1. Mycro Grow Log
Free · no install · no account · full platform in $99 founding early access
Our own tool, so take the placement with the appropriate salt — but it's the only option here that's a free grow log you open in any browser with nothing to install and no sign-up. Add a batch, advance it through inoculate → colonize → fruit → harvest, and it auto-computes biological efficiency, days in stage, an overdue-colonization flag and your contamination rate. The grow engine behind it is open-source (MIT). It also prints QR block labels free — a card per batch with species, spawn date, expected colonisation date and a QR that opens the log on a phone; elsewhere QR labelling sits behind a paid tier. A free companion Culture Library tracks the stages above the block — source → petri dish → liquid culture → grain spawn — with lineage codes and two-way contamination traceback, which is the one thing the grow-ops tools here don't do and the culture tools don't pair with yield math. It is the only free mushroom traceability software in this list: your own records rather than a certified compliance system, but enough of a chain to quarantine exactly what a bad plate touched, and to tell a buyer where a batch came from. Costs go on a batch too — substrate, spawn, supplies, labour — so you get cost per pound grouped by method and by strain, with failed runs counted against it. That's the number that tells you whether a recipe is worth keeping, and on the other web tools here the equivalent analytics sit behind a paid tier. At the selling end there's an address book of buyers and suppliers and a delivery log, and it prints the delivery label that goes on the box — buyer, address, species, weight, batch number and your contact number, with a QR the buyer can scan to call or text you about that batch, so a question about a delivery leads back to the block and the culture behind it.
- Good for: small commercial gourmet/functional farms; anyone who works partly at a laptop and wants the numbers without paying for a top tier or installing an app.
- Trade-off: no native app (it's mobile web), no offline mode yet, and cross-device cloud sync is in early access rather than shipped.
2. MycoTrack
Free (3 active batches, account required) · Pro $10/mo · Lab $50/mo
MycoTrack is the closest head-to-head with Mycro: a web-based cultivation log & analytics platform for hobbyists, small producers and labs. You track batches spawn → harvest, build a strain & substrate library, and on the paid tiers get full yield analytics, contamination analytics and environmental logging. Its differentiator is AI-powered insights — predictive contamination alerts and best-combination recommendations — but those sit on the $50/mo Lab tier. The free tier caps at 3 active batches and requires an account, and yield/contamination analytics are locked until $10/mo.
- Good for: growers who want richer analytics and AI suggestions in the browser and are happy to create an account and pay once they scale past a few batches.
- Trade-off: the free tier needs a sign-up and stops at 3 batches, and the analytics that make it interesting are paywalled — where Mycro's browser log is free, no-login and uncapped, with biological efficiency and contamination rate computed on the free tier.
3. MagniSpore
Free to start (account required) · no credit card · paid tiers not publicly listed
MagniSpore is another web-based grow journal — you log each grow with strain, substrate and spawn ratio, keep a date-organized photo timeline, and it tracks yield and biological efficiency. What sets it apart is the community: a feed to browse other growers' progress, Q&A and discussion forums, a strain library with difficulty ratings, and analytics to compare strains and methods across the site. It's pitched at everyone from a first monotub to commercial production, and it's free to start with no credit card — you do create an account, since your grows and the social feed live in the cloud.
- Good for: growers who want a browser log plus a public community to compare notes, browse other people's grows and ask questions in one place.
- Trade-off: it's account-based and cloud/social by design, so your log isn't private or on-device — where Mycro's Grow Log is no-login, saved only in your own browser, and computes biological efficiency and contamination rate on the free tier without you signing up or sharing anything.
4. MycoFile
Hobby free (15 items) · Pro $4/mo (75 items) · Farm $25/mo+ (unlimited, web app)
MycoFile is a well-reviewed native iOS/Android grow tracker with end-to-end encryption on every tier and QR label printing and scanning — print a code per jar/bag and scan to pull up the grow. If you log from your phone and want a polished app, it's a strong pick. The main thing to know: its web app is Farm-tier only ($25/mo+), and the cheaper tiers cap active grows (15 free, 75 Pro).
- Good for: phone-first growers who want QR labels, encryption and a refined mobile UX.
- Trade-off: web/desktop access requires the $25/mo Farm tier; active-item caps on free/Pro.
5. MycoHub
Free (with ads) · $9.99 lifetime Starter · Pro/Farm subscriptions
MycoHub is offline-first with no account and no cloud — your data never leaves the device. It's deep on the hobby workflow: lineage/genealogy trees, a strain library, QR labels, photo logs and multi-flush harvests, and it offers a rare one-time $9.99 lifetime option. If "share nothing" privacy is a hard requirement, it's purpose-built for that.
- Good for: home/hobby growers who want a private, fully offline phone app and a one-time price.
- Trade-off: no cloud sync or desktop by design, so it doesn't fit a farm running across devices or people.
6. MushBloom
Native iOS app · one-time purchase (pay once, unlock all) · no subscription
MushBloom is a polished native iOS grow tracker (iOS 17+) that leans into being a self-contained hobby companion: track each grow inoculation → harvest with photos, notes, reminders, yield logs and stage history; log temperature, humidity, CO₂ and light; scan a photo for common contamination patterns; and lean on 26+ built-in mushroom guides with substrate, temp/humidity and harvest notes. It exports PDF/CSV, syncs via iCloud and has a Home-Screen widget — and it's a one-time purchase, so no recurring fee.
- Good for: iPhone-first hobby growers who want reminders, built-in reference guides and a contamination photo-check in one app, and prefer paying once over a subscription.
- Trade-off: iOS only (no Android or web), and you buy it up front rather than trying it free in a browser — where Mycro's log is free, no-login and opens on any device.
7. Kinoko
Free Starter (30 blocks/mo) · Growth $99.99/mo · Professional $299.99/mo · Ultimate $399.99/mo
Kinoko is the most farm-operations-heavy option here — a web platform (with iOS/Android apps) built for running an actual facility. You map your farm by room (pasteurization → inoculation → colonization → grow → storage), track blocks individually, monitor real-time room metrics (temperature, CO₂, humidity), print and scan QR labels, schedule workers, and keep a compliance audit trail. If you're running multiple rooms and staff, that depth is exactly the point.
- Good for: established multi-room operations that need room sensors, worker scheduling and compliance — not just a batch log.
- Trade-off: it requires an account; the free tier caps at 30 blocks/month; and it steps up to $99.99/mo to scale — heavier and pricier than a grower who just wants to log batches and see biological efficiency needs.
8. Sporehubs
Spore Starter $19/mo · Master Grower $39/mo · Fruiting Crew $99/mo (1–5 users) · City Feeder custom · no free tier
Sporehubs is web-based "gourmet mushroom software" aimed at commercial farms — harvest tracking with productivity/yield reports, real-time inventory across species with low-stock alerts, task lists and assignments for daily ops (substrate prep, inoculation, harvest), and per-strain cultivation-window notifications. Its tiers gate by strain count and blocks/week ($19/mo = 5 strains & 25 blocks/week, up to a $99/mo team plan), so it's priced for an operating business rather than someone trying a first log.
- Good for: commercial farms that want harvest/inventory reporting and task coordination across a small team, and are ready to pay monthly for it.
- Trade-off: no free tier (starts at $19/mo) and an account is required, so there's no zero-commitment way to just log a few batches and see your biological efficiency first.
9. mycolog
Free · open-source · offline desktop (Windows / Linux)
mycolog is a free, open-source desktop app that runs fully offline with no account — the option here closest to Mycro on the "free and open-source" front. Its focus is different, though: it's a culture and genetics library, so it's built for keeping notes on petri dishes and storage, and tracing genetic relatives through a family tree — not for production metrics. It doesn't calculate biological efficiency, yield or contamination rate, and it isn't web-based, so you can't open it on a phone or a second machine without copying the folder. If you want the lineage view and the production numbers in one place, Mycro's free Culture Library now covers source → petri → liquid culture → grain spawn and links a spawn jar to the blocks and yields made from it, in the browser.
- Good for: hobbyists and lab-minded growers who want a private, open-source desktop tool for a culture library and lineage tree, and don't need grow-ops numbers.
- Trade-off: desktop-only (no browser or mobile) and no biological-efficiency/yield/contamination math — where Mycro's log is web, opens on any device, and computes those for you free.
10. Paper grow log book
~$8–$15 one-time (e.g. printed batch-template notebooks)
A printed log book with batch templates works, never needs charging, and is pleasant to write in at the bench. It's a fine choice for a handful of grows. The limits are obvious: nothing is calculated for you, nothing is searchable, and you can't trend biological efficiency across a season without copying it all into something else eventually.
- Good for: a few grows, or growers who simply prefer pen and paper.
- Trade-off: no math, no search, no trends; you'll outgrow it as volume rises.
11. Spreadsheet (Google Sheets / Excel)
Free
Where most growers start, and reasonably so — it's free, flexible and already open on your laptop. It holds up for a while, then the cracks show: you re-enter formulas, it's easy to fumble a BE calculation, and it won't flag an overdue colonization or tally contamination by cause on its own. When the spreadsheet starts costing you more time than it saves, that's the signal to move to a purpose-built log.
- Good for: getting started for free; growers who like total control over their columns.
- Trade-off: all the math and alerts are manual; error-prone and tedious as you scale.
Starting here? Grab our free mushroom grow log template (CSV) with the right columns already set up — or the free Grow Log that does the BE math for you.
How to choose
- Want it free and in a browser, no install and no sign-up? Start with Mycro's free mushroom growing app — grow-log software that opens in a phone or laptop browser, with no download and no batch cap.
- Want browser-based analytics and AI suggestions, and OK to sign up + pay to scale? MycoTrack (Mycro vs MycoTrack).
- Want a web log plus a public grower community to compare notes? MagniSpore (account-based, social feed).
- Log from your phone and want QR labels + encryption? MycoFile.
- Need fully offline and private, with a one-time price? MycoHub.
- On iPhone and want built-in guides + reminders in a pay-once app? MushBloom.
- Running multiple rooms and staff with room sensors and compliance? Kinoko is the heavyweight farm platform (Mycro vs Kinoko).
- Want harvest/inventory reporting and team task lists, and ready to pay monthly? Sporehubs is built for that.
- Want a free, open-source, offline desktop culture/genetics library (no BE or yield math)? mycolog.
- Want culture lineage and yield/BE math, in a browser, free? Mycro's Culture Library plus the Grow Log — they share one record, so a block traces back to the jar, the plate and the supplier.
- Need traceability — where a block came from, and what else came off the same jar? Mycro's Culture Library is the only free option here that walks the chain both ways. It is your own record, not a certified compliance system; if you need audited food-safety documentation, that is a different class of software from anything on this page.
- Only a few grows, or you love paper? A log book is fine.
- Just experimenting? A spreadsheet — until the manual math gets old.
For a small commercial gourmet or functional farm specifically, the deciding factors are usually: can you open it on a laptop without paying up, does it do biological efficiency and contamination rate for you, and can you trust the math. That's the gap Mycro is built to fill.
Try the free Grow Log in your browser
No app store, no account. Sample batches are already loaded — add one, advance it to harvest, and watch it auto-calculate biological efficiency and contamination rate.
Open the free Grow Log Get early access →Frequently asked questions
What is the best free mushroom grow log app?
For a free log you can open in any web browser with nothing to install and no account, Mycro's Grow Log is the simplest place to start — it auto-computes biological efficiency, days in stage and contamination rate. MycoTrack also has a free web tier, but it requires an account and caps at 3 active batches, and locks yield and contamination analytics until its $10/mo plan. For a free native phone app, MycoFile's Hobby tier (up to 15 active items) and MycoHub's free tier are both strong, if you are comfortable installing an app.
Do I need an app to track mushroom grows, or can I use a browser?
You do not need to install an app. Mycro's Grow Log runs in any web browser on a phone or laptop. Native apps like MycoFile and MycoHub are excellent if you prefer logging from a phone and want features such as QR label scanning or full offline use, but they require an install and, in some cases, a paid tier for web or desktop access.
What should a mushroom grow log track?
At minimum: species and strain, substrate type and dry weight, spawn date and stage dates (inoculate, colonize, fruit, harvest), wet harvest yield, and any contamination with its cause. From those you can derive the numbers that actually matter for a farm — biological efficiency per batch, days in each stage, contamination rate by cause, and cost per pound by species.
Is a spreadsheet good enough for logging mushroom grows?
A spreadsheet is free and flexible and works fine for a few grows, which is why most growers start there. It breaks down as you scale: you re-enter formulas, it is easy to fumble a biological-efficiency calculation, and it does not flag an overdue colonization for you. A purpose-built grow log does the math and the alerts automatically, which is the main reason to move off a spreadsheet.
Comparison reflects publicly available information at the time of writing and may not capture every feature, tier or recent change — verify current details on each vendor's own site. Mycro is for legal culinary & medicinal mushroom cultivation only. Not affiliated with MycoTrack, MagniSpore, MycoFile, MycoHub, MushBloom, Kinoko, Sporehubs or mycolog.