The 6 Meal-Planning Apps That’ll Take All the Brainwork Outta Making Dinner

Get this: Paprika's free version comes with the same flexibility as its paid version. The app doesn’t have a built-in recipe guide, but it does allow you to save and enter recipes from the internet, and you can add up to 50 (!!) before a paywall comes in. Plus, if you add the app as a browser extension, you can save recipes directly from your favorite sites, like The New York Times or Serious Eats.

Pros:

• Has download and sync capabilities, so you can easily save all your recipes across all devices
• Can create grocery lists
  

Cons:

• Does not have a built-in recipe guide

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Who has two hours to cook? Do I look like Ina Garten? And neither do you. Enter: Mealime. All recipes on the app are made in 30 minutes or less, and the app can curate specific recipes just for you. It'll ask about your dietary restrictions and eating habits before creating a personalized list of recipes—all for free, yes!—then once you select your meals for the week, you can generate a grocery list and upload it to Amazon Fresh or Instacart.

Oh, and did I mention that you can change your serving size from two to four, and vice versa? And if you want the nutritional info of each recipe or to substitute items, you’ll have to pay for the pro version, which is only $3/month (truly, a steal if ya ask me). On the paid version, you can upload your own recipes, plus other perks.

Pros:

• All recipes are under 30 minutes or less
• Offers a free version
  

Cons:

• Recipe customization is limited without a subscription

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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 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. Oh, and you can send your grocery list straight to your preferred shopping service too.

If you’re not feeling the app’s recipe collection (which, fair), you can take meal ideas from literally anywhere else and upload them to the Whisk collection. Win-win.

Pros:

• App is free
• Has customizable recipes
• Each recipe comes with basic nutritional facts

Cons:

• Does not offer extensive nutritional information for its meal plans
  

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Eat This Much creates your meal plans based on your dietary preferences and calorie needs. All you gotta do is sign up and enter your personal info, like height and weight, and the app does the rest. You can make your own meal plan or let the app do it for you. And thanks to its extensive database of popular restaurant menu items and everyday dishes, you can easily search for and add your meal if you're having take-out.

Pros:

• Personalizes your meal plans based on your dietary preferences and calorie goals
• Has a bar code feature that allows you to scan ingredients
• Can manually add online recipes to the app
  

Cons:

• You can only access the shopping list feature through a paid subscription

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This app ranks top for meal prepping and provides easy-to-make recipes that can last a few days. Simply sign up and enter a bunch of intel, like your preferred prep level, how many meals you want to make a week, allergies, likes and dislikes, the works. Then, the app creates ideas for lunch and dinner, which include original recipes and nutritional info. MealPrepPro will also spit out all the groceries you'll need too, so you’ll know exactly what to grab next time you hit those aisles.

Pros:

• Creates customized meal plans based on your preferences
• Offers different diet options including keto, paleo, and plant-based
• Breakfast and snack options can be added too

Cons:

• The app is not available for Android users

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If you've never thrown out a plastic container of rotten mixed greens, I can't trust you. But! I have felt bad lately about all my food waste and one of my tricks to cutting back is this handy dandy tool, Cooklist, which lets you know when your food is nearing its expiration date. Freezer, pantry, and fridge? It tracks e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. You can either manually add your groceries in the system or load your shopping list straight into the app. It also has meal ideas for you too! So it's working overtime so you can chill. Praises.

Pros:

• Keeps track of the expiration date for your groceries
• Creates menus with your recipes or from its collection
• Has an expansive database of recipes
• Generates grocery list for each recipe

Cons:

• Some testers say the app is buggy
  

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