Choosing a wine cellar app: Selara Sommelier vs CellarTracker, Vivino, InVintory and VinoCell
Comparing wine cellar apps? A clear guide to CellarTracker, Vivino, InVintory and VinoCell, and where Selara Sommelier stands out for collectors.
Choosing a wine cellar app is a bigger decision than it looks. The app you pick becomes the record of your collection. It holds what you own, where it sits, what you paid and what you thought when you opened it. Switching later is possible, but it's nicer to choose well the first time.
Below, we give a short, factual introduction to some well-known options, then explain where Selara Sommelier stands out and the kind of collector it's built for.
What to look for in a wine cellar app
Before comparing names, it helps to know what matters to you. Five questions cover most of it:
- How will your wine get in? A spreadsheet, a label photo, an invoice, or an export from another app?
- How do you think about your cellar? By region, by color, by auction category, or by your own system?
- How do you store it? One fridge, or several locations with racks and slots?
- What happens when you open, gift or sell a bottle?
- Who else needs access? Just you, or a partner, assistant or family member?
A quick look at some popular apps
Each of these apps has its own focus. The descriptions below are based on what each company says on its own website.
CellarTracker
CellarTracker combines cellar management with a large community of tasting notes and ratings. It's available on the web and as a mobile app on the App Store and Google Play. CellarTracker is free to use, with a paid subscription for additional features.
Vivino
Vivino is a wine app centered on its label scanner, community ratings and reviews, and a marketplace for buying wine. It also lets you add wines to a Cellar list so you know what you have.
InVintory
InVintory is a wine collection app for iPhone, iPad and the web. Its website highlights 3D visualizations of cellars and fridges and an AI-powered wine assistant.
VinoCell
VinoCell is a cellar app whose website highlights drawing your racks and shelves, recording tasting notes and pro ratings, and syncing your collection across devices.
Where Selara Sommelier stands out
Selara Sommelier is a wine cellar app for iPhone and the web, built for collectors by collectors. Here's what it's designed to do well.
Getting your existing cellar in, on your terms
Selara Sommelier is built to start from whatever you already have. Upload a spreadsheet in .csv, .tsv, .tab, .txt, .xlsx, .xls, .json, .numbers, or .xml. The importer matches your columns, flags anything to confirm, and shows a preview before it adds a single bottle. It's designed for real collector files, with multiple tabs and section headers written once above a block of rows. If you upload the wrong file, you can remove that import along with the bottles it added.
Beyond spreadsheets, you can photograph a label, even in dim light or a faded handwritten one. You can also upload a merchant PDF, an auction settlement or a photo of an invoice. Step-by-step export guides cover CellarTracker, Vivino, VinoCell, Wine-Searcher, Delectable and Cellar!. See how to switch to Selara Sommelier from another cellar app.
Organization that matches how collectors already think
Every Selara Sommelier plan includes two system taxonomies. Restaurant Wine List groups wines by Color, then Country, then Region. Auction House groups wines into the collector categories used in auction catalogs, such as Red Bordeaux and Port. On Grand Cru and above, a custom taxonomy wizard lets you build your own structure. In every view, you choose which columns show and in what order.
Designed around the moment you open a bottle
Stage bottles for a dinner with one click. They stay in your cellar record and appear in a staged list. Afterwards, a single click moves each bottle you opened into your tasting history, and the rest go back on the rack. You can also have Selara Sommelier prepare a custom wine list for your guests.
An AI assistant that can act, and asks first
Selara Sommelier's AI assistant knows your cellar in detail. Ask what's ready to drink, how many magnums you own, or what to pair with dinner. It can also make changes for you, from fixing an accent mark to reorganizing your collection, and it shows you what it plans to do and asks before it changes anything. AI is included on every plan.
Storage that goes as deep as your cellar
On Grand Cru, nested bins let you record Room, then Rack, then Slot across up to three locations. Grand Cru Exceptionnel offers deeper nesting, unlimited locations and spatial bins, a visual layout of each storage location.
Selling with a clean paper trail
On Grand Cru and above, the sell ledger moves bottles through to-sell and sold, with tax-oriented fields, proceeds and realized gains. Export it as CSV or PDF to share with an auction house, an advisor or your own records.
A cellar the whole household can share
Grand Cru Exceptionnel includes household sharing, so you can invite delegates to help manage the collection, all working from the same cellar.
Private, and easy to start
Selara Sommelier encrypts your data in transit and at rest. When the AI runs, it sends only what's needed to answer your question, and only to providers that don't keep prompts for training.
Premier Cru is free for up to 100 bottles in one location. At the time of writing, Selara Sommelier is in the final stages of beta testing, and every user is invited to use the free Beta tier, which includes all the capabilities of Grand Cru Exceptionnel.
Which collector is Selara Sommelier built for?
Selara Sommelier is a strong fit if:
- You have a spreadsheet you've outgrown and want every column of it to come with you. See moving a wine cellar spreadsheet into an app.
- You want an app that's easy to use day to day. Read why Selara Sommelier is the most user-friendly way to manage a wine cellar.
- You're just starting out and want a free plan that grows with you. See starting your first wine collection.
- You run a large or complex cellar with multiple locations, deep storage, sales and helpers. See wine cellar management for serious collectors.
How to decide
The best wine cellar app is the one you'll keep up to date. Try importing a real slice of your collection, photograph a couple of labels, and stage a bottle for the weekend. You'll know quickly whether it fits the way you use your cellar.
See Selara Sommelier's features or compare the plans to get started.