It’s available for both iOS and Android devices and free to start using. Prepear offers the convenience of a pre-set recipe database alongside manual or online input options. Keep in mind that this app doesn’t have a calorie tracking component and doesn’t draw from its own database of foods. Another drawback is that you have to enter recipes and menus via the web, not directly through the app. MealPrepPro provides original recipes with complete nutrition information that’s also tallied in the app to display daily nutrient intake. Otherwise, the app doesn’t come with a preset recipe database making it a better choice for those who have a good recipe collection already or who enjoy searching the web for new recipes.
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Mealime is another minimalistic planning app with a pretty robust free version that allows users to browse tons of curated recipes and generate or customize meal plans. The upgrade is one of the more affordable options at $2.99 a month, but the free choice has more than enough to sift through. EMeals is one of the best meal planning apps for those who want a truly hands-off experience, bridging the gap between planning and shopping. This subscription service delivers curated weekly meal plans directly to you, based on your chosen eating style.
Best App for Customized Meals: Eat This Much
Samsung Food (formerly Whisk) is an all-in-one cooking app that combines recipe saving, meal planning, and grocery shopping into a single platform, all for free. It allows users to save recipes from any website into a digital recipe box, use them to build a weekly meal plan, and generate a smart shopping list. Amongst the pages and pages of meal planning apps out there, few offer everything you need for free, but thankfully, some free tiers are efficient enough. It’s minimalistic and super easy to navigate, allowing you to meal plan, categorize recipes, and build shopping lists to make your trip more efficient –– all for free. The Pro version is a one-time fee of $19.99 on iOS, which offers some bonuses like device syncing and unlimited recipe saves, but they’re not necessary.
Forks Over Knives — Forks Meal Planner
The most effective way to find your perfect match is to get hands-on experience. Nearly every app on our list offers a free trial or a limited free version. We highly recommend you test-drive your top two or three contenders for at least a week. The app is simple to use and offers visuals, which may be appealing to those looking for basic guidance on improving their overall diet pattern. However, the lack of recipes may make it challenging for some to follow. This app is aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and uses the visual MyPlate to provide guidance for foods to add to your daily diet.
BigOven – Meal Planning Apps
It has everything you need to meal plan for the week, or even the month if you’re feeling ambitious. On top of the adorable smiling spoon and fork logo, the interface is sleek and straightforward, with a polished monthly calendar view that makes it easy to visualize and plan ahead. Whisk is truly the best budget pick outta this bunch simply because you get all of its perks for zero cost. I mean, this bb is free with a fiton pro review capital F and comes with customizable recipes, how-to tutorials from food influencers like The Korean Vegan, and custom shopping lists! Every week, Whisk provides a calendar where you’ll add your recipes for each day. Then, you can request a shopping list, which it will automatically make for you, complete with any dietary preferences you put in.
Additionally, Paprika detects when more than one recipe needs the same ingredient and consolidates the relevant grocery lists for you. With Paprika, you’re in charge of saving and entering recipes to build meal plans. Therefore, it’s probably best for people who can structure a meal plan with minimal support. The app also features the option to use the ingredients you have on hand by filtering recipes based on ingredients you enter into the app. Additionally, you can use the meal prepping feature to prep meals ahead of time by adjusting the number of portions in the recipe. EMeals emphasizes that it’s meal planning “made simple,” and they mean that.
Mealime
Plan to Eat is for people who have a general sense of what they like or want to eat, but just need a little push on the organization. You can clip recipes from the internet or browse recipes in the app, add them to the built-in calendar, and create grocery lists that are specified by category, making shopping easier. The app’s cooking view even comes with step-by-step instructions that include timers, walking you right through everything you need to do down to the minute. For $8.99 per month, you can create meal plans for a week, used advanced search features, view your past meals, and generate reports on your eating habits, to name a few.
- The social media component of this app allows you to post photos of your culinary successes (and failures) to friends and family.
- It’s a little bare-bones beyond that, but as a picky eater, I appreciate the ability to eliminate recipes that include the things I don’t care for.
- Users also like that Plan to Eat allows them to easily import recipes from the web and lets them create shopping lists with just a few clicks.
- Otherwise, the app doesn’t come with a preset recipe database making it a better choice for those who have a good recipe collection already or who enjoy searching the web for new recipes.
- The app allows you to import recipes from thousands of websites and add all the ingredients to your shopping list with a single tap.
- You can use meal planning to try new recipes and experiment with flavors.
Key Features and User Experience
But if you’re coordinating meals and shopping with a partner or family, AnyList’s sharing features can be a game-changer. Similarly, if you have kids with different dietary needs, you’ll want an app that allows for flexibility and customization. If you have ever tried to hit 160 grams of protein while staying under 2,200 calories, you know how tedious manual planning can become. With Eat This Much, you simply put in your height, weight, age, dietary preferences, and activity level, and the app generates a complete meal plan for you. It’s a true set-it-and-forget-it solution for anyone tired of making daily food decisions. From saving money, to reducing food waste, to sheer convenience, there are tons of reasons to choose a meal planning app.
Prepear
You can create and share grocery lists and meal plans with family members in real-time, so everyone is always on the same page. Paprika is designed with a built-in browser so you can search recipes from anywhere on the internet and save them to your recipe box. Prepear positions itself as a social and collaborative meal planning app, ideal for users who enjoy discovering and using recipes from their favorite food bloggers. Its core concept revolves around organizing your personal recipes and subscribing to meal plans from content creators, creating a dynamic and community-driven planning experience. The platform excels at making recipes interactive and easy to follow while cooking. Juggling busy schedules, dietary needs, and the constant question of “what’s for dinner?” can turn cooking into a chore.
Best Meal Planning Apps for 2025: A Detailed Guide
After you’ve added your recipes, you can incorporate personalized menus and meal plans into a calendar-style planner complete with grocery lists. A unique feature of this app is that you can share your recipes or meal plans with friends and family which may make it easier to stay on top of your health goals as a team. It also offers cooking challenges which are helpful for recipe inspiration. There are a bunch of meal planning apps out there—some good, some bad, and others that are downright atrocious, but don’t cost a thing. Just so you don’t have to sift through your app store and skim the review sections, I went ahead and curated this tip-top meal planning app guide. Below you’ll find the six best meal-planning apps, from the most budget-friendly option to the one designed for picky eaters (I see you, chicken tender girlies) to everything in between.
Yes, MealPrepro is one of the known meal planning apps in the market. Mealime stands out as one of the best meal planning apps for busy individuals, couples, and small families who prioritize speed and simplicity. Its core strength lies in generating highly personalized weekly meal plans comprised of healthy, straightforward recipes designed to be cooked in about 30 minutes. The app’s intuitive interface makes it incredibly easy to select your dietary preferences, allergies, and dislikes, then instantly receive a plan.
eMeals – Healthy Meal Plans – Meal Planning Apps
Plenty of meal planning apps can be downloaded for free, but it’s really just bait for an upgrade. While many do offer more features for a one-time fee or a monthly subscription, some provide free tiers with all the basic functionalities. Plan to Eat is a popular meal planning app on Reddit, with many users praising its intuitive interface and comprehensive features.
Compare AI Meal Planner, Mealime, and more on features, pricing, and pros vs. cons. Is really more of a calorie and macronutrient tracker than a meal planner, though the premium version includes meal planning features. PlateJoy, which is owned by the same parent company as Healthline, creates customized meal plans for you and your household according to your dietary preferences and weight loss goals. Mealime offers user-friendly, customizable meal plans that you can tailor to your diet while excluding specific foods you don’t like. This app is the best budget planning app because of the comprehensive features offered for free when using the app. Cooklist also allows you to make in-app price comparisons on ingredients, so you’ll know which local grocer offers the best price.
