I spent a month testing Listonic, Bring, AnyList, and OurGroceries. This is what I discovered (and why I created SmartCart Family)

Seville, November 15, 2025

During four weeks, I used the four most popular grocery list apps on the market. One per week. As a real user, not as a competitor.

Listonic (10+ million downloads). Bring (Europe's largest). AnyList (iOS favorite). OurGroceries (the simple and effective one).

I installed each one. I did my weekly shopping with them. I read their full privacy policies. I followed their user forums. I took notes on every frustration, every limitation, every "why can't I do this?"

By the end of the fourth week, I had 17 pages of notes and a number I couldn't get out of my head: 946, 946, 946... I couldn't sleep.

Let me show you exactly what I found.

Week 1: Listonic (or how to turn your shopping list into a billboard)

I installed Listonic on a Monday. By Tuesday I already had ads for Shein while trying to add tomatoes to my list.

Shein. In a grocery list app.

I dug into their privacy policy: they share your "precise location, device IDs, and user-generated content with third parties for advertising and marketing."

But what really chilled me was their cookie banner. I quote:

"With your consent, we and our 946 PARTNERS use cookies or similar technologies to store, access, and process personal data, such as your visits to this website, IP addresses, and cookie identifiers."

946 companies. Nine hundred and forty-six. They have access to your precise location, your shopping patterns, your device data. And some of them keep your information for 3,650 days. Ten years.

Ten years of knowing what you buy, where, when, and how much you spend.

Translation: they know exactly where you are, in which supermarket aisle, what products you add, when you shop. And they sell it.

Their users have been asking for sub-lists (being able to put options inside a product: "milk - skim OR semi-skimmed") for years. Years. That feature still doesn't exist.

Why? Because it's not profitable. Developing a better user experience doesn't generate ad revenue. Selling more data does.

On Wednesday of that week, Listonic's server went down twice. I couldn't access my list at the supermarket. I went back to pen and paper.

Week 2: Bring (beautiful, visual, and completely limited)

Bring won me over with its design. It's beautiful. Hand-drawn icons, clean interface, very visual.

Then I understood why it's free.

Bring doesn't make money from you. It makes money from Nestlé, Unilever, Carrefour. Its business model is advertising for consumer brands: sponsored products, local offers, recommendations in the inspiration section.

Do you know what Bring DOES NOT have?

• Price control
• Budgets
• Spending statistics

Why? Because those features would compete directly with their advertising model. If you control your prices and budgets, it's harder for you to click on sponsored offers.

Bring is honest about what it is: a marketing platform disguised as a list app. But its users believe it's a tool for them. It is not.

Week 3: AnyList (excellent... if you have an iPhone and speak English)

AnyList is probably the best app technically. Integrated meal planning, recipe import, real-time shared lists. For $9.99/year, the price is honest.

But it has three big problems:

Problem 1: It is designed for iOS. I downloaded the Android version. It is clearly an inferior version. Some users report that certain features simply don't work the same.

Problem 2: It only exists in English and German. My mother speaks Spanish. Millions of families don't speak English. For them, AnyList doesn't exist.

Problem 3: The web app is only for premium users. Why? There is no technical reason. It is simply a way to force upgrades.

AnyList is good. But it leaves too many people out.

Week 4: OurGroceries (basic, with a huge hole)

OurGroceries is the app your grandmother would understand in 30 seconds. Simple, effective, no frills.

Moderate ads (you can remove them for $6/year). Perfect synchronization. Free barcode scanning.

But I went to their reviews. Comment after comment asking for the same thing: price tracking.

"When are you going to add prices?"
"Please, we need to be able to compare prices between stores."
"We've been asking for this feature for 3 years."

And nothing. Zero response.

Why? My theory: because adding price tracking requires infrastructure. More powerful servers. Databases. Complex development. And their business model (modest ads) doesn't generate enough to justify that investment.

The pattern no one says out loud

After four weeks, the pattern was obvious:

They all need your internet connection because they ALL need your data.

Listonic: to sell you advertising and sell your shopping patterns.
Bring: to show real-time sponsored offers.
AnyList: so you use their premium web version.
OurGroceries: to synchronize (which is useful, but also generates data).

None work 100% offline. None give you pre-installed languages offline. None can assure you that your data will never leave your device.

Because they all need to monetize you in some way.

And here is the problem: it's not that they are bad apps. It's that they are trapped in business models that prioritize revenue over user experience.

Why I created SmartCart Family

When I started developing SmartCart Family, I made a decision that everyone told me was stupid: it would work 100% offline.

"But Francisco, how are you going to compete without user data?"
"How are you going to show personalized offers?"
"How are you going to monetize?"

My answer was simple: I'm not going to do any of those things.

I'm not going to sell you offers. I'm not going to personalize advertising. I'm not going to monetize your shopping patterns.

I'm going to charge you €2.49/month (if you pay annually) for an app that does EVERYTHING the other apps promise but don't deliver:

What SmartCart has and they don't:

• Works 100% offline - your data never leaves your mobile
• 7 pre-installed languages (Spanish, English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese)
• Historical price comparison - tells you if a product went up or down, how much in € and %
• Digital receipt that you can compare with the supermarket one to detect overcharges, with two or three you discover you've paid for the app
• Miscellaneous expense control - not just supermarket: car oil, hairdresser, everything
• Full monthly budget with all your expenses. With a graph for you to control
• EXACT store mapping - "P3-Drinks, P5-Dairy" - your precise route
• Educational stories from Lucy - 7 stories with recipes for children
• With one click you move the ingredients from the stories directly to your list
• Total parental control
• AI that learns: assigns categories, stores, and never asks again

What SmartCart DOES NOT have:

• Not a single ad, none
• Zero location tracking
• No server saving your purchases
• No third party receiving your data
• No sale of information

I literally cannot sell your data. Because I don't have it. Your list is on your mobile. Only there.

The deal is simple

You pay me €2.49/month (€29.90/year annual plan). I give you the most complete app on the market. No fine print. No future monetization. No "we might introduce advertising later."

Your money is my business model. Not your data. Not your attention. Not your location.

Is it perfect? No, there are features I want to improve. There are things other apps do well that I don't yet.

But there is one thing I can promise you with absolute certainty: you will never see an ad from Shein or anyone else while adding tomatoes to your list.

The question you should ask yourself

It's not "what is the best list app?"

The question is: Who do I want to make money from my shopping?

The advertisers who track you to sell you things you don't need?

Or an app that charges you honestly for saving you time and money?

Imagine this: you are at the supermarket, you see that beautiful blender for €49.90. You want it. But before adding it to the cart, you open SmartCart and look at your budget status bar. Of the €900 planned expenses for the month, you are already in the orange zone. If you add the blender, you go over budget.

You decide to leave it for next month. You don't want to go over.

That is real control of your expenses. Not an app that shows you ads for "recommended" blenders just when you pass through the appliance section because your precise location tells them exactly where you are.

Users who have been with SmartCart for 6 months report savings of €100-150/month just by having real control of their expenses.

What they won't tell you

Listonic won't tell you that it shares your data with 946 different companies. Nor that some keep it for 10 years.
Bring won't tell you that its priority is the brands that pay it, not you.
AnyList won't tell you that its Android app is second class.
OurGroceries won't tell you why they have been ignoring their users' number 1 request for 3 years.

I tell you. Because I believe you deserve to know.

And I believe you deserve an option that puts your privacy and your money first.

P.S. - Yes, I use my own app to do the shopping. Every Saturday. And every time the store mapping saves me 15 minutes, or the price comparison shows me that lentils went up 18%, or Lucy teaches my daughter that broccoli can be fun... I remember exactly why it is worth charging honestly instead of selling data in the shadows.