffee Value Assessment: descriptive (intensity + CATA) and affective (9-point liking) — the standard that replaced the 2004 form.

Multi-cupper sessions

Record scores from several cuppers on the same coffee with automatic averaging and variance — built on the blind-cupping mode already in Home.

Full Roast Quality Score breakdown

Beyond the headline score: component sub-scores (development, DTR, drying, evenness…), what to fix, and drift trends over time.

Root-cause defect analytics

Patterns across your whole roast history — what keeps causing baked, scorched, or grassy cups, and how to correct them.

Event-aligned roast compare

Overlay roasts on shared milestones with smoothed Rate of Rise and phase-by-phase analysis.

Quality trends & insights

Your scores trended by roast level, processing, and origin — see what's working and where to focus next.

Green moisture & density metrics

Log green moisture % and density (g/L) and track green age — the inputs behind repeatable, origin-aware roasts.

Advanced import & analytics

Home import (Artisan, RoasTime, Cropster & CSV) is coming soon. Expert adds more formats (IKAWA, Kaffelogic, Sandbox, Roest), auto-matching each imported roast to your green inventory, quality & defect analysis on imported curves, regional / processing analytics across your whole library, and continuous auto-import from your roaster’s software.

Blend costing calculator

Cost out blends by component and batch — cost per pound and margins before you roast.

More probes + unlimited roasters

Beyond the Mastech probe in Home: USB / Bluetooth / WiFi probe support (in testing), multi-sensor logging & auto-association, and unlimited roaster profiles (Home supports one roaster).

Most Expert tools are already built and in testing; cloud sync is the piece still in development. Pricing is TBD — Home owners get first access. A Commercial tier (production planning, lot traceability, batch-consistency grading & team access) builds on Expert — in development with working roasteries.

See the full feature-by-feature comparison — Home vs. Artisan, Artisan Plus & Cropster

Grouped by RoastSource module, in the order they appear in the app. The shaded green heading row shows whether each tool has that module at all; the rows beneath compare the functionality within it.

Feature RoastSource
Home
Artisan Artisan Plus Cropster
Price$19.99 one-timeFree€49–670/yr$80–1,000+/mo
Inventory — green stock & freshness✔︎✔︎✔︎
Green-bean inventory + freshness (what to roast next)✔︎✔︎✔︎
Vendor directory + auto-detect on import✔︎
Unlimited green-bean entries in inventory✔︎✔︎✔︎
Roasting — guided roast on any machine✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
Works with ANY roaster✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
Quick Roast — tap first crack & done, no forms mid-roast✔︎
↳ Roaster-specific recipe (time · temp · dose) for any machine✔︎
↳ Or start from your own saved favorite — matched to the bean & processing style✔︎
↳ Roast by sight, smell & sound — no probe required✔︎
↳ Weight-loss & roast-level targets with live cues✔︎
Adaptive Roast — pick a roast flavor profile & level✔︎
↳ Builds a heat & fan plan for your roaster’s controls✔︎
↳ Start from a prior roast or a favorite✔︎
Real-time feedback — compares your live curve to the target and tells you to nudge heat / fan when the roast drifts✔︎
↳ Flags stalls, crashes & flicks as they happen — not after the roast✔︎
↳ Bean-type & processing-aware targets (Gesha, Pacamara, naturals…)✔︎
↳ Environmental & power-aware adjustments (room temp, humidity, gas / electric)✔︎
↳ Development-time-ratio (DTR) & drop-timing targets✔︎
Manual temperature entry — any external meter✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
Mastech probe logging + Rate of Rise✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
Import roast profiles — Artisan, RoasTime, Cropster & CSV · coming soonSoon
Roast history, edit / delete & side-by-side compare✔︎✔︎
Unlimited roast logs & history✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
Reuse past roasts as starting points✔︎✔︎
Blending — recipes, ratios & blend ideas✔︎✔︎✔︎
Blend recipe builder with automatic ratio calculation✔︎✔︎
Build a blend from beans in your own stock✔︎
Taste & personality-matched blend suggestions✔︎
Preset & world blends (espresso, cold brew, classic regional)✔︎
Blend ideas built from your recent roasts✔︎
Ratings & Cupping — roast quality & scoring✔︎✔︎
Roast Quality Score & Calculator — auto-grades your roast✔︎
Predicted cup scores✔︎
Plain-language defect guidance✔︎
Roaster-type weight-loss reference✔︎
SCA 100-point cupping — full score sheet✔︎✔︎
Flavor wheel & spider-chart visualizations✔︎
Brewing — method guides & calculators✔︎
Brew-method guides (espresso, pour-over, French press, cold brew, AeroPress…)✔︎
Brew ratio & dose calculators✔︎
Grind, water-temp & extraction guidance✔︎
Dial-in troubleshooting by taste✔︎
Roasting Equipment — equipment advisor✔︎
Equipment advisor — find the right roaster for your budget & style✔︎
Roaster deep-dives & tier comparisons✔︎
Coffee Expert — Java Geek education✔︎
Interactive world origin map with region zoom✔︎
49 producing countries — regions, altitude & harvest windows✔︎
Processing methods explained (washed, natural, honey, anaerobic…)✔︎
Varieties & cultivars reference✔︎
Grading systems & the coffee science behind the cup✔︎
The app itself — platform & access✔︎
Formatted print & export✔︎✔︎✔︎
Works offline · data on your device✔︎✔︎
No account required✔︎✔︎
Beginner setupNoneMed–HighMediumHigh

✔︎ included · limited / partial · not available. Competitor details researched from each tool's docs (Jun 2026).

Up and running in 3 steps

No installation. No account. Just open and start roasting.

1
Add your beans
Enter origin, processing, and roast level
2
Start a roast
Select your roaster, get a tailored profile
3
Rate your cup
Score, take notes, and track what you love

One price. Everything you need to roast.

Start free for 30 days. Pay once. All future Home updates included — forever.

During the 30-day trial: Everything unlocked. After the trial: Core features remain free with limits. A friendly upgrade prompt appears when you hit a limit — never a hard block in the middle of a roast.

Going further with Expert

Home is everything most roasters need today. Expert adds deeper analysis now, with cloud sync across your devices and live probe data on the way. Your Home purchase always carries over — and Commercial tools for roasteries are coming too. Expert pricing will be announced when it's ready.

Coming Soon
Expert
For serious roasters who want deeper analysis — with sync and live probe data on the way
Builds on Home. Everything in the Home tier, plus the tools below. Pricing announced when Expert is ready.
Roast-quality depth
  • The full scoring methodology — all 9 weighted metrics, target bands, and the score guide behind your Home score
  • Quality analytics grouped by region, country, processing & roast level
  • Monthly roast-quality trends & batch-to-batch consistency
  • Insights that find each bean's sweet spot — levers ranked by what actually correlates with your cup scores
  • Roasts-vs-cups scatter — the app computes the relationship for you
  • Your Coffee Atlas & Journal — a personal origin map and milestone log built from your own roasts
  • Green-age alerts & weight-loss economics
Built and ready
  • Profile templates, overlay & multi-step recording
  • Unlimited side-by-side roast comparison
  • Formatted PDF export & print for logs and rating sheets
  • Purchase list & restock alerts
Coming in a future release
  • Cloud sync, multi-device & the web app — your roasts on every device, zero setup
  • Automatic cloud backup with version history
  • Live probe logging — USB, Bluetooth & WiFi, multi-channel temp with real-time Rate of Rise
  • Sensor profile configuration for custom probe hardware
  • CVA cupping — the SCA's 2024 Coffee Value Assessment standard
  • Multi-cupper cupping sessions — averaging & variance across tasters
  • Equipment maintenance tracking with service reminders
  • Custom bean tags & categories
  • Deep import analytics — quality scoring & defect detection on imported curves
  • Continuous auto-import — new roasts from your roaster's software flow in automatically
Talk to us
Commercial
For micro-roasteries & small commercial operations
Roasting to sell? We're building Commercial with real roasteries — if that's you, reach out and help shape it.
What it will cover
  • Production planning, batch scheduling & demand forecasting
  • Roasted-goods inventory by SKU and batch
  • Supplier & PO management; lot traceability & QC reports
  • Customer & wholesale order tracking
  • Multiple-roaster / fleet management
  • Advanced blend costing & profitability analytics
  • Multi-user access with roles (owner, roaster, viewer)
Talk to us about Commercial →

Home is $19.99 one-time. Expert pricing will be announced when it's ready; your Home purchase always carries over. Commercial tools for roasteries are on the way — reach out and help shape them.

Start with Home. Your data carries forward.

Home is everything most roasters need. As new tiers arrive, you'll be able to upgrade without losing a single roast, rating, or blend — everything moves with you.

🆓
Free Trial
30 days · Everything unlocked
🏠
Home — $19.99
One-time · Available now
Expert
Coming soon · Sync, probes & analysis