The moment you spot an unknown plant in the garden, at the store, or in the wild, you can just reach for your phone and identify it with a single tap. The only thing you need is an accurate plant identifier app.
We tested one such tool — the recently launched Botan ID app. Now, after 10 days of testing and 50+ plant identifications, we are ready to share our impressions and the tool’s pros and cons in this Botan app review.
What Is Botan?
The Botan identifier app is a tool designed for beginners, casual gardeners, and experienced gardeners, available on both Google Play and the App Store. It allows users worldwide to recognize all kinds of indoor and outdoor plants in 2-5 seconds.
In addition to plant ID, the tool provides care guides for the identified species, environmental tips and reminders, instant disease ID via photo, and other care features.
How Botan Works
The way this plant identification app works is quite intuitive. You take a picture, get your ID result, and receive a full care and treatment guide.
But let’s go through the entire process with weeping fig ID — one of the first plants we identified via Botan. The steps we took were as follows:
- Getting started. We needed to download and open the app, create an account, and answer some onboarding questions first.
- Starting ID. Then we could click the Photo icon to take a photo of the fig in real time. Alternatively, we could upload one from the Gallery.
- Getting ID results. We successfully identified the fig (Chinese Banyan, Ficus benjamina, also known as a weeping fig), learned its toxicity status (toxic for pets), and received care tips.
The entire process took seconds, and there were tips at every stage.
What Botan Can Do: Core Features Reviewed
As a plant care app, Botan offers the following features:
- Care plans. After the plant is identified, you can save it to your Garden and get a detailed care plan. It includes 10 general plant requirements and an action plan. You can set your goals, and the app will adjust the care plan accordingly.
- Disease ID and recovery plans. The Disease scanner works similarly. You only need to add the photo of a plant that captures the symptoms, for example, black spots on leaves, and submit it. In 3-5 seconds, you’ll learn the diagnosis and estimated recovery time.
- Environmental tools and reminders. Botan also provides a Watering Calculator, a Light Meter, and additional environmental recommendations. Those include tips on fertilizing, humidity, leaf cleaning, light, placement, pot size, pruning, soil moisture levels, pest checks, soil pH, temperature, and cutting.
- Task & History tools. Reminders help you stay on top of today’s tasks and organize all aspects of care. The History feature lets you track your actions and view all the plants you were previously interested in.
- Expert chat. Live chat with a botanist is available 24/7. The expert recommendations we received were specific and often included information not available in standard care guides.
So, Botan is a multi-purpose app. For example, if you have your own garden, you can identify berries by photo and learn pretty much everything: what soil pH is best, why there are yellow spots on the leaves if that’s the case, and, in the end, get a care plan and recovery guide. The same goes for houseplants and the plants you see in the wild.
Botan Plant Database
The Botan database already includes over 30,000 plants. Those include outdoor plants and houseplants, flowers, succulents, herbs, and trees, as well as common, rare, and exotic species.
Also, the brand offers additional selections of plant categories on the website. For example, we could browse the list of pet-safe plants, see which species are safe for children and adults, and apply other filters, such as habitat, maintenance level, and more.
Botan on iOS and Android
The differences between the app versions for Android and iOS are minor. The design is the same, and the navigation systems are equally effective for beginners.
In both cases, you see the search bar on the main screen and the key care tools, such as Identification, Diagnostics, and Reminders. There’s no difference in speed, too. We could identify plants by photo in 3 seconds on Android and iPhone.
The bottom menu is the same as well. You can switch between Home, Chat (with an expert), and My Plant screens with a single tap. However, the Task feature isn’t available to Android users at the time of writing this review.
Also, you’ll need only 44.23 Mb of free space for Android and 164 Mb for iOS.
Botan: Highs and Lows
We’ve been testing Botan for 10 days and have identified over 50 plants. 47 of them were identified correctly on the first try, which is quite a good rate.
It’s functional, it’s rather convenient, but like any other app, it also has its cons:
Key Pros | Main Cons |
Accurate automatic plant IDs | Doesn’t identify anything other than plants (e.g., animals, birds) |
30K+ species in the database, recognizes plants from all over the globe | 2-5% of first-attempt IDs aren’t accurate |
Intuitive, well-designed app suitable for beginners | No community features (e.g., Feed, followers) |
Clear, well-structured care guides that cover every aspect of growing a plant | No plant categorization (e.g., indoors/outdoors) |
Strong customization features, 4 adjustable reminders | No wishlist feature or lunar calendar |
Disease IDs and recovery plans with step-by-step instructions & estimated recovery time |
For us, the pros outweighed the cons, but we’d recommend considering your own priorities when deciding whether Botan is the best fit for you.
Who Gets the Most Out of Botan
Botan is designed as a versatile tool, but it will be more effective for certain groups.
In particular, it’s great for beginner gardeners who want to learn to grow plants from scratch. The tool also works for more experienced gardeners thanks to advanced environmental features and accurate tips on everything from fertilization to repotting frequency. Enthusiasts who want to discover plants in the wild will likely find it useful as well.
However, it’s not the best fit for professional botanists or for people who’d like to contribute to science by expanding the existing worldwide plant database.
Should You Download Botan?
If you’d appreciate an app that can identify most plants in seconds, also identify diseases, and provide detailed instructions on what to do in each specific case, this might be a good idea.
The app is quite versatile. You can use it as a care app with basic reminders if you’re a beginner, just so as not to make things complicated at the beginning of your journey. Alternatively, you can use advanced environmental tools, read science-backed guides, or consult experts. It’s fully customizable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Botan available on iPhone?
Yes, the Botan app is officially available on the App Store. You can download it for free, and you’ll only need 164 Mb of free space.
Is Botan good for beginners?
Yes, this is an intuitive app with some simple yet effective features, such as Plant ID, care plans, Disease ID, and recovery plans. There are reminders as well, and users can customize them, for example, by choosing simple ones like watering or fertilization.
Does Botan have a plant care plan?
Yes, once you identify the plant, you can save it and get a custom care plan. It will cover: key care requirements, advanced environmental recommendations (soil pH, fertilizing, pruning), additional care tips and guides, descriptions of common issues, and more.
