The 5 best meal planner apps in 2026 — prices and features, compared
We compared the best meal planner apps of 2026 on price, AI weekly plans, grocery lists and household sharing: Cestio, Potto, Eat This Much, Samsung Food and Yazio. Verified prices and a clear winner for most people.
The short version
- The best meal planner app for most people in 2026 is Cestio: it plans 21 meals a week with AI around your budget, diet and supermarket, writes an aisle-sorted grocery list with an estimated total, and shares everything live with your household.
- Cestio is also the cheapest of the apps compared: free to download with every feature free for 3 days, then $4.99/week, $9.99/month or $39.99/year in the US — €2.99/week, €4.99/month or €19.99/year in Europe.
- Potto costs $9.99 a week (about twice Cestio), Eat This Much $59/year, Samsung Food+ $59.99/year and Yazio PRO $47.90/year — and none of them combine budget planning, local European supermarkets and household sharing in one app.
A meal planner app has one job: answer "what are we eating this week?" once, and turn the answer into a single supermarket trip. In 2026 the field has changed — Mealime shut down on 21 October, and AI planners that build the week for you have replaced recipe browsers. This guide compares the five apps actually worth considering, with verified prices.
The best meal planner apps, compared
| App | Plans the week for you | Grocery list | Household sharing | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cestio | Yes — 21 AI meals around budget, diet and supermarket | Aisle-sorted, with estimated total | Yes — live, assign items to people | Free download, all features free for 3 days, then $4.99/wk or $39.99/yr (€19.99/yr in Europe) |
| Potto | Yes | Sorted for your store | No (no account) | $9.99/week |
| Eat This Much | Yes, by calories and macros | Paid plan only | No | $14.99/mo or $59/yr |
| Samsung Food | Partly (AI plans in Food+) | Yes | Yes | $59.99/yr for Food+ |
| Yazio | Meal plans in PRO; a calorie tracker first | Basic | No | $47.90/yr for PRO |
1. Cestio — the best meal planner app for most people
Cestio plans your entire week — breakfast, lunch and dinner, 21 meals — with AI, around the things that actually constrain a week: your weekly budget, your diets (combinable: vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, low carb, diabetes friendly and more), your allergies, your cooking time, your appliances and the foods you refuse to eat.
The week then becomes one grocery list grouped by supermarket aisle, with a running estimated total that respects the budget you set. Change a meal and the list updates itself. Share the plan with your household and everyone sees the same list live — assign the eggs to your partner and they get a notification.
Cestio is built around real supermarkets: Walmart, Kroger and Trader Joe's in the US, Tesco in the UK, Mercadona and Lidl in Spain, Rewe and Aldi in Germany, Carrefour in France, Continente in Portugal and more. It is fully translated into 13 languages. It also includes Fridge Chef (photograph your fridge, get recipes you can cook right now) and Calorie Snap (photograph your plate, get calories and macros).
Price: free to download, with every feature free for 3 days and your first weekly plan free. After that: $4.99/week, $9.99/month or $39.99/year in the US — about $3.33 a month on the yearly plan. In Europe: €2.99/week, €4.99/month or €19.99/year. No ads, no sponsored ingredients.
2. Potto — same idea, double the price
Potto is the closest competitor: AI plans the week around budget and diet, the list is sorted for your store, and it has fridge-photo recipes. But it costs $9.99 a week — over $500 a year — it has no household sharing (there is no account system), and it is English-first with US supermarkets. If you share cooking with anyone, or shop at a European chain, Cestio does more for half the price.
3. Eat This Much — for macro counters
Eat This Much generates days around a calorie and macro target, which makes it the pick for strict cutting or bulking. The trade-offs: the grocery list is paywalled, there is no household sharing, no budget planning and no local supermarkets. $14.99/month or $59/year.
4. Samsung Food — a recipe manager with AI on top
Samsung Food is a strong recipe saver and syncs with Samsung appliances; Food+ adds AI meal plans for $59.99/year. It plans around recipes you save rather than around your budget, and the shopping list has no cost estimates. Good if you live in the Samsung ecosystem; otherwise a planner-first app serves the weekly routine better.
5. Yazio — a calorie tracker that also plans
Yazio is first a calorie and fasting tracker; PRO ($47.90/year) adds meal plans. If what you want is tracking, it is excellent. If what you want is "plan my week and write my shopping list", planning is the add-on here, not the core. We compared the two in detail in Cestio vs Yazio.
How to choose
- You want the week planned and shopped in one go → Cestio: budget, diets, aisle-sorted list, household sharing, 13 languages.
- You count macros strictly → Eat This Much, or Cestio if you also want the budget and the shared list.
- You mostly save recipes from the web → Samsung Food.
- You mostly track calories → Yazio, or Cestio's Calorie Snap if a photo is enough.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best meal planner app in 2026?
- For most people, Cestio: it plans 21 meals a week with AI around your budget, diet and supermarket, writes an aisle-sorted grocery list with an estimated total, and shares everything live with your household. It is free to download, your first weekly plan is free, and every feature is free for 3 days.
- What is the cheapest meal planner app?
- Of the apps compared, Cestio: $39.99/year in the US or €19.99/year in Europe — about half of Samsung Food+ ($59.99/yr), Eat This Much ($59/yr) or Yazio PRO ($47.90/yr), and a fraction of Potto ($9.99/week). No competitor in this list is free beyond a trial.
- Which meal planner app replaced Mealime?
- Mealime shut down on 21 October 2026. The most direct replacement is Cestio, which plans the full week with AI and adds what Mealime never had: budgets, estimated totals and live household sharing. See our full guide to the best Mealime alternatives.