What should I use now that Mealime is shutting down?

Mealime's closing page says the app “will be discontinued as of October 21, 2026” and that “all personal data will be deleted when the Mealime application is shut down”. The free replacement Mealime itself names is Meals Hub, inside the Albertsons Companies grocery apps. If you would rather not plan inside a supermarket app, the realistic alternatives are Paprika, Samsung Food, SuperCook, Cooklist, Eat This Much and WhatsCook.ing, and they differ mostly in what the plan starts from.

The date is 21 October 2026

Mealime's own closing page is unambiguous: “Effective immediately, Pro subscribers will not be charged any additional subscription fees before Mealime is discontinued on October 21, 2026.” Pro recipes and features are open to every user until then, so the app is free for the rest of its life.

Your data goes with it

All personal data will be deleted when the application is shut down: your saved recipes, your plans and your lists. The closing page promises no export and points to your privacy rights rather than a file, so anything you want to keep has to be copied out before the date. A closing notice reads like a deadline to choose an app. It is first a deadline to save your work.

Mealime points you at Meals Hub

The closing page says all Mealime recipes continue in Meals Hub, inside the Albertsons Companies grocery apps and websites, run by the same team. It is free, it keeps support for dietary preferences, and you reach it with the More icon in the store app. It says you can use it with no Albertsons Companies store near you.

Save your recipes tonight

It takes about twenty minutes, and it matters more than which app you choose next. Open each saved recipe and screenshot the ingredients and the method. Screenshot your usual shopping list too: it is the honest record of what your household buys. Then write down the ten dinners you genuinely repeat.

Ten dinners on paper rebuilds your rotation in any planner. The step by step version is on our Mealime page.

Meals Hub, the one Mealime names

The same recipes and the same team, free. If you shop at an Albertsons Companies store this is the shortest path, because nothing about the recipes changes. The trade is where the planning now lives: inside a retailer's app rather than a standalone one, with the shopping side built around that chain.

Paprika Recipe Manager 3, if you want to own it

One payment of $4.99, no subscription, and 4.90 stars from 53,706 ratings, the highest here. You keep your own recipes and place them on a calendar by hand. The trade is that it does none of the deciding: a good place to put recipes, not a thing that writes your week. It is also the only option here that does not depend on a company staying in business.

Samsung Food, if free matters most

Free, with premium at $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and 4.78 stars from 6,333 ratings. It imports recipes from most sites, plans a week, makes a list, and runs on iPhone, iPad and the web. It is the closest like-for-like replacement for the job Mealime did and, like Mealime, usable without paying at all, though premium is more than double what Mealime Pro cost. The trade comes with any free product: it is paid for somehow, usually in data and in the pull toward the company's other apps.

Eat This Much, if you plan to numbers

Free to download with in-app tiers listed from $8.99 to $84.99, and 4.72 stars from 22,087 ratings. It starts from your calorie and macro targets, your budget and your schedule. It has a virtual pantry feature too. The trade is that the plan is built to numbers rather than to a kitchen, so it asks more of you at the shop.

SuperCook and Cooklist, if the pantry is the point

Two apps already start from what you own, and neither is ours. SuperCook is free with no in-app purchases listed and rates 4.82 from 21,712 ratings: you tick your ingredients and it shows recipes needing only those. It answers tonight rather than the week: no plan, no list built from gaps, no nutrition. Cooklist rates 4.73 from 11,292 ratings and fills its pantry from your grocery loyalty cards, the least effort of any pantry here. Its trade is the input: a receipt knows what you bought, not what is left.

WhatsCook.ing, if you want the week built from your kitchen

We make this one, so weigh it accordingly. You photograph the shelf or the fridge, the week is written from what is there, and the shopping list is only the gaps, not every ingredient in the plan. Cooking a meal logs it, and the day's nutrition moves a BioAge estimate, a nutrition-derived number with its method shown in the app and not a medical measurement.

The trade is the price and the platform. It is $29.99 a month or $179.99 a year after a 7-day free trial through your Apple Account, iPhone only, and there is no free tier. It is finishing its App Store submission, so there is nothing to install today.

Three questions worth asking of whatever you pick

Can you get your data back out? For Mealime the answer was no, which is why this week is annoying. Who pays for the app, and what does that steer? A free planner attached to a supermarket is a good deal if you shop there, a one-off payment steers nothing, and a subscription has to keep earning its place, which is fair to hold us to as well. Does it start from a shop or from your kitchen? One of those matches how your household shops.

Where this app is not a replacement for Mealime

Nothing imports, so dishes you loved in Mealime cannot be brought across. There is no free tier, and $29.99 a month is roughly ten times what Mealime Pro cost, so it has to buy you something Mealime never did. It has no ratings yet where Mealime has 53,992. It also has no grocery ordering, no barcode scanner and no calorie estimate from a photo. Setting it up is not quick either: the questionnaire is long, and the first plan takes three to four minutes to write.

The full Mealime page quotes the announcement. Ten apps side by side, including the ones that beat us, are at the best meal planning apps in 2026, and common questions are on the questions page.

Related guides: an app that plans meals from what is in your fridge, the best meal planning app for one person, planning a week without going to the store, and which planners track nutrition, not just recipes.

Where the figures come from

App Store prices and ratings are what Apple showed on the US storefront on 9 September 2026, and counts rise daily, so read them as a snapshot. The Mealime closing notice was read on 14 September 2026 and again on 21 September 2026.

Mealime's closing notice at mealime.com/closing, for the 21 October 2026 date, the quotes above, the subscription wind-down, the move to Meals Hub, and the deletion of personal data.

Mealime on the App Store, for its 53,992 ratings and the $2.99 a month Pro price.

Paprika Recipe Manager 3 on the App Store, for 4.90 stars from 53,706 ratings and the one-off $4.99 price.

Samsung Food on the App Store, for 4.78 stars from 6,333 ratings and the premium price.

Eat This Much on the App Store, for 4.72 stars from 22,087 ratings and the in-app tiers.

SuperCook on the App Store, for 4.82 stars from 21,712 ratings and no listed in-app purchases.

Cooklist on the App Store, for 4.73 stars from 11,292 ratings.