ReciMe alternatives (free and paid), and is ReciMe actually free?

Quick disclosure: we make CookinBuddy, one of the apps on this list. ReciMe is free to download and genuinely usable for free, with 5 recipe imports a week, and the paid ReciMe Plus plan removes that cap. If you want an alternative, the right one depends on why you're leaving: Paprika and Mela if you're done with subscriptions, Mealie if you want free and self-hosted, Recipe Keeper if you need Windows or Android, and CookinBuddy if you cook mostly from TikTok and Instagram on an iPhone.

Every competitor fact below was checked against the app's own site, help center or US App Store listing in October 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a snapshot.

Is ReciMe free?

Yes, with a limit. According to ReciMe's help center, the free plan gives you 5 imports every 7 days, and only recipes you actually save count toward it. The week resets from the day you made your account, not on Monday. Smart grocery lists, meal plans and cookbooks stay free.

ReciMe Plus unlocks unlimited imports, the nutrition calculator, a measurement converter, step-by-step guided cooking, and exporting or printing recipes. There's a 7-day free trial, and recipes you imported during the trial stay saved if you drop back to free.

On price, ReciMe's help articles don't list one. The US App Store shows several "ReciMe Plus" in-app purchases at $29.99, $39.99 and $59.99, without saying which is monthly or yearly, so check the paywall in the app for what you'd actually pay.

Is ReciMe free on iPhone? Same answer. It's a free download from the App Store with in-app purchases, and the weekly import cap applies there too.

Honestly, 5 imports a week is plenty for a lot of people. If you save a couple of recipes a week and cook from them, the free plan may be all you need.

When ReciMe is still the better pick

Before you switch, a few reasons to stay:

• You're not only on iPhone. ReciMe says it runs on iOS, Android, tablet and computer. CookinBuddy is iPhone only.
• You want a meal planner and nutrition. ReciMe has a week view for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and calculates calories, protein, carbs and fat (on Plus).
• You like a big community. Its App Store listing cites 15 million users and hundreds of thousands of ratings. That's a lot of people finding the bugs before you do.

We've written a longer side-by-side of CookinBuddy, ReciMe and Osta if that's the comparison you're really making.

CookinBuddy: the alternative for social-video recipes

Yes, it's ours, so weigh this section accordingly. CookinBuddy is built for the person whose recipes mostly arrive as reels and TikToks. You share a link from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or any website through the iOS share sheet, or import a photo or screenshot (handwritten cards included), and it comes back as a structured recipe with servings you can scale.

After that, the focus is the cooking and the shopping: a hands-free cook mode with timers, and one merged grocery list sorted by aisle that you can share and that updates in real time.

Pricing: free download, and new users get enough coins for a couple of imports. After that you can subscribe to Max at $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year (14-day free trial), or skip the subscription and buy coins: 10 for $1, 50 for $3, 100 for $4. If you hit ReciMe's weekly cap only now and then, pay-as-you-go may suit you better than any subscription.

Not for you if: you're on Android, or you need nutrition tracking or a calendar-style meal planner.

Paprika: the one-time purchase classic

Paprika Recipe Manager 3 has been around for years and is the go-to for people who are tired of subscriptions. On the US App Store it costs $4.99 on iPhone and iPad, with no in-app purchases. It also runs on Android, Mac and Windows, but each version is sold separately.

You get a built-in browser for saving recipes from websites, a weekly or monthly meal planner, grocery lists sorted by aisle with similar ingredients combined, recipe scaling, unit conversion and timers. It can also import files from several other recipe apps.

ReciMe vs Paprika: Paprika wins on cost over time and on how much control you have. ReciMe wins on social media importing and on being free to start. Paprika feels more like a tool than a feed.

Mela: the polished Apple-only option

Mela is free to download on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a one-time in-app purchase to unlock everything: Mela+ for iOS/iPadOS is $6.99 on the US App Store, and the Mac version is a separate $14.99.

It imports from websites through an in-app browser or the share sheet, reads recipes from YouTube, TikTok and Instagram video descriptions, and scans printed recipes with text recognition. Meal plans go into Apple's Calendar and groceries into Reminders, which is lovely if you already live in those apps. You can share a library with other iCloud users.

Pick it if: you're all-in on Apple and want a one-time price.

Recipe Keeper: for Windows and Android households

Recipe Keeper, from Tudorspan, runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Mac. On the US App Store it's free with a $19.99 Pro upgrade, and other platforms need a separate purchase.

It imports from recipe websites, Instagram and TikTok, scans photos and PDFs with OCR, and can bring recipes over from other apps. There's a weekly and monthly meal planner, shopping lists grouped by aisle, cookbook PDFs, and hands-free cooking through Alexa (English only).

Recipe Keeper vs ReciMe: both cover most platforms. Recipe Keeper's model is pay once per platform; ReciMe's is free with a subscription on top.

Mealie: free and open source, if you self-host

Mealie is a self-hosted recipe manager released under the AGPL-3.0 license. You run it yourself, typically with Docker, and use it through a web app. It handles URL imports, a calendar meal planner, shopping lists, and multiple users with shared recipes.

It costs nothing, and your recipes stay on your own server. The catch is that you're the IT department. If "spin up a Docker container" means nothing to you, skip this one.

Side by side

Can you move your recipes out of ReciMe?

Partly. ReciMe's help center describes exporting one recipe at a time as a PDF, printing it, or sharing a link, and it lists exporting and printing as ReciMe Plus features. We couldn't find a documented bulk export. In practice, the easiest move is to re-import the recipes you actually cook from their original links, which is a good excuse to tidy up your collection anyway.

Which to pick

• Happy with 5 imports a week, or on Android or the web? Stay on ReciMe's free plan.
• Hate subscriptions? Paprika, or Mela if you want something more modern on Apple devices.
• Mixed Windows and Android household? Recipe Keeper.
• Want it free and own your data? Mealie, if you can self-host.
• Save most recipes from TikTok and Instagram, cook on an iPhone, and want the grocery list to sort itself? That's what we built CookinBuddy for, and you can try it without subscribing.

Most of these are free to try. Import the same three recipes into two of them and see which one you actually open when it's time to cook.

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Competitor details come from each app's website, help center and US App Store listing as checked in October 2026, and may have changed since. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.