# GroceryZen — user reviews > 110 indexed App Store user reviews of GroceryZen by gbcb Software, LLP, rated 4.30/5 from 10 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groceryzen/id288654588/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groceryzen/id288654588.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 8 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 1 ## What do users think of GroceryZen? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Simple and intuitive interface - ✨ Elegant design with minimal clutter - 🚀 Fast and efficient to use - 📋 Customizable shopping lists by aisle - 🍳 Powerful recipe feature with ingredient management - 📧 Easy sharing via email - 🎯 One-tap item selection from pre-built database - ✏️ Highly editable and adaptable to user needs - ⚡ Responsive and stable performance - 🛒 Organized by store layout for efficient shopping **Cons** - 🐛 No sync between devices - 🐛 Lacks cloud backup functionality - ⚠️ Not updated for recent iOS versions - ❌ Unavailable on iPhone (iPad only) - 🔧 Limited recipe functionality without quantities - 📱 Poor compatibility with latest iOS updates - 🚫 No undo feature for accidental deletions - 📊 Limited built-in recipes (only 3) - 🔍 Difficult to search through large recipe lists - ⚙️ Cumbersome quantity adjustment process **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes after iOS updates - Recipes broken on iOS 18 beta - Deleting items removes them from master list and recipes - Quantity changes sometimes erase aisle information - Accidental item deletion with no recovery option - Scrolling issues when editing items - Inconsistent quantity increment behavior - Recipe ingredients not displaying fully - Data loss during app updates - Overly sensitive item selection causing accidental checks - Incompatibility with iOS 14.2 and later versions **Most requested features** - Cloud sync and backup functionality - Cross-device synchronization - Web-based companion for recipe management - Quantity fields in recipes - Recipe categorization/organization - Price tracking and budget calculator - Undo functionality for deleted items - Multiple shopping lists - Recipe import from online sources - Ability to combine ingredients with different units - Search function within recipes - Menu planner integration - Store-specific aisle ordering - Cooking instructions in recipes - Barcode scanning - Notes/tags for individual items - SMS list sharing - Coupon tracking integration - Recipe photos and cooking steps - Alphabetization of aisles ## Newest reviews (17 of 110) ### 5/5 — The best *2020-04-16, version 4.0* So simple, easy to make your own recipes and lists. And easy to send list to hubby! ### 3/5 — Grocery Zen *2016-11-06, version 3.0* Please update your app or I'll have to delete it. iPhone has advised that the current edition will slow down my phone! I've loved using this app up until now. ### 4/5 — Semplice e funzionale *2014-06-24, version 3.0* Ottima app, consente di aggiungere/eliminare prodotti e categorie. Grafica semplice, adatta alla funzionalità dell'app. Consigliata. ### 5/5 — Love it! *2014-05-26, version 3.0* I have used and depended on this app for years. It's just right. I can check off items I need plus add ones not on the list or customize with brand names like the type of bread. For some of my regular recipes I have added the ingredients with the quantities and a photo. Then when I'm going to make that, I just choose that recipe and it also was up on my shopping list. You can then take off any ingredients you already have. I've also created a couple of specialty stores that I go to for special ingredients. I open GroceryZen when I'm in the store and check things off is it going to my basket. I highly recommend this app. In this day of increasingly complex apps, this one is simple and elegant. ### 3/5 — Love it but... *2013-11-10, version 3.0* Great app this, one of my most used. Would love to give it 5 stars but the developers need to make it sync between devices. I've so many recipes saved otherwise I'd have switched to one of the apps which do by now... ### 3/5 — Simple *2013-09-21, version 3.0* I love this app, but the iOS 7 version is less visually efficient. Please put some grey in the aisle headings to separate them from the items listed!!! The white really confuses my eyes and frustrates me. I can't fast scan items in aisles. It looks like one long list. I understand you wanted to be cohesive with iOS 7, but it's not functional. Overall, it meets my needs in a way that a paper list can't. My phone is always with me so I can always add items when I have a random thought about something I want to buy. I live how editable the item list is. I created a Trader Joe aisle so I have a TJ shopping list as well as a grocery store list. I love that it sorts my shopping list by aisle! My trip through the store was so efficient before this white design change. ### 5/5 — Time saver! *2013-04-07, version 2.0* One of my favorite apps! Saves time and I save my recipes so it helps me pick out what I'm going to make for the week! No more forgetting an ingredient ### 4/5 — I use this every shopping trip! *2012-10-18, version 1.8* This app is awesome for so many reasons! I like selecting the items as opposed to typing each of them out. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can email the list. I email it to my husband from time to time and all he has to do is import it. AMAZING!! I never grocery shop without it! I would rank 5 full stars if they would make an iPad version. Right now I run the iPhone version which is adequate, but you know... Also, cloud functionality would be awesome for my lists so I don't have to email them to myself if I make a list on my iPad and just take my phone grocery shipping. Great product! ### 4/5 — Still the best *2012-06-02, version 1.8* I keep coming back to this app. It is still the only grocery/recipe app that runs off of a database of ingredients, which makes adding your own recipes very quick and easy. Most other apps just give you a text box to write the ingredients in. That is tedious. I hope the developers will resume working on this app. Features I'd like to see: High res graphics Item combination in grocery list: i.e. one recipe calls for 2 onions, another for 1, the grocery list says "3 onions". Cloud syncing for backups. I lost all of my recipes once with this app. Still debating entering them all in again. ### 5/5 — Awesome! *2012-05-26, version 1.8* My husband and I have been using this app for years now. Also have a few friends that swear by it too! I work from home, my husband doesn't. He is the grocery shopper. He compiles a list on his iphone, I check to see what we have in the house & compile one on my iPhone, the send it to him and they merge- a thing of beauty! We also use the recipe area for recipes we make frequently by adding them in manually. ### 4/5 — 4 Could be a 5 *2012-04-29, version 1.8* I agree with other reviewers. Need to be able to alphabetized isles. I am like most other I shop in the same sequence. So if I could put the isles in my stores order, that would be great. I find myself missing isles because it was so far down the list. I use this ap all the time. Looking forward to an update! ### 3/5 — Very useful, but... *2011-12-02, version 1.8* Alphabetize please!!!! Like others, I use the "recipes" as sub-lists and add aisles for different stores. I add to it throughout the week and use it every time I shop. It's a 3.5 stars. Alphabetization would make it a 5. ### 4/5 — Wann gibt es ein update? *2011-10-15, version 1.8* Ich liebe diese APP. Ich würde mir wünschen Listen im Netz zu erstellen und in GroceryZen zu importieren oder vom iPad per adHoc wlan auf das iPhone? Sonst sehr zufrieden. Die konkurrenz prahlt mit bunten Icons; ich will einfach nur einkaufen. ### 3/5 — Best Grocery App *2011-05-06, version 1.8* I've tried about every grocery app and this one works best for me but it's still pretty terrible. Grocery apps seem so simple and there are so many why are they all so weak? I like that you can create your own master list of items easily so you don't have hundreds of things in the main list you'd never ever buy. Searching for items is great. The killer feature is the "recipe" feature but this is poorly named. It's really sub-lists. So you can have a recipe of things you normally buy every week and you can easily go through that list and add what you are out of. Or quickly add all the ingredients of a dish you're going to make. The biggest problem is the incredibly, no, amazingly, awful way it handles quantities. You can advance the quantity forward by tapping the quantity of an item. But if your default is 3 then it advances by 3s (one tap = 6), if your default is 1 1/2 pounds one tap gets you to 3 pounds. Any other quantity change (including removing from your shopping list) requires going to an edit screen and selecting quantity and then saving. And then the app often erases the aisle info for that item. Developer responded quickly to say I was wrong about this bug. When I gave them step-by-step instructions that always recreate it they didn't respond. I don't know if it's been updated in months. If so the changes were minute. Basically it's useful but obnoxious but still the best in a surprisingly weak class of apps. ### 4/5 — Best app for the way I shop *2011-03-21, version 1.8* I love the ability to select a recipe & add to list. I use this feature as I use weekly menus containing recipes or when I am at the store and need ideas, or when I find an ingredient on sale and want to use it for one of my recipes. I also use recipes to list items I buy at specific stores (i.e. Health food store, etc.) and I have a recipe "Every" for basics to get every shopping trip. My couponing method is to separate coupons by month, so I have month "recipes" with ingredients that I have coupons for that expire that month. Here's the catch, I would like to see a program upgrade that flags the ingredients that I have coupons for so that when those ingredients are added from a meal recipe or store recipe, I will be able to see I have a coupon and should pull it from my file. Right now I add a dollar sign to the name of the ingredient as my flag, but it can disappear with long ingredient names. I also will second the request for some way to handle long lists of recipes. Perhaps the ability to search that narrows the field with each letter entered? ### 4/5 — Idea for an upgrrade *2010-12-30, version 1.8* Love this app and use it all the time. I cut and paste recipes into all the time and use it for every trip to the grocery store. One thing that would make it even better though, is if I could catagorize my recipes: main dishes, holidays, side dishes, etc. I now have so many recipes, it takes awhile to sort throught them all. :) Thanks for a great app though! ### 4/5 — The only shopping app with Zen *2010-11-25, version 1.7* I have compared a lot of the shopping apps in the App Store and this is by far the best - at least for my needs. Yes, there are apps out there with more features but a lot of them suffer from feature bloat. It might make sense to add prices and aisles and coupons and stores - but honestly, when you are in the store shopping for groceries you don't really have the time for all that stuff. I want to get things done in a fast, easy and efficient way and this app is the best. It's also the only one that passed the SOT (Significant Other Test). When you are shopping with your spouse (who might not be as technically inclined as you are) you gotta be quick on your feet. Add items, lose items, change items - and you better do it quickly. This app might not look the part but it is well thought out and it really shines in the store. And that's what matters. Plus: the recipe function rocks! There are three things though that prevent me from giving it five stars. I am not sure if it is actively developed - that's a big downside in my book. And it's not that great outside the store. I'd love to fine-tune my list of items at home before my next shopping trip. In my study I do have the time to really think about my items and group them accordingly. A web-based client to re-arrange and edit my items and recipes would be awesome. Of course you would need some sort of syncing solution for that - but this ties in nicely with my other caveat: emailing my lists is nice - but instant syncing would be so much better. There are other apps that do this. I'd love to sync my current list, my general list of items AND their categories with a web-based version AND with my significant other. That way we could shop in the same store and spread out and see what the other already got. Or I could go shopping and my wife could check her iPhone at home and add missing items that she just thought of. The app - as it is - is great. If you ask me, it's the best. But syncing would make it really awesome. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — NO UPDATE! *2017-03-19, version 3.0* Love the app but there have been no updates for years! What's up guys?????? ### 1/5 — No no no *2011-02-06, version 1.8* 1. There is no undo- so if you press an item on your list it disappears forever. What if you click on something accidently- and you are not sure what you clicked and an important item disappears forever? You would never even know it..... 2. It doesn't display the whole recipe line by line, if one ingredient is more characters than the line you cannot read the whole thing!! 3. It is hard to read recipes for said reason. This was a waste of time to set up, and of money to buy! ### 1/5 — Useless. A waste of time. *2010-02-10, version 0* This app tries but fails to deliver the goods. Comes with only 3 recipes. Thousands of default items are missing. Building a recipe permanently stores "don't have" items into memory causing the shopping basket to fill up with hundreds of mixed-recipe items. There is no "clear all" from the shopping list. Gave up after struggling with 3 recipes. Discovered it was useless. ### 1/5 — Gute Idee, aber.., *2009-07-12, version 0* lösche ich einen Artikel von der Einkaufsliste (der von einem Rezept stammt) dann wird er auch aus dem Rezept entfernt. So werden die angelegten Rezepte "zerstört". Umständlich ist auch die Neuanlage. Da gibt es viel besseres. ### 1/5 — Almost works.... *2009-07-03, version 0* Input some recipes into the proram: added the recipe items to the shopping list within the program; deleted items from the shopping list (because we had those items in the pantry) and in the process deleted the items from both the master item list and the recipe list. Did anyone actually try to use this app before selling it? How do I get a refund? ### 1/5 — Another list app with little use *2009-03-27, version 0* Until this app gets more functionality than notes or can import recipes (it comes with 3) save your money. I'd be more forgiving if this had an awesome feature such as being able to store what items you have at home and compare that to a recipe and tell you what to shop for, but it doesn't. It takes the entire list for a recipe. It also has an the odd feature that tells you when you need a vacation. If you have to use the item location to remember that milk is in dairy it's personal day time. ### 1/5 — Ottimo *2009-03-13, version 0* Modo pratico, completo e funzionale per organizzare la spesa e I propri acquisti ### 1/5 — impossible to use, skip this one *2008-11-29* For $5, I expected much, much more. A monkey must've designed this program, it's hard to use. 1) No way to have multiple lists. 2) Trying to change the quantity sometimes resulted in taking the item off my list, sometimes it jumped to another part of the list cause of the index on the right side of the list. Rarely did it actually change the quantity. 3) Picking items to put on your list is not intuitive. 4) No way to add a note to an item. 5) The Share tab is just a big white screen with an Email button on it, all it does is a plain text email. Needs a way to sync lists between phones. 6) Checking items off your list takes 2 seconds, makes it really hard to check off items quickly. GroceryZen is not worth $5, I would pass on it until they add more features and drop the price quite a bit. ### 2/5 — Doesn’t work after the update *2020-11-28, version 4.0* I love this app and have so many lists. It’s disappointing that is no longer works after the update. ### 2/5 — Disappointed, is this really it? *2010-11-20, version 0* I am only seeing three photos of recipes. Only bought for a pairing with food52, any suggestions on why this app seems so empty? ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Nice and simple. *2026-03-10, version 4.0* I’ve been using this app for years. It is just so nice and simple. I like how you can edit the list to suit your needs. ### 5/5 — Brilliant app *2025-10-30, version 4.0* I have tried dozens of grocery list apps, and no other comes close to the elegance and simplicity of this - everything else is super busy and cluttered with extraneous junk or has a poorly designed or just goofy interface. This one works flawlessly with minimal effort and is a pleasure to use. ### 5/5 — Despair *2024-06-25, version 4.0* I love this app- ease of use, adaptability, efficiency. The other shopping apps that I have downloaded to replace Grocery Zen on my iPhone are not user friendly. Zen still pops up on my iPad but not my iPhone. Please fix this. ### 5/5 — Great app *2024-06-13, version 4.0* This has been my goto app for grocery and recipes for many years. Simple, efficient, fast - very well done app. Tried it on 18beta today. The recipes are broken but the rest still works. ### 5/5 — Want it back *2024-04-24* This is the best grocery shopping app ever. What happened to it for iPhone use. Most distressing I can’t use it on my iPhone. ### 5/5 — Brilliant app *2024-02-01* I have tried dozens of grocery list apps, and no other comes close to the elegance and simplicity of this - everything else is super busy and cluttered with extraneous junk or has a poorly designed or just goofy interface. This one works flawlessly with minimal effort and is a pleasure to use. ### 5/5 — The BEST *2023-01-31, version 4.0* What happened to this app on iPhone????!!! It is the best grocery app I’ve found and I must say I am distraught that I can’t find it for phone use since I don’t carry my iPad to the store. PLEASE have it reinstalled on the iPhone…I have a very specific list that was created for my own use. Once again it is the most easily used, not complicated and can be personalized. ### 5/5 — Einfach nur super! *2021-11-02, version 4.0* Ich liebe diese aufgeräumte App die mir durch meine Rezepteliste sowohl die Auswahl der Mahlzeiten als auch die dazu fehlenden Zutaten sooo einfach macht! Noch dazu ist der Einkaufszettel dann wunderbar in Bereiche aufgeteilt und man hat ruck-zuck alles beisammen😊 ### 5/5 — Love this app! *2020-11-24, version 4.0* I absolutely love this app but some reason it’s not working with the latest iOS 14.2 update. I’m really hoping the the developer will keep this app up to date so I can continue to you use it! I customize everything & have a lot of recipes which I would hate to lose. I’m crossing my fingers this would be fixed!! ### 5/5 — Great app - please update!! *2020-11-13, version 4.0* Please update! I love this app and now I can’t use it!! --- *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 2026-09-09.*