idea → development → success (short claim)
The creation of the European Coffee Trip (ECT) mobile app brought together several key elements: a real user problem, our love of coffee, and – unfortunately – Covid, which halted development. What seemed unrealistic in 2020 is now an app that’s being used by a quarter of a million users.
“Since our first coffee trip across Europe, we’d been dreaming of the day we could offer European Coffee Trip as a mobile app.
Thanks to Cookielab, this dream came true—and we’ve also found a partner who continues to move the app forward with us, actively seeking the best technical and business solutions.”
Co-founder & CEO, European Coffee Trip
As the saying goes, great minds think alike. It was no coincidence that one of our founders reached out to the European Coffee Trip team just as they were considering a mobile app. At the end of 2019, we decided to join forces and began working on the iOS version first, followed by Android. But since ECT is based on discovering new places, the travel bans and lockdowns caused by Covid led to a development pause. We finally launched the first version of the app on September 30, 2021.
Our task was to translate the café map (which is still running on the web today) into a mobile app with minimal changes to the CMS where ECT manages its database. The goal was to simplify the app as much as possible, keep file size small, and make it lightning-fast.
At the time of iOS development, reliable mobile internet wasn’t always a given. We also wanted users to be able to search for cafés offline, for example, on a flight with no Wi-Fi. That’s why we developed the app in a simple way, without unnecessary layers, resulting in a fast and stable experience.
Statistics showed that the majority of users were on iOS, so we strategically split the development into two phases. We started with the iOS version, where we also prototyped, refined the design, and tackled technical challenges, including a simple monetization system. Once that was polished, we began developing the Android version. Thanks to the work done during the iOS phase, we finished Android development in half the time – key decisions had already been made, allowing us to focus purely on implementation.
In the four years since launch, we’ve added lots of small and large improvements to the app, from better map visuals to increased café visibility and more advanced filtering. In 2024, we launched a user vote for the most popular café, and since the beginning, users have been able to support the app financially.
We recently launched push notifications for things like competitions, and we’re now exploring ways to connect roasteries to the map and bring even more content and context to the coffee community.
Are you a specialty coffee fan too? Download the European Coffee Trip app and go straight to the best coffee around.
European Coffee Trip (ECT) is a growing platform that connects coffee lovers with specialty cafés and roasteries across Europe.
Since 2014, its mission has been to build a curated database of exceptional cafés devoted to specialty coffee culture. With more than 2.5 million website visits per year and 250,000 app downloads, over 80,000 coffee lovers use it each month to discover their next favorite café.
The development of the European Coffee Trip (ECT) mobile app combined several elements: a real user need, our love for coffee, but also Covid and a development freeze. What seemed unrealistic in 2020 is now an app used by a quarter of a million users.
“The biggest challenge was making the app as simple as possible. From the start, we used basic technologies like cached JSON data. It saved us and the client a lot of work, and it shows in the app’s reliability.”
Co-founder at Cookielab
As the saying goes, great minds think alike. It was no coincidence that one of our founders reached out to the European Coffee Trip team just as they were considering a mobile app. At the end of 2019, we decided to join forces and began working on the iOS version first, followed by Android. But since ECT is based on discovering new places, the travel bans and lockdowns caused by Covid led to a development pause. We finally launched the first version of the app on September 30, 2021.
Our task was to bring the existing web café map into a mobile app with minimal changes to the CMS where ECT manages its database. The goal was to simplify the app as much as possible so it would take up little space on the phone and run extremely fast.
We began by researching whether it would be better to build the app multiplatform (Flutter) or natively. We concluded that native development made more sense, as Flutter was still in its early stages at the time.
Data showed that the majority of the ECT audience used iOS, so we strategically split the development into two phases. While working on the iOS version, we also prototyped in Flutter, built a mock server, refined the design, and solved technical challenges, including a simple monetization system. This groundwork allowed us to complete the Android version in half the time – since all major decisions had already been made, we were able to focus purely on implementation.
We aimed to minimize data usage and ensure users could search for cafés offline, like during flights without Wi-Fi. We kept the app architecture simple and relied on modern device performance. Everything runs through RAM without a database or unnecessary APIs, making the ECT app simple, fast, and reliable.
We wrote the iOS app natively in Swift. We use Xcode Cloud for building, and Firebase for analytics, push notifications, and remote configuration. The Android version benefited from the finalized architecture, and using Jetpack Compose, we achieved a 50% faster development time, which we wrote about on our blog.
We don’t really deal with a backend for ECT. The app pulls data from a static CDN. Because the app is so lightweight, there’s no need for servers, APIs, or infrastructure.
Thanks to our approach, we’re able to render around 5,000 cafés in just 772 ms, and users can smoothly filter and sort through them. Search and filters work offline, and thanks to clever caching, the app performs well even on slow internet connections.
Since launch, we’ve added plenty of small and big upgrades to ECT—improved maps, better café visibility, and more filtering options. One of our favorite Easter eggs is the subtle image movement when tilting the phone. From day one, users could support the app via native in-app purchases.
For detailed cross-platform analytics, we connected Firebase Analytics (mobile) with Google Analytics (web) through BigQuery. This gives both cafés and the ECT team access to detailed profile visit and click-through stats without having to pay for third-party analytics tools.
We’re now working on better automation, like syncing café opening hours with Google automatically. In the future, we plan to introduce notifications (e.g. for new competitions) and explore ways to integrate roasteries into the map, giving the coffee community even more content and insight.
Are you also a specialty coffee lover? Download European Coffee Trip and go straight to the good coffee.
European Coffee Trip (ECT) is a growing platform that connects coffee lovers with specialty cafés and roasteries across Europe.
Since 2014, its mission has been to curate a database of exceptional cafés dedicated to specialty coffee culture. With over 2.5 million annual website visits and 250,000 app downloads, more than 80,000 users discover their next favorite café each month.
