A Dead-Simple Beekeeping Hive Log For The Beekeepers HiveTracks' Subscription Pricing Pushed Back To Paper

mobile app weekend hack •• multiple requests

HiveTracks moved new users onto a per-hive monthly subscription, and beekeepers on the Beesource forums describe it as cumbersome and easy to lose entries in, with no refund on cancellation. Many simply went back to a spiral notebook and an Excel tab per hive. The opportunity is a fast, cheap or pay-once hive-inspection logger that respects how beekeepers actually work a yard: quick entry, queen, brood and treatment notes, and offline-first operation.

builder note

The bar is a three-dollar notebook, so over-building is the failure mode that already sank HiveTracks for these users. Win on speed of entry with gloves on and cold hands, work fully offline, and charge once, not per hive.

landscape (3 existing solutions)

Beekeeping software exists, but its pricing and complexity drove the core hobbyist back to paper. The opening is a tool simple and cheap enough to beat a notebook.

HiveTracks New users pay a monthly fee scaled to hive count, with no refund on cancellation; legacy users were grandfathered free, new ones are not, and the app is reported as cumbersome.

Apiary Book and similar hive apps Exist, but beekeepers say they are feature-bloated, tracking things they don't need while missing things they do.

Spiral notebook plus Excel The actual incumbent: free and reliable, but no reminders, no trend graphs, and no multi-keeper sharing.

sources (3)

other https://www.beesource.com/threads/cost-of-hive-tracks.355615... "New users charged a monthly fee scaled to hive count" 2026-05-23

other https://www.beesource.com/threads/problems-with-hive-tracks.... "Cumbersome and very easy to lose entries" 2026-05-23

other https://www.beesource.com/threads/do-you-use-any-beekeeping-... "Notebooks and Excel slowly taking over" 2026-05-23

beekeepinghobbylogbookoffline-firstanti-subscription