Best apps · Meal planning

The 5 best Ollie alternatives for meal planning in 2026.

Ollie for Meals asked a family a few questions, then planned the week, wrote the recipes and built the grocery list. The company now leads with an assistant you text, and the Ollie for Meals app wasn't in the App Store or on Google Play when we checked on November 2, 2026. If you'd rather plan in an app, or plan from the recipes your family already cooks, here are five meal planners and who each one suits.

By Hedgehog Chef · · 9-minute read

The short answer

To plan the week from the recipes your family already loves, with an AI planner you approve, a pantry and a cook mode, start with Hedgehog Chef. If you liked being handed a plan, Samsung Food is the closest to Ollie: tailored AI meal plans from a catalog of more than 240,000 recipes, free for two weeks and then with Food+. Eat This Much generates meals automatically and orders groceries through Instacart, Amazon Fresh and Walmart, AnyList is the best shared grocery list for a household, and Plan to Eat is the long-running planner for your own recipes, by hand.

  1. 1. Hedgehog Chef: best for planning from your family's own recipes, with an AI planner you approve
  2. 2. Samsung Food: best for AI meal plans from a huge recipe catalog, free to start
  3. 3. Eat This Much: best for automatic meal plans, with groceries delivered
  4. 4. AnyList: best for a shared family grocery list, with recipes and a meal calendar
  5. 5. Plan to Eat: best for planning your own recipes by hand, without ads

At a glance

The 5 best Ollie alternatives for meal planning in 2026: each app at a glance
1. Hedgehog Chef Best for: planning from your family's own recipes, with an AI planner you approve Price: $5.99/month or $49.99/year for one person (Individual), or $9.99/month or $83.99/year for two people (Family) Without paying: A 14-day free trial with everything, no card needed; no free plan after it
2. Samsung Food Best for: AI meal plans from a huge recipe catalog, free to start Price: Samsung Food+: $6.99/month or $59.99/year Without paying: Recipes, a meal planner (3 saved plans), a shopping list and two tailored AI plans, without ads
3. Eat This Much Best for: automatic meal plans, with groceries delivered 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
4. AnyList Best for: a shared family grocery list, with recipes and a meal calendar 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. Plan to Eat Best for: planning your own recipes by hand, without ads 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

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 November 2, 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 much of the week it plans for you, and from which recipes: AI-written, a catalog, or your own
  • The grocery list, and whether it can go to a store for pickup or delivery, as Ollie's can
  • Cooking for a family: shared plans and lists, and a login for each person
  • Price, and what you get free (Ollie's assistant is free for 50 messages a month)
  • Where it runs: an app, a browser, or text messages

The apps

Our app

1. Hedgehog Chef

Best for planning from your family's own recipes, with an AI planner you approve

Hedgehog Chef is for families who'd rather the week came from the recipes they already cook than from recipes written for them. Save those recipes from any website, a photo of a cookbook page or a handwritten card, a social post or another app. Then ask the AI planner for "five quick dinners, nothing spicy" or "use up the chicken in the freezer": it proposes the week and an aisle-sorted shopping list, checks every recipe in it against your household's allergies and diets, and changes nothing until you approve.

Then cook from it: a full-screen cook mode with timers and read-aloud, nutrition calculated from the ingredients, and a pantry with expiry dates and "What can I make?". On the Family plan, 2 people share the kitchen, each with their own login. Unlike Ollie, it doesn't work by text, and it orders groceries only through your own Kroger cart. Our side-by-side comparison with Ollie goes row by row. Hedgehog Chef has no free plan: every kitchen starts with a 14-day free trial with everything included and no card, then it's $5.99/month or $49.99/year for one person (Individual), or $9.99/month or $83.99/year for two people (Family).

Pros

  • Built around your own recipes: save, edit, scale and organize them in binders
  • Imports from a link, a photo of a cookbook page or handwritten card, pasted text, or a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest link
  • 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
  • Every recipe the planner proposes is checked against your household's allergies and diets
  • 2 people on Family, each with their own login
  • A pantry with fridge, freezer and cupboard, expiry dates, barcode scanning and “What can I make?”
  • Full-screen cook mode with that step's ingredients, timers you set with a tap, read-aloud, and voice commands in Chrome, Edge and Safari

Cons

  • Works best once you've saved some recipes; it can write new ones, but there's no big catalog to browse
  • Online grocery orders only through your own Kroger cart
  • No texting: you plan in the app, or through Claude
  • No free plan: after the 14-day free trial it's $5.99/month or $49.99/year for one person (Individual), or $9.99/month or $83.99/year for two people (Family)
  • New: launched in 2026, so it doesn't have years of track record yet
  • No App Store or Google Play app yet: it installs from the browser instead
Platforms
Any web browser, installable as an app on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook
Price
$5.99/month or $49.99/year for one person (Individual), or $9.99/month or $83.99/year for two people (Family)
Without paying
A 14-day free trial with everything, no card needed; no free plan after it

Tour the featuresPricing

2. Samsung Food

Best for AI meal plans from a huge recipe catalog, free to start

Of these, Samsung Food comes closest to Ollie's way of planning for you: its tailored weekly meal plans are built around your tastes, dietary needs and health goals, and you can swap any meal you don't love. Every account can use them for two weeks; after that, tailored plans are part of Samsung Food+, at $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year after a 7-day trial. The recipes come from a public catalog of more than 240,000, most with nutrition information and a health score.

The free tier is generous and has had no ads since July 2025: save recipes from any website, plan the week, and turn it into a shopping list sorted by aisle or by recipe. Share the meal plan and the list with your household, and have groceries delivered by one of 23 integrated retailers in four regions. Most catalog recipes' instructions open on the creator's own site, and its App Store privacy label lists data used to track you.

Pros

  • Tailored AI weekly meal plans, free for two weeks, with swaps
  • A free planner and shopping list, without ads
  • More than 240,000 public recipes with nutrition information
  • Shared meal plans and lists, and delivery from 23 integrated retailers

Cons

  • Tailored plans after the first two weeks need Food+ ($6.99 a month or $59.99 a year)
  • Its App Store privacy label lists data used to track you
  • Most catalog recipes' instructions open on the creator's site
Platforms
iPhone and Android apps, the web, and Samsung Family Hub fridges
Price
Samsung Food+: $6.99/month or $59.99/year
Without paying
Recipes, a meal planner (3 saved plans), a shopping list and two tailored AI plans, without ads

Samsung Food's websiteHedgehog Chef vs. Samsung Food

3. Eat This Much

Best for automatic meal plans, with groceries delivered

Eat This Much plans meals automatically: tell it your diet, the foods you like, your budget and your schedule, and it generates the meals, which you can swap until a day works. It's built around calorie and macro targets, which suits a household where someone is counting, and Premium sends the week's groceries to the same services Ollie uses: Instacart, Amazon Fresh and Walmart, among others.

The free plan generates one day at a time. Premium ($59.99 a year, or $14.99 month to month) plans the week, builds the grocery list and plans leftovers. Meals come from its own food and recipe database, plus custom recipes you add. For a family, it scales a meal for up to 9 people, but it doesn't plan for each person's different targets.

Pros

  • Automatic plans built around your diet, budget and schedule
  • Grocery delivery through Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Walmart and more (Premium)
  • A free plan, one day at a time
  • Calorie and macro targets, if anyone at home is counting

Cons

  • Weekly plans and the grocery list need Premium
  • A meal scales for up to 9 people, but their different targets aren't planned for
  • Mostly its own recipe database, not your family's recipes
Platforms
The web, iPhone, iPad and Android
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

Eat This Much's websiteHedgehog Chef vs. Eat This Much

4. AnyList

Best for a shared family grocery list, with recipes and a meal calendar

If what you'll miss most is the grocery list, AnyList is one of the best shared lists there is: it syncs as you shop, sorts items into categories you can arrange to match your store, and takes items by voice through Siri and Alexa. Everyone in the household has their own AnyList account, and in the US its iPhone and Android apps send the list to Instacart, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon Fresh and more for pickup or delivery.

We couldn't find meal-plan generation: you save recipes from the web and put them on its meal-planning calendar yourself. That calendar, the web app and unlimited web imports are part of AnyList Complete, $9.99 a year for one person or $14.99 a year for a household; the free version saves 5 recipes from the web.

Pros

  • A polished shared list that syncs as you shop
  • Each person in the household has their own account
  • Sends lists to Instacart, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon Fresh and more (US)
  • $14.99 a year for a household

Cons

  • No AI meal planning found: you fill in the calendar yourself
  • Meal planning, the web app and unlimited web imports need Complete
  • Only 5 web recipe imports on the free version
Platforms
iPhone, iPad and Android apps; the Mac app, Apple Watch and the web app need 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

AnyList's websiteHedgehog Chef vs. AnyList

5. Plan to Eat

Best for planning your own recipes by hand, without ads

Plan to Eat is a long-running, ad-free planner for your own recipe book: save recipes from the web or type in family ones, drag them onto a calendar, plan leftovers and frozen meals, and get a shopping list with categories you arrange and lists for each store. The family signs in to one account on every device, so recipes, the plan and the list stay in sync, and its pricing page includes grocery delivery from the list.

You build the week yourself: we couldn't find meal-plan generation. It's $5.95 a month or $49 a year on its website ($54.99 a year in the App Store), after a 14-day trial that needs no card, with a 60-day refund guarantee.

Pros

  • Built around your own recipes, with a drag-and-drop planner
  • Leftovers, frozen meals and a list for each store
  • No ads; the web plus iPhone and Android
  • A 60-day refund guarantee

Cons

  • You plan the week yourself: we couldn't find generated plans
  • One shared account for the family
  • No free plan after the 14-day trial
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

Plan to Eat's websiteHedgehog Chef vs. Plan to Eat

How to choose

Start with what you liked about Ollie. If it was being handed a plan, Samsung Food's tailored plans are the closest, and Eat This Much generates meals automatically if anyone at home counts calories. If it was the list and the order, Eat This Much Premium sends groceries to Instacart, Amazon Fresh and Walmart like Ollie, Samsung Food delivers through its integrated retailers, and AnyList's shared list goes to Instacart, Walmart, Kroger and more.

If you'd rather the week came from the dinners your family already loves, plan from your own recipes: Hedgehog Chef drafts the week with AI for you to approve and keeps a pantry, and Plan to Eat is the long-running choice for planning by hand.

You may not need to give Ollie up entirely: its assistant is free for 50 messages a month, and you can keep it for calendars and school emails while you plan meals somewhere else. Our comparison of Hedgehog Chef and Ollie goes through it row by row, and our AI meal planner list compares the apps that plan with AI.

Questions

What happened to the Ollie meal planning app?

We couldn't find an announcement. Ollie's website still has its Ollie for Meals page, which offers a free 1-month trial and says prices are shown when you download the app, but when we checked on November 2, 2026, the app's App Store and Google Play listings answered “not found”. The company now leads with Ollie, an assistant you text, which also plans meals, writes the grocery list and orders groceries.

What is the best free alternative to Ollie?

Samsung Food: its planner, shopping list and recipe saving are free without ads, and tailored AI meal plans are free for two weeks. Eat This Much generates one day's plan at a time for free, and AnyList's free version is a shared list with 5 web recipe imports. Hedgehog Chef has a 14-day free trial and Plan to Eat a 14-day one, and neither needs a card. Ollie's own assistant is free for 50 messages a month plus 6 a day.

Which Ollie alternative orders groceries for you?

Eat This Much Premium sends the grocery list to Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Walmart and more. Samsung Food delivers through 23 integrated retailers in four regions, and AnyList's phone apps send lists to Instacart, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon Fresh and others in the US. Plan to Eat's pricing page includes grocery delivery. Hedgehog Chef sends your list to your own Kroger cart for pickup or delivery.

Is there an AI meal planner that uses my own recipes?

Yes. Hedgehog Chef's AI planner drafts the week from the recipes you've saved, writes new ones only when yours run short, and asks before changing anything. Ollie writes its recipes for you, and Samsung Food's tailored plans draw on its public catalog. Plan to Eat and AnyList plan your own recipes, but you place them on the calendar yourself.

Which Ollie alternative is best for a family?

Hedgehog Chef's Family plan gives 2 people one kitchen, each with their own login, and a list that updates on both phones at once. AnyList's household plan gives everyone in it their own account, and Samsung Food shares meal plans and lists with your household. Plan to Eat has one account the family shares, and Eat This Much scales meals for up to 9 people.

Sources, checked on November 2, 2026:

Samsung Food, Eat This Much, AnyList, Plan to Eat are trademarks of their owners (Samsung Food: Samsung Electronics; Eat This Much: Eat This Much, Inc.; AnyList: Purple Cover, 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.

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