It started over brunch. Well, actually, it started with a debate over brunch.

David Kilchenmann and his business partner Tobias Tröhler were looking for a suitable place for brunch during a trip to Munich, but kept running into recommendations for the city’s famous (and over-crowded) beer halls. The pair, who are based in Switzerland, wanted recommendations that would treat them like locals, not tourists flocking to the Bavarian capital for Oktoberfest.

So David and Tobi created Taste Match, a ‘social restaurant app’ with an algorithm that tells you where to eat. “No long lists – just what you love”, is the elevator pitch.

And in the background, Bugfender is quietly chugging away, keeping a record of everything that happens on the Taste Match app. How important has Bugfender been to Taste Match’s growth? David and Tobi are unequivocal.

“Without Bugfender, we would be running blind,” they say.

How Taste Match works – front and backend

Taste Match’s USP is the quality of its recommendations. Because without authentic, relevant suggestions, it would be just another review site, right?

Suggestions are initially based on scientific studies around individual personas – the app promises to “suggest restaurants that truly suit you based on your [personality] type.”

These results are then continually refined through AI, which harnesses the social network side of Taste Match. Users are encouraged to leave reviews and comments, which allows the algorithm to sort the hot joints from the plain and the pricey. Artificial intelligence, powered by crowd intelligence.

The app is full of lovely little touches. A quiz allows you to indicate your preferences even if you can’t (or don’t want to) verbalize them. And the results can be based on all manner of things: not just the food on offer, but also the ambience, the decor, or anything else that makes your perfect eatery.

The ultimate aim is twofold.

Firstly, to allow people to find the restaurants they actually want to eat in, according to their specific criteria. The classic ‘star’ rating system, according to David and Tobi, is too vague and easy to manipulate, so it’s time users had something more specific.

Secondly, to give smaller, more independent restaurants a shop window, without being squeezed by bigger rivals. In an age of faceless chains and endless marketing spin, backstreet eateries can find it hard to get noticed. Taste Match is democratizing this hyper-congested space.

The development team, which also includes CTO Christian Schlatter and software engineer José Rindlisbacher, have built the app using React Native, which has allowed David and the team to deploy across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Other notable features of the stack include Golang Backend, Arrango & Cockroach DB, Zitadel IDP, and Cloud storage (the app runs on Amazon Web Service).

How Bugfender helps

Taste Match may have been born in Bavaria, but it’s built to be global. David and his team want people to use the app in cities all over the world, particularly tourism hotspots like Madrid, London and Barcelona.

This creates obvious challenges in the backend. Users will interact with Taste Match in all kinds of cities, each with its own WiFi speeds and network restrictions, and they will do so in all kinds of ways: scanning for results, leaving comments, liking other users’ posts and saving recommendations for later.

This creates the obvious potential for bugs. But, of course, we can help with that.

One of the great things about Bugfender (if we say so ourselves) is that the app can collect bugs from any device anywhere, so the development team don’t require physical access to a device.

What’s more, Bugfender doesn’t rely on crashes. It logs everything that happens on the app, so developers can monitor their product constantly, even when it’s working perfectly fine.

“Bugfender is crucial for our product.”

David and his team have used Bugfender to carry out testing during the beta user program, and then on production. The logs and information provided from each users’ device have enabled them to reproduce each individual problem, as well as the feedback function/field in question.

“Bugfender is crucial for our product,” David says, while noting the competency and responsiveness of the support team. “We like the startup spirit,” he adds.

The next steps

David and his team want their app to be like the TripAdvisor of restaurants. Actually, they believe it can go even further, because their app provides a social function that first-generation online review sites do not.

With tourism booming since the pandemic – according to the UN’s World Tourism Barometer, the number of people travelling internationally increased 11% in 2024 – the potential is obvious.

Not only do thoughtful, inquisitive tourists want a more local experience when they travel; the people who actually live in tourist cities want to dine away from the crowds.

And in the background, Bugfender will keep powering on. Collecting logs, chronicling those journeys and providing an invisible shield for the user experience.

No matter where Taste Match’s users travel, Bugfender will go with them.