PictureThis vs Bloom: which is the best plant identification app? I tested both and here's the truth

Look, I've killed more plants than I'd like to admit. I bought a succulent thinking it was foolproof, forgot my basil on the windowsill for a whole week, and came home one day to find my mom's Swiss cheese plant completely limp with no clue what had gone wrong. That's when I went looking for an app that could identify plants from my phone. I downloaded a bunch, deleted the ones that didn't help, and two of them stuck: Bloom and PictureThis.

This is the conversation I wish someone had had with me before I downloaded either one. If you're hunting for the best plant identification app and want to know which one fits your life and your personal level of "please don't let me kill this one," pull up a chair.

Quick answer (if you're in a hurry)

Short version: Bloom is what I'd recommend to almost anyone who's just getting started. PictureThis is still the favorite among people who take gardening seriously.

Now let me tell you how I got there.

How I tested both apps

I downloaded both on the same phone, with the same camera setup, and used them for about three weeks. I pointed them at the plants I already had at home (basil, a Swiss cheese plant, a pothos, a succulent, rosemary, and an orchid that's surviving out of pure stubbornness), and also at random weeds I found on the street, to see if they'd nail the name. Then I tested the diagnosis feature by photographing a yellowing leaf on purpose, and I paid attention to something a lot of people forget: what it's like to open the app on an ordinary day. Because it doesn't matter if you have the best app in the world when opening it feels like a chore.

Here's how each one went.

Bloom: the app that feels like a patient friend

When you open Bloom for the first time, a little 3D mascot named Pip pops up to say hi. It might sound silly, but it makes a difference.

Pip shows up right away and sticks around while the app identifies your plant. It immediately gives you that "this app is friendly" feeling.

After that come a few short screens explaining what the app does: identify a plant in seconds from a list of more than 35,000 species, remind you when it's time to water, and catch disease before your plant becomes a lost cause. There's also a screen with the numbers: 93% identification accuracy with independent validation (Plant.id/Kindwise, AoB PLANTS 2020 study), a 4.8-star rating, and more than 25,000 plants already identified by over 14,000 people.

That opening won me over. There's no endless wall of screen after screen. In about 40 seconds you're already at the part that matters, camera open.

Identification worked well. I pointed it at the Swiss cheese plant and it got it on the first try (Monstera deliciosa, everything correct). I pointed it at the pothos and it nailed that too. It missed a weed I found in the park (guessed something else), but I've seen that happen with other apps, so I didn't hold it against it.

The result comes with a match percentage, the common and scientific names, and three tabs: Overview, Care, and Botany. On that same screen you get cards for watering, light, temperature range, and ideal humidity. You don't need a single extra tap to learn the basics.

The Swiss cheese plant result is a good sample of what you'll get for almost any plant. Thorough, and laid out in a way that makes you want to read it.

There's one part I wasn't expecting that has become the thing I mention most when friends ask: the toxicity information. Right there on the profile, Bloom tells you whether the plant is toxic to cats, to dogs, and to children. If you have pets or a small kid crawling around the living room, that completely changes the conversation before you buy a new plant. On that same profile it lists the disease risks for that species, sorted into high, moderate, and low, which helps you know what to actually worry about.

Once a plant joins your garden, two more things show up that answered a question I'd had forever. The first is a health score from 0 to 100 that gives you a quick read on how each plant is doing. The second is the watering amount in milliliters, calculated for that plant, that pot, and that spot in your home. It's not "water moderately" anymore, it's a number. There's even a button to recalculate if you move the pot somewhere else.

The health score and the watering amount in milliliters are the two things I missed most in other apps.

The garden is organized by room, and the plant card itself flags when watering is overdue. On top of that, there's a care schedule that separates what's late, what's due today, what's coming up, and what you've already done, covering watering, feeding, pruning, rotating, repotting, and even progress photos. That's the part that got me to stop forgetting the basil.

The schedule separates what's overdue, what's due today, and what's coming up. Just like that.

There's also a quick actions menu with identify plant, diagnose disease, measure light, identify weeds, check toxicity, and see water needs. The light meter was the biggest surprise for me: I found out the little corner where I kept insisting on putting the succulent was way too dark.

What I liked about Bloom

• A quick, pleasant start that doesn't wear you out

• Identification results that show watering, light, temperature, and humidity on the same screen

• Toxicity for cats, dogs, and kids right on the plant profile

• Watering amounts in milliliters instead of vague advice

• A health score and care schedule that actually handle daily life

What could be better

• It recognizes fewer species than the competitor does

• If you're hunting for a rare species, you might not find it

PictureThis: the veteran of the group

PictureThis is probably the app that came up first when you searched for "plant identification app." It's been the category leader for years, with more than 100 million users worldwide, and you feel that from the very first screens. It tells you it's number one in installs, shows you a world map of where people use the app, and displays a trophy saying it was named the most accurate for six years running, complete with a Michigan State University seal. There's also a chart claiming it's 1.56 times more accurate than "another app" (which shows up as a generic rival).

The university seal appears in the very first screens. If scientific credibility matters to you, that carries weight.

All that presentation builds real confidence, because there's an actual university backing it up. If institutional credibility is your thing, this matters.

The tradeoff for all that presentation is how long it is. It's eight or more screens telling you how good the app is before it lets you do anything. I counted, and it took noticeably longer than Bloom. If you downloaded the app in a hurry because your fern is turning yellow right now, that can get annoying.

But there's a brilliant move right afterward. They set up a fake plant so you can test identification immediately. The screen says they've prepared a plant for you, and when you tap, it pretends to identify a gardenia and shows you the full profile.

This was my favorite touch in PictureThis. Even if it's the middle of the night and there's no plant in sight, you get to feel the app work.

It might sound like a gimmick, but it works beautifully, because it guarantees that even someone sitting in the dark at midnight with no plant nearby gets to see the app in action. I loved that one.

Real identification, on actual plants, was basically a tie with Bloom. It got the Swiss cheese plant, the pothos, the basil. It missed the same park weed (a different wrong guess). So for common plants, it's a wash.

The care section is good, but the presentation reads more like a spec sheet and less like a friendly guide. There's a screen with a pile of tools (water calculator, diagnosis, gardening book, identifier) that feels like a Swiss Army knife for plants.

This menu captures the PictureThis approach: lots of tools, for lots of people. That can be great or it can be too much, depending on who you are.

If you're juggling a lot of plant projects, it's excellent. If you just want to know when to water the fern, it's more than you need.

What I liked about PictureThis

• Real credibility (a university seal counts for something)

• More than 400,000 species, genuinely huge

• The fake plant for testing identification was a great idea

• An established brand with awards and millions of users

What could be better

• The intro sequence goes on too long

• It feels more technical and less welcoming

• I didn't find pet and child toxicity given the same prominence Bloom gives it

Bloom vs PictureThis: the table you came for

Who each one is better for

If I were sitting down with a friend who wanted advice, this is the summary I'd give.

Bloom is for you if:

• You consider yourself a bit hopeless with plants

• You want an app that feels like a friend helping out, not a manual

• You have a cat, a dog, or a small kid and want to know what's toxic before you buy

• You never know how much water to give and would rather have a number than a guess

• You want practical care reminders without the complexity

PictureThis is for you if:

• You're serious about plants, maybe even have a vegetable patch going

• You work with unusual species

• You care about knowing there's science behind it (that university seal)

• You don't mind sitting through a longer intro at the start

Questions that always come up

What's the best plant identification app right now?

For most people, Bloom is the best plant identification app, mainly because it's more welcoming and because it gives you the information you actually use day to day (watering in milliliters, toxicity, health score). Anyone who gardens seriously or wants rare species will still prefer PictureThis for that enormous species list.

Is Bloom better than PictureThis?

For beginners, yes. For experienced gardeners, PictureThis has advantages (more species, university backing). But on getting common everyday plants right, the two tie, and on caring for the plant after identification, Bloom pulls ahead.

Do these apps really get the plant name right?

They do, most of the time. Bloom claims 93% accuracy with independent validation, and that matched what I saw in practice. To get good results, photograph the leaf up close, in good light, and focus on one plant at a time. When there are several plants in the frame or the photo is blurry, every app misses more often.

Can you use them without subscribing?

You can. With Bloom you get in, identify plants, and add 2 plants to your garden without subscribing to anything. With PictureThis you also get a few identifications before it asks you to subscribe. To use everything, both apps ask for a subscription.

Can the apps tell me what's wrong with my plant?

They can. Both identify common problems (overwatering, sunburn, fungus, some pests) and suggest what to do. I tested by photographing a yellowing leaf and both gave similar diagnoses. Bloom also shows you, before anything goes wrong, the most common disease risks for that species, sorted by severity.

Which one has better care reminders?

Both remind you, but Bloom sets things up in more detail per plant (it asks where the plant lives in your home and adjusts accordingly) and organizes everything into a schedule with what's overdue, what's due today, and what's coming up. If reminders are what you're after, I like Bloom more.

Can I use it just to find out a plant's name?

You can. If you only want to identify a plant now and then, both do the job. The difference shows up later, when you want to care for the plant and not just know what it's called.

My recommendation, when it comes down to it

If I had to pick an app for someone in my family who just bought their first plant, I'd send them Bloom. It's warmer, it gets you up and running fast, and it has that "we'll take care of this together" feeling. And the practical stuff, like knowing whether the plant is toxic to the cat and how many milliliters of water to pour, is exactly what gets a plant through its first month.

If the person already had a corner full of plants, knew scientific names, had maybe tried their hand at an exotic bromeliad or was studying gardening seriously, I'd send them PictureThis. The huge species list and the university backing make a real difference for that kind of grower.

And for you, still reading? If you're on the team that's killed a few plants without ever knowing why, your app is Bloom. Go ahead and download it.

I hope this helped you choose. If it did, come back and tell me how your plant is doing. It makes me happy just knowing one more Swiss cheese plant out there is going to make it.

This piece was written based on real testing of both apps, and updated in July to reflect the current version of Bloom.