Mealime is shutting down on 21 October 2026 — here's what to move to

If you have been planning your week in Mealime, the notice on their homepage is blunt: Mealime will shut down on October 21, 2026. For a free app with millions of users that had genuinely solved “plan the week, get one tidy grocery list”, that leaves a real gap.

Mealime is not alone — PlateJoy and Yummly have already gone the same way. This page is a practical, non-sales-y guide to where to go next, including options that are free and options that are not Cestio.

First, work out what you'll actually miss

Mealime did four quite different jobs at once, and most people only relied on two of them. Be honest about which:

• The curated recipes — simple 30-minute meals you trusted would work.
• The auto-sorted grocery list — every ingredient from the week's meals, consolidated and grouped by category.
• The personalisation — vegetarian, gluten free, shellfish allergy, ingredient dislikes, servings for 2 or 4.
• The speed — a whole week decided in a couple of minutes.

The alternative that fits you is the one that nails your top two, not the one with the longest feature list.

The six alternatives, compared

1. Cestio — if the shopping is a household job

Cestio is the closest thing here to “Mealime, but for two people”. It plans 21 meals a week — breakfast, lunch and dinner for seven days — around your budget, your diet, your allergies, your cooking time, your appliances and the foods you refuse to eat, then turns the whole week into one shopping list grouped by supermarket aisle with a running estimated total.

The part Mealime never had: a household. One person shares a link, and from then on everyone sees the same plan and the same list live. Assign the eggs to your partner and they get a push notification. Tick off the milk and it greys out on every phone.

It is also the only option on this list that is fully translated into seven languages with local supermarkets built in — Mercadona and Dia in Spain, Rewe and Edeka in Germany, Continente in Portugal, Esselunga in Italy, Sklavenitis in Greece, alongside Tesco, Walmart, Woolworths and the rest.

The catch: it is a paid subscription with a 3-day trial, and there is no permanently free tier. It is also iPhone and iPad only right now. If you came from free Mealime specifically because it was free, say so to yourself before you subscribe — Potto below may be the more honest fit.

2. Potto — if you want free and you're in the anglosphere

Potto plans a full week around your supermarket, budget, diet, household size and appliances, produces an aisle-sorted shopping list, and does photo-based fridge recipes and photo calorie estimates. It costs nothing and requires no account at all.

The catch: it is English-only, its supermarket coverage is the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and because there is no account there is no way to share a plan or a list with another person. For a solo cook replacing free Mealime with free something-else, it is the shortest path. See the full Cestio vs Potto comparison if you're weighing those two.

3. Eat This Much — if you plan by numbers

Eat This Much builds plans against a calorie target and specific macro splits, takes a pantry of ingredients you already own, and can push the resulting list into Instacart or Amazon Fresh. It has web, iOS and Android apps.

The catch: it is the most spreadsheet-brained option here. If what you loved about Mealime was that it never asked you about macros, this will feel like homework. It is also heavily US-centric.

4. Yazio — if the real goal was losing weight

Plenty of people used Mealime as a light nutrition tool rather than a planner. If that is you, Yazio is a more direct answer: calorie and macro tracking with a barcode scanner and photo logging, intermittent fasting timers, 3,000+ recipes and meal plans in its PRO tier, and fitness tracker sync.

The catch: it is a tracker first and a planner second, and it does not plan around a grocery budget or a specific supermarket. German speakers can read the detailed Cestio vs. Yazio comparison.

5. Paprika — if you want to own your recipes

Paprika is a recipe manager rather than an AI planner: you clip recipes from anywhere, they live in your own library, and you build a weekly plan and grocery list from them. It is a one-off purchase per platform rather than a subscription.

The catch: nothing is automatic. Paprika will not decide what you eat — it just makes the deciding tidy. If Mealime's appeal was that it did the thinking, this is the opposite trade.

6. Plan to Eat — if you already have your own recipes

Similar philosophy to Paprika, with a drag-and-drop planning calendar, a shopping list generated from what you scheduled, and household sharing on a single plan.

The catch: again, you bring the recipes. It is a subscription, and the value depends entirely on you having a recipe collection worth planning from.

How to choose in 30 seconds

• More than one person shops in your house → Cestio (or Plan to Eat if you'd rather use your own recipes).
• You want free and you're in the US, UK, Canada or Australia → Potto.
• You don't speak English, or you shop at a European chain → Cestio.
• You're chasing a calorie or macro target → Eat This Much, or Yazio if weight loss is the actual goal.
• You have a recipe collection you love → Paprika or Plan to Eat.

Questions worth asking before you commit

1. 1Can it survive? Three planners have shut down in short order. A product with a clear paid business model is, awkwardly, the safer bet than a free one with no visible revenue.
2. 2Does it work in your supermarket and your currency? A plan priced in dollars for stores that aren't on your street is noise.
3. 3Can you get your data out? Ask on day one, not on shutdown day.
4. 4Does it handle your allergy properly — as an absolute exclusion, not a preference?