Compare · Eat This Much alternative
Hedgehog Chef vs. Eat This Much: an honest comparison.
Eat This Much has built meal plans to calorie and macro targets automatically since 2012. Hedgehog Chef starts somewhere else: the recipes you already cook, planned with the person you cook with. Here's how they compare, starting with what Eat This Much does and Hedgehog Chef doesn't.
Compared using Eat This Much's own website, pricing page, FAQ, help center, and App Store and Google Play listings. Last checked November 2, 2026.
Hedgehog Chef is the better fit if you want…
- Plans built from the recipes you already cook, saved from any website, a photo, a social post or another app.
- An AI planner you ask in plain words, like “five quick dinners using the chicken in the freezer”, which can keep each day to your calorie goal.
- Two people in one kitchen on Family, each with their own login and goals, and one shared list that updates instantly.
- “What can I make?” ranked by what's in your pantry, and a full-screen cook mode with timers and read-aloud.
- Grocery prices on the plan and the list, live at Kroger-family stores.
Eat This Much is the better fit if…
- You want plans built to your numbers: it fills each day to calorie and macro targets you can set down to the gram. There are no carb or fat targets in Hedgehog Chef.
- Your targets change by the day: Premium has a template for each weekday, like more calories and carbs on workout days.
- You want to log what you eat as well as plan it: food tracking and barcode scanning are free.
- You want a free planner: one day's meal plan at a time is free for good, and Premium is $59.99 a year.
- You'd rather be handed meals from a food and recipe database than plan from recipes you keep.
- You're a dietitian, trainer or coach: Eat This Much Pro builds a week of meals to each client's calorie and macro targets.
Why Eat This Much users switch
What Hedgehog Chef does better than Eat This Much
Your recipes, not a database
Eat This Much plans from its own food and recipe database, plus custom recipes you add by listing their ingredients; its iPhone app added importing from the browser in October 2026. Hedgehog Chef is built around the recipes you keep: paste a link, photograph a cookbook page or a handwritten card, or bring a whole library from Paprika, Plan to Eat and others, and the planner works from those.
Ask for the week in plain words
In Eat This Much, you set targets, diets and filters, then regenerate meals until a day works. In Hedgehog Chef, ask the planner for “a vegetarian week, nothing spicy, under $100” or “use up the spinach before Friday”. It proposes a plan and a shopping list for you to review, and nothing changes until you approve.
A calorie goal, without counting every gram
Set calories and protein a day in Settings › Nutrition, and the plan shows each day's totals. Ask the planner for 1,800 calories a day, or let your goal apply, and each day is checked so one serving of each planned meal comes to about that or less; ask for high-protein and every saved recipe needs at least 30 g a serving. That's where it stops: no carb or fat targets, no snacks added to close a gap, no food log, and recipes the planner writes new aren't checked. If those matter, Eat This Much is the better tool.
Two people, one kitchen
Eat This Much can scale a meal for up to 9 people, but it doesn't plan for their different targets, and linking separate accounts is in beta. On Hedgehog Chef's Family plan, two people share one kitchen (recipes, plan, pantry and list), each with their own login and nutrition goals, and an item checked off on one phone is checked on the other at once.
Side by side
Hedgehog Chef vs. Eat This Much, feature by feature
Every Eat This Much cell comes from Eat This Much's own website, help pages or app-store listing, checked on November 2, 2026.
Getting it and paying for it
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Hedgehog ChefIn any modern browser, installable on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook as an app | Eat This MuchThe web, iPhone, iPad and Android |
| Price | Hedgehog ChefAfter a 14-day free trial (no card): $5.99/month or $49.99/year for one person (Individual), or $9.99/month or $83.99/year for two people (Family), on every device | Eat This MuchFree for one day's plan at a time. Premium: $59.99/year (about $5/month) or $14.99 month to month, with a 14-day trial and a 30-day refund guarantee |
| Free version | Hedgehog ChefNo: No: a free trial, then a subscription | Eat This MuchYes: Daily meal plans, food tracking, barcode scanning and custom recipes, free for good |
| Track record | Hedgehog ChefNew: launched in 2026 | Eat This MuchSince 2012; its iPhone and Android apps were both updated in October 2026 |
Planning to nutrition targets
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Plans built to calorie and macro targets | Hedgehog ChefPartly: Each day kept to about your calorie goal, and high-protein plans checked for 30 g a serving; no carb or fat targets | Eat This MuchYes: Calorie and macro targets set down to the gram; the generator fills each day to fit |
| Different targets on different days | Hedgehog ChefNo: One daily goal | Eat This MuchYes: A template for each weekday, like more calories and carbs on workout days (Premium) |
| Daily goals and totals | Hedgehog ChefYes: Calories and protein a day, per person, with day totals on the plan | Eat This MuchYes: Calories and macros, with a suggested target from your details |
| Log what you ate | Hedgehog ChefNo: No: it shows nutrition but doesn't log what you eat | Eat This MuchYes: Food tracking and barcode scanning, free |
| Nutrition per recipe | Hedgehog ChefYes: Calculated from the ingredients with USDA data, with daily goals and day totals on the plan | Eat This MuchYes: For every food and recipe, including the ones you add |
How the week gets planned
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Where the meals come from | Hedgehog ChefYes: Your saved recipes, plus new ones the planner writes when yours run short | Eat This MuchIts own food and recipe database, plus your custom recipes |
| Plan from a plain request | Hedgehog ChefYes: Ask for “a week of high-protein dinners under $150”; the planner proposes a plan and a list from your recipes for you to approve | Eat This MuchSet targets, a diet and filters, then regenerate meals or foods until the day works |
| A week at a time | Hedgehog ChefYes: Yes, on every plan | Eat This MuchPartly: Premium; free accounts plan one day at a time |
| Diets and allergies | Hedgehog ChefYes: Your household's diets, allergies and dislikes; plans are checked against the allergies and diets before you see them | Eat This MuchYes: Paleo, keto, vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean or your own, with allergy and dislike filters |
| Leftovers | Hedgehog ChefYes: Plan leftovers onto another day | Eat This MuchYes: Planned automatically (Premium) |
| Grocery prices and budget | Hedgehog ChefYes: Prices on your list and plan: live prices at Kroger-family stores, community prices from Open Prices, labeled estimates otherwise | Eat This MuchPlans are personalized to your budget |
| Works with Claude | Hedgehog ChefYes: A Claude connector: save, search, plan and shop by talking to Claude | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
Getting recipes in
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Your own recipes | Hedgehog ChefYes: Your recipes are the heart of it: save, edit and organize them in binders | Eat This MuchYes: Custom recipes from a list of ingredients, used by the generator |
| From recipe websites | Hedgehog ChefYes: Paste a link, or use the bookmarklet, Android share sheet or iOS Shortcut; AI reads pages without recipe markup | Eat This MuchPartly: Share from the browser into the iPhone app (added October 2026) |
| From a photo | Hedgehog ChefYes: Yes: a photo of a cookbook page or a handwritten card | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
| From videos and social posts | Hedgehog ChefYes: TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest links (the recipe in the caption, or the page it links to); YouTube: the recipe in the video's description, pasted in when only the title can be read | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
| From other recipe apps | Hedgehog ChefYes: Paprika (photos included), Mela, Crouton, Recipe Keeper, MasterCook, Plan to Eat, Copy Me That and more | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
Cooking, shopping and pantry
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Step-by-step cooking | Hedgehog ChefYes: Full screen, one step at a time, with that step's ingredients and big type | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
| Hands-free | Hedgehog ChefYes: Read-aloud in cook mode, and voice commands (“next”, “start timer”) in Chrome, Edge and Safari | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
| Grocery list | Hedgehog ChefYes: Sorted by aisle, amounts merged, pantry items skipped; your aisle corrections are remembered | Eat This MuchPartly: Premium: built from the plan and kept in sync, and emailed with the weekly plan |
| Online grocery orders | Hedgehog ChefPartly: Send the list to your own Kroger cart for pickup or delivery | Eat This MuchYes: Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Walmart and more (Premium) |
| Pantry | Hedgehog ChefYes: Fridge, freezer, pantry and spices; expiry dates; “What can I make?” ranked by what you have | Eat This MuchPartly: Premium: groceries move to a virtual pantry, which plans use up first |
| Export | Hedgehog ChefYes: Paprika's own format, web pages, Markdown or JSON, with photos — always, even after a trial or subscription ends, plus weekly backups | Eat This MuchPartly: Print or email meal plans and grocery lists; no recipe export mentioned |
Your household
| Feature | Hedgehog Chef | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Each person with their own login | Hedgehog ChefYes: Yes, on Family: 2 people, each with their own login | Eat This MuchPartly: Separate accounts can be linked, in beta; Premium users' grocery lists combine |
| Cooking for more people | Hedgehog ChefYes: Plan for the whole kitchen and scale any recipe | Eat This MuchPartly: Scale a meal for up to 9 people; their different targets aren't planned for |
| Changes show up for everyone | Hedgehog ChefYes: Instantly: check off milk and it's checked on every phone | Eat This MuchNot mentioned in Eat This Much's website, help center or store listings |
Sources, checked on November 2, 2026:
- Eat This Much
- Eat This Much pricing
- Eat This Much FAQ
- About Eat This Much
- Eat This Much for professionals
- What Premium includes (help)
- Family meal planning (help)
- Family Members account linking (help)
- Eat This Much on the App Store
- Eat This Much on Google Play
Eat This Much is a trademark of Eat This Much, Inc.. Hedgehog Chef isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Eat This Much, Inc.. Spotted something out of date or wrong? Tell us at hello@hedgehogchef.com and we'll fix it.
Questions
Eat This Much vs. Hedgehog Chef: common questions
Is Eat This Much free?
Partly. The free plan generates one day's meal plan at a time and includes food tracking, barcode scanning and custom recipes. Premium adds weekly plans, the grocery list, leftovers and the pantry for $59.99 a year (about $5 a month) or $14.99 month to month, with a 14-day free trial and a 30-day refund guarantee.
Can I plan meals to calorie and macro targets in Hedgehog Chef?
Partly. Set calories and protein a day in Settings › Nutrition and the meal plan shows each day's totals. The AI planner keeps each day to about your calorie goal (one serving of each meal) and, for a high-protein plan, checks every saved recipe for at least 30 g of protein a serving. It doesn't plan to carb or fat targets, add snacks to close a gap or log what you eat. For that, Eat This Much or a macro planner like Prospre is the better fit.
Can Eat This Much use my own recipes?
Yes. Add a custom recipe by listing its ingredients; Eat This Much calculates its nutrition and uses it when it generates plans. Its iPhone app added importing recipes by sharing them from the browser in October 2026. Plans also draw on its own food and recipe database.
Does Eat This Much work for a couple or a family?
Partly. You can scale any meal for up to 9 people, which scales the grocery list, but it won't plan for each person's different targets; its help center suggests workarounds. A Family Members feature, in beta, links separate accounts. On Hedgehog Chef's Family plan, two people share one kitchen, each with their own login and goals.
Can I move my recipes from Eat This Much to Hedgehog Chef?
We couldn't find a recipe export in Eat This Much's pages: it prints or emails meal plans and grocery lists. For recipes you first found online, paste the original link into Hedgehog Chef; for your custom ones, paste the ingredients and steps as text.
Is Hedgehog Chef free?
For 14 days. Every new kitchen gets a free trial with everything included and no card needed. After that, 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), on every device: unlimited recipes, binders, meal plans, shopping lists and the pantry, the AI planner and grocery prices at your stores (live at Kroger-family stores), with no ads. Your recipes are always yours to export, even if you stop.
Plan from the recipes you love.
Save a few dinners you cook often, from links, photos or pasted text, set a calorie and protein goal in Settings › Nutrition, and ask the planner for next week. Keep Eat This Much for logging if you like; nothing has to move at once.
Related guide: How to plan a week of dinners in 15 minutes
More comparisons
Weighing up other apps too?
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Paprika Paprika for fully offline native apps; Hedgehog Chef for AI planning, the web and cooking as a pair.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. AnyList AnyList for the cheapest shared list and store delivery; Hedgehog Chef for AI planning, a pantry and cook mode.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Plan to Eat Plan to Eat for offline phone use and bulk import; Hedgehog Chef for AI planning, a pantry and a login each.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Samsung Food Samsung Food for a big recipe catalog and Samsung appliances; Hedgehog Chef for your own recipes, no tracking and everything on both plans.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Mealime Meals Hub to keep Mealime's recipes; Hedgehog Chef to plan around your own recipes, with your household.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Mela Mela for a one-time price and Apple-only privacy; Hedgehog Chef for Android and the web, AI planning and a smarter list.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Copy Me That Copy Me That for the lowest price and a one-click clipper; Hedgehog Chef for cook mode, cookbook photos, nutrition and a login each.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Recipe Keeper Recipe Keeper to pay once and cook offline; Hedgehog Chef for the web, AI planning, a pantry and one price on every device.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. ReciMe ReciMe if your recipes are often only spoken in videos, or for a free plan; Hedgehog Chef for the web, a login each, cook mode, nutrition and a pantry.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Crouton Crouton for an all-Apple home and hands-free cooking; Hedgehog Chef for Android and the web, AI planning, a pantry and nutrition.
- Hedgehog Chef vs. Ollie Ollie for dinners planned and groceries ordered by text; Hedgehog Chef for your own recipes, cook mode and a pantry.
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Dinner, looked after.
Start with the recipes you already love: bring your favorite sites, your Paprika library and the person you cook with. 14 days free, no card needed.