6 Meal Planning Apps You Can Actually Use For Free

ChatGPT’s instructions said to saute the cherry tomatoes, zucchini and bell peppers in olive oil, then toss the cooked pasta with the veggies and parmesan cheese. Though no seasonings were https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aquGEVyDLMo listed, I added them, but it was still a lackluster meal. Platforms like Fitbudd stood out for their seamless integration with coaching workflows.

Simply choose them from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen when creating a new meal plan. These are 18 of the best meal planning apps to keep you on track with your weekly meal planning. You can easily add ingredients from each recipe to a grocery list with the click of a button, share the list and cross off what you buy.

Top Meal Planning Apps In 2025- Tested by Top Trainers

Cooklist will send you a notification when something in your kitchen is nearing its expiration date, so you can prioritize your ingredients and avoid wasting your groceries. Most importantly though, I realized this week that I didn’t throw away any food — not even a single scrap. My husband and I either ate all the food the night we cooked it or ate the leftovers for lunch the following day. And that felt even better than an uncomplicated grocery store trip. I’m in the former category so this meal was a great way to end my week (and to welcome in colder weather!). After you brown the ground turkey, this meal largely cooks itself while it simmers on the stove, so it’s an especially good recipe for days you don’t want to spend all night in the kitchen.

Which apps are best for families vs. individuals?

Paprika functions more as a food planner app than a meal generator. It’s perfect for saving your own recipes and managing them offline. Frequent travelers or users with poor internet find unimeal trustpilot reviews it extremely handy.

For families, family meal planner apps consists of features like shared grocery shopping lists and collaborative menus. Individual users may prefer Fitbudd, which streamline meals around one person’s own schedule and offer quick dinner or lunch recipes tailored to personal goals. Many free versions—like a free meal planning app—offer solid basics such as weekly menus and simple recipes.

Looking for something specific? Search here!

  • Rounding out my round-up of best free meal plan apps is the Allrecipes Dinner Spinner.
  • Samsung Food provides a modern, sleek interface that makes navigating its extensive features feel intuitive.
  • Helpful features include the ability to share calendars and set reminders.
  • But with a crowded market, how do you find the best meal planning apps for your specific needs?
  • Join thousands of users transforming their health with NutriTech AI.
  • And rotting foods in landfills actually release methane into the environment, which is the second-largest contributor to climate warming (directly behind carbon dioxide).

Here, we’ve tried to take those questions into consideration by creating our very own list of the best meal planning apps in 2025. We researched a wide variety of meal planning apps, and we’ve ranked them accordingly. You’ll also find information about what each app offers and the type of home cook who might want to use it.

Start Cooking Smarter Today

It covers over 80 micronutrients, making it superior for those needing accuracy in vitamins and minerals. Apps like Plan to Eat and Eat This Much stood out by syncing with popular health trackers, helping users align nutrition with physical activity. If you have kids in school, this organizer is great, because it syncs with the school calendar to show you where everyone is supposed to be at any given time. One of the hardest parts of following any diet is keeping your meals varied and interesting. Available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad, MealPlan+ costs $3.99.

🍽️ AI Meal Planning

You can also see the approximate cost of each item, though the prices are estimates — depending on where you live, some of the numbers may be slightly inaccurate. The app will generate a grocery list based on your meal plan, but the best part is you can add prices for items so you can see if you’re staying on budget each week. Also, its Pantry function allows you to catalog all of your staples and sync them with your recipes. When you make a recipe, click the update pantry link and the amounts used in the recipe will automatically be subtracted from the amounts in your pantry. Setting up the pantry takes a little extra work on the front end, but it means you won’t end up buying more than you need and wasting it. Set up your preferences according to your diet (keto, paleo, plant-based, etc.) and either let the app determine your macro goals based on your health stats or you can set them manually.

Plan Dinner Together

smart meal planner app

It works on Mac and PC, and you can snag it on the App Store or Google Play. Whether you’re a foodie who loves to try new recipes or you simply want to find food to feed the picky eaters in your family, Prepear has you covered. Everyone has that one friend they can count on to make the perfect menu suggestions when you’re eating out. Yummly is a lot like that friend–if they lived in your pocket and were determined to make meal prep anything but boring. The app also allows you to organize food by type (vegetables, meats, and cheeses), which makes it easier to find all the items needed for cooking. Meal Prep Pro also integrates with fitness apps like Apple Fitness.

Meal planning apps are a digital trend that’s here to stay—and with good reason. They allow users to choose specific meal plans and recipes, create shopping lists, and track nutritional information, all from the ease of a mobile device. Meal planning is the best way to avoid the inevitable wilted bag of spinach and sour milk in the back of the fridge. But with the temptations of take-out and kitchen chaos, it can be hard to stick with the menu, even if you’ve tried all the tips for simplifying your weekly meal planning.

Every week they give you recipes to cook, a mapped out meal schedule for the week, and a grocery list of everything you need to buy. Cooklist also allows you to make in-app price comparisons on ingredients, so you’ll know which local grocer offers the best price. To use this app effectively, you’ll need to spend some time inputting data, but it can save you a tremendous amount of money in the long run. The service has excellent recipes, and the built-in grocery delivery services don’t cost extra (you’ll still pay delivery fees and surcharges, but Cooklist doesn’t tack on a premium).

The 11 Best Meal Planning Apps in 2025

With so many options available, there’s sure to be an app for everyone. In researching the best meal planning apps, we looked for options with the greatest features mixed with ease-of-use and a variety of planning options. For example, Meal Board’s App helps you stay on budget by allowing you to add prices to items.

SideСhef: Easy Cooking Recipes

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. AI Meal Planner solidifies its position as one of the best meal planning apps by leveraging sophisticated AI to deliver a truly bespoke nutrition strategy.

Technology bridges the gap with personalized plans, grocery lists, and reminders, helping to manage food costs and making nutrition manageable despite busy lives. The Forks Meal Planner is a specialized tool designed exclusively for those committed to a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle. An extension of the influential Forks Over Knives movement, this app removes the guesswork from vegan eating by delivering weekly meal plans curated by chefs and nutritionists. It focuses on nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods, making it a powerful resource for anyone following this specific dietary path for health or ethical reasons.

Trends Influencing Meal Planning:

The recipes are easy to follow with step-by-step videos, but they’re made for one or two people, so if you’re feeding a family you’ll have to increase the serving size to scale up. The plan generates an organized shopping list, and you can cross things off as you pick them up. Most top apps pull from verified nutrition databases and calculate calories and macros per serving. Accuracy improves when users scan product barcodes or input detailed recipes, allowing them to plan without the worry of inaccurate nutritional information . Some even analyze what’s already in your fridge to suggest meal options using all the ingredients you have on hand. The initial setup requires you to populate your recipe library, but once complete, planning becomes incredibly efficient.

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