Navigating a city’s pub scene can often feel like a guessing game, especially when you are trying to find a decent pint or a Sunday roast that won’t break the bank. Enter The Pub Exchange, a hyper-local, data-driven platform that acts like a stock market index for pubs and bars across Greater Manchester.
Currently tracking 233 venues across 30 different areas in Greater Manchester, The Pub Exchange is designed to help punters find the best value food and drink in the city. Here is a breakdown of what the platform does and its main features.
A live price index
At its heart, The Pub Exchange is a searchable, sortable database that tracks the cost of pub staples. Free to use and requiring no logins, the site monitors the prices of:
- The cheapest pint of lager
- A pint of Guinness
- A portion of chips
- A burger
- A steak
- A Sunday roast
By keeping a live record of these prices, the platform calculates city-wide averages (for example, noting that the average cheapest pint of lager in Manchester city centre is currently £4.62, while Guinness sits at £5.29) and highlights the venues offering the absolute best value.
Treating pub recommendations a bit like the stock market, The Pub Exchange features a dynamic “board” of hot picks that moves every Monday. It highlights crowd favourites, taking into account cellarmanship, atmosphere, and value, with venues moving up or down the rankings based on current performance and reviews.
Because pub prices fluctuate, The Pub Exchange relies on a mix of in-person verification and community contributions. Readers can submit price updates or suggest new pubs to be added to the index. To ensure transparency, every pub’s profile displays the exact date its prices were last verified, flagging anything that hasn’t been updated in over six months.
AI-powered pub crawl planner
One of the site’s most unique tools is its AI crawl builder. Users can input their preferred area, desired vibe, and budget, and the platform will automatically generate a custom, walkable route through Manchester’s best pubs, complete with a breakdown of why each stop made the cut.
Which pubs have the cheapest pints in Greater Manchester?
As of the week commencing Monday 17th August 2026, the following 10 are the cheapest spots for a pint:
- The Blue Bell (Samuel Smith’s), Levenshulme (£2)
- Malt Shovels, Altrincham (£2)
- The Friendship Inn, Fallowfield (£2.40)
- Cruz 101, City Centre (£2.50)
- Up Steps Inn (Wetherspoons), Oldham (£2.90)
- The Regal Moon (Wetherspoons), Rochdale (£2.90)
- The Ford Maddox Brown (Wetherspoons), Rusholme (£2.90)
- The Moon Under Water (Wetherspoons), Wigan (£2.90)
- The Brocket Arms (Wetherspoons), Wigan (£2.90)
- The Ash Tree (Wetherspoons), Ashton-under-Lyne (£2.90)
Listings for London are slated to arrive soon, with other major UK cities expected to follow, potentially turning The Pub Exchange into a nationwide tool for finding the fairest pints in the country.
You can check out the site for yourself here.
