Health and everyday life3 picks
The best recipe apps for iPhone and Mac
Paprika is the recipe app most home cooks should buy, and Crouton is the best free one.
PaprikaPick it if you plan meals for the week and want the grocery list built for you.$4.99 oncePaprika pulls recipes off cluttered food blogs into a clean cookbook and turns your meal plan into an aisle-sorted grocery list, for $4.99 once on iPhone. Crouton is free, ad-free and includes a step-by-step cooking mode with timers. Mela suits people who want just the recipe from each blog, in a cookbook that syncs over iCloud.
How we chose
- 1Clean import from recipe blogs
- 2Meal plans and grocery lists
- 3One-time price per device
Compare at a glance
Tap a name to jump to its write-up.
| App | Price | How you pay | Mac | iPhone | iPad | Watch | App Store | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paprika | $4.99 once | Pay once | 4.9 | |||||
 Crouton | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.8 | |||||
 Mela | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.6 |
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The picks, in order
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Pick it if you plan meals for the week and want the grocery list built for you.
If you cook from food blogs a few times a week, Paprika pulls each recipe off the page into your own searchable cookbook and builds a grocery list that combines ingredients and sorts them by aisle. It scales servings, converts units and starts timers from the cook times in the directions. Each platform is a separate purchase, so iPhone plus Mac comes to $34.98, and Mela's free download is a cheaper place to start.
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Pick this if you want a free recipe box with a step-by-step cooking mode and timers.
Save a recipe from a website or scan a cookbook page, and Crouton keeps the ingredients and steps, synced over iCloud to your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Cooking mode shows 1 step at a time, reveals the amount when you tap an ingredient and starts timers from the step text. All of that is free, unlike Paprika's $29.99 Mac app, and only AI photo import and ingredient swaps need the $14.99-a-year Discover plan.
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Pick it if you mainly save recipes from blogs and want a clean iCloud cookbook, with Mela+ at $6.99 once.
Recipe blogs bury the ingredient list under ads and a long life story, and Mela pulls out just the recipe onto a clean card you can cook from in large text. It also scans printed cookbooks with your camera and sends groceries to Reminders, where your family can see the list. The full feature set takes Mela+ at $6.99, and the Mac copy is a separate $14.99, still well under Paprika's $29.99 Mac app.
Head to head
Stuck between 2 of these? Each comparison lines up price, devices and who should pick which.
- Paprika vs CroutonPick this if you want a free recipe box with a step-by-step cooking mode and timers.
- Paprika vs MelaPick it if you mainly save recipes from blogs and want a clean iCloud cookbook, with Mela+ at $6.99 once.
- Crouton vs MelaPick it if you mainly save recipes from blogs and want a clean iCloud cookbook, with Mela+ at $6.99 once.
