Missing bin day is a small failure that feels enormous: two weeks of overflowing general waste, a fox-ravaged bag on the pavement, and a walk of shame past the neighbours' neatly emptied bins. The fix is a reminder app — but there are now half a dozen UK bin apps, and they work in genuinely different ways.
We've compared the five main options honestly, including our own app. Here's the short version: if you want automatic council schedules on Android and don't mind an ad, Binformation is excellent. If you want open-source and Home Assistant support, BinDays. If you want guaranteed coverage of 100% of the UK, proper bank-holiday handling, and widgets on both iPhone and Android, that's exactly what we built BinMate for.
The quick comparison
| BinMate | Binformation | BinDays | BinsOut | Bintime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone + Android | Android only | iPhone + Android | iPhone | iPhone + Android |
| UK coverage | 100% (auto in selected areas, 20-sec manual setup everywhere) | 334 councils (~90%), auto | ~80 councils, auto | ~80 councils, auto | 100% (manual only) |
| Bank-holiday shifts | Automatic, region-aware, explains why a date moved | Via daily council data refresh | Depends on council data | Depends on council data | Manual |
| Reminders | Night before + morning of + bring-in nudge, editable times | Evening before (default 7pm), snooze | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Widget | Home screen (both) + lock screen (iOS 16+) | No | No | No | No |
| Multiple addresses | Yes (Pro) | No (single address) | No | No | No |
| Account needed | No | No | No | No | No |
| Works offline | Yes, after setup | Needs periodic refresh | Needs council data | Needs council data | Yes |
| Price | Free · Pro from £1.99/mo or £29.99 lifetime | Free with ad · £3.99 removal | Free (donations) | Free | Free/paid |
1. BinMate — best all-rounder for iPhone and Android
Yes, this is our app — so judge the claims, not the enthusiasm.
BinMate answers one question at a glance: which bin goes out tonight? A bold, bin-coloured card on the home screen (and your phone's home/lock screen widget) says something like "Out tonight: Recycling — Tomorrow." You get a reminder the night before, another the morning of, and an optional "bring the bins back in" nudge — all with editable times that survive a phone reboot.
Where it differs from every other app on this list:
- 100% UK coverage. Auto-detect pulls your real schedule from your postcode in selected areas; everywhere else a manual setup takes about 20 seconds. There's no "sorry, your council isn't supported" dead end.
- Bank holidays are handled properly. BinMate applies the UK "+1 working day" rule automatically, knows England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different holidays, and shows a note explaining why a date moved ("Moved — Christmas Day"). Apps that scrape council websites only catch shifts if the council publishes them promptly; BinMate's holiday logic works even offline.
- Multiple homes. Pro tracks every address — yours, a parent's, a rental — with labelled reminders ("Mum's: Garden").
- Private by design. No account, no cloud database; everything stays on your phone and works offline after setup.
The free tier covers the single-household essentials, including a collection-morning reminder. Pro — every reminder, widgets, multiple addresses and calendar export — is £1.99/month, £14.99/year with a 7-day free trial, or a one-time £29.99 Lifetime unlock.
Get it: App Store · Google Play
2. Binformation — best free automatic option on Android
Binformation covers 334 councils (roughly 90% of UK local authorities) using the excellent open-source UK Bin Collection Data project. Enter your postcode, and it fetches your real council schedule and reminds you the evening before, with the bin names right in the notification. It uses Android's exact-alarm system so reminders actually fire on time, and refreshes your schedule daily — which is how it picks up bank-holiday changes.
Limitations: it's Android-only, single-address only, and free because of a banner ad (£3.99 one-off to remove). If a council redesigns its website, the scraper can break for a few days. And if your council is in the unsupported ~10%, there's no manual fallback — the app simply can't help you.
Best for: Android users in a supported council area who want zero setup.
3. BinDays — best for open-source fans and Home Assistant
BinDays is free, open-source, and available on both iPhone and Android, with a genuinely nice extra: an official Home Assistant integration, so your bin schedule can live on a smart-home dashboard. Coverage is the catch — around 80 councils at the time of writing. If yours is on the list, it works well; if not, you can request it and wait.
Best for: tinkerers, smart-home users, and anyone in a supported council.
4. BinsOut — a solid iOS option for supported councils
BinsOut covers roughly 80 councils with automatic schedules on iPhone. If Binformation is the Android pick for auto-coverage, BinsOut is its iOS counterpart — with the same fundamental limitation: outside its supported councils, you're stuck.
Best for: iPhone users in one of its ~80 councils who only need the basics.
5. Bintime — simple manual schedules
Bintime doesn't talk to your council at all. You tell it your pattern — general waste every other Tuesday, recycling the alternate week — and it reminds you. That means it works anywhere in the UK, but it also means you handle every bank-holiday shift and schedule change yourself, which is precisely the job you were trying to delegate.
Best for: people with a simple, stable schedule who don't mind manual upkeep.
What about your council's own app?
Some councils (Rotherham, East Herts, North Herts and others) publish their own bins app, and a few are decent. Three caveats: quality varies wildly, the app dies if you move to a different council, and most don't do widgets or multi-address. A dedicated app that works nationwide is the safer bet — especially if you move house.
How to choose
- You have an iPhone and an Android in the household, or you move house occasionally → BinMate (works everywhere, both platforms).
- You're on Android, your council is supported, and you want fully automatic → Binformation.
- You run Home Assistant → BinDays.
- You want set-and-forget bank-holiday handling → BinMate — it's the only one with region-aware holiday logic built in rather than scraped.
- You manage more than one property → BinMate Pro (the only multi-address option on this list).
Frequently asked questions
What's the best free bin collection app in the UK?
All five apps here have a genuinely free tier. BinMate Free covers the single-household essentials with full bank-holiday handling; Binformation is free with a banner ad on Android; BinDays is free and open-source on both platforms.
Which bin app works with every UK council?
BinMate and Bintime work everywhere in the UK. BinMate auto-detects schedules in selected areas and offers a ~20-second manual setup elsewhere; Bintime is manual-only. Binformation (334 councils), BinDays and BinsOut (~80 each) rely on council data connections, so coverage depends on where you live.
Do bin apps handle bank holiday changes?
Differently. BinMate applies the UK "+1 working day" rule automatically with region-specific holiday calendars and works offline. Binformation and BinDays pick up shifts when councils publish revised dates. Manual apps like Bintime leave it to you.
Do I need an account to use a bin reminder app?
No — none of the five apps here requires an account. BinMate and Binformation both store your address on-device only.
Is there a bin collection app with a widget?
BinMate has home-screen widgets on iPhone and Android, plus a lock-screen widget on iOS 16+. None of the other apps in this comparison currently offers widgets.
BinMate is built and operated in the UK. We've done our best to describe competitors accurately as of July 2026 — if something's out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
