It’s best to look for features that meet your dietary needs, such as an app that filters for allergens or special diets, or a goal of eating high protein foods or less calories. In addition to sharing favorite recipes with friends and family members, you can connect with cooks who share similar interests. You can also search for favorite recipes by ingredient or dish type or create your own customized recipe box by adding the ingredients you want to use. The app has an extensive database of recipes from popular food blogs and websites, including Food Network, Epicurious, Good Housekeeping, Taste of Home, and more.
Once you’ve made your grocery list, AnyList will even remind you when it’s time to buy items expiring soon. Helpful features include the ability to share calendars and set reminders. That’s part of why it’s been named as The TODAY Show’s best app for a better life. This app isn’t just for people who are watching calories or following a specific diet. Whether you have specific calorie goals, have been a long-time vegetarian or vegan, or are looking to try out a Paleo, keto, or Mediterrean diet, Eat This Much has a plan for you. Paprika also has an interactive cooking encyclopedia that lets you search for recipes based on your ingredients or keyword.
Best app for fitness and nutrition goals: Eat This Much
“When signing up, there were a few questions you had to answer about your lifestyle and goals, and then you had to sign up with a credit card to access the app. It does offer a 14-day free trial to test out the app, and then the annual price is $59.99,” Pete said. All of the recipes are customizable, as you are either importing them from a website or typing them in on your own. That being said, Pete found it easy to add specific items to his pantry in the app. The app is strictly a calendar where you can list the meals you will be serving for the day or week.
Mealime
You already have recipes and just need to organize them → Plan to Eat or Paprika. Based on the diet plan you select (ranging from classic to flexitarian), the app will suggest meals that align with your choice. Pete tested Prepear, rating it a 5 out of 5 for the initial sign-up and getting started. All you’ll need to do is create an account and then log into the app,” he said.
Mealime: Best for Quick and Easy Meals
The service offers over 15 specialized meal plans, including options like Keto, Low-Calorie, Diabetic, and Family-friendly, all curated by dietitians. Each week, you receive seven new recipes, but you have the flexibility to swap them out if they don’t suit your taste, ensuring you’re never stuck with a meal you don’t want. BigOven is a large recipe and meal planning app with thousands of meal ideas and grocery tools. Eat This Much uses automation to create meal plans based on calorie goals and preferences. So I hope you have found the best meal planning apps for families so you can get organized with your meal planning from the start.
AnyList begins its life as a top-tier grocery list application but transforms into a competent meal planner with its ‘Complete’ upgrade. It excels for families and individuals who prioritize powerful, collaborative list-making and want a straightforward, integrated meal calendar. The app allows you to import recipes from thousands of websites and add all the ingredients to your shopping list with a single tap.
Smart Ways to Lower Your Phone & Internet Bill Fast in 2026 (Save Hundreds Now)
If you’re committed to eating healthier and still want to save time, Platejoy can help. The most effective way to find your perfect match is to get hands-on experience. Nearly best free apps for intermittent fasting 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 has an extensive database of recipes from popular food blogs and websites, including Food Network, Epicurious, Good Housekeeping, Taste of Home, and more.
- The platform generates a full day of eating instantly and automatically creates a corresponding grocery list.
- Now that you have a list of some of the top meal planning apps, you can start saving some money, time, and maybe a few calories.
- To get the most out of any app, understanding nutritional data is key.
- Mealime is often considered one of the best free meal planning apps because it creates simple weekly meal plans and automatically builds grocery lists.
- You just tell the app how much weight you want to lose or gain, then put in how many grams of each nutrient you want per meal on a scale from one to five.
Example: Weekly Meal Plan Using a Budget App
Paid versions usually include extra features like advanced recipe organization, pantry tracking, and personalized meal plans. In a round up of top meal prep apps, I had to feature Meal Planner Pro for all of the busy moms and dads out there. This planner stands out by offering users the ability to create profiles for every family member. No more finding a recipe on your tablet and then having to remember to email yourself the link to find it again at the grocery store.
The Best Meal Plan Apps to Save Time & Money (Free)
You can also do all the basic meal planning steps, like making grocery lists and collections of your favorite recipes. The only feature SuperCook lacks is a calendar to map out meals, but between this app and Daily Meal Planner, you’ll have the best of both worlds. The best part is that the developers don’t bombard you with pop-ups tempting you with more features. Best meal planning apps on a budget work even better when families follow smart grocery habits.
What is the best meal planner app?
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. Plan to Eat caters to the home cook who loves collecting recipes from various sources and wants a powerful tool to organize them.
Best Meal Planning Apps: Our Top Picks for 2026
This is helpful if you’re too lazy to prep a meal or don’t know what to make for dinner. Explore our list of 10 healthy store-bought and homemade options for keto, vegan, and diabetic-friendly diets. This app is an exceptional choice for anyone seeking a structured yet flexible approach to nutrition without the manual effort. You can explore the plans and features on the AI Meal Planner website.
The app allows you to build, save, and reuse your own weekly meal plans or simply adopt a pre-made plan from a food blogger you trust. Its smart grocery list automatically populates from your plan and offers integrated grocery delivery and pickup options where available, bridging the gap between planning and shopping. Meal planning apps save time and money while providing healthy, well-balanced meals.
Mealime supports classic, flexitarian, low carb, pescatarian, vegetarian, paleo, keto, and vegan diets. Your diet plan can be updated at any time, and you can add allergies, dietary restrictions, and food preferences to further refine the recipes. Prepear is worthwhile if you use the social features, so it’s an appealing option for a certain type of cook.
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. Mealime is widely recommended in forums for meal planners and caters to busier people because it’s full of recipes that can be made in under half an hour.
Factors We Considered When Reviewing the Best Meal Planning Apps
Manage favorite recipes, create menus, plan your week, and share your favorites easily with family and friends. Pepperplate also includes tools such as timers and kitchen scales to help make meal prep easier. Because I know how annoying it is to battle the lock screen with dirty hands. Using this app, you can meal plan based on specific diets and meal preferences. Plus, you can curate a list of recipes you love and organize your shopping list.