As grocery prices continue to squeeze household budgets, a new app called Grocify is aiming to give South Africans the upper hand. Developed by Johannesburg-based software engineer Ethan Stander, the app allows users to compare real-time prices across the country’s four largest retailers in a single interface.
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The inspiration for Grocify came from a common frustration: Stander’s girlfriend’s mother noted how difficult it was to cross-reference prices between different store apps and websites. Stander’s solution targets that exact pain point, focusing on local, store-specific data rather than generic national averages.
Currently in an invitation-only preview on the Google Play Store, Grocify offers a suite of tools designed for the savvy shopper:
- Real-Time Comparison: Pulls live pricing and “specials” for Checkers (Teal), Pick n Pay (Dark Blue), Spar (Green), and Woolworths (Black).
- Privacy-First: No accounts or personal details are required. The app only asks for location permissions to find stores in your immediate vicinity.
- Smart Search: Displays products from cheapest to most expensive. If two stores have the same price, the app uses proximity as a tiebreaker.
- Barcode Scanner: Allows users to scan an item while standing in a store to instantly see if a rival retailer down the road has it cheaper.
- Optimized Cart: The “Compare Prices” feature shows you the cheapest way to split your shop across multiple stores—or provides a total for a single-store “one-stop” trip.
- Digital Wallet & Lists: Stores loyalty cards and generates shopping lists that can be exported as PDFs.
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Early testing found the interface to be simple and intuitive. While the app is generally polished, testers did encounter a minor bug where an item listed as “available” appeared as “missing” once added to the cart. However, such glitches are typical for early builds and are expected to be patched before the wider release.
While currently limited to early-access users, Ethan Stander expects Grocify to officially launch on the Google Play Store by the end of February 2026.
