9 best iOS apps for meal planning

Last Updated on May 27, 2024 by Jhonni Jets

Meal planning is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Having your meals planned out in advance allows you to make better food choices, save money by avoiding last-minute shopping trips, and reduce food waste. These days, there are many excellent meal planning apps available for iOS devices to help streamline the process. Here are 9 of the best options for easy and effective meal planning directly from your iPhone or iPad.

Mealime

Mealime takes the hassle out of meal planning by generating weekly meal plans based on your dietary preferences and schedule. The app has a massive recipe database with options for every meal of the day. You can customize the weekly calendar view to add or remove recipes as needed. Mealime also creates shopping lists you can access right from the app. With features like automatic recipe scaling and nutrition tracking, Mealime is one of the most full-featured meal planning apps available.

AnyList

As the name suggests, AnyList is extremely flexible for meal planning and grocery lists. You can create multiple lists for various purposes like weekly meals, ingredients to use up, items for different stores, and more. The app syncs between devices so your lists are always up to date. Customizable sharing allows household members to collaborate on planning and shopping tasks. AnyList has a clean, intuitive interface and is highly customizable making it a top choice for bringing organization to meal prep.

Pepperplate

Pepperplate stands out for its emphasis on recipes and meal ideas. The extensive database provides thousands of recipes that can be searched, filtered and tagged to create customized collections. You can browse recipe categories, diets, cuisines and more for inspiration. Pepperplate also lets you plan weekly menus right from the recipe pages. Integrated grocery lists, notes and meal preparation guides help take the ideas from your weekly plan straight to the table with minimal hassle. It’s ideal for avid home cooks seeking new recipes and streamlined planning.

MealBoard

As the name implies, MealBoard takes a more visual, board-inspired approach to meal planning. You can customize category boards like weekly menus, shopping lists, pantry items and more. Drag and drop recipes between boards to schedule meals and compile shopping items in a quick, intuitive flow. MealBoard also allows photo uploads of recipes for offline access. The board interface makes visual meal prep more engaging while still providing all the core planning functions. It’s a great choice for visual thinkers or families that want shared access to meal plans and tasks.

Plan to Eat

Plan to Eat approaches meal preparation from a budget-first perspective. You can track your weekly grocery budget and the app will suggest recipes based on what you already have and what will fit your budget. Integrated shopping lists group items by store aisles to make efficient grocery runs. The database includes thousands of catalogued recipes searchable by cuisine or ingredients on hand. While less full-featured than some competitors, Plan to Eat excels at helping home cooks on a budget make the most of their grocery funds through careful planning.

Mealime Grocery List

For iPhone users seeking an Apple-optimized solution, the companion app Mealime Grocery List stands out. It syncs seamlessly with the main Mealime planner to access saved recipes and shopping lists. Create, organize and edit multiple grocery lists neatly categorized by store. Integrated mapping helps plot the most efficient route between stores. The simple yet robust shopping tools let iPhone users take full advantage of Mealime planning directly on their devices. For Apple fans, it easily remains one of the slickest shopping list apps around.

CookSmarts

CookSmarts takes a unique recipe-focused approach to meal planning. The database includes chef-tested recipes complete with photos, ratings and reviews. Meals can easily be scheduled and copied into weekly menus. CookSmarts simplifies larger meal prep by batch-cooking ingredients for multiple recipes at once. Auto-generated grocery lists take the guesswork out of shopping. Integrated recipe modification gives home cooks flexibility to adapt servings or tweak ingredients as needed. For passionate amateur chefs, CookSmarts provides inspiration and organization.

Paprika Recipe Manager

Paprika stands apart through its robust offline functionality. Recipes and meal plans sync seamlessly between devices and the app can be used fully offline once content is downloaded. Rating, tagging, and custom organization tools let home cooks build extensive recipe archives their way. Shopping lists integrate barcode scanning to easily identify ingredients. Paprika also includes full nutritional details if that level of data tracking is important. While less focused on planning per se, Paprika gives mobile access to massive searchable recipe archives ideal for any home cook.

Favado Menu Planner

A great option for simplicity, Favado Menu Planner gets straight to the point of easy weekly meal scheduling. Create customizable menu templates to quickly generate plans by day or meal. Save favorite recipes to access on the go and add them to menus in a single tap. Favado also includes grocery lists tied directly to menu items to minimize overlooked ingredients. While light on advanced features, Favado smoothly handles the fundamental task of scheduling weekly meals with just a few taps, making it ideal for streamlined planners.

Whether seeking full-featured recipe databases, visual planning tools, budget guides or just basic weekly calendars, these top iOS apps bring easy organization to every step of meal planning and preparation. Choosing the right solution depends on individual priorities and needs. But any of these quality apps will help home cooks streamline healthy eating and save time and money through strategic weekly preparation.