Search for the best meal planning apps and every list ranks the same handful of names, as if everyone wanted the same thing from a meal planner. They don't. Some people want to be told what to cook. Some already have two hundred recipes and want them organised. Some are counting protein. And a lot of people just want the week's dinners to turn into one grocery list so they stop going back to the shop on Wednesday.
So this list is organised by job, not ranking. One of these apps is ours — DishPal — and we've put it on the one job it's built for, and named other apps for the jobs they do better. Every app here is on the App Store and free to download. Mealime, a long-time favourite, shut down on October 21, 2026; if you're coming from it, our Mealime alternatives guide and the Mealime alternative finder are the faster route.
The quick answer: for a free planner with ideas built in, use Samsung Food. To organise recipes you already collect, use Paprika or Plan to Eat; for recipes saved from TikTok and Instagram, ReciMe. If you just want this week's dinners turned into one sorted grocery list, use DishPal, and if you're planning around calories or macros, Eat This Much.
Best for turning the week's dinners into one grocery list: DishPal
DishPal starts from the dishes, not from recipes. Type or say what you want to cook this week — tacos, chicken curry, lasagne — and it writes one shopping list with every ingredient once, amounts added up and sorted by aisle. You don't need those dishes saved as recipes first, which is the step most planners quietly assume you've already done. Put dishes on a weekly menu and one tap turns the menu into the list; a recipe box saves recipes from up to six screenshots or pasted text, and a fridge, freezer and pantry inventory keeps track of what's already at home.
The free version keeps manual lists, history, widgets and iCloud sync, with 2 AI generations a week, 5 saved recipes and a menu three days ahead. Premium unlocks unlimited AI and recipes, the full weekly menu, the Apple Watch app, expiry reminders and family sharing through your own iCloud, as a weekly or yearly subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase. There's no account and no ads. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Skip it if you want an app to suggest recipes for you, import recipes from a link, or count calories — DishPal does none of those.
Best for a free planner with recipe ideas built in: Samsung Food
Samsung Food is the most complete free option. Its App Store listing describes more than 240,000 public recipes, search by ingredient, filters for 14 diets, saving recipes from any website, weekly meal planning and a shopping list, free on iPhone, iPad and the web. If your problem is “what should we eat?” rather than “how do I organise what we eat”, it does the most for nothing. A paid tier, Samsung Food+, adds AI-personalised weekly meal plans; the App Store page doesn't list its price, so check in the app.
Skip it if you already have your own recipes and don't want a big recipe catalogue between you and the plan.
Best for organising a recipe collection you already have: Paprika
Paprika is the long-standing recipe manager: its browser downloads a recipe from a website into a clean card, you scale and convert it, and it plans meals for a day, a week or a month with reusable menus, then adds the whole week to a grocery list sorted by aisle. Paprika 4 is now free to download everywhere, with up to 50 recipes on a single device and no time limit; a Premium subscription adds unlimited recipes, sync across devices, family accounts and saving recipes from the TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube apps. Its site says one subscription covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Windows, and Paprika 3 owners get a free Standard tier with unlimited recipes and sync.
Skip it if you don't cook from recipes much — Paprika shines once your recipes live inside it.
Best for planning weeks or months ahead: Plan to Eat
Plan to Eat is built for people who genuinely plan. Recipes go in from any website via the share sheet or by hand, the planner lays out a week, a month or longer, and the shopping list builds itself from the plan, grouped and reorderable, with a staples list for the things you always buy. It's the most planner-shaped app here. There's no free plan: its listing offers a 14-day trial with no payment details required, then an annual subscription.
Skip it if you want something free, or you plan one or two days at a time.
Best for saving recipes from TikTok and Instagram: ReciMe
If most of your “recipes” are videos you saved on social media, ReciMe is made for that. It pulls the ingredients and steps out of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest posts into a readable recipe, then builds grocery lists and meal plans from them. Its site says the free version allows 5 recipe imports a week and keeps the grocery list, meal plan and cookbooks free; Premium adds unlimited imports and nutrition for every recipe, with a 7-day trial.
Skip it if your recipes come from cookbooks and family cards rather than your feed.
Best for a household that shares one shopping list: AnyList
AnyList is a shopping list first, and a very good one: the free plan shares lists between everyone in the house, so whoever's in the shop sees what was just added. Recipes, importing them from websites and the meal planning calendar come with AnyList Complete, which its site lists at $9.99 a year for an individual or $14.99 a year for a household. If the fight in your house is over the list rather than the menu, start here.
Skip it if you want meal planning without paying — on AnyList it's part of Complete.
Best for hitting calorie and macro targets: Eat This Much
Eat This Much plans to numbers. Tell it your calorie and macro targets, the foods you like, your budget and your schedule, and it generates meal plans to match. Free users can create and customise a day's plan; Premium generates a whole week automatically, with a grocery list, pantry tracking and Apple Health sync, as a monthly or yearly subscription.
Skip it if you don't track calories or macros — the whole app is built around the targets.
Meal planner or grocery list app: which do you actually need?
Most people who abandon a meal planning app abandon the planning, not the shopping. Filling seven dinner slots, a week in advance, with recipes you've imported and tagged is real work, and it's only worth it if you enjoy planning. If what you really want is to stop forgetting the onions, the list is the job, and the plan is optional. That's the split this list is built on: Plan to Eat and Paprika reward people who plan; AnyList and DishPal help people who mainly shop; Samsung Food and Eat This Much help people who don't know what to cook yet.
Which one for which job
| If you want to… | Use | Free version |
|---|---|---|
| Turn dinners into one grocery list | DishPal | Manual lists, 3-day menu, 5 recipes, 2 AI generations a week |
| Get recipe ideas for free | Samsung Food | Recipes, weekly planner and shopping list |
| Organise recipes you collect | Paprika | Up to 50 recipes on one device |
| Plan weeks or months ahead | Plan to Eat | 14-day trial, then annual subscription |
| Save recipes from social media | ReciMe | 5 imports a week; list and plan free |
| Share a list with the household | AnyList | Shared lists; meal calendar in Complete |
| Hit calorie or macro targets | Eat This Much | One day's plan |
The honest summary
Pick the app for the part of the week that actually goes wrong. If you never know what to cook, take ideas from Samsung Food. If your recipes are scattered, give them a home in Paprika or ReciMe. If you love planning, Plan to Eat repays the effort. And if dinner ideas are fine but the shopping keeps going sideways, a list that writes itself from the dishes is the smallest fix that works.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free meal planning app?
Samsung Food is the most generous free planner: its App Store listing describes 240,000+ public recipes, weekly meal planning and a shopping list, free on iPhone, iPad and the web. Paprika 4 is free for up to 50 recipes on one device, ReciMe's free version keeps the meal plan and grocery list with 5 social recipe imports a week, and DishPal is free with manual lists, a three-day menu, 5 saved recipes and 2 AI generations a week.
Which meal planning app makes a grocery list automatically?
Most of them, but they start from different places. Plan to Eat, Paprika and Samsung Food build the list from the recipes on your plan. DishPal starts from dish names instead: type or say “tacos, chicken curry, lasagne” and it writes one list with every ingredient once, amounts added up and sorted by aisle, even if those dishes aren't saved as recipes.
Is there a meal planning app without a subscription?
Yes, a few. Samsung Food's core planner is free. Paprika 4 is free to use with up to 50 recipes on a single device, and Paprika 3 owners keep a free Standard tier with unlimited recipes and sync. DishPal is free to download and also sells Premium as a one-time Lifetime purchase alongside weekly and yearly plans. Plan to Eat has no free plan after its 14-day trial.
Which meal planning app is best for a family?
If the family mostly shares a shopping list, AnyList's free plan already shares lists between people; its Complete subscription adds recipes and the meal planning calendar. Paprika Premium has family accounts. DishPal Premium shares lists, menu, recipes and the kitchen through your own iCloud, with ticks that show up for everyone, so nobody buys the milk twice.
Name the dinners. Get one list.
Type or say this week's dishes and DishPal writes one shopping list, ingredients once, amounts added up, sorted by aisle. No account, no ads.
Download DishPal on the App Store →Related: the best Mealime alternatives and AnyList alternatives for grocery lists. Questions? Email us.
