What MycoFile is genuinely good at
We're not here to talk you out of MycoFile — it's one of the better-built grow trackers out there, and for a phone-first grower it may be the right pick. Credit where it's due:
- Polished native apps. Real iOS and Android apps with strong reviews, designed specifically for mushroom growers — not a generic farm app bent to fit.
- End-to-end encryption on every tier. Your data is encrypted, even on the free plan. If privacy is a priority, that's a real, concrete feature.
- QR label printing & scanning. Print a code for each jar or bag and scan it to pull up the grow. For a physical lab that's a genuinely nice workflow a browser tab can't match.
- A free tier, plus recipes & supplies tracking. The Hobby plan is free (up to 15 active items), and supplies/recipe tracking is included on all tiers.
If you want a native phone app with QR labels and encryption and you're comfortable installing an app and creating an account, MycoFile is an excellent pick — you can stop reading here with our blessing.
MycoFile's pricing, plainly
So you can see exactly where the web app and the limits sit (verify current numbers on their site):
| Tier | Price | Active items | Web app? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Free | 15 | No (mobile only) |
| Pro | $4/mo · $45/yr | 75 | No (mobile only) |
| Farm | $25/mo + $5/user · $250/yr + $50/user | Unlimited | Yes |
It's fair pricing for a polished app. But note two things if you run a small farm: web access only starts at $25/mo, and the cheaper tiers cap your active grows (15 free, 75 on Pro) — which a farm running many blocks at once can hit quickly.
Where Mycro is different
Mycro starts from the opposite end: a free grow log that lives in the browser, with no install, no account, and no active-grow cap to get going.
- Web-first, on any device. The same Grow Log opens on a phone in the room and on the laptop where you do the week's numbers — without paying for a top tier to unlock the web.
- Free, with nothing to install. No app store, no sign-up. Sample batches are already loaded so you can see it work before you type anything.
- Built around the numbers a selling farm cares about. Biological efficiency per batch, contamination rate by cause, days-in-stage with an overdue-colonization flag, and cost per pound by species — computed for you.
- Open-source grow engine. The math behind the calculators is MIT-licensed on GitHub, so you can see and trust how every number is produced.
Mycro vs MycoFile, side by side
Honest yes / partial / no. Features and prices change — verify current MycoFile details on their site, and if anything here is out of date, email hello@usemycro.com and we'll fix it.
| Capability | Mycro | MycoFile |
|---|---|---|
| Grow log in any web browser — free, nothing to install | ✓phone or laptop, free | ~web on Farm tier ($25/mo+) |
| Free, no sign-up, no download to start | ✓free Grow Log, no account | ~free Hobby app, 15-item cap, install + account |
| Native mobile app (iOS / Android) | ~mobile web | ✓polished, well-reviewed |
| End-to-end encryption | ~local in browser; cloud E2E on roadmap | ✓all tiers |
| QR label printing & scanning | ✗ | ✓ |
| No active-grow cap on the free tier | ✓browser storage | ~15 free / 75 Pro |
| Auto biological efficiency + contamination rate | ✓in the free tool | ~cost/yield tracking; BE not advertised |
| Open-source grow engine | ✓MIT, on GitHub | ✗ |
| Team collaboration / multiple locations | ~early access | ✓Farm tier |
| Built for commercial gourmet/functional farms | ✓ | ✓Farm tier |
Do you have to switch? No — you can use both
This isn't all-or-nothing. If you already like MycoFile's app for QR scanning and jar-side capture on your phone, keep it. Plenty of growers run Mycro's free browser Grow Log alongside it: the app for in-the-room logging, the browser for the numbers — biological efficiency, contamination rate and cost per pound by species — and for desktop work without jumping to a top-tier plan. Mycro's Grow Log exports CSV/JSON, so your data is portable either way.
Who should pick which
- Pick MycoFile if: you do most logging on your phone, you want a polished native app with QR label printing and end-to-end encryption, and the free 15-item tier (or $4/mo for 75) fits your scale.
- Pick Mycro if: you want a free grow log in the browser on any device with nothing to install, you work partly at a laptop and don't want to pay $25/mo just for web access, and you want yield, contamination and cost-per-pound on an open-source foundation built for a selling operation.
Start with the free Grow Log — then get early access
Mycro is web-based grow-ops built for small gourmet & functional mushroom farms. The Grow Log is free and opens in your browser right now. The full commercial platform — cloud-synced batches, per-strain trends and the selling side — is in Founding-Grower early access.
Open the free Grow Log Get early access →Comparison reflects publicly available information about MycoFile at the time of writing and may not capture every feature or recent change — verify current details on the vendor's own site. Mycro is for legal culinary & medicinal mushroom cultivation only. Not affiliated with MycoFile or MycoHub.