# CookShelf: Search Cookbooks — user reviews > 152 indexed App Store user reviews of CookShelf by CookShelf Inc, rated 4.60/5 from 584 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cookshelf-search-cookbooks/id6743496454/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cookshelf-search-cookbooks/id6743496454.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 488 · 4★ 36 · 3★ 25 · 2★ 11 · 1★ 24 ## What do users think of CookShelf? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Instant gratification - 👍 Fav kitchen companion - 👍 Game changer - 👍 Worth the wait! - 👍 Amazing! - 👍 Great kitchen tool - 👍 Loved the Website and App is Great! - 👍 Eat my produce! - 👍 My favorite new app - 👍 My Go-To Kitchen App! - 👍 Great app! **Most requested features** - Eliminate multiple entries of the same book in the database ## Newest reviews (12 of 152) ### 2/5 — Monthly fee *2026-07-30* A one time fee would be easier to manage. Paying a subscription for copyrighted material I already own? The convenience does not outweigh the price. Offer a “ lifetime” one payment option. **Developer response:** We understand the frustration with subscriptions, but that is the business model which works for us. (You're also welcome to use the app for free with up to 5 cookbooks.) ### 2/5 — Too expensive *2026-07-22, version 1.80.0* I like this app but $40/year is a bit too much. I’d pay if it was half that much per year. ### 3/5 — Only 5 Books *2026-07-21, version 1.78.0* Seems like a good app but only 5 books allowed on your shelf for free. More books? Have to subscribe. Per month or year. Choose your favorites carefully! ### 2/5 — I don’t get it! *2026-07-17, version 1.78.0* I can go right to my cookbooks to find the info I need. It’s all fine and dandy but the app doesn’t show amount of the ingredients or the recipes, so what’s the purpose? I still have to open the cookbook to see how much of everything I need and how to make the recipe. I’ll be getting the app that allows you to scan the barcodes and then copies the “whole” book to the app. Maybe the developer can redevelop this app to include amounts and how to instructions!?! ### 5/5 — love this *2026-07-17, version 1.78.0* I’m using all my cookbooks with what is in season and what I have on hand. ### 2/5 — Good app, not there yet *2026-07-16, version 1.78.0* Good idea for an app. A handful of my cookbooks don’t have page numbers indexed. To update, I have to report each individual and suggest the correct one. I would hope that for the yearly price, either all indexing complete, or it was treated as a crowd sourced app with a price that reflects this. ### 5/5 — This app is amazing! *2026-07-10, version 1.74.0* I absolutely LOVE this app. I have so many cook books and am always trying to remember which book was the book I was looking at when I found that recipe that I wanted to try. Sometimes I like to compare different versions of a recipe in different cookbooks so it nice to quickly find two books that both have a recipe for let’s say chili. This so simple and just AMAZING. I love it. ### 2/5 — Not worth it *2026-07-09* This app came highly recommended by a friend so I gave it a chance. I should have done better research. It’s basically just a glorified search of (some of) your cookbooks. Not all of mine were indexed. I know how to use a table of contents, so I don’t need this app. I incorrectly assumed my phone would replace my cookbooks, and that I could view recipes on my phone. I don’t want both my phone and a cookbook, it’s just an extra unneeded step. Unless you have a ton of similar cookbooks, save your money and just scan your the indexes and tables of contents in your books with your eyes instead of your phone. **Developer response:** We totally get that our product offering won't work for everyone. We aim to reach cookbook lovers who'd like a quick and easy way to cook more from their books. We do not aim to replace cookbooks. ### 5/5 — Best tool ever for cooks *2026-07-06* My cooking life changed when I started using this app. I have about 250 cookbooks. I love them on my shelf, love the kindle versions, love everything about them. Except when I cant remember which one had that recipe that I now can find. Has not happened since I started using this app. And I’ve rediscovered some books that I forgot all about. It’s perfect for ensuring I get the best use out of all my cookbooks, as well as keep track of what I’ve cooked, my favorites and notes. ### 5/5 — Sold! *2026-07-03, version 1.74.0* I’ve been looking for an app that does exactly this! I have more than 100 cookbooks, and it has always been so time-consuming to flip through them trying to find the perfect recipe. This app is a total game changer. It makes it so easy to search across all of my cookbooks and quickly find exactly what I’m looking for. I highly recommend it to anyone with a large cookbook collection! ### 4/5 — Needs more feature for the price tag. *2026-07-03, version 1.74.0* This is a pretty cool app. It is a little pricy at $40 a year. But what is also pricy is all my unused cookbooks. The app could use more special diet filters. Or maybe a feature that lets you filter out recipes with ingredients your family is allergic too. How do I request a cookbook be indexed if I get a “do not recognize the bar code” message? ### 3/5 — Great When Indexed *2026-07-01, version 1.72.0* Fully 90% of my cookbooks weren’t “indexed” yet, so I’m waiting for them to. But what is in their system is very useful. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Some apps should not be subscription based — Too greedy *2026-08-25* It’s a good concept, I’m in the middle of cataloging my own cook books on Notion and it’s such a tedious process. I would happily purchase this app for a $5-10 one time fee but no way a monthly subscription. You could have had my money but got too greedy. ### 1/5 — Seemed like a great idea *2026-08-21* After scanning all my books thinking it might almost be worth the (quite pricey) subscription, I did a general ingredient search ‘lamb’. I thought the search results seemed a bit sparse considering how many books I have and realised it didn’t even find them all. Not even close. Searched for something else that I know is in a few books and it returned ‘0 results’. Kind of a waste of time😔 Even the results returned only give required ingredients and not actual amounts of so not very helpful if I was using it whilst out to buy what I’d need. ### 1/5 — Free version not working *2026-08-11* I downloaded it to test if buying a subscription is worth it. It seemed fine but at some point I started getting pop ups every time I wanted to use any of my recipes saying that I need to pay - I have not added more books than the free version allows and it just happened out of nowhere locking me out of the app :( can’t do anything without it showing up and while trying to turn it off it just goes back to main page. **Developer response:** Hi there, we apologize for this experience, that's certainly not what we intend. We'd love to help out further - please feel free to reach out to help@cookshelf.app so we can look up your account and address this bad experience. ### 1/5 — Only helpful if you’re interested in cataloging your recipe names. *2026-07-29, version 1.81.0* Only provides the ingredients with no amounts listed. You still have to keep the book and utilize it for the actual recipe. I thought this kept all recipes in one location. Waste of money IMO. ### 1/5 — Have to pay for it to have any value *2026-07-26, version 1.81.0* Tells you you can scan as many of your cookbooks in a row as you want, then after you scan 5, says you have to pay either &5/month or $40/year. This is going to be a new record for me. Haven’t had it downloaded for 5 minutes yet and I’m already going to delete it. One time cost is one thing, this isn’t worth a subscription. I’d pay a one time $5, but not monthly. ### 1/5 — Rip off *2026-07-18, version 1.78.0* Only when you’ve gone through set up do they tell you the app has an imposed tiny limit making it useless, or you have to pay an extortionate amount. Don’t bother. ### 1/5 — Subscription/Rental *2026-07-06* I absolutely refuse to rent software, especially at $50/year. They lost me during the sign up process when they asked which rental plan I wanted. Apple really needs to start saying which apps are purchase and which are subscription based. Could be a cool app otherwise. The FOK recipe app was $2 for a lifetime (purchase!) and they continuously add new recipes and allow you to search by ingredients. **Developer response:** We understand the frustration with subscriptions, but that is the business model which works for us. (You're also welcome to use the app for free with up to 5 cookbooks.) ### 1/5 — It’s a database. Not a functional cooking/shopping tool. *2026-07-03, version 1.74.0* This app basically gives you a searchable database of your cookbooks. Which is very cool. However there are missing key features that would make this more than a database. Example: ingredient lists have no quantities. Yes. You can make a grocery list. But a grocery list with no quantities is useless. Do you need one sweet potato? Or 4? It also does not import any cooking instructions. So you still have to go back to your cookbook to make a proper grocery list and to know how to make the recipe. If they could combine these features - you’d have something that rivals the Paprika app ### 1/5 — Useless *2026-06-29, version 1.72.0* I scanned in six of my Modern cookbooks and not a single one of them is “indexed” So pretty useless to me ### 1/5 — Doesn’t show entire recipe *2026-06-10, version 1.63.0* This should be a free app- it doesn’t even show the entire recipe! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Love love love! *2026-08-20* This app has me even more excited to use my cookbook library then ever before! With so many recipes popping up that I may have forgotten about its pure inspiration every time I open up the app! ### 5/5 — Love my Cookbooks Again!! *2026-08-18* I have over 70 cookbooks. And if I want to do something with a boneless pork chop, it would take forever to go thru them all. Easier to just surf the web and find something. Now I can put that boneless pork chop in the search bar and they will tell me what recipes, what book, what page number to find what I want. My cookbooks are again being used as I had done years before the internet was just a wee little thing, when we only had cookbooks and recipe cards to go to! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for sharing! Reconnecting people with their cookbooks is exactly what our goal is ♥️ ### 5/5 — A must have for cookbook lovers *2026-08-15* I literally never leave app reviews, but this is one app that I always sing the praises of! One of the biggest headaches of having so many cookbooks is when you have to sprawl them all out on your dining room table and do your meal planning for the week and it just feels so overwhelming, but being able to easily find and get inspired by the cookbooks I already have on my shelf- I love it! And then take it even further and be able to do a meal plan in the app and then a grocery list as well?! This is just amazing. Love love love this! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for your review, we appreciate the kind words! ### 5/5 — Go-To App *2026-08-12, version 1.89.0* I love everything about this app. Game changer for meal and grocery planning. ### 5/5 — First recipe app I’ve found that’s worth it *2026-08-09, version 1.83.1* I debated about the value of a membership because so many apps (including all the recipe ones I’ve trialed previously) end up being a waste of time and money. Cookshelf’s user experience and functionality is exceptional. Kudos to the designer on this one. ### 5/5 — Favourite App *2026-08-06* As someone who owns over 400 cookbooks, CookShelf has been an absolute lifesaver! I’ve accidentally bought duplicate cookbooks in the past, but now I can quickly check if I already own one before I buy it. I also love how easy it is to search for recipes by ingredient or recipe name, making it so much easier to decide what’s for dinner. The magazine indexing is fantastic too, and I really appreciate the email reminders whenever another one of my books has been indexed. If you’re a cookbook collector, I highly recommend this app! ### 5/5 — Just what I needed! *2026-08-05* I absolutely love this app. I have over 50 cookbooks and would so rarely use them. Having to look through every cookbook to find something I wanted for dinner was just not feasible. Now I can go into the app, type what I’m looking for (i.e., ground beef, chicken, lasagna), and it will give me every recipe in ALL of my books that fits the search criteria. Then, when I decide what recipe I want to make, it tells me the book, page number, and ingredients. I am finally using all my cookbooks on a regular basis and it’s great! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for sharing! Reconnecting people with their cookbooks is exactly what our goal is ♥️ ### 5/5 — Great app that lets me use My cookbooks. *2026-08-03, version 1.83.1* I love this app! I’ve been using NYTIMES for a while but neglecting my own collection of excellent cookbooks! This makes it so easy to search for recipes I already have! Really convenient to shop for ingredients and then log when I’ve made them and keep notes for reference too. Super shocking that you can put in an ingredient or two and recipes will pop up. So fun! ### 5/5 — Fricking game changer! *2026-07-19* I have so many cookbooks and yes, I know where some of my favorite recipes are but a lot I do not. I would say out of 200 cookbooks. The app had 85% maybe 90% of them indexed. I requested indexing with all the rest of them, we’ll see if it happens. But now I just add a search for an ingredient and then all of the recipes from all of my books come up and I get to choose. It is so easy now. I have Kindle cookbook and physical cookbook and I was able to find most of them and add them to my shelf. I love this app so so much my other favorite app is ReciMe! The only downside is, I guess I have no excuse to not to cook at home.❤️ ### 5/5 — Obsessed with this app *2026-07-19* I am an avid cookbook collector and curious home cook. I have over 75 cookbooks, and this app has transformed the way I interact with my beloved books. If you have ever been over-eager at the farmers market, but then get home and wonder, “ok, what can I make with this __”, all you have to do is type the item in the search and the app offers all the recipes in your books, what page they are on and ingredients needed. If you want to make a frittata, you can search for all the recipes to choose from in your library. You can bookmark recipes, read reviews, and see photos from other users. I am now reaching for my books more often, discovering new recipes, and truly diving into my book collection (vs being overwhelmed or forgetting where to find recipes). It’s easy to add books by scanning the bar codes. Such a great app! **Developer response:** Glad to hear you're finding all the features of the app so useful, and thanks for your review! More cool features coming soon, and we hope you'll love them too! --- *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 2026-08-28.*