# Budget Bytes — user reviews > 51 indexed App Store user reviews of Budget Bytes by SideChef Group Limited, rated 4.79/5 from 4,317 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/budget-bytes/id1240079167/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/budget-bytes/id1240079167.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 3,819 · 4★ 319 · 3★ 51 · 2★ 32 · 1★ 95 ## What do users think of Budget Bytes? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Delicious and budget-friendly recipes - 🚀 Convenient meal planning and grocery list features - 💡 Helpful step-by-step instructions and integrated timers - 🌟 Gorgeous and user-friendly app design **Cons** - 💰 Paid app with additional in-app purchases for recipes - 🔍 Limited recipe selection compared to the website - 🤯 Confusing credits system and lack of transparency - 🐛 Technical issues like login problems and recipe saving bugs **Commonly reported bugs** - Inability to edit comments or questions - Cookbook recipes not loading fully - App freezing and crashing on some devices **Most requested features** - Sync recipes and meal plans between app and website - More advanced filtering and search options - Ability to delete saved cookbooks - Nutritional information for all recipes ## Newest reviews (15 of 51) ### 2/5 — Paying twice for a recipe *2021-11-15, version 3.4.8* The features of the app so far seem very nice and it’s relatively straight forward, but there are major issues across the product offerings she provides. Her website, the app, and the web-store all require separate accounts so there’s no consistency between them. I purchased a meal plan because I like what she does and wanted to support her and shortly after purchased the app only to find that some recipes that are free online that are included in the meal plan aren’t free in the app. I have no issue paying for the meal plan even though the recipes are available online because there are other benefits you get, but paying for the meal plan and then having to pay to access that recipe in the app (that you already paid for) is too much. ### 4/5 — Limited recipes *2021-08-28, version 3.4.8* I learned of this app by coming across the website when my husband and I were in a pinch financially. I purchased the app because we loved the website so much. Unfortunately this app does not have nearly as many recipes as the website. Hoping they add to the app as it is more convenient when cooking step by step. For example the website has meal prep guidance and more. Thought the app would give me more since I paid for the app and the website is free. ### 3/5 — Nutritional Info? *2021-03-21, version 3.4.8* I was happy to pay for this app as I’ve used the website for free for a while. What I don’t understand is where is the nutritional info? This is super important to me as I track my meals. It looks like some of the recipes have the nutritional info on the website and not the APP? I don’t really want to purchase more recipes if they don’t have nutritional info :( ### 4/5 — Pretty great app *2020-10-10, version 3.4.8* This app is pretty great. Well worth the small price tag for it. I haven’t made anything yet that I have yet to not like. I take off 1 star because the way the app stores your favorites recipes is bogus. When you go in to a list to look at them, they are always in a different order and you have to refresh the list and then more appear at the top part you’ve already scrolled through. Dumb design. Please fix this and I won’t have any complaints. ### 3/5 — Eager for more content, and more attention to detail *2020-07-12, version 3.4.8* I like that the app walks you through the recipe and the screen stays on while I’m working. However the ingredient names written in green on top of the image of the food was very hard to read and in the first recipe I tried (apple pie overnight oats) the app version doesn’t divide the ingredients so I accidentally added 4x the oats and spices before getting to the milk and being befuddled as to how on earth I would get 2 cups of milk into a 12 oz mason jar. The website accurately splits the ingredients. So I had to futz around taking a cup of (now spiced) oats out of my jars, and we will see what comes out tomorrow in my SUPER spiced overnight oats! On the whole I love the idea it just needs more content and more polish to justify $3 for what I can get more of, more accurately for free online. ### 4/5 — Love this app *2020-07-01, version 3.4.8* Love the app, mostly because I love the blog and the recipes. I’ve used these recipes to save money and get creative with our dinners for almost 2 years now, and just started with the app a few weeks ago. Only critique for the app is that when you pin a recipe to Pinterest (that’s where I keep all my recipes from this and other places) the link doesn’t go to the actual recipe, just opens the app to the front page. ### 5/5 — Useful App *2020-04-18, version 3.4.7* I have a select few apps that I open everyday and this is quickly entering my top 5. BudgetBytes helps me with all things food... whether I’m cooking at the fire station, for my family of 6, or meal prepping for me and my wife, this app me with everything! I love the quick math it does when you change the number of servings! Several features here I’ve never seen before on any other cooking platform! Thanks! ### 4/5 — Like it except for one thing *2020-03-08, version 3.4.7* I just asked a question in the comments and discovered that once I typed it in I was unable to edit it at all before hitting send. I couldn’t correct it, delete a word, nothing. No chance to fix a typo. No chance to word the question better. I apparently got to the maximum number of characters so I couldn’t complete the last word. When I tried to delete a word and change it I found I was unable to do anything at all - except being forced to hit send. That is enough to discourage me from ever leaving a comment or asking a question. Very annoying aspect of the otherwise nice app. I have the paid version. ### 3/5 — Stick to the blog, don’t waste your money *2020-03-04, version 3.4.7* The app only has a fraction of the recipes online, and its search feature and filters are a bit useless. I love supporting what I appreciate via pay walls / apps / patreons, but this was a waste of money. The ‘filter’ let’s you choose between four or five primary ingredients, which isn’t that helpful since ‘Chicken’ is usually in the name and could be searched for. The filter should let you search for things with multiple ingredient criteria, and have many more options accordingly. Your recipes are great btw, I’ll continue reading the blog! ### 2/5 — Really want to love this more *2020-02-26, version 3.4.7* I love the Budget Bytes blog and love the recipes. I just wish I could love the app more. I’m even okay with the credit system for new recipes. My problem is when I take the time to scroll through all the recipes and create cookbooks, I can never seem to load more than the first 15 or so recipes in a cookbook I created. Every time I pull down for more it just takes me to the top of the same recipes and never loads the rest that I have saved in that cookbook. It’s a shame because I love this app, but I am tired of constantly recreating cookbooks or searching for recipes that don’t load in the cookbooks I have saved them in. ### 5/5 — Super Cool but not worth the $$$ *2020-01-21, version 3.4.5* I love Budget Bytes! I love the many recipe options for all occasions and most are simple and quick to make! However, it is not worth paying $2.99 for an app when you have access to it for free online. You don't have access to all recipes like you do online. You have your earn credits to get more recipes. Don't get me wrong, it is a great app for cooking, but if I'm paying $2.99 for an app, I should have access to all the recipes that are available online for free. I am greatly disappointed. ### 5/5 — Total win! *2019-12-09, version 3.4.5* I absolutely love this app. There are endless recipes that are not only delicious and unique but incredibly budget friendly! I love the feature that allows you to change your serving size and adjusts the recipe accordingly. I love the cookbook tool, the cook alongs are amazing, I love the way the recipes are arranged. Seriously worth what you pay for! Thank you!! ### 5/5 — This app is great, with just a couple of bugs *2019-11-20, version 3.4.5* I love the diversity of recipes. I couldn’t find one recipe within the app that I found on the website. The other bug is that when I click the heart icon for a recipe it doesn’t register it unless I go back to the list and re-select the specific item and click the plus, back out of that, then the heart icon shows it’s selected. ### 5/5 — No-brainer, my favorite recipes *2019-11-02, version 3.4.5* I was in college when I discovered Beth and her recipes on Budget bytes and they helped me eat healthy on a budget. Even though I’m not in college now why would I go anywhere else when I can eat incredibly flavorful food for what Beth says I should spend. She is so creative and I am so excited for her success! Thanks Beth!!! ### 3/5 — Really should tell people *2019-10-18, version 3.4.5* I will probably like this once I can actually see the recipes. I paid for the app, not really expecting the world, but this might not be worth $3. I bought it and saw a recipe I thought I might enjoy. Tapped it and I cannot view it because I have to buy it with credits. And, of course, the easiest way to get credits is to buy them. Sigh... not so much budget minded anymore... hmpf ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Changes for the worse *2022-11-20, version 5.18.2* Used to be a place to find a handful of recipes with user comments and suggestions. Now it’s a place to use a poorly made user interface to try to struggle through making a meal plan out of recipes that are in a worse format and then buy that meal plan. Not at all what I originally bought, very disappointed in the change. Went from picking a new recipe every week or so to not even opening the app since it has nothing to offer me. ### 1/5 — Why pay twice? *2022-02-27, version 3.4.8* Why do you pay for the app and then pay for the recipes? Usually I come here looking for inspiration so to have to unlock the recipe by paying for it isn't very inspiring. I love the website and will probably just keep using that because you get more variety. If the app were more expensive and then all the recipes were immediately available, that would be better. I'd be happy to pay because the recipes are great and the author seems really genuine. ### 1/5 — What’s the point? *2022-01-26, version 3.4.8* I purchased this yesterday at the recommendation of an acquaintance and am really sorry. Clearly this is geared to people who can’t cook, first of all. My hope was to get some new ideas for interesting but inexpensive recipes—in a straightforward manner. Photo of finished product, recipe, method, and nutritional breakdown would be a good option. Then, of course, there was the issue of getting stuck within the recipe chosen and being unable to return to anything else. Maybe it’s an iPad thing, but all-in-all it wasn’t worth it for this level of aggravation. ### 1/5 — Technical Issues *2021-07-21, version 3.4.8* Was super excited about the app after using the website. After purchasing, it would not allow me to log in to the account that I already had (but I can log in fine on my laptop and browser). I even created a new password and still could not log in via the app. I decided to settle for making a new account via the “log in with Facebook” option on the app, which worked. However, there is NO OPTION to log in with facebook on the desktop version, so I am stuck with two different accounts! ### 1/5 — Broken search and irritating credits *2020-04-06, version 3.4.7* I love the website, but the app is a worse experience, not better. I can’t search for and find recipes I’ve already found online to save them to my cookbook. I have to pay to access recipes I have access to for free on the website. The credits system just makes me want to never use this app. A flat price up front? Fine. A subscription? Fine? Your users’ first experience with this app is paying for it, then being asked to pay more to cook any of these ‘budget’ recipes. I wish I could like the app associated with such a good website. ### 1/5 — Wish I didn’t purchase *2019-06-17, version 3.4.5* This app costs three dollars. Then you don’t even get access to all of the recipes on the app. You have to use credits to access recipes. You can earn credits by reviewing recipes and posting pictures. Or you can buy them. I don’t know if this is how recipe apps work these days, but I would’ve never bought this app had I known that I’d have to use credits to look at recipes. Total bait and switch. Lots of people are unhappy about this. You are much better off using the free site. Don’t be an idiot like me and waste three dollars. I WILL BE DELETING ISTANTANEOUSLY!!!! ### 1/5 — This is awful *2018-12-09, version 3.4.5* So I pay $2.99 for a completely dysfunctional app. Not only do I have to “sign-up” for an app I already paid for, I can’t access recipes without using “credits” to unlock them. How do you get credits you ask? You HAVE to interact with the app on a daily basis, leave reviews, etc. Then you can “unlock” the recipes you seemingly already paid to have. Ridiculous. Are here people trying to emulate EA games? I can tell you it won’t go well. Not to mention the login function didn’t work when I attempted to log in several times. When it finally did work, the app FROZE MY ENTIRE PHONE. I had to depress my power off button and even that wouldn’t work. Suddenly it would come out of the freeze and things would be wonky. Deleted the app and will be asking for a refund from iTunes as this is such a disingenuous way to do business with customers. At least make the app free with all the hoops you make your paid users jump through. I hope this app fails miserably in its current state. ### 1/5 — Disrespects fans of the blog *2018-03-09, version 3.4.2* As an app developer, it is a deeply negative experience to have found out that I need to pay for additional recipes after already paying $3. The app developers and the author were not honest and did not do enough user testing with the audience of the blog and have only alienated their core audience. The only way to rectify this is to make it free and ad supported, and have the option of purchasing a premium version with all extra recipes included. You are getting valuable feedback here - don't be arrogant and not listen to your fans here, or else your brand is gonna be sullied. ### 1/5 — Credit system is clunky *2017-12-28, version 3.4.0* I want to start off this review by saying that I LOVE the blog and I also understand that content creators need to get paid. BUT I purchased the app before the in app purchase/credit feature was added and I feel like I paid for a product thinking I was getting access to one thing and am now being asked to purchase more to get access to what I want. I would be less upset about this if it had been clear when I was purchasing the app that this was going to be the case, but it feels like a bait and switch to me. I do appreciate that you can earn free credits, but the avg recipe is 10 credits, so those free credits don’t really go that far. I would have been happy to pay far more for the app upfront (or a yearly or monthly subscription fee) with the guarantee I was getting access to everything as opposed to this new credit system, which is confusing, hard to use and doesn’t always work properly. Prior to this change, I enthusiastically recommended this app, but the new credits system is not an improvement. If the app developers are reading this, I would highly encourage you to consider a new pricing system - either charge more for the app up front or a monthly or yearly subscription fee. A monthly or yearly subscription fee would help cover some of the cost of new content and continued development of the app, but also allow you to abandon the very clunky credit system. **Developer response:** Hi there, thanks for the constructive feedback. You definitely don't need to spend any more money if you don't want to. We give away a ton of FREE credits for you when you download the app and get even more if you engage with the app. You can then easily unlock all the recipes for FREE! Let us know if you're encountering bugs by emailing us at budgetbytesapp@sidechef.com. We are a small startup with big plans, we also want to break norms by being inventive and Beth has been an amazing partner in our journey. This has been a great learning opportunity for us; we really value your feedback and please let us know if you have any ideas on how Budget Bytes can make your cooking life easier. ### 1/5 — Used to love it... *2017-12-27, version 3.4.0* Was a great site, loved it so much I PAID for the app only to be told I now have to earn (forget your 300 credit token gift for a terrible business model change to try and appease angry loyal PAID customers)credits to access new content. Uninstalling and won’t be back, whoever came up with this idea should flat out be fired. As for the developer’s response anyone who changes a paid for app to a pay for content model after the original purpose and doesn’t see the folly in that is undeserving of my money. Should’ve offered refunds to those who purchased prior to this ridiculous change. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — I can’t believe this is free *2023-02-26* I wish I would’ve known about this amazing recipe blog and its’ app a long time ago. It’s everything you’d want in a meal planning app: delicious recipes that are budget-friendly, a quick and easy meal planner that is simple to use, and not to mention that all of the ingredients can be added to your Walmart cart (and are editable) and can be checked out so quickly. Meal planning has always taken me so long and now it takes hardly any time at all. So grateful for the ability to do this through Budget Bites! ### 5/5 — I couldn’t be happier *2023-02-12, version 5.18.2* This app is incredible. For someone who loved meal prepped services- this is an affordable and fun way to plan meals and makes picking up or getting the ingredients delivered. I cannot believe I have not found it earlier. I recommend everyone has this on their phone to stay organized and on top of food prep for you and your family. THANK YOU! ### 5/5 — BudgetBytes is the Bomb! *2023-01-31, version 5.18.2* I started using some of these recipes online a few years back when I was in college and loved them. Now as a new mom, using this app with the recipes I love and the features that streamline my meal planning all in one place has been such a life saver! The grocery list builder is awesome. I especially love the feature that allows you to deselect any ingredients you might already have at home and that it combines ingredients that might be used in multiple recipes on your list. The weekly meal planner is great too! We have a lot of fun planning out our week and understanding how to use all of the features was a snap! Do your family and your wallet a favor and get this app! **Developer response:** Hi! Thanks for the love! We are beyond happy that we get to help you through our app and provide a positive effect with your daily life. We aspire to continue doing this for as long as we can! If you have any questions or concern, please feel free to send us an email at budgetbytesapp@sidechef.com. Have a great day ahead! ### 5/5 — My go-to *2023-01-17, version 5.18.2* I got into budget bytes right after I graduated college to make affordable meals that were both nutritious and delicious. At that point I was just enjoying the blog but once the app was available I had to get it! Such a reliable and beautiful app for planing my weekly meals 🙌 ### 5/5 — My go-to *2023-01-10, version 5.18.2* I’ve been using this app for nearly 3 years now. These recipes are very easy & after awhile you end up having mostly everything you’ll need for them. This app makes it easy to organize your week, shopping list & fill your cookbook. My categories consist of Soup, Sides & Sauces, Chicken, Pastas, Sausage, Ground Turkey/Beef, & Desserts! Some of these recipes can be rather heavy in calories, but it’s easy to make substitutions & customization is available for diet restrictions and/or allergies. **Developer response:** Hi there! Appreciate you giving us this amazing 5-star review. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to us at budgetbytesapp@sidechef.com. Now, don't be shy and feel free to share us with your family and friends! Have a great day ahead! ### 5/5 — Budget is right *2022-12-11, version 5.18.2* I’ve only been using for a few months but the recipes I’ve come across are amazing on here and have become norms in the household and on top of that it really has helped me budget out meals and plan the week so much better than I was before. Was recommended to me by a friend and I recommend to everyone else who needs a single source for both recipes, list making, and meal planning. Plus they add items to your online shopping carts too! **Developer response:** Thanks for love! We are glad to be of help! Feel free to reach out at budgetbytesapp@sidechef.com if you have questions or concerns. Have a great day ahead! ### 5/5 — Awesome support, great recipes *2022-08-16, version 5.17.0* Initially I was bummed to download this app and see there was no nutritional info a few months back. I messaged the team to see what was up, because I love the budget bytes site and recipes. They were already on top of adding it to the site and said it should be on there by September. Currently in mid august it’s already up!! I’ve been using the site for years to plan and meal prep and this app makes it even easier. 10/10 recommend ### 5/5 — One of the best cooking apps I use *2022-08-13, version 5.17.0* I discovered Budget Bytes a few years ago and have used it regularly ever since. In all that time, I don’t think I’ve run into any bad recipes. It’s great that it’s so reliable because I like to make different things all the time, but I have also found favorite recipes that I’ve made over and over. So many of the recipes are healthy, and not very labor-intensive. It kind of brings back your faith in cooking at home, even after a busy day - they show you that something delicious doesn’t have to involve a ton of steps, ingredients, or advance preparation - including desserts! They also just added some great features, like being able to slide recipes right into a meal plan for the week. As a longtime user of the app, I really appreciate the tune-up! I love to cook and use many apps. I promise you that Budget Bytes will be one of your best choices. It honestly never lets me down. **Developer response:** Thanks for the love! Feel free to share us with your family and friends! If you have questions or concerns, please email us at budgetbytesapp@sidechef.com. Have a great day! ### 5/5 — Wonderful app *2021-12-28, version 3.4.8* This app has been a game changer for me. I found it in January 2021 and since then have been cooking delicious, easy, nutritious, and budget friendly meals at home. My household is very happy and we have loved every recipe so far. We have also lost weight due to having tasty meal options at home. Love this app and can’t thank the creators enough. ### 5/5 — Gorgeous app with great features *2020-09-21, version 3.4.8* Wow! This app is set up so beautifully, it’s very pleasing to browse and save recipes. I just made my first recipe last night and I was so impressed by the cook along recipe feature! Click start cooking and the app reads the directions step by step for you and even has integrated timers!!! So perfect. I was initially disappointed that the app and the website don’t talk to each other, so I needed to create another profile and all of my favorite recipes were not ported over to the app. Also, the website has a wonderful grocery list function that the app does not have. I was assuming the app would replace my need to go in the website but I will be using both. The website to plan my meals and the app to view the recipe and cook them. I hope the development team could consider adding these features eventually and it would be truly perfect. Either way I love budget bytes and I’m so glad I finally purchased the app! Highly recommend. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*