With so many plant ID apps available, it can be hard to know where to turn when trying to identify that pesky plant. Here, we set out to discover which plant app truly stands out as the best choice for beginner botanists
Though it may beggar belief, a post I shared here on Common By Nature comparing the best plant ID apps for beginner botanists, has become my most-viewed article to date, racking up over 25,000 views since 2022. Clearly, this is a popular topic, and more and more people are turning to plant identification apps to help identify their botanical finds. With that in mind, I thought it was time to revisit the topic three years on.
As I said back then, plant ID apps are a contentious subject among many botanists. Some dismiss them outright, claiming they’re unreliable and detract from what purists might call “proper” botany. Others take a more open-minded approach and, even among relative experts, treat plant ID apps as just another tool in their botanical toolkit, much like a hand lens or a wildflower guide.
Wherever you stand on the issue, it is clear that plant apps are here to stay. Thanks to advances in image recognition and Artificial Intelligence (AI), these apps are becoming more accurate, more sophisticated, and increasingly useful for enthusiastic amateurs and budding botanists alike. Not only to help identify unfamiliar plants but also as a means by which to deepen their interest and engagement with the natural world.
Of the many plant ID apps available, a few names crop up again and again. Most people will have heard of PlantNet, Seek, or Google Lens. Others, like Flora Incognita, are a little less well known, but all aim to do the same thing. The question is: are any of them truly a cut above the rest when it comes to plant identification?
Inspired by the ongoing interest in my original post, I decided to return to the subject three years later to find out what the best plant app is today.
Once again, some ground rules
Just like last time, and to standardise our little plant app experiment, I’ve introduced a few rules to keep things fair:
- One image only. While some apps allow for multiple images, we wouldn’t want to give any one of them an unfair advantage, would we?
- Quality images. We’ll only use clear photos showing enough of the plant to reach an accurate identification.
- British plants. I’ve chosen species that are commonly found in Britain, making the test more relevant to British botanists. That said, the odd non-native or garden escapee might sneak in too, just to keep things interesting.
A small change
This time, I thought I’d make things a bit more challenging for our candidate plant apps by including several trickier groups of plants. Whereas last time we focused mainly on flowering species, this round will feature grasses, ferns, and even a sedge. That should really test their mettle…
On reflection, I’ve also decided to drop the “leaves only” rule. Realistically, most people are going to be using plant apps to identify flowers, so it makes sense to reflect that in the test. We’ll also be testing three more identification apps not covered in my last post.
Meet the subjects
I’ve selected the ten plants below based on their varying levels of difficulty. Some, like Herb-paris and Caper Spurge, should be relatively straightforward for the apps to identify. Others — Sea Spleenwort, for instance — may prove more of a challenge. The inclusion of Mountain Melic is admittedly a bit mean, given the lack of clear identification features, but hey, this is my blog, and we’re here to really put these plant apps to the test, aren’t we?
Ligustrum ovalifolium
Phegopteris connectilis
Senecio squalidus
Melica nutans
Asplenium marinum
Paris quadrifolia
Carex remota
Viola riviniana
Euphorbia lathyris
Lysimachia europaea
Plant app comparison
For comparison’s sake, we’ll stick with a similar scoring system to the one used in the previous post. Any plant app that correctly identifies the plant as their first choice will receive 1 point. If the correct plant appears lower down the list, points will be deducted based on its position. For example, if Oxford Ragwort comes as the fourth suggestion, it would earn 0.6 points. I may also award bonus points in certain cases if an app manages to genuinely impress me.
| Garden Privet Ligustrum ovalifolium | Beech Fern Phegopteris connectilis | Oxford Ragwort Senecio squalidus | Mountain Melic Melica nutans | Sea Spleenwort Asplenium marinum | Herb-paris Paris quadrifolia | Remote Sedge Carex remota | Dog-violet Viola riviniana | Caper Spurge Euphorbia lathyris | Chickweed- wintergreen Lysimachia europaea | Score (0-10) | |
| PlantNet | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 0.7 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 9.7/10 |
| PlantSnap | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ 0.1 (it did get Melica) | ✖ | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0.1/10 (Stopped counting) |
| Picture This | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✖ | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 9/10 |
| LeafSnap | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 0.9 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 9.9/10 |
| Seek | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✖ | ✔ 1 | ✖0.1 (Spleenwort, at least) | ✔ 1 | ✖0.1 (It did get sedge) | ✖ | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 6.2/10 |
| GoogleLens | ✖ 0.5 (Points for privet) | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✖ | ✔ 1 | ✖ | ✖0.1 (for violet | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 6.7/10 |
| FloraIncognita | ✔ 0.9 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✖ | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 8.9/10 |
| Obsidentify | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 0.9 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | ✔ 1 | 9.9/10 |
And there we have it, gang — a winner! Well, two actually, and only just by the skin of their teeth. In our little test, ObsIdentify and Leafsnap came out on top, closely followed by PlantNet, with PictureThis a smidgen behind. We’ll take a closer look at those top performers shortly, but first, let’s talk about the plant apps you might want to avoid…
The Losers
If you’re looking for an accurate plant app, best give these ones a miss. Particularly the first…
PlantSnap (0.1/10)
So bad I gave up…
PlantSnap struggled at nearly every turn, misidentifying four out of five plants and earning only a fractional bonus point for narrowing down Mountain Melic to the correct genus. Even more frustrating is its restrictive usage model — users are granted only a handful of free identifications before being hit with a 12-hour delay, clearly designed to push non-subscribers toward paying. Based on what I’ve seen, paying for this app would be, frankly, a waste of money.
PlantSnap performed poorly in our first test back in 2022, and despite the time that’s passed, it’s obvious little has improved. My advice? Avoid this one at all costs.
Seek (6.2/10)
iNaturalist is improving, but not enough…
The last time we tested Seek, it performed abysmally and earned a rather negative review. I’m pleased to report that the app has shown some improvement. By correctly identifying six species — including both a grass and a fern — it managed to impress me to some degree.
That said, it’s still not quite strong enough for me to recommend it as a go-to plant ID tool. There are certainly better options available. Seek failed outright on Oxford Ragwort and Dog-violet, two fairly common species, and struggled with the sedge and one of the trickier ferns.
Given iNaturalist’s popularity among biological recorders, you’d hope Seek would perform better. For now, it still falls short of the mark.
Google Lens (6.7/10)
Meh, should do better with all that funding…
Google Lens is an immensely popular app, built into many smartphones by default. It has a wide range of uses — and performs well in many of them — but when it comes to plant identification, it falls slightly short of the mark.
Once again, it struggled with sedges and ferns, performed poorly on Dog-violet, and, somewhat surprisingly, failed to correctly identify Privet. Given the vast resources behind it, I expected better. While it’s certainly not the worst option out there, I still wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking to accurately identify botanical finds.
In short, it’s far from the best plant ID app available.
Better Choices
Flora Incognita (8.9/10)
The worst of the good apps, but only just…
I had never used Flora Incognita before and didn’t include it in the last test, so I was genuinely excited to give it a try this time around. Truth be told, it performed quite well — just fractionally behind the top-performing apps — and deserves credit for correctly identifying both Sea Spleenwort and Remote Sedge, two species that tripped up several of the less accurate contenders. The only plant it really struggled with was, once again, the Dog-violet.
One particularly nice feature of Flora Incognita is that it allows users to make an initial classification (e.g. herb, shrub, grass, or fern) to help narrow down the search. It also supports multiple photo uploads, which I didn’t take advantage of this time but suspect could have improved the results. Another welcome touch is the inclusion of a confidence level with each ID suggestion — a small detail that adds transparency to the process.
All in all, this is a relatively strong choice for plant identification, and one I’d be happy to use again.
PictureThis (9/10)
Getting better all the time, and very nearly perfect…
PictureThis impressed me this time around, I must say. With the exception of Remote Sedge, it correctly identified all the plants down to species level with relative ease. The app is sleek, user-friendly, and offers a generally smooth experience. Its plant health assessment feature might not be of much interest to botanists, but it could be a welcome bonus for gardeners.
For those who enjoy background detail, PictureThis provides a wealth of information covering everything from characteristics and symbolism to pests, diseases, and garden uses. As I noted back in 2022, it remains a comprehensive and reliable option, and overall, a good, safe bet for botanists.
The Winners
If you are looking for an accurate, reliable plant app to help you on your botanical excursions, I’d choose from these…
PlantNet (9.7/10)
An old favourite performs well yet again…
When I last reviewed PlantNet, I admitted to being a fan, both for its plant identification capabilities and for its useful option to search by regional floras. This feature allows users to narrow their search to a specific geographical area, helping rule out, for example, North American species when the record is actually from the UK or Greece. It performed well in the previous test, but did even better this time, correctly identifying all but one plant to species level. The only slight miss was with the Dog-violet, which it listed as the third option, behind a couple of admittedly similar species.
Once again, this app comes highly recommended. Like all plant ID apps, it shouldn’t be relied on with absolute certainty, but it remains a valuable tool in any botanist’s arsenal.
LeafSnap (9.9/10)
One of the best botanical apps out there…
LeafSnap does it again, finishing ahead of the competition in joint first place! This result echoes what we found in 2022, when the app narrowly beat out contenders like PlantNet and Seek with a respectable 5 out of 6. This time, it performed even better by correctly identifying all the plants to species level, with the exception of Sea Spleenwort, which it listed as a very respectable second option.
If I have one minor complaint, it’s that the in-app prompts and ads seem to have become more frequent since my last test. That said, they’re easy enough to navigate and, in the grand scheme of things, a small price to pay for this level of accuracy.
LeafSnap remains a strong recommendation from me. It boasts all the features you’d want in a reliable plant app.
Obsidentify (9.9/10)
I didn’t include ObsIdentify back in 2022, but I really wish I had. This is a downright impressive app that matched LeafSnap on the scorecard, receiving only a minor deduction for Remote Sedge which it listed as a second choice. It might well have nailed it with a better photo — but let’s be honest, shoddy images are part and parcel of real-world use. In truth, I can’t fault this app on design, ease of use, or accuracy.
What sets ObsIdentify apart from the competition is that, while it’s a reliable choice for plant identification, it also covers all taxa. That means it works just as well for moths, hoverflies and other wildlife groups. The only area where it still struggles is fungi, but to be fair, most fungi can’t be confidently identified from a photo alone.
If you’re looking to streamline the number of apps on your phone, this is the one I’d recommend. Not only will it help with those pesky plants, but you might also find yourself getting hooked on identifying other species too. For beginners especially, it could become a trusty companion.
Bravo, ObsIdentify, bravo!
