Best apps · Meal planning
The 5 best meal planning apps in 2026.
A meal planning app should take the nightly "what's for dinner?" off your plate and turn the week into one shopping list. They go about it very differently: some plan from your own recipes, some from a big catalog, some from your calorie targets. Here are the five we'd look at first, and who each one is for.
By Hedgehog Chef · · 6-minute read
The short answer
For a household that cooks its own recipes, Hedgehog Chef plans the week with AI and builds one shared, aisle-sorted list. Plan to Eat is the long-running choice for planning from your own recipe book by hand. Samsung Food is best for discovering new recipes, AnyList for a cheap shared list with a simple planner, and Eat This Much for plans built to hit calorie and macro targets.
- 1. Hedgehog Chef: best for households planning from their own recipes
- 2. Plan to Eat: best for planning by hand from your own recipe book
- 3. Samsung Food: best for discovering new recipes to plan with
- 4. AnyList: best for a cheap shared list with a simple planner
- 5. Eat This Much: best for hitting calorie and macro targets
At a glance
| App | Best for | Price | Without paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Hedgehog Chef | Best for: households planning from their own recipes | Price: Hedgehog Chef Plus ($5.99/month or $49.99/year, on sale soon), for the whole household | Without paying: A 14-day free trial with everything, no card needed; no free plan after it |
| 2. Plan to Eat | Best for: planning by hand from your own recipe book | Price: $5.95/month or $49/year on its website ($54.99/year in the App Store) | Without paying: A 14-day trial without a card; no free plan |
| 3. Samsung Food | Best for: discovering new recipes to plan with | Price: Samsung Food+: $6.99/month or $59.99/year | Without paying: Free with ads: recipes, a meal planner (3 saved plans) and a shopping list |
| 4. AnyList | Best for: a cheap shared list with a simple planner | Price: AnyList Complete: $9.99/year for one person or $14.99/year for a household | Without paying: Shared lists and recipes, with 5 web recipe imports; meal planning needs Complete |
| 5. Eat This Much | Best for: hitting calorie and macro targets | Price: Premium: $59.99/year ($5/month) or $14.99 month to month | Without paying: One day's meal plan at a time, food tracking and custom recipes |
How we chose
We make Hedgehog Chef, so it's first on this list: that's our bias, stated up front, and its cons are as honest as everyone else's. The other apps are in the order we'd suggest them for this job. Everything we say about them comes from their own websites, help pages and app-store listings, checked on October 13, 2026 and linked at the end, and each entry says who should pick it instead of ours. We left out store ratings, which change daily.
What we looked at:
- How the plan gets made: by you, from your recipes, from a catalog, or from nutrition targets
- How easily the plan becomes one shopping list
- Whether the whole household can see and change the plan
- Price, and what the free tier actually covers
- Whether it's actively developed (Mealime closes on October 21, 2026)
The apps
Our app
1. Hedgehog Chef
Best for households planning from their own recipes
Hedgehog Chef's planner is a week board you drag recipes onto, with a month view, reusable menus, leftovers and "copy last week". Or ask the AI planner for "five quick dinners using the chicken in the freezer, under $80" and it proposes a plan and a list from your saved recipes, for you to approve. Nothing changes until you do.
One tap turns the week into a shopping list, scaled to the servings you planned, sorted by aisle and minus what's in the pantry, shared live with everyone at home. Hedgehog Chef has no free plan: every kitchen starts with a 14-day free trial with everything included and no card, then Hedgehog Chef Plus ($5.99/month or $49.99/year, on sale soon) covers the whole household.
Pros
- An AI planner: ask for “a week of high-protein dinners under $150” and it proposes a plan and a list from your recipes, for you to approve
- A week board with drag and drop, a month view, reusable menus, leftovers and a calendar feed
- The list sorts itself by aisle, merges amounts and skips what's already in the pantry
- Up to 8 people, each with their own login, on one subscription
- Grocery prices on the plan and the list: live prices at Kroger-family stores, otherwise labeled estimates
- Reminders to thaw the night before, start cooking, go shopping and use food up
Cons
- New: launched in 2026, so it doesn't have years of track record yet
- No free plan: after the 14-day free trial it's Hedgehog Chef Plus ($5.99/month or $49.99/year, on sale soon)
- No big public recipe catalog to browse: it's built around the recipes you save
- Not a macro-tracking diet app: it shows nutrition but doesn't log what you eat
- Platforms
- Any web browser, installable as an app on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook
- Price
- Hedgehog Chef Plus ($5.99/month or $49.99/year, on sale soon), for the whole household
- Without paying
- A 14-day free trial with everything, no card needed; no free plan after it
2. Plan to Eat
Best for planning by hand from your own recipe book
Plan to Eat is the classic "plan from your own recipes" app: clip recipes from anywhere, drag them onto a calendar, and get a shopping list. Reusable menus, bulk editing with undo and calendar sharing make repeat weeks quick, nutrition is calculated automatically, and the phone app works offline.
It's subscription-only (about the same price as ours), a household shares one login, and we couldn't find AI plan generation.
Pros
- A mature drag-and-drop planner with reusable menus
- Offline phone app
- Automatic nutrition with macros on the planner
- No ads, and an 18-year track record
Cons
- No free plan after the 14-day trial
- One shared login for the household
- No pantry
- Plans are made by hand
- Platforms
- iPhone and Android apps and the web
- Price
- $5.95/month or $49/year on its website ($54.99/year in the App Store)
- Without paying
- A 14-day trial without a card; no free plan
3. Samsung Food
Best for discovering new recipes to plan with
Samsung Food (formerly Whisk) pairs a public catalog of more than 240,000 recipes with a weekly planner and a shopping list that can go to 23 integrated grocery retailers. With Food+, it builds tailored AI meal plans, and connected Samsung ovens can be set from a recipe step.
The free tier has ads and keeps three saved meal plans. Many saved recipes open on the creator's site rather than inside the app.
Pros
- A huge public recipe catalog with nutrition scores
- Tailored AI meal plans with Food+
- Grocery ordering through 23 retailers
- Free tier, plus web and Samsung appliance support
Cons
- Ads on the free tier; its App Store label lists data used to track you
- Only 3 saved meal plans free
- Recipe steps often live on the creator's site
- No household plan found
- Platforms
- iPhone and Android apps, the web, and Samsung Family Hub fridges
- Price
- Samsung Food+: $6.99/month or $59.99/year
- Without paying
- Free with ads: recipes, a meal planner (3 saved plans) and a shopping list
4. AnyList
Best for a cheap shared list with a simple planner
AnyList's meal planner is a calendar you fill in, with templates and an "Ideas" tab drawn from your own recipes, joined to one of the best shared grocery lists around. For $14.99 a year the whole household gets it, with native apps everywhere.
The planner and web app are part of AnyList Complete; the free tier is mostly the list.
Pros
- $14.99 a year for the household
- Excellent shared list with Siri and Alexa
- Sends lists to US grocery services
- Native apps on iPhone, Android, Mac and Apple Watch
Cons
- Meal planning needs Complete
- A calendar you fill in; no plan generation
- No pantry or nutrition found
- Platforms
- iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android and Mac apps; the web app needs Complete
- Price
- AnyList Complete: $9.99/year for one person or $14.99/year for a household
- Without paying
- Shared lists and recipes, with 5 web recipe imports; meal planning needs Complete
5. Eat This Much
Best for hitting calorie and macro targets
Eat This Much builds meal plans to a calorie target and macros, with different targets per day for carb cycling, diets from keto to vegan, and allergy filters. Its generator (it says "our algorithms", not AI) fills each day from its food and recipe database and your custom recipes.
The free tier plans one day at a time; weekly plans, the grocery list and the pantry are Premium. Families get one shared plan scaled up, not per-person targets.
Pros
- Precise calorie and macro planning, per day
- A usable free tier: unlimited single-day plans
- Grocery delivery through Instacart, Amazon Fresh and Walmart
- Web, iPhone and Android
Cons
- Weekly plans and the grocery list need Premium
- $14.99 month to month (or $59.99 a year)
- Mostly its own recipe database
- No per-person nutrition targets for families
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android and the web
- Price
- Premium: $59.99/year ($5/month) or $14.99 month to month
- Without paying
- One day's meal plan at a time, food tracking and custom recipes
How to choose
Ask what you want the app to decide. If you want it to plan with the dinners your household already likes, pick an app built around your own recipes: Hedgehog Chef if you'd like it to draft the week for you, Plan to Eat if you'd rather drag everything in yourself.
If you're short on ideas, Samsung Food's catalog is the biggest here. If the plan is really about nutrition targets, Eat This Much plans to the gram. And if the shopping list matters most and the plan is a sketch, AnyList is hard to beat on price.
Mealime users: Mealime closes on October 21, 2026, and deletes personal data when it does. Our Mealime alternatives list covers where to go.
Questions
What is the best free meal planning app?
Samsung Food has the most generous free planner (with ads and three saved plans). Eat This Much plans one day at a time for free. AnyList's planner needs AnyList Complete, and Hedgehog Chef's a subscription after its free trial.
Is there a meal planning app that plans for you?
Yes. Hedgehog Chef's AI planner drafts a week from your own recipes, pantry and budget for you to approve. Samsung Food+ makes tailored AI plans from its catalog, and Eat This Much generates plans to calorie and macro targets.
Which meal planning app is best for families?
Hedgehog Chef gives up to 8 people their own login, with one plan and a list that updates on every phone instantly. AnyList also has household accounts. Plan to Eat's household shares one login.
Is Mealime shutting down?
Yes. Mealime's own announcement says the app is discontinued as of October 21, 2026, all personal data will be deleted, and its recipes move to Meals Hub in Albertsons Companies' grocery apps.
Can a meal planning app make my grocery list?
All five do. The difference is what happens next: Hedgehog Chef sorts it by aisle, merges amounts, skips pantry items and can send it to your Kroger cart; AnyList, Samsung Food and Eat This Much Premium can send it to grocery delivery services.
Sources, checked on October 13, 2026:
- Plan to Eat pricing
- Plan to Eat FAQ
- Plan to Eat offline use
- Plan to Eat on a pantry
- What's in Samsung Food+
- Samsung Food meal planner (help)
- Samsung Food Food List (help)
- Samsung Food on the App Store
- AnyList Complete
- AnyList on the web
- AnyList online shopping (help)
- AnyList on the App Store
- Eat This Much pricing
- Eat This Much FAQ
- What Eat This Much Premium includes (help)
Plan to Eat, Samsung Food, AnyList, Eat This Much are trademarks of their owners (Samsung Food: Samsung Electronics; AnyList: Purple Cover, Inc.; Eat This Much: Eat This Much, Inc.). Hedgehog Chef isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Prices are in US dollars as listed on the day we checked, and change; app-store prices can differ from website prices.
Spotted something out of date or wrong? Tell us at hello@hedgehogchef.com and we'll fix it.