# Mela - Recipe Manager — user reviews > 403 indexed App Store user reviews of Mela by Silvio Rizzi, rated 4.70/5 from 852 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mela-recipe-manager/id1548466041/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mela-recipe-manager/id1548466041.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 713 · 4★ 59 · 3★ 35 · 2★ 16 · 1★ 29 ## What do users think of Mela? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🌟 Beautiful and intuitive design - 🚀 Seamless recipe importing from websites - 👍 Excellent organization and categorization - 💡 Convenient meal planning and grocery list features - 🔒 No data collection or subscription required - 🎨 Elegant and customizable interface **Cons** - 🐛 Occasional sync issues across devices - 🔍 Difficulty navigating to search bar - 📋 Limited options for recipe scaling and measurements - 🛒 Grocery list could be more organized by aisle or category **Commonly reported bugs** - Recipes sometimes disappear from calendar and widgets - PDF import not working for some users - Typing becomes slow and unresponsive with large recipe collections **Most requested features** - Add ability to rate and review recipes - Implement nested categories and tags - Improve recipe scanning and OCR accuracy - Add option to assign recipes to specific users or family members - Integrate with external grocery delivery services ## Newest reviews (17 of 403) ### 4/5 — Great app *2026-06-27, version 2.6.2* The only thing missing is a proper, easily accessible search function which. ### 4/5 — favorite recipe app, but…. *2026-06-22, version 2.6.2* i love this app but i do really wish it was still being updated because there are several features i would really love to have. ### 3/5 — One small big problem! *2026-06-22, version 2.6.2* Im enjoying the app , its really great! But there is a big problem, when I’m typing a recipe in it when the recipe becomes a little too long, it lags like crazy, it becomes slow and my phone becomes to get hoy, please fix this! And the app will become perfect. ### 4/5 — Love this app SO much... *2026-06-21, version 2.6.2* I use Mela every sine day, both to collect new recipes and for meal planning and cooking. And the RSS feature is genius! My one request is for a more robust scraping capability on sites like Instagram. I follow numerous cooking profiles and collect recipes from them. Mela has gotten a lot better at capturing such recipes but there is still probably about a third of what I want to save that I end up saving with a competitor app that is much more capable at this. Mela is far superior and much more enjoyable to use, and I would love to discard the other app and keep all my digital recipes in Mela. ### 4/5 — Almost perfect *2026-05-26, version 2.6.2* Love it, but it will be nice to have more customization. Like theme color, custom app icons, Liquid Glass. ### 5/5 — Best App Ever *2026-05-25, version 2.6.2* I never write reviews, but this app is outstanding. I use it every day. I love it because I can catalog and save the recipes and use it to meal plan. I use all the time. Using pictures, it’s easy to find what I’m looking for. It’s affordable and NOT a fricken subscription. I cannot recommend it enough. ### 5/5 — Simple and elegant *2026-05-25, version 2.6.2* It is a great app with no subscription ### 2/5 — Abandoned? *2026-05-20, version 2.6.2* Great app at the time but no update in a year. What happened? ### 4/5 — Worthwhile Recipe App *2026-05-17, version 2.6.2* Update: 05/16/2026 I’ve gotten pretty decent in managing my files; however, Editing the categories to remove accidental category made or edit an existing one I haven’t been able to do. If I correct the category in error, it just makes a new category entry. I like things neat and fairly easy; I don’t want my mistakes still available to choose from the list. I just got the app today and immediately began importing my recipes. The scan option works pretty decent, love the import option from websites, and love being able to assign categories. The only complaint I have so far is I haven’t been able to import any of my pdf file recipes. The message I get when trying says “no recipe found”. But for the cost, it’s still worth having especially since when I travel to help care for my Mom I can take my favorite recipes along that I may cook without all the hassle. Wish I understood why the pdf import function doesn’t work with either my Google drive or Dropbox, which is where I have almost all my electronic recipes currently stored. ### 5/5 — Incredible little app *2026-05-11, version 2.6.2* Does literally everything you want it to do for a simple price. This is the hallmark of software development. ### 4/5 — SUGESTÃO *2026-05-07* APP muito bom, só falta uma opção de repetir o planejamento das refeições nos dias do calendário. Atualmente vc precisa inserir o programa a cada dia , não permitindo que vc planeje uma recorrência. ### 5/5 — Wonderful App & User Experience *2026-05-06, version 2.6.2* I’ve replaced all my cluttered and scattered recipes with this app. I’m thankful that companies are still selling one-time purchases and the access to the app before paying got me in the door. The Access to recipes within the app as well as the incredible recipe scanning feature make this a 5 star app. Thank you! ### 4/5 — More needed *2026-05-01, version 2.6.2* This is a great app. Been using it for several years. But it needs to grow up and work with instagram and facebook to grab those recipes we like. But it’s still worth it. Love it and will continue to is it. ### 5/5 — Love this app *2026-05-01, version 2.6.2* Checked out many of the different recipe and meal planning apps. This one met all my needs plus some. Love the integration of grocery lists and calendar with the native iOS apps. Makes adding things to the grocery list via Siri and meal visibility on our family calendar all so simple. Couldn’t find this level of seamless integration with any of the other apps. One suggestion for improvement would be the use of tags. Functionality is there, but could be easier to add (via drop down instead of typing in) or to filter recipes (allow selecting more than one tag at a time). And finally, and most importantly, no long term subscription required! ### 5/5 — Improved my meals, near perfect app *2026-04-22, version 2.6.2* I’m not a confident cook, so Mela has helped me immensely. The Cook feature lets you get a full screen companion, easily switching between methods and ingredients (while checking off what you’ve used!) which supports my anxious cooking: I meticulously follow recipes until I’ve internalised it, afraid to mess up by a couple of ml. The recipe importer is so convenient, and saving the original source means you don’t end up with a collection of favourites and no way to return to the recipe creators later. I haven’t even mentioned how religiously I use the grocery list and calendar meal plan features! My only requests? - Make the Cook button more prominent or give me another way to reach that feature. (I saw it in promos, but couldn’t find it after download) - Allow saving a recipe simply as a bookmark with only the source even if no recipe is detected. My current method (copy link, manually add new recipe with only a source) is slow – I can later flesh out the recipe, but it’s nice to have all my meals saved in one place. - I often switch between the full screen Cook feature and the original source when there’s a video at the URL, but that loses my place in the cooking/what ingredients I’ve marked as done. Maybe adding a leftmost page for the source with in-app browser (or video embed a la Reeder)? I know fullscreen is supposed to be beautiful and minimal, but I do this often enough that I’ve started opening the source in Safari in order to switch between Mela and Safari during cooking. That’s all. I love Mela! ### 4/5 — App intéressante *2026-04-18, version 2.6.2* J’adore cet app, facile à utiliser pour conserver et ranger les recettes. ### 3/5 — Visually Beautiful App…but *2026-04-07, version 2.6.2* It’s a gorgeous app. But function and UI are just not great and I finally went back to my previous recipe app. For one, the search button is only available at the top of the list. That means, you’d need to scroll up all the way to reach the search bar. I have over 2000 recipes and imagine how many scrolls I need to get to search. I wrote to support about that. No replies. Well…too bad I have to finally get rid of it. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Updates ? *2026-06-13, version 2.6.2* Has this been abandoned ? Sort it out . ### 1/5 — “No recipe” when it’s in the caption *2026-05-31, version 2.6.2* Please figure out a way to pull the recipes from the IG reel captions. That’s the impression I got when I purchased it. Very disappointing that’s not something it’s doing. ### 1/5 — Cannot sync across MacBook and iPhone *2026-05-16, version 2.6.2* Have purchased both the MacBook and iPhone apps. Started saving recipes on the MacBook and these do not sync with the phone app despite having iCloud sync enabled. Useless. No FAQs to help with this. ### 1/5 — 10 Recipe Limit for Free Version *2026-01-27, version 2.6.2* Would’ve been nice to know before I wasted 2 hours saving down all my recipes! ### 1/5 — Sharing! *2026-01-26, version 2.6.2* Would be the perfect app if only sharing worked across iCloud. Reached out to developer multiple times to no avail. Please let me know when you resolve it and I’ll be back! ### 1/5 — Sharing does not work *2026-01-10, version 2.6.2* Bought this app specifically to collaborate on recipe sharing/meal planning/grocery shopping with my teens and we cannot share anything between the 3 of us. ### 1/5 — Deleted my data, no support *2025-12-11, version 2.6.2* Have used this for a long time and liked it. One day turned on iCloud sync and without warning it deleted all my data. Years of data gone. Developer never responded to support requests. ### 1/5 — Horrible user interface *2025-12-08, version 2.6.2* It’s a great idea but I just spent roughly 45 minutes trying to put in one recipe from the Notes app. (Apple). The copy and paste function is one of the most frustrating features. And short of retyping the entire recipe into the app, I finally gave up. I had a rather complicated recipe with a long instruction list. I pasted the recipe into its entirety into the instruction area. Each time I tried to move the ingredients or nutrition from the spot it was pasted into to the appropriate place in the recipe template the copy function was impossible to use. Or rather the selection of the text itself. You can only copy the length of the screen. Scrolling to copy is impossible. The keyboard stays active and gives only a tiny area to copy. You can’t dismiss the keyboard or the whole copy disappears. Why in the heck would I want to use an app when I can organize things by name, title etc in an app like Notes? I have hundreds of recipes I have written and more I have found and collected. They are already typed so why is it so hard to put them into this Mela app? I can’t recommend at all. ### 1/5 — Developer won’t answer repeated emails *2025-11-25, version 2.6.2* I used the paprika software which morphed into MELA. MELA works as it should on my iPad but when I purchased a paid copy for my Mac it crashes every time I try to open. I emailed the developer twice but get no response. $19.99 and it’s useless ### 1/5 — No happy, can’t upload any TikTok or FB recipes *2025-11-10, version 2.6.2* Would like a refund ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great *2026-08-17, version 2.6.2* Great app could you please make add to calendar a normal button with cook in recipe viewer so I don’t have to go into the long hamburger menu to get to it ### 5/5 — Fantastic Recipe Manager *2026-08-07, version 2.6.2* LOVE IT! This app has REALLY impressed me! We have been long-time users of Paprika - but switched because MELA DOESN’T HARVEST DATA. Win for Privacy. PLUS ITS A MUCH BETTER RECIPE MANAGER. I love being able to scan a recipe. It’s SO EASY to use. We were able to import our 1950 recipes in a snap (I know who needs nearly 2000 recipes?!) Our recipes are Organized, easy to find, easy to edit. The grocery list is awesome! And the price is reasonable. Thank you Mela! ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-07-25, version 2.6.2* Genuinely one of the best apps I have ever used. It makes meal planning something I can look forward to while I unwind, rather than a chore. ### 5/5 — For the love of food *2026-07-19, version 2.6.2* LOVE THIS RECIPE KEEPER! Easy to use. ### 5/5 — Best recipe app ever! *2026-07-10, version 2.6.2* It can be as simple or complex as you want. So many amazing features. ### 5/5 — Solid app! *2026-07-05, version 2.6.2* Love Mela, it’s been a huge help for my scattered brain in the kitchen, been using it for some years now. I love that it can handle parsing foreign language recipes as well as English ones and the various viewing/editing/cooking modes are so thoughtful and helpful. I wish we could get more out of RSS feeds though - sadly can’t find working ones of interest (mostly smaller blogs or Polish culinary sites). Would be great if there was a sort of “bookmark directory” tab where we can save trusted websites within Mela to bridge that gap. Thanks for this wonderful app. ### 5/5 — Just wish more directions *2026-07-01, version 2.6.2* Cool ### 5/5 — Really great recipe manager *2026-06-19, version 2.6.2* This app makes finding and collecting recipes easy and beautiful. ### 5/5 — Outstanding Recipe app *2026-06-14, version 2.6.2* This is a fantastic app for recipes! I love it! It’s easy to use, aesthetic, well organized, and has all the features I need. Well done! ### 5/5 — Love it, one improve possibility *2026-06-13, version 2.6.2* We agree with the functionally in that upon returning to the app it is where you left it. Would enjoy the search option available at the receipt level in order to jump right to the next desired receipt. Thank you for the consideration. --- *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 2026-08-30.*