What Samsung Food does well
Samsung Food has 6 million users and a 4.8-star rating on the App Store. Apple featured it as App of the Week. It's a real product with real strengths.
The recipe library is massive. Over 240,000 recipes spanning 104 countries, with granular filters for cuisine, diet type, cook time, and cooking method. If you want to browse recipes, Samsung Food gives you more options than almost any other app. The recipe import feature pulls from most websites and parses ingredients automatically. Shopping lists integrate with 23 retailers across four regions.
The smart home integration is where Samsung Food stands apart. If you own Samsung appliances, you can preheat your Bespoke oven from the app, send cook settings to your induction cooktop, and order groceries through Instacart directly from your Family Hub fridge. No other meal planning app connects to your kitchen hardware like this.
But a specific type of person keeps searching for a Samsung Food alternative. If you're reading this, you probably already know why.
Why people look for Samsung Food alternatives
Samsung Food's ratings are high, but the reviews tell a different story when you read them. The complaints are specific and they repeat across app store reviews, Reddit, and the Samsung Community forums.
Meal planning that isn't really meal planning
Samsung Food has a meal planner, but it doesn't plan meals for you. You browse recipes, pick the ones you want, and manually drag each one onto each day. The free tier only gives you 3 days of recommendations. Even on the paid plan, users report that recommendations don't reflect their dietary preferences despite setting them up.
If you were hoping for "tell me what to eat this week" and get a plan back, that's not how Samsung Food works. You're still doing the deciding.
The Samsung ecosystem trap
Samsung Food works on any phone. But the best features are locked to Samsung hardware. Instacart ordering from your fridge? Only on 2025+ Bespoke models. Smart Cook Mode with your oven? Samsung SmartThings only. Free Food+ subscription? Bundled with Samsung device purchases.
The name alone makes non-Samsung users assume it's exclusive. Browse any forum thread about it and you'll find iPhone and Pixel users who dismissed it without trying it because they figured it was Samsung-only.
Bugs that don't get fixed
The recurring complaints are frustrating because they've been reported for months without resolution. Edited recipe instructions don't save. Serving size changes don't carry over to shopping lists. The Chrome extension has been broken since the Whisk-to-Samsung Food rebrand in 2023. Users describe support as acknowledging bugs but never fixing them.
One user summed it up: "Bug coupled with a good-for-nothing support team."
No support for how people actually cook
Samsung Food can't track leftovers. It can't account for batch cooking. If you meal prep on Sunday, the app has no way to factor that into the rest of your week. It doesn't know what's actually in your fridge unless you're on the paid plan, and even then the pantry management is basic.
The health score problem
Samsung Food automatically assigns a "Health Score" to recipes, labeling foods as good or bad. Multiple users have called this out as problematic and triggering, describing it as "seeped in fat phobia and diet culture language." The free tier also shows third-party ads promoting diet plans that users describe as sleazy.
Samsung Food vs. MealThinker: a direct comparison
Samsung Food is a recipe browser with a meal calendar attached. MealThinker is an AI assistant you talk to. That's the core difference.
| Samsung Food (Free) | Samsung Food+ ($60/yr) | MealThinker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you use it | Browse and filter 240K recipes, manually assign to calendar | Same + AI recipe tweaks | Talk to it: "What should I make with what I have?" |
| Recipe source | Fixed database of 240K recipes | Same database + AI modifications | AI generates meals for your specific situation |
| Knows your kitchen | No | Basic pantry management | Tracks your fridge and pantry through conversation |
| Remembers you | Dietary preference filters | Same | Remembers preferences, past meals, cooking skill, everything |
| Handles leftovers | No | No | "I have leftover rice and some vegetables going bad" works |
| Meal planning | Manual drag-and-drop | 7-day AI recommendations | AI builds plans around your kitchen and preferences |
| Smart appliances | Samsung SmartThings only | Samsung SmartThings only | No (works on any device) |
| Grocery lists | Auto-generated, one store only | Same | Built around what you already have |
| Ads | Yes (diet-related third-party ads) | No | No |
| Conversational AI | No | No (form-based AI tweaks) | Yes, natural language like texting a friend |
| Price | Free (limited) | $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr | $15/mo or $150/yr |
| Free trial | 7 days of Food+ | Included | 7-day full access, no credit card |
When to pick Samsung Food
If you own Samsung smart kitchen appliances and want your meal planning app connected to your oven and fridge, Samsung Food is the only option. It's also solid if you just want a huge recipe library to browse with good filters. The free tier is genuinely usable for recipe discovery.
When to pick MealThinker
If you're tired of browsing recipes and manually building meal plans, and you want something that handles the thinking for you. MealThinker knows what's in your kitchen, remembers what you like, and plans meals around your actual situation. No forms, no filters, no dragging recipes onto a calendar. See the full feature list or watch it plan a week of dinners.
Plan tonight's dinner in 30 seconds
AI meal planning that remembers your kitchen and preferences.
From recipe databases to AI assistants
Samsung Food started as Whisk, a recipe clipping tool. Samsung acquired it in 2019 and spent four years turning it into a smart kitchen platform. The rebrand happened in August 2023.
The strategy makes sense for Samsung. They sell refrigerators and ovens. They want an app that makes those appliances more useful. But that means Samsung Food is optimized for Samsung's hardware business, not for solving your dinner problem.
The result is an app that's great at finding recipes and terrible at deciding what to cook. That's a meaningful distinction. Most people don't struggle with finding recipes. The internet has millions of them. The struggle is picking one that works with what you have, what you're in the mood for, and what fits your nutrition goals. That's a decision problem, not a search problem.
Yummly had 20 million users and shut down because Whirlpool realized the recipe database model couldn't keep up. PlateJoy followed the same path. The pattern keeps repeating: big company acquires meal planning startup, tries to make it serve a hardware or health business, users get left behind.
Samsung Food probably isn't going anywhere. Samsung has deep pockets and the app serves their appliance strategy. But for the millions of non-Samsung users looking for meal planning help, the app is increasingly built for someone else.
If you want meal planning that starts with your kitchen and your preferences instead of a recipe database and a hardware ecosystem, try MealThinker free for 7 days. No credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
Is Samsung Food only for Samsung phones?
No. Samsung Food works on Android (any manufacturer), iOS, and web. You don't need a Samsung phone. However, the smart appliance integration only works with Samsung SmartThings devices, and Samsung device buyers get 3-12 months of Food+ free. The best features are designed around the Samsung ecosystem.
Is Samsung Food Plus worth $60 a year?
It depends on what you need. Food+ unlocks 7-day recommendations (vs. 3), AI recipe personalization, Vision AI for scanning ingredients, pantry management, and removes ads. Android Authority's review suggested "there's no good reason to splurge" since the free tier covers most use cases. If you want AI that actively plans meals around your kitchen, MealThinker does that for $15/month with a free 7-day trial.
What's the best free alternative to Samsung Food?
Mealime offers the best free tier for basic meal planning with built-in recipes and grocery lists. For AI-powered planning, MealThinker offers a 7-day free trial with full access and no credit card. If you mainly used Samsung Food as a recipe organizer, Paprika is a solid one-time purchase.
Does Samsung Food track what's in your fridge?
Only on the paid Food+ plan ($60/year), and it's limited. You manually add items. It doesn't learn from your shopping habits or suggest meals based on what's expiring. For pantry-based meal planning, MealThinker tracks your kitchen through conversation and suggests meals that use what you already have, including ingredients that are about to go bad.
Can Samsung Food replace a meal planning app?
Samsung Food is better described as a recipe discovery app with planning features bolted on. You still manually assign every recipe to your calendar. There's no auto-generation of weekly plans on the free tier, and even paid recommendations don't always match your dietary preferences. If you want actual meal planning where the app does the thinking, a dedicated tool like MealThinker or Plan to Eat is a better fit.