With a meal planner app, you can stay on track to meet your nutritional needs. You can monitor your eating habits, try a special diet, and do much more using the app. A free meal planner app can even help you with your weight loss goals.
Here are some of the best meal planning apps for iPhone and Android.
Paprika
Paprika is a premium meal planning app that gives you a lot of customization options. It allows you to organize your favorite recipes, create grocery lists, plan meals, and more. You can either download recipes from other sites or add your own to the app.When you create grocery lists in Paprika, it combines and sorts them automatically by aisle. This makes shopping very easy. There is a Pantry in the app as well. It helps you to check the ingredients you have and keep an eye on their expiry dates.
Paprika syncs all the data across your devices. This way, you can access it on any preferred device, even when offline. The meal planner app allows you to create daily, weekly, or monthly diet calendars.
You can also save your favorite meal plans in the app as reusable menus. The meal prep app can also help you to scale ingredients as per your desired serving size. Paprika also works as your personal guide chef when you cook food.
Pros:
- Can import recipes
- Neat and clean
- Grocery list support
Cons:
- Cannot scan a written recipe
- No universal account purchase
- Cannot search recipe by ingredients
Key Features: Pricing starts at $4.99 | Create daily, weekly, or monthly meal plan | Save recipes or cookbook favorites | Smart grocery list | Offline access
Download: iOS | Android (Premium)
Mealime
Mealime is a meal planner app designed for busy people. It allows you to plan your meals and eat healthier at home. You can customize the meal plans and recipes in the app as well.
The Mealime meal prep app allows you to cook healthy food in no time. Mealime has an extensive catalog of simple recipes with step-by-step cooking instructions. It gives you tailored recommendations on easy-to-cook and nutritious recipes every week.
The recipes include comprehensive nutrition information as well. This allows you to meet your dietary needs and preferences in the best way.
Mealime provides custom meal plans for everyone, regardless of the diet type and restrictions. It covers everything from low-carb, keto, and vegan diet types, to dairy-free, gluten-free, and more.
Mealime creates the grocery list automatically as you choose a meal plan for the week. The meal planner app also makes sure that the meal plans reduce food waste.
Pros:
- Quick recipes
- Easy ingredients
- Diet preferences
Cons:
- Limited browsing features
- Premium does not have broader features.
Key Features: Free/Premium | Subscription prices start at $5.99 per month | Custom meal plans | Personalized recommendations | Creates grocery lists automatically
Download: iOS | Android (Free, Premium)
PlateJoy
PlateJoy is a meal planner app that offers personalized meal plans for any lifestyle. The custom-designed meal plans in the app cover every diet type and specific dietary restriction.
You can find recipes tailored to paleo, low-carb, gluten-free, low-fat, and more in PlateJoy. It even has kid-friendly, diabetic, and low-FODMAP meal plans.
Expert nutritionists create meal plans in PlateJoy. You just need to take a lifestyle quiz when setting up the app. It includes sharing your dietary and taste preferences, fitness goals, allergies, and more.
PlateJoy will then create an ultra-personalized meal plan to meet your specific needs. You can change your dietary preferences at any time. PlateJoy allows you to add your favorite recipes manually as well.
It also builds the grocery list automatically as you choose the meal plan. You can even integrate that with any preferred grocery delivery services. There is an option to sync the app with wearable devices as well. This allows you to add the nutrition info to the calorie tracker.
Pros:
- Option to set dietary preferences
- Grocery list optimization
- Weight gain/loss tracking
Cons:
- Expensive
- Limited customer service
Key Features: Pricing starts at $8 per month | Free trial available | Nutritionist-designed menus | Smart grocery shopping lists | Allows adding personal recipes
Download: iOS | Android (Free, Premium)
Eat This Much
Eat This Much is possibly the best meal planning app in terms of its flexibility. The app allows you to create custom meal plans based on your taste and dietary preferences.
You can also personalize the meal plan tailored to your calorie goals, budget, and schedules. Each meal in the daily meal plan can be customized with different preferences too.
The free meal planner works for personalized day meal plans only. You will need to subscribe to Eat This Much Premium to generate weekly meal plans. The app will also create a grocery list and send that to you via email.
You can readjust your nutrition targets in the following week or stick to the same plan. Eat This Much allows you to keep track of your macros and calorie targets every day. You can even personalize any of the recipes in the app and replace it.
The meal planner app also helps you to reduce food waste by offering tailored suggestions. You can even tweak the settings to configure the recommendations or show only the foods you like.
Pros:
- Great nutrition tracker
- Grocery list
Cons:
- Recipes are not that great.
- Limited dietary options
Key Features: Free/Premium | Subscription prices start at $5 per month | Personalized meal plans | Creates a grocery list | Calorie tracker
Download: iOS | Android (Free, In-App Purchases)
Related: Grocery List App for iPhone and Android for Shopping
Prepear
Prepear is a smart meal prep app that allows you to collect and share recipes. You can add as many recipes in the app as you like. The app will sort them into collections, which makes meal planning easy. You can also collaborate with your friends and family members to build your recipe collections.
Prepear also gives you some amazing tools that make cooking fun and more enjoyable. You can share your cooking life in real-time by posting images and tips. The app has a clear recipe screen that guides you as you cook.
You can easily tap between ingredients and instructions. It also allows you to check off ingredients and instructions as you go. You can get personalized meal plans for the week and customize it as you like.
Prepear will give you recipe suggestions based on your preferences and what you have cooked before. It also automatically creates the grocery lists that match your meal plans.
Pros:
- Automatic grocery list
- Smart cooking tools
Cons:
- No detailed directions
- Glitchy app
Key Features: Free with in-app purchases | Ideal meal prep app for recipes collection | Custom meal plans | Auto-generated grocery list | Smart cooking tools
Download: iOS | Android (Free, In-App Purchases)
MealPrepPro
MealPrepPro is arguably the best meal planning app iOS users. It is ideal for those who prefer cooking in large quantities. The app gives you weekly meal plans to achieve your fitness goals.
The recipes are tailored to suit your calories and macros. You can swap recipes in your meal plan and include as much variety as you want.
The meal plans in MealPrepPro are created by certified nutritionists to meet your specific needs. You can get healthy recipes for any diet type and preferences. This includes high-protein, vegan, keto, pescatarian, Mediterranean, and more.
You can filter the recipes based on allergies as well. There is a video cooking mode in the app as well. This makes cooking delicious and nutritious food quite interesting.
MealPrepPro also sorts your weekly grocery list by aisle. This saves you a lot of time when shopping. You can also integrate MealPrepPro with the Apple Health app. This will log your calories and macros to monitor your fitness goals.
You can also add a partner to your meal plan. Then customize it for meeting their nutritional needs too.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Customization options
- Syncs with Apple health data
- Creative recipes
Cons:
- Only for iPhone
- Free trial only for 7-days
- Ingredient measurements are in weight, not volume (difficult for the household)
Key Features: Pricing starts at $5.99 per month | 7-day free trial available | Best meal planner app for weekly meal plans | Video cooking mode | Meal plans by certified nutritionists
Download: iOS (Freemium)
BigOven
BigOven is a meal planning app that is designed to make cooking simple. It offers you more than 500,000 recipes from all over the world. You can even add your own recipes to the app.
BigOven also allows you to clip recipes from your favorite sites. You can mark recipes favorite, organize them in folders, or save them to try later. This allows you to find any preferred recipe quickly.
The meal planner app also allows you to manage your grocery list efficiently. You can create a shopping list for yourself or share it with your family members. The items are automatically sorted by recipe or by the department to make shopping simpler.
BigOven has an exceptional Use Up Leftovers feature. It is designed to discover delicious recipes with the ingredients that you already have. You can also join the home cook community on BigOven to read food reviews, interact with like-minded people.
Pros:
- Good for household grocery lists
- Nutritional- breakdown info for ingredients
- Easy sync between devices
Cons:
- Many features are paid
- Expensive premium plan
Key Features: Free/Premium | Subscription prices start at $2.99 per month | Access to 500,000+ recipes | Use Up Leftovers feature | Home cook community
Download: iOS | Android (Free, In-App Purchases)
MealBoard
MealBoard is a fully customizable meal planner app. It allows you to collect recipes, create meal plans, manage pantry, and do more. You can import your favorite recipes from other websites to the app. Else, you can add your own recipes and save them for easier access.
MealBoard categorizes the recipes automatically. You can search for recipes by name or ingredient as well. The meal planning app allows you to scale the ingredients based on your serving size. You can have the meal plans organized by day and meal type.
MealBoard also allows you to reuse any preferred meal plan by creating templates. There is an option to set up recipe prep notifications as well. This helps you with better time management.
MealBoard allows exporting meal plans to the Calendar app as well. It will generate the grocery list based on your preferred meal plan. The app also combines similar items and organizes them by aisle for easy shopping.
You can even add grocery prices in the app and check the total budget. MealBoard also helps you to keep track of items in your pantry. This works to reduce food wastage.
Pros:
- Custom meal plans
- Pantry management
- Calendar app integration
Cons
- Only for iPhone
- No free version
Key Features: Pricing starts at $3.99 | Fully customizable meal prep app | Smart grocery list | Pantry management | Integrates with the Calendar app
Download: iOS ($3.99)
Veganized
Veganized is a free meal planner app for Android devices. It allows you to plan your meals every day with vegan recipes. You can find tons of easy-to-cook and healthy recipes in the app.
Veganized also allows you to share your own recipes with the community. The app also lists the nutritional details for each vegan recipe.
You can plan your meals based on your daily nutrient intake requirements. Veganized helps you to compare that with the average advised intake in terms of age, weight, and physical activity. This makes it the best meal planning app for those who want to get started with a vegan diet.
The app also supports creating your own grocery lists as per the meal plan. It will then automatically update the shopping list with missing items.
There are more than 300 vegan recipes in the free meal planner app. All the recipes are available in English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. You can interact with the community to share your ideas and create new recipes.
Pros:
- Free to use
- Vegan recipes
- Nutritional details
Cons:
- Only for Android
- No multi-dietary options
Key Features: Free meal planner app | 300+ vegan recipes | Access to nutritional details | Smart grocery list | Recipes in 6 different languages
Download:Â Android (Free)
Related: Best Health Apps for Apple Watch to Track Your Health
Plan to Eat
Plan to Eat is a smart meal planning app that helps you to save money on food. It gives you full control of your meal schedule. You can customize the meal plan on the app as per your tastes and dietary preferences.
Plan to Eat also allows you to reschedule meals, adjust portions, and track leftover or extra portions.
You can easily import your favorite recipes from other sites to the app. Else, add a family recipe manually and include that in your meal plan. You can even share the recipes with your friends by text or email.
There is a Start Cooking feature in the app as well. It gives you step-by-step cooking instructions to make things simpler. The ingredients in your meal plan will be automatically added to your shopping list.
Plan to Eat allows adding more items to the shopping list manually as well. This way, you can plan your grocery list weeks in advance. Plan to Eat syncs automatically across your devices. You can access the recipes and grocery list even when offline.
Pros:
- Customizable meal plans
- Fast syncing
- Offline access to recipes
Cons:
- Free version only for 30 days
- Recipes are not budget-friendly
Key Features: Pricing starts at $4.95 per month | 30-day free trial available | Automatic syncing | Customizable meal plans | Offline access
Download:Â iOS | Android (Freemium, $4.95/mo)
MyPlate
MyPlate is a calorie tracker and meal planning app. It gives you a comprehensive catalog of more than 2 million recipes. You can easily plan your meal using that with the most nutritious and healthy food. Plus, get an air fryer is also a good way to eat healthily.
The app also has a barcode scanner to find and track how many calories you consume. MyPlate gives you a detailed 8-week meal plan with balanced macronutrients.
It is designed to manage your daily calorie goals and keep track of your weight. You can also monitor your progress in the app by reviewing the detailed data. MyPlate allows you to set custom goals for your macros and micronutrients as well.
You can also check your water intake using the app. The meal planning app also has many workout plans to help to meet your fitness goals. You can easily follow the in-app workout regime from your home.
MyPlate also supports setting meal reminders to stay on top of your daily nourishment. It has an extensive community as well to help you with your meal planning.
Pros:
- Easy calorie tracking
- Workout tracking
- Daily nutrition reminders
Cons:
- Difficult to enter meal portions
- Premium version has limited features
Key Features: Free meal planner with in-app purchases | 8-week meal plan | Access to over 2 million recipes | At-home workout plans | Real-time community support
Download:Â iOS | Android (Free, In-App Purchases)
DietWiz
DietWiz is the best meal planning app for those following a special diet. It gives you all the information you need to achieve your dietary and nutrition goals. Be it keto, paleo, low-carb, dairy-free, or sugar-free diet, DietWiz can help you with all.
The weekly meal prep app allows you to personalize it the way you want. DietWiz will also update the grocery list with all the ingredients you need. The app also sends daily tips and reminders to help you stay on track.
You can also check your daily macros and calories using the app. DietWiz can also calculate your BMI and calorie intake to help you achieve your fitness goals quickly.
There are a lot of healthy and delicious recipes in DietWiz. You can choose the recipes you like and create a super-customized meal plan in no time. The app will automatically adjust your meal plan as you progress. You can even upload your own recipes in the app.
Pros:
- Daily tips
- Smart calorie tracker
Cons:
- Less customizable
- Expensive
Key Features: Free/Premium | Subscription prices start at $9.99 per month | Personalized meal plans | Smart calorie tracker | Daily tips and reminders
Download: iOS | Android (Free, In-App Purchases)
Related: 12 Best Calorie Calculator Diet & Tracker Apps for iPhone and Android
Get the Best Meal Planning App That Works for you
Meal planning is all the rage these days. Yet the best meal planning app for you will depend upon your fitness goals. There are many free meal planner apps, which come with good features. They can help you with grocery list creation and organizing meals.
Premium apps will have added features like calorie tracker, customization options, and more. Most of the top-rated meal planner apps offer free trial as well. This way, you can test run the features and see if it works for you.