Plan to Eat alternatives and Plan to Eat vs Paprika (2026)
Plan to Eat costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year with a 14-day trial and no free plan. Who should stay, Plan to Eat vs Paprika side by side, and how AnyList, Samsung Food, eMeals, Copy Me That, Mealie and Well Stockd compare.
Plan to Eat costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year on its website, with a 14-day trial, no card needed, and no free plan. Stay if you collect recipes from all over the web and plan them on a calendar: it does that well, it lets you export every recipe at any time, and the yearly plan doesn't renew unless you turn that on. Look elsewhere if you'd rather pay once (Paprika), pay nothing (Samsung Food, AnyList's free plan), or have the week start from food you already own (Well Stockd).
Every price and feature below comes from the vendor's own site or app store listing, checked in October 2026.
How much does Plan to Eat cost?
| Plan | Price, checked October 2026 | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $5.95 a month | Cancel any time |
| Yearly, on plantoeat.com | $49 a year | About $4.08 a month. It doesn't auto-renew unless you choose to |
| Yearly, through the Apple App Store | $54.99 a year | Apple's fee is passed on, so buying on the website saves about $5 |
| Trial | 14 days | No credit card asked for |
| Refund | 60 days | "No-questions-asked," per its pricing page |
One account covers your household on as many devices as you like, on iPhone, Android and the web. Every feature is included: there are no tiers, add-ons or ads.
Why is there no free version of Plan to Eat?
Plan to Eat answers this itself: "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." It's funded entirely by subscriptions, and it says it never sells your data or shows ads. When a trial or subscription ends you choose to pay or leave, but your recipes aren't held hostage. Its export guide says you can download your whole recipe book "whether you have a current subscription with Plan to Eat or not."
Is Plan to Eat worth it?
Yes, if you clip recipes. The Recipe Clipper saves from any website plus Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest, the calendar plans a week or a month, and the grocery list sorts itself by store and aisle and can go to a pickup or delivery service. At $49 a year it's a fair price for a tool you open most days.
It fits less well in three cases. You want recipes handed to you: Plan to Eat "doesn't come with a built-in recipe collection or predefined meal plans," per its help center, though you can browse its challenge recipes and about 500 from its blog. You want a free tier to fall back on. Or you want the planner to know what's in your fridge, which it doesn't track. Some App Store reviewers also disliked an October 2026 update to the app's navigation and calendar, so try the current version during the trial.
Plan to Eat vs Paprika
| Plan to Eat | Paprika 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5.95 a month or $49 a year | One time per platform: $4.99 iPhone and iPad, $29.99 Mac, $29.99 Windows |
| Free version | 14-day trial only | Free on Android and Windows up to 50 recipes, without sync |
| Where it runs | iPhone, Android and the web, one account for everything | Separate apps for iPhone and iPad, Mac, Windows and Android; its site lists no browser version |
| Recipes included | None built in | None |
| Saving recipes | Recipe Clipper for any site, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest | Built-in browser and a bookmarklet; social media import is in the Paprika 4 beta |
| Meal planner | Any length, with saved menus | Daily, weekly or monthly, with reusable menus |
| Grocery list | By store and aisle, with pickup and delivery | By aisle, combines ingredients, unchecks what the pantry already holds |
| Pantry | None | Quantity, purchase date and expiration date |
| Cooking | Cook View with named timers, screen kept awake | Screen kept on, timers in the steps |
| Nutrition | Nutrition facts and daily totals on the planner | Saved from recipe sites; USDA labels in the Paprika 4 beta |
| Sharing | One account for the household | One sync account; Apple Family Sharing on Apple devices |
| Getting recipes out | CSV or TXT export, even after you stop paying | HTML or .paprikarecipes export |
| Offline | Not stated | Every recipe stored on the device |
The short version: Plan to Eat is the better planner and clipper, and it works in a browser. Paprika is the better deal if you'd rather pay once and keep everything offline, and it has a pantry. Paprika 4 will add a subscription for its new features, which Paprika says will be optional for existing owners. See our Paprika cost guide for that change.
Plan to Eat alternatives compared
| App | Price, checked October 2026 | Free version | Recipes included | Planner | Knows what's in your kitchen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan to Eat | $5.95 a month or $49 a year | No | None built in | Yes | No |
| Paprika 3 | $4.99 iPhone, $29.99 Mac or Windows, once per platform | Android and Windows, 50 recipes | None | Yes | A manual pantry with dates |
| AnyList | Complete $9.99 a year, $14.99 for a household | Yes, lists and recipes | None | Complete | No |
| Samsung Food | Free with ads; Food+ $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year | Yes | Over 240,000 public recipes | Free | A Food List; pantry search is Food+ |
| eMeals | As low as $4.99 a month on a 12-month plan | 14-day trial | Weekly plans written for you | Yes | No |
| Copy Me That | Free to 40 recipes, then $1.00 a month | Up to 40 recipes | None | Yes | A pantry list |
| Mealie | Free, open source | You host it yourself | None | Yes | No |
| Well Stockd | Free; Pro adds planning ahead (pricing) | Yes | More than 3,800, plus your own | This week free; up to 8 weeks on Pro | Yes, with amounts, dates and reminders |
Paprika suits a cook who wants to pay once and keep a pantry next to the recipes.
AnyList is the cheap option for a shared list, and its meal calendar costs $14.99 a year for a household on Complete. More in our AnyList cost guide.
Samsung Food is free, comes with a huge catalog and has a planner and shared lists. Food+ adds AI-tailored plans. See our Samsung Food cost guide.
eMeals writes the plan for you and sends the list to Walmart, Kroger, Amazon or Instacart. Pick it if choosing recipes is the chore you want gone.
Copy Me That is the cheapest clipper here at $1.00 a month past 40 recipes, with a planner, a shopping list and a pantry list. It needs an internet connection.
Mealie is free and imports Plan to Eat files, but you run it on your own server.
Well Stockd is for people whose problem isn't finding recipes but using what they bought.
Plan to Eat vs Well Stockd
The two start from opposite ends. Plan to Eat starts from recipes you chose. Well Stockd starts from what's in your fridge, freezer and pantry, then shows which of more than 3,800 recipes, plus your own, you can make with it.
On the free plan you get an inventory of up to 30 foods with amounts and estimated dates, reminder emails before food reaches its date, recipe matching, a shopping list that works offline in the store, Walmart and Kroger carts you review before anything is sent, and a cook mode that takes what you used back out of the kitchen. You can plan the current week by hand. Pro plans up to eight weeks ahead, turns the plan into one shopping list minus what you already have, fills a week for you with Pick for me, and lets up to six people share one kitchen. The features page lists both plans.
What you give up: Plan to Eat's clipper is stronger, especially from social media, and one price buys a calendar of any length, where Well Stockd's free plan covers only the current week. Well Stockd also asks you to stock the kitchen first, so the first week takes longer. It's a web app you add to your home screen, not an App Store or Google Play app.
How to move from Plan to Eat to Well Stockd
- Export your recipes on the Plan to Eat website: My Account, then Export My Recipes, and choose the .csv file. It works whether or not your subscription is current.
- In Well Stockd, open a new recipe, choose the file import and upload that .csv. Each recipe appears as a draft to check before you save the batch.
- Search the catalog for your regular dinners first. Many are already there, so you may only need to keep the family ones.
- Stock the fridge, freezer and pantry, by typing, scanning barcodes one after another or reading out what you see. That's the step that makes every recipe say whether you can cook it tonight.
The Plan to Eat switch page covers the same steps, and our guide to meal planning from what you already have shows how the week comes together.
FAQ
Is Plan to Eat cheaper on the website or in the App Store?
On the website. The yearly plan is $49 there and $54.99 through the Apple App Store, as of October 2026, because Apple's fee is passed on. The monthly plan is $5.95, and every plan starts with a 14-day trial with no card.
Is there a free version of Plan to Eat?
No. Plan to Eat has only the 14-day trial. Free alternatives include Samsung Food, AnyList's free plan, Copy Me That up to 40 recipes, Mealie if you host it, and Well Stockd's free plan.
Plan to Eat vs Paprika: which is better?
Plan to Eat is the better planner and recipe clipper and works in a browser, for $49 a year. Paprika is a one-time purchase per platform with a pantry and offline recipes. Neither comes with recipes.
Can I export my recipes from Plan to Eat?
Yes. From the website you can export your whole recipe book as a .csv or .txt file at any time, whether or not your subscription is current.
Does Plan to Eat come with recipes?
No built-in collection. You add your own, and you can browse and save from its challenge recipes and about 500 recipes from the Plan to Eat blog.
How do I cancel Plan to Eat?
On the website, you close your account from your Account page, per Plan to Eat's help center. If you subscribed through the Apple App Store, cancel in your Apple subscription settings. The yearly plan bought on the website doesn't auto-renew unless you turned that on.