Ace Hardware: Home Improvement

Review by eFreeware

A home project rarely fails for lack of ambition. It fails because the list of things you need is scattered: a replacement valve, the right paint sheen, a battery for a car that will not start, a bag of soil, and a grill worth assembling on a Saturday. Keeping track of what you already bought, what it cost and which store near you has it open is its own small job.

The Ace Hardware app, from Ace Hardware Corporation, is built around that job. It puts the retailer's catalog, your local store's information and your Ace Rewards account in one place, and it lets you choose how an order reaches you. It is free, carries no advertising and offers no in-app purchases, and it has been installed more than a million times. The average rating sits at 4.7 from 87,945 ratings, which suggests a lot of people find it useful enough to say so.

What follows is my read of what the app does, drawn from what the developer describes, and who I think gets the most from it.

A catalog that covers the whole house, not one aisle

The range here is the first thing worth noting. Heating and cooling equipment, light fixtures and cabinets sit alongside plumbing supplies, electrical parts and drill kits. Generators, pressure washers, trimmers and mowers fall under outdoor power equipment. Then there is the patio side: furniture, grills, smokers, outdoor heating and storage. Landscaping materials, lawn and garden supplies, paint, and automotive, RV and marine items round it out, including auto tools, cleaning products, car batteries and boat equipment.

That breadth is what separates a store app from a single-category one. If you are repainting a bedroom, replacing a faucet and getting the mower ready in the same month, you are shopping in three different parts of the same catalog, and the app is arranged to let you do that without switching tools. Paint, power tools, BBQ, lawn care and home maintenance all have a place in the app.

I would expect the strongest use case to be the planned project rather than the emergency. When you know what you need, browsing categories and building a cart is straightforward. When something has already burst, you are probably driving to the nearest open store rather than reading product pages.

Four ways to get what you ordered

Once the cart is built, the app asks how you want to receive the items: in-store, store pickup, curbside pickup or delivery. Having all four in one flow is the part I find most practical. Curbside pickup in particular suits a load of lumber, a bag of fertilizer or anything else you would rather not carry across a parking lot, while delivery makes sense for larger items you cannot fit in the car.

The store side of the app backs this up. You can locate a preferred store and reach it with one-click calling and mapping, and you can check that store's local ad, hours, services, brands and events. That last set matters more than it sounds. Store hours and services vary by location, and knowing before you leave the house whether a given branch is open, or whether it runs the service you need, saves a wasted trip.

I would treat the app as a planning tool that ends at the store door or the delivery van, depending on which option you choose. Which of the four you use will come down to the size of the order and how far you are from the branch.

Rewards, points and the record of what you bought

The Ace Rewards side is where the app does something a paper receipt cannot. Your rewards and offers live in one place and can be added to your digital wallet, and your points are tracked in the same view. It also points out items that could help you earn your next reward and tracks your progress toward Premier status. There is annual Ace Rewards savings mentioned as well.

There is a referral element: inviting friends earns 1,000 bonus points. Install the app and link your Ace Rewards account to get a $10 welcome bonus. The terms are specific about it. The bonus coupon becomes available the day after a member downloads the app for the first time, it is a one-time offer tied to that first download, and it is limited to one coupon per Ace Rewards member. Exclusions apply, and the app itself carries the details.

The other half of this is record-keeping. Purchase history is there to reference past products, and My Products is a place to store purchases so warranty information, additional parts, and paint colors and sheens are easy to find again. Anyone who has stood in a paint aisle trying to remember whether the trim was eggshell or satin will see the appeal. A notification inbox also stores earlier alerts so nothing is lost if you miss one.

Linking your account is the step that matters

The app is free to download, and linking your Ace Rewards account is the one setup step that shapes everything else. That link is what brings your points, offers and purchase history into the app, and it is also the condition attached to the $10 welcome bonus.

The welcome offer has a timing rule worth reading twice. Exclusions apply, and the developer directs you to the app for the details.

Downloading the app means agreeing to the Ace Rewards terms, the mobile app terms and the privacy policy.

The most recent update, from September 17, 2026, addresses bug fixes along with stability and performance issues, which is the ordinary maintenance you would want to see in an app that handles carts and account data.

Who will get the most from it

This app is for people who already shop at Ace and want the rewards side of that relationship in their pocket rather than on a card in a wallet. If you are tracking points, working toward Premier status or keeping an eye on offers, the app is where that lives. The referral bonus gives existing members a reason to bring someone else in.

It also suits the household that runs a steady stream of small projects. Paint, plumbing, electrical, lawn and patio all sit in the same catalog, and the purchase history and My Products sections are built for people who need to look up what they bought months ago. The paint color and sheen record is the clearest example of that thinking.

The store-specific features point to a third group: shoppers who care which branch they visit. Store hours, services, brands and events vary by location, and the one-click call and map functions are aimed at people who want to confirm the details before making the trip.

It is built around the Ace store network and the Ace Rewards program, and it does that work well.

A worthwhile install for regular Ace shoppers

The Ace Hardware app does a focused job: it lets you shop a broad home improvement catalog, choose between in-store, store pickup, curbside pickup and delivery, keep your local store's details close at hand, and manage Ace Rewards points and offers alongside a record of what you have already bought. It is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases, and the 4.7 average from 87,945 ratings suggests it lands well with the people using it.

The $10 welcome bonus is a reasonable nudge for anyone who has been meaning to link a rewards account, provided you read the terms: one coupon per member, available the day after your first download, exclusions applying. After that, the value depends on how often you shop and how much you care about points and purchase records.

My recommendation is straightforward. If Ace is your regular store for paint, tools, lawn care and the rest, install it and link your rewards account. If you shop there occasionally for a single item, the app will still work fine, but the rewards and history features are what give it a reason to stay on your phone.

What's new in version 4.1.4

This release fixes some bugs as well as stability and performance issues.