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MealThinker vs Mealime: Which Meal Planner Is Better in 2026?

By Justin, Founder of MealThinker and Daily Vegan Meal··9 min read
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Two very different approaches to meal planning

Mealime is one of the most popular meal planning apps out there. Five million downloads. A 4.8-star rating from over 53,000 reviews on the App Store. It earned those numbers.

MealThinker vs Mealime comes down to this: Mealime is a recipe picker that shows you meals from a fixed library. MealThinker is an AI assistant that remembers your kitchen, tracks what you have on hand, and suggests meals based on your actual ingredients, preferences, and nutrition goals. One browses a catalog. The other has a conversation.

The meal planning category has changed a lot since Mealime launched in 2013, and Mealime hasn't changed with it. Here's an honest head-to-head comparison.

MealThinker vs Mealime: feature comparison

FeatureMealimeMealThinker
How it worksBrowse and pick recipes from a libraryTell the AI what you want, it creates personalized meals
Recipe source~1,200 curated recipesAI-generated based on your situation
Pantry trackingNoneTracks what you have through conversation
MemoryDietary filters set onceRemembers everything: taste, past meals, cooking skill, preferences
Learns over timeNoYes, improves with each conversation
Handles leftoversNoCore feature. "I have leftover rice, what can I make?"
Nutrition trackingCalories per recipe (Pro only)Daily and weekly tracking with gap analysis
Serving sizes2 or 4 onlyAny number
Meal typesDinner-focusedBreakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks
Shopping listsAuto-generated from selected recipesBased on what you're actually missing
Web appLimited (mostly mobile)Full-featured
Planning scopePick a few dinners at a timeOne meal, full day, or entire week
Free tierYes (75% of recipes)7-day free trial, full access
PriceFree or $2.99/month Pro$15/month or $150/year
PlatformsiOS, Android, web (limited)iOS, web (Android coming soon)

The table makes the feature gap obvious. But features don't tell the whole story. How each app handles real cooking situations matters more.

Where Mealime wins

I built MealThinker, so obviously I'm biased. But I think you should pick the right tool, not just the one I made.

Price

Mealime's free tier is genuinely usable. You get access to most of the recipe library and auto-generated shopping lists without paying anything. Pro at $2.99/month adds nutrition info and recipe search by nutrients. MealThinker costs $15/month after a 7-day free trial. That's 5x the price. If you're on a tight budget and just need dinner ideas with a shopping list, Mealime is hard to beat on value.

Simplicity

Mealime's interface is dead simple. Open the app, scroll through recipes, tap the ones that look good, get a shopping list. No setup. No onboarding quiz. No learning curve. If you're someone who just wants to quickly pick meals and go, Mealime gets out of your way.

Established track record

Mealime has been around since 2013. Five million downloads. 53,000 App Store reviews. Acquired by Albertsons in 2022. It's a proven product that's not going anywhere. MealThinker is newer and smaller. That matters if stability is your priority.

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Where MealThinker wins

The "what's in my fridge" problem

This is the biggest gap between the two apps. Mealime doesn't know what's in your kitchen. Every plan assumes an empty pantry. You end up buying duplicate spices, extra produce, and ingredients you already have.

MealThinker tracks your pantry through conversation. Tell it what you bought, and it remembers. When you ask for meal ideas, it suggests things using ingredients you already have. When you generate a shopping list, it only includes what you're actually missing.

According to the USDA, Americans throw away 30-40% of their food supply. The EPA estimates that costs the average family of four around $2,900 per year. A chunk of that waste comes from buying things you already have or planning meals around ingredients you never use. A meal planner that knows your kitchen reduces waste at the source.

Leftovers and expiring food

Mealime can't help you use up what you already have. If you've got half a block of tofu, some wilting greens, and leftover rice, Mealime will show you its recipe library. None of those recipes were designed around your specific leftovers.

MealThinker was built for this exact scenario. Tell it what's in your fridge and it generates meals around those ingredients. Stuff about to go bad gets prioritized.

It remembers everything

Mealime lets you set dietary filters once. That's the extent of its memory. It doesn't know you hate cilantro, prefer quick one-pot meals on weeknights, or that you've had pasta three times this week.

MealThinker stores your preferences permanently. Cooking skill, flavor preferences, time constraints, household size, past meals. Every conversation makes it smarter. After a few weeks, it knows your cooking personality better than most recipe apps ever will.

Full nutrition tracking

Mealime Pro shows calories and macros per recipe. That's useful, but passive. You still have to do the math yourself to figure out if your day adds up.

MealThinker tracks nutrition across your whole day and week. It knows if you're short on protein at dinner, if you've been low on fiber this week, or if a meal will push you over your calorie target. It fills gaps automatically when suggesting meals.

Flexible serving sizes

Mealime caps at 4 servings, in increments of 2. This is one of the most requested changes in their community forums. If you're cooking for five people or meal prepping for the week, the portions don't work.

MealThinker handles any number of servings. Family of six? Meal prep for one? Both work.

All meals, not just dinner

Mealime focuses on dinner recipes. MealThinker plans breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. You can plan a single meal, a full day, or an entire week in under 5 minutes.

Real scenarios: which app handles them better

"It's 5:30pm and I need dinner in 30 minutes"

Mealime: Open the app, filter for 30-minute meals, scroll through options, pick one, check if you have the ingredients, probably don't have all of them, pick another one. Repeat.

MealThinker: Say "I need a quick dinner, 30 minutes max." It already knows what's in your kitchen and suggests something you can actually make right now. No scrolling. No checking ingredients.

"I bought groceries on Sunday and it's Wednesday"

Mealime: Doesn't know what you bought. Generates a new shopping list for new recipes, assuming you have nothing.

MealThinker: Knows exactly what you have left from Sunday. Suggests meals that use those ingredients before they expire. Your Wednesday shopping list only includes gaps.

"My partner is gluten-free but I'm not"

Mealime: Filter for gluten-free recipes for both of you. You both eat gluten-free.

MealThinker: Tell it about your partner's restrictions and it factors that in. It can suggest meals that work for both of you, or point out where a simple swap makes a recipe work for everyone.

"I've been eating the same meals for three weeks"

Mealime: With 1,200 recipes minus your dietary filters and dislikes, the rotation gets small fast. Users in app reviews mention seeing the same suggestions after a few weeks.

MealThinker: AI generates meals, so the variety is essentially unlimited. It also knows what you've eaten recently and avoids repeating dishes.

"I want to hit my protein goal today"

Mealime Pro: Shows you the nutrition info for individual recipes. You add up the numbers yourself.

MealThinker: Already knows your target. Knows what you ate for breakfast and lunch. Suggests a dinner that fills the gap automatically.

Who should pick Mealime

Mealime is the better choice if:

  • You want a free meal planning app with no trial period or credit card
  • You cook dinner for 1-2 people and don't need to scale servings
  • You prefer browsing recipes visually rather than describing what you want
  • You don't care about pantry tracking or nutrition logging
  • Simple is your priority and $0-3/month is your budget

Mealime does one thing and does it well. If that one thing is all you need, it's a great app at a great price.

Who should pick MealThinker

MealThinker is the better choice if:

  • You're tired of the nightly "what should I make?" question
  • You want a meal planner that actually knows what's in your kitchen
  • You cook for more than 4 people or need flexible serving sizes
  • You want nutrition tracking that works automatically, not manually
  • You have food going to waste because you buy ingredients and forget about them
  • You want an app that gets better the more you use it

MealThinker costs more because it does more. The AI costs real money to run for every interaction. But if food waste and impulse delivery orders are eating into your budget, $15/month pays for itself fast.

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Frequently asked questions

Is MealThinker better than Mealime?

It depends on what you need. Mealime is a simple, affordable recipe picker that works well for quick dinners. MealThinker is an AI meal planning assistant that tracks your pantry, remembers your preferences, and handles nutrition automatically. If you just want to browse recipes and get a shopping list, Mealime is solid. If you want a meal planner that knows your kitchen and gets smarter over time, MealThinker is the better fit.

Why is MealThinker more expensive than Mealime?

Mealime shows you pre-made recipes from a fixed library. The cost to serve that is close to zero. MealThinker runs AI for every meal suggestion, personalized to your pantry, preferences, and nutrition goals. That AI processing costs real money per interaction. The $15/month price reflects the difference between browsing a catalog and having a personalized conversation.

Can I use Mealime and MealThinker together?

You could, but there's not much reason to. Mealime's main value is recipe browsing and shopping lists. MealThinker does both of those plus pantry tracking, nutrition monitoring, and AI-generated meals. If you're paying for MealThinker, Mealime's features are already covered.

Is Mealime still being actively developed?

Albertsons acquired Mealime in 2022. The app still gets updates, mostly new recipes and bug fixes. But there haven't been major feature additions since the acquisition. No AI, no pantry tracking, no calendar view. Users in the community forums have asked whether development has stalled. The app works, but it's not evolving the way the meal planning category is.

Does Mealime work for families larger than 4?

Not well. Mealime caps serving sizes at 4 (in increments of 2). This is one of the most common complaints in their community forums. For larger households, MealThinker supports any serving size, or you could look at Ollie which is specifically built for families.

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