Key findings.

  1. The list is what people praise most. 22.9% of 18,611 positive (4–5★) reviews mention the shopping or grocery list, more than any other topic. Among meal-planner apps it is 35%.
  2. Money complaints are about how people are charged, not the price. Of 1,271 money complaints, 72% are about access or billing: a paywall, “free” that isn’t, trial charges, refunds or cancelling. 28% mention the price alone.
  3. Reliability is a quarter of the anger. Bugs (16.1%), lost data or sync (5.6%) and updates that broke something (4.7%) appear in up to 26% of 6,078 negative (1–3★) reviews. Bugs were 14–17% of complaints in every app segment.
  4. AI shows up in complaints, not praise. 3.7% of negative reviews mention AI, against 0.5% of positive ones. As a share of each group, AI is about 7× as common in complaints as in praise.
  5. Revenue rank is moving to budget meal planners. Meal-planner apps held 21% of the US App Store’s Food & Drink top-10 grossing slots in the first seven daily snapshots (from 8 September 2026) and 39% in the last seven (to 28 October). Every planner slot in those last seven snapshots went to one of five budget planners launched in June or July 2026.
  6. No single missing feature. 1,962 reviews (7.9% of the core sample) ask for something, and 77% of those come from people giving 4 or 5 stars. No single request appears in more than about 1% of reviews.

What people complain about.

We tagged every review with keyword rules for 35 themes. A review can carry several themes. Shares below are of the 6,078 reviews with 1 to 3 stars from the 32 core apps.

Complaint themes: share of 1–3★ reviews

Complaint themes as a share of 1–3 star reviewsAny money issue: 20.9%; No usable free tier / “free” that isn’t: 8.8%; Price too high: 7.7%; Billing, trials, refunds, can’t cancel: 6.5%; Bugs, crashes, won’t load: 16.1%; Device or platform (iPad, Watch, web…): 9.8%; Importing a recipe fails: 7%; Lost data, can’t log in, sync: 5.6%; Diet or allergy settings not honoured: 4.7%; An update broke or removed something: 4.7%; Hard to use or confusing: 4.6%; Support doesn’t answer: 4%; Ads: 3.8%; Mentions AI: 3.7%; Same or too few recipes: 2.9%0%5%10%15%20%25%Any money issue20.9%No usable free tier / “free” that isn’t8.8%Price too high7.7%Billing, trials, refunds, can’t cancel6.5%Bugs, crashes, won’t load16.1%Device or platform (iPad, Watch, web…)9.8%Importing a recipe fails7.0%Lost data, can’t log in, sync5.6%Diet or allergy settings not honoured4.7%An update broke or removed something4.7%Hard to use or confusing4.6%Support doesn’t answer4.0%Ads3.8%Mentions AI3.7%Same or too few recipes2.9%
n = 6,078 reviews with 1–3★, 32 apps, US/GB/CA/AU. Indented rows are parts of “any money issue” and can overlap. Keyword tagging; see the methodology.
Show the numbers
ThemeReviewsShareAverage across apps
Any money issue (paywall + price + billing)1,27120.9%19.7%
Bugs / crashes / won't load97716.1%17.1%
Platform / device (iPad, Watch, Mac, web, old iOS, widgets)5959.8%10.6%
No usable free tier / "free" that isn't5348.8%7.6%
Price too high4717.7%8.4%
Import from web or social fails4257.0%7.4%
Billing / trial / refund / can't cancel3986.5%6.0%
Lost data / can't log in / sync3395.6%6.0%
Dietary needs or allergies not handled2874.7%5.5%
Update broke or removed something2844.7%5.1%
Hard to use / confusing2784.6%5.0%
Customer support unresponsive2464.0%4.2%
Ads2313.8%3.9%
Servings / units / metric2273.7%3.9%
AI mentioned2243.7%4.9%
Same recipes / too few recipes1762.9%3.3%
Onboarding too long570.9%0.9%
Recipes bland, bad or untested520.9%0.8%
Grocery list doesn't combine or sort400.7%1.0%
Leftovers / food waste330.5%–
Store prices wrong / plan over budget120.2%–

Money is the largest group but it is concentrated: it is 34.6% of complaints about meal planners launched since 2024, most of them subscription-first, and 10.4% of complaints about shopping-list apps (chart below).

Diet settings fail visibly. 4.7% of all complaints, and 8.8% of complaints about meal planners, are about filters that were ignored, such as a vegetarian plan that included meat. People describe a broken filter as the app not working, not as a missing feature.

What people praise.

Praise themes: share of 4–5★ reviews

Praise themes as a share of 4–5 star reviewsMentions the shopping or grocery list: 22.9%; Easy to use: 13.7%; Import / all my recipes in one place: 8.8%; Works across my devices: 7.7%; Recipes are good or tested: 6.9%; Inspiration, new ideas: 6.5%; Saves time, less stress, dinner decided: 5.2%; Shared with partner or family: 4.4%; Cook with what I have: 4.3%; Servings and unit conversion: 4.1%; Nutrition, macros, weight: 3.6%; Sends the list to a store: 1.8%; Saves money: 1.8%; Less food waste, leftovers: 1.5%; Mentions AI: 0.5%0%5%10%15%20%25%Mentions the shopping or grocery list22.9%Easy to use13.7%Import / all my recipes in one place8.8%Works across my devices7.7%Recipes are good or tested6.9%Inspiration, new ideas6.5%Saves time, less stress, dinner decided5.2%Shared with partner or family4.4%Cook with what I have4.3%Servings and unit conversion4.1%Nutrition, macros, weight3.6%Sends the list to a store1.8%Saves money1.8%Less food waste, leftovers1.5%Mentions AI0.5%
n = 18,611 reviews with 4–5★, 32 apps. “Mentions the shopping or grocery list” is a topic tag (what people bring up), not a measure of satisfaction with the list itself.
Show the numbers
ThemeReviewsShareAverage across apps
Mentions the shopping or grocery list4,25922.9%23.5%
Easy to use / intuitive2,54813.7%13.4%
Import / all recipes in one place1,6338.8%8.5%
Works across devices (iPad, Watch, Mac)1,4347.7%7.1%
Recipes good, delicious or tested1,2846.9%8.8%
Inspiration / new ideas1,2156.5%7.4%
Saves time / less stress / "what's for dinner" solved9725.2%8.6%
Household sharing (partner or family on one list)8144.4%3.0%
Pantry / cook with what I have8094.3%5.7%
Servings scaling / unit conversion7554.1%4.7%
Cooking mode / clear steps7313.9%4.9%
Nutrition, macros or weight6723.6%5.2%
Meal prep / batch cooking3551.9%–
Store or delivery integration3261.8%3.5%
Saving money / budget3351.8%4.6%
Leftovers / less food waste2831.5%–
AI mentioned1010.5%–

Happy reviewers describe organisation and less hassle: a list built for them, recipes in one place, an app that is easy to use and shared with the household. Outcomes are rarer. Saving money (1.8%), less waste (1.5%) and nutrition or weight (3.6%) each appear in under 4% of positive reviews, concentrated in the apps that market them.

Household sharing is a quiet driver. It is 4.4% of all praise, but 14% of praise for shopping-list apps.

“…choose my weekly menu and not having to make a grocery list.”

Plan to Eat review, 5★, App Store

“everyone in the family can add to the many lists… not always JUST MOM!!”

Our Groceries review, 5★, App Store

AI: mentioned in complaints, rarely in praise.

Reviews that mention AI

Share of reviews mentioning AIComplaints 3.7% (224 of 6078); praise 0.5% (101 of 18611); complaints that use leaving language 11.2% (of 473); complaints about meal planners launched 2024–26 12.1% (132 of 1,087)0%5%10%15%Complaints (1–3★), 224 of 6,0783.7%Praise (4–5★), 101 of 18,6110.5%Complaints with leaving language11.2%Complaints, planners launched 2024–2612.1%
Leaving language: “deleted”, “uninstalled”, “cancelled”, “switched to” and similar (n = 473 complaints). Planners launched 2024–26: n = 1,087 complaints. “Mentions AI” matches “AI”, “ChatGPT”, “GPT”, “generative” and similar words; it is a topic tag, and we did not score sentiment separately.

The negative mentions are about AI-generated food photos, untested AI recipes, AI added to a trusted app, and “ChatGPT does this for free” used as a price comparison. The few positive mentions are mostly about AI reading a recipe link or a photo. In October 2026, 26 of NYT Cooking’s 143 reviews in our sample mentioned AI after an update; 25 of those 26 gave 1 or 2 stars.

“No one asked for this or wants bland, generic, unchecked recipes by robots.”

NYT Cooking review, 1★, App Store, October 2026

Money: how people are charged, and where revenue rank is going.

What money complaints are about

Money complaints: access or billing versus price aloneOf 1271 money complaints, 72% concern access or billing and 28% the price alone72%access or billing28%price only

Money complaints as a share of each segment’s 1–3★ reviews

Money complaints by app segmentMeal planners launched 2024-26: 34.6% of 1087; Established meal planners: 19.7% of 1312; Recipe savers / cooking apps: 19.2% of 2903; Shopping-list apps: 10.4% of 7760%10%20%30%40%Planners launched 2024–2634.6%Established meal planners19.7%Recipe savers and cooking apps19.2%Shopping-list apps10.4%
Top: 1,271 money complaints. “Access or billing” covers a paywall, “free” that isn’t, trial charges, refunds and cancelling, sometimes alongside price. Bottom: share of each segment’s 1–3★ reviews (n = 1,087, 1,312, 2,903 and 776).
Show the numbers
SegmentApps1–3★ reviewsMoney complaintsShare
Meal planners launched 2024-2691,08737634.6%
Established meal planners81,31225819.7%
Recipe savers / cooking apps112,90355619.2%
Shopping-list apps47768110.4%
All core apps326,0781,27120.9%

Where the price is paid once, money is a small share of complaints: 11% for Paprika, and 4% or less for Mela.

Meal planners in the US Food & Drink top-10 grossing chart

Meal-planner apps in the US App Store Food and Drink top-10 grossing chart, dailyShare of the 10 top-grossing slots held by meal-planner apps: 21% over the first seven snapshots and 39% over the last seven, 8 September to 28 October 2026first 7: 21%last 7: 39%0%20%40%60%80%100%2026-09-08: 2 of 102026-09-09: 2 of 102026-09-10: 2 of 102026-09-11: 2 of 102026-09-12: 2 of 102026-09-15: 3 of 102026-09-16: 2 of 102026-09-17: 2 of 102026-09-18: 2 of 102026-09-19: 2 of 102026-09-20: 2 of 102026-09-21: 2 of 102026-09-22: 3 of 102026-09-23: 2 of 102026-09-24: 2 of 102026-09-25: 3 of 102026-09-26: 3 of 102026-09-30: 3 of 102026-10-01: 3 of 102026-10-02: 3 of 102026-10-03: 3 of 102026-10-04: 3 of 102026-10-05: 4 of 102026-10-06: 4 of 102026-10-07: 4 of 102026-10-08: 4 of 102026-10-09: 5 of 102026-10-10: 5 of 102026-10-11: 3 of 102026-10-12: 5 of 102026-10-13: 5 of 102026-10-14: 4 of 102026-10-16: 5 of 102026-10-17: 5 of 102026-10-19: 5 of 102026-10-20: 5 of 102026-10-21: 4 of 102026-10-22: 5 of 102026-10-23: 5 of 102026-10-25: 3 of 102026-10-26: 3 of 102026-10-27: 4 of 102026-10-28: 3 of 108 Sep1 Oct28 Oct
Each column is one daily snapshot: meal-planner apps among the 10 top-grossing Food & Drink apps, US App Store. 43 snapshots, 8 September–28 October 2026; gaps are days without a snapshot. Grossing rank reflects revenue relative to other apps in the category, not users or installs.
Show the numbers
DatePlanner slots of 10Apps (rank)
2026-09-082#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-092#4 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans
2026-09-102#4 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans
2026-09-112#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-122#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-153#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #10 eMeals - Healthy Meal Plans
2026-09-162#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-172#3 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans
2026-09-182#3 mise - meal planner; #4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans
2026-09-192#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-202#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-212#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-223#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #10 eMeals - Healthy Meal Plans
2026-09-232#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner
2026-09-242#3 mise - meal planner; #4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans
2026-09-253#3 mise - meal planner; #4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #6 Potto - meal planner
2026-09-263#3 mise - meal planner; #4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #6 Potto - meal planner
2026-09-303#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-013#4 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-023#3 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #6 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-033#4 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #6 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-043#3 mise - meal planner; #5 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-054#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 Potto - meal planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes
2026-10-064#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-074#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-084#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-095#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 Potto - meal planner; #8 NeatEat - Meal Planner
2026-10-105#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #8 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-113#4 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner
2026-10-125#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-135#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-144#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #9 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-165#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 mise - meal planner; #8 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-175#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-195#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #4 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #8 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-205#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #4 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #8 Potto - meal planner; #10 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes
2026-10-214#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #7 mise - meal planner
2026-10-225#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #4 mise - meal planner; #6 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-235#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #7 Whipp: Meal Planner & Recipes; #9 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-253#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 mise - meal planner; #6 NeatEat - Meal Planner
2026-10-263#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner
2026-10-274#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #4 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner; #10 Potto - meal planner
2026-10-283#3 TapCook: Budget Meal Plans; #5 NeatEat - Meal Planner; #6 mise - meal planner

Two cautions. A Food & Drink grossing rank needs little revenue: one planner moved from #79 in Health & Fitness grossing to #6 in Food & Drink grossing by changing category. And revenue rank isn’t satisfaction or growth. Five near-identical budget planners launched in mid-2026 went in opposite directions: comparing the last three weeks with the first three, their rate of new US ratings ranged from about 4.9 times to 0.4 times the earlier rate. For four of them, 41–73% of their most recent written reviews were one-star.

In Google Trends for the US (January–October averages, on Google’s relative 0–100 scale within each comparison), “meal planner” stayed flat at 2.0–2.4 from 2021 to 2026. In the same comparison, “what to make for dinner” rose from 4.5 in 2025 to 6.1 in 2026, about 2.5 times “meal planner”. In a second comparison, “high protein meals” rose from 2.0 in 2021 to 7.6 in 2026. “chatgpt meal plan” stayed at 0. Search data can’t show planning that happens inside a chatbot, so it doesn’t measure AI use.

Methodology.

MealPot ran this research with AI research assistants, which collected the data, and wrote and spot-checked the keyword rules. The figures on this page come from the files under Download the data, so they can be checked.

App Store reviews

We collected 28,189 unique reviews (deduplicated by review ID) from Apple’s public customer-review feeds on 29 October 2026: the most recent reviews, up to 500 per app per country, in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. The core sample is 24,689 reviews of 32 apps: 8 established meal planners, 9 meal planners launched 2024–26 (including MealPot), 11 recipe-saving or cooking apps and 4 shopping-list apps. HelloFresh and Instacart (2,500 reviews) are reported separately and are not in the charts. We dropped 997 reviews of two diet apps because almost none mention meal plans. Mealime and Allrecipes Dinner Spinner are no longer on the App Store, so they are missing.

Because the feed returns only the latest reviews, time windows differ by app: weeks for large apps, years for small ones (from October 2008 to October 2026 overall). Reviews over-represent strong feelings and in-app rating prompts. They are not a random sample of users, so read shares as the relative size of themes, not population rates.

Keyword tagging and its limits

We read about 300 reviews across star ratings and app types, then wrote keyword rules for 35 themes (the rules). We spot-checked 5–7 matches per theme in each star band and tightened rules with poor precision, for example “import” matching “important”. Estimated precision from those spot-checks:

  • 80% or higher: paywall, price, billing, import, dietary, nutrition, ads, store integration, household sharing, lost data, recipe quality.
  • About 65–80%: bugs, update broke it, devices and platforms, customer support, picky eaters.
  • Topic tags, not sentiment: inspiration, time and mental load, AI, and “mentions the shopping list”.

The rules match at least one theme in 73% of complaints and 60% of praise reviews; the rest are short (“Love it”, “Doesn’t work”). Rules miss paraphrase and some sarcasm, so subtle themes are undercounts. The “average across apps” column gives each app with 25 or more reviews in a band equal weight, so one large app can’t dominate. Spot-checks were small, so treat precision bands as rough.

App Store charts and ratings

Daily snapshots of the US App Store Food & Drink top-grossing chart, 43 days between 8 September and 28 October 2026 (some days missing). “Meal planner” is our classification, by app name and description, of apps whose main job is planning meals; the apps are named in grossing-top10-us.csv. Rating counts are not installs: they depend on when an app asks for ratings, and in this window one supermarket chain’s apps jumped from near zero to over 2,000 new ratings a day at once. Grossing rank is relative revenue within the chart, not revenue or users. There is no Android data.

Google Trends

Google Trends Explore, United States, past five years, read on 29 October 2026. Values are January–October averages on Google’s 0–100 relative scale. They are comparable only within the same comparison set. The 2026 rise in “meal prep” looked like irregular traffic and we don’t report it.

Download the data.

You are welcome to quote the figures and reproduce the charts with a link to this page. Questions about the data: [email protected].

Suggested citation: MealPot, “The State of Meal Planning Apps 2026”, 3 November 2026, https://getmealpot.com/research/meal-planning-apps-2026/

Planning dinners for a household? Try Our regulars or the free grocery list template.

Sources.

  • Apple App Store customer reviews: Apple’s public customer-review feeds for the 32 core apps, US, GB, CA and AU stores, collected 29 October 2026.
  • Apple App Store top charts: US Food & Drink top grossing, daily snapshots 8 September–28 October 2026 (grossing-top10-us.csv).
  • Google Trends: comparison 1 and comparison 2, US, five years, read 29 October 2026.
  • App Store listings for quoted reviews: Plan to Eat, Our Groceries, NYT Cooking.

MealPot is not affiliated with Apple, Google or any app named on this page.