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Best Meal planning apps are designed to help you organize your weekly meals for an easy, time-saving cooking experience at home. Whether you’re interested in pre-paid meal plans, need help creating your shopping list, or even tracking your nutrition, these apps can help you get your groceries in order. There’s an app for almost any dietary need, whether you’re crunched for time to plan for meals, looking to shed some weight, or if you prefer to prepare meals in large quantities.
Read on for our picks for the best meal planning apps.Putting three square meals on the table is no small feat, and the time required to shop, plan, and peruse recipes for inspiration can take away from actually preparing your food. Fortunately, meal planning apps can help you meet your specific needs—from learning new recipes to reducing food waste, promoting healthier eating habits, and even helping you meet your fitness goals. Here are the best meal planning apps available today.
Best Meal Planning Apps Comparison Table
| App | Features | Platform | Download Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paprika | – Recipe organization and saving | iOS, Android | Download Now |
| Forks Over Knives | – Plant-based recipes | iOS, Android | Download Now |
| Mealime | – Personalized meal plans | iOS, Android | Download Now |
| PlateJoy | – Customized meal plans | Web, iOS | Download Now |
| Plan to Eat | – Recipe collection and drag-and-drop meal planning | Web, iOS, Android | Download Now |
| Yummly | – Personalized recommendations and recipe saving | iOS, Android | Download Now |
| MealPrepPro | – Meal planning and recipe collection | iOS, Android | Download Now |
Paprika
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Recipe organization | Save and organize recipes from various sources |
| Meal planning | Plan meals for the week and create customized menus |
| Grocery lists | Generate automated grocery lists based on recipes |
| Cooking tools | Timers, scaling ingredients, and more |
Paprika seems like a digital form of a family recipe box from the old days. You can adjust the app in any way you want, whether you want to make a huge list of carb-heavy comfort foods or paleo-friendly recipes. The app doesn’t come with any recipes, but you can easily link to famous food and recipe sites like Serious Eats, Cook’s Illustrated, Epicurious, and The New York Times through the platform’s built-in browser.
Your own ideas can also be added. With the grocery list and pantry tools, it’s easy to keep track of what you need to buy and what you already have. Since the information is stored locally, you don’t need Wi-Fi to view recipes. In Apple’s App Store, Paprika has more than 37,000 reviews and a grade of 4.9/5 stars.
The Good
- Easy to save and organize recipes
- Planning meals and making menus well
- Easy shopping with automated food lists
- Tools that can help you cook and prepare meals
The Bad
- May take some time at first to enter and organize recipes.
- Recipe sharing has few social or community benefits.
Forks Over Knives
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Plant-based recipes | Explore a collection of delicious plant-based recipes |
| Meal planning | Plan plant-based meals for the week |
| Shopping lists | Generate customized shopping lists for ingredients |
| Recipe customization | Adjust serving sizes and add notes to recipes |
The Best Meal Planning Apps has hundreds of plant-based recipes that can be made in 35 minutes or less. These dishes were made by professional chefs. Each week, the app gives you a personalized meal plan and recipes. All you have to do is shop, prepare, cook, and eat.
Grocery lists are uploaded immediately and can be sorted by aisle or by recipe. You can buy food right from the Amazon Fresh app if you have an account. The app also has a tool called “Weekend Prep” that helps you plan and cook in bulk ahead of time. If you don’t like a recipe on your weekly meal plan, you can easily swap it out with just one click.
The Good
- A large number of healthy plant-based meals.
- Planned meals made especially for a plant-based diet
- Customized shopping plans make it easy to get the things you need.
- There are ways to change recipes to fit your tastes.
The Bad
- Mostly about plant-based cooking, so it might not work for everyone.
- The user design could be more simple and easy to use.
Mealime
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Personalized meal plans | Customized meal plans based on dietary preferences |
| Recipe library | Explore a variety of healthy and delicious recipes |
| Automated grocery lists | Generate organized grocery lists for easy shopping |
| Cooking mode | Step-by-step cooking instructions and timers |
Mealime is the Best Meal Planning Apps for you if you want to eat better but don’t have time to look for recipes online or cook for an hour. Create a profile, add your food tastes, and then choose your meals for the week from a list of recipes that the app has put together just for you. The company says they can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and it will even make a shopping list that can be sent to Amazon Fresh or Instacart for delivery.
All of the meals are healthy and can be made to fit a wide range of diets, including keto, paleo, and vegan. You can also import your best recipes from the web. However, you can’t add recipes by hand. The app is free, but if you switch to Pro, you’ll get access to many more recipes, nutrition information, and the ability to sort meals by calorie count, save your meal plans, and add notes to a recipe.
The Good
- Meal ideas that are customized to each person’s tastes
- Lots of tasty, healthy meals to choose from
- Easy shopping with automated food lists
- Cooking mode with timers and clear directions
The Bad
- Some functions that are more complex may require a paid subscription.
- There aren’t many ways to change the meal plans.
PlateJoy
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Customized meal plans | Personalized meal plans based on dietary goals |
| Recipe library | Access to a vast collection of recipes |
| Smart grocery lists | Automated and organized grocery lists |
| Health tracking | Integration with fitness apps and devices |
PlateJoy’s the Best Meal Planning Apps has highly customized meal plans are great for people who can’t eat certain foods. The user fills out a lifestyle survey that asks about food preferences, exercise and calorie goals, allergies, and schedules. The app then uses 50 data points to make a meal plan just for them. Even people with diabetes or who are on a low FODMAP plan can eat there.
The meal plans are made by nutritionists, who can also be reached by phone or chat. The meal plans include recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The meal plans will make a shopping list for you automatically, which can be linked to Instacart or other grocery delivery systems. You can also add ideas on your own.
The Good
- Meal plans that are tailored to meet certain nutritional goals
- Large collection of recipes with a wide range of choices
- Smart grocery plans make shopping easy.
- Integration of health tracking for a whole-person method
The Bad
- Some features require a paid plan, and the service is built on subscriptions.
- There isn’t much of it in some places.
Plan to Eat
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Recipe collection | Save and organize your favorite recipes |
| Drag-and-drop meal planning | Easy meal planning using a simple interface |
| Automated grocery lists | Generate categorized grocery lists for shopping |
| Recipe sharing | Share recipes and meal plans with others |
Plan to Eat is an easy-to-use and Best Meal Planning Apps that lets you keep track of all your best recipes and make meal plans. It works on both iOS and Android, and you can use it on a desktop or tablet in any browser you want. You can type in recipes by hand or put in the URL of any recipe you find online. The number of recipes in the app is limited, and you can only get them as part of the free Cooking Challenges.
The app doesn’t come with a set database of recipes, so it’s better for people who already have a lot of recipes or who like to look for new recipes on the web. Plan to Eat will add nutrition information to the app if the recipes you type have it. Recipes can also have nutrition information typed in by hand. In the app’s planner, which looks like a weekly schedule, the daily nutrients will be added up.
The Good
- Organization and control of recipes that work well
- Easy-to-use drag-and-drop tool for meal planning
- Automatic food lists make shopping easy.
- For a sense of community, you can share recipes.
The Bad
- The design of a mobile app could be better.
- There may not be many extra social benefits.
Yummly
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Personalized recommendations | Recipe suggestions based on individual preferences |
| Recipe saving and organizing | Save and organize favorite recipes for easy access |
| Shopping lists | Create and manage shopping lists effortlessly |
| Cooking mode | Step-by-step cooking instructions and timers |
The virtual pantry feature makes it easy to avoid buying the same thing twice and keeps track of the food you’ve already bought, making it the Best Meal Planning Apps to avoid wasting food. In the paid version of the app, you can sort recipes by whether or not they have videos. This feature is useful for people who want to get better at cooking or learn new skills.
In the paid version, you can also get full nutrition information for each meal. Yummly uses the USDA nutrient database to figure this out. When you update, you can also use a calendar to organize recipes and other tools for meal planning.
The Good
- Recipe suggestions based on your tastes for a custom experience
- Features that make it easy to save and organize recipes
- Making and managing shopping plans is easy.
- Cooking mode with timers and clear directions
The Bad
- Some functions that are more complex may require a paid subscription.
- The recipes in the database could be more diverse.
MealPrepPro
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Meal planning | Plan and prepare meals in advance |
| Recipe collection | Access to a variety of meal prep-friendly recipes |
| Nutritional information | Detailed nutritional breakdown for each recipe |
| Customizable serving sizes | Adjust portion sizes based on individual needs |
A user can input their goals and their optimum calorie intake into the Best Meal Planning Apps, and then MealPrepPro will provide them with recipes that are based on their tastes.
It provides more than 15 different plan options, and users have the option of adding a partner to their existing account. Additionally, users of the app are able to compile shopping lists for themselves.
The Good
- specialized in food prep and meals that can be made ahead of time
- A large number of ideas that work well for meal prep
- Each recipe has a full list of nutritional facts.
- Ability to change the size of each dish for more accurate meal planning
The Bad
- Mostly about meal prep, so it might not work for all types of food planning.
- The user design could be more straightforward to make it easier to get around.
FAQs
Most meal planning apps let users look through a list of recipes, choose the ones they want to make, and make their own meal plans for a certain amount of time. Most of the time, the apps will automatically make shopping lists based on the recipes you choose, making it easier to buy the things you need. Some apps also have features like notes for meals and the ability to connect to other apps or devices.
Using tools to plan meals can be helpful in a number of ways. They can save time by making it easier to plan meals and go food shopping. These apps often give nutritional information, which makes it easier to keep track of calories or follow a certain diet. They can also help people stick to their health or diet goals and give them ideas for new recipes to try.
Yes, a lot of meal planning apps let users change their meal plans to fit their tastes or nutrition needs. If you follow a vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or any other special diet, these apps often have filters or groups to help you find recipes that meet your needs.