Comparison

MealTime vs Cooking

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MealTime

This app helps you coordinate cooking multiple dishes simultaneously, ensuring everything finishes at the same time. It provides step-by-step instructions, allows for pausing and resuming, and offers hands-free voice commands. You can also scan barcodes for easy item addition and utilize advanced features like microwave wattage adjustments.

Highlights
  • Synchronized cooking timers
  • Step-by-step cooking instructions
  • Pause and resume cooking
  • Voice-guided instructions
  • Barcode scanning for items
  • Microwave wattage adjustment
  • Apple Watch app and complication
Features
Read full description

MealTime is an iOS app that helps you to easily prepare complex meals made up of many different items. Build up the meals you want to cook out of items and the different cooking steps that describe how those items are actually cooked. Once added MealTime will then arrange all the different cooking steps to ensure that your meal will have all the items finish cooking together at the same time. As the meal is being cooked your phone will tell you when you must start to cook each item, it’ll even warn you so you can be prepared ahead of time. If you fall behind with these instructions then you can simply pause the meal to let you catch up and then resume cooking when you’re ready. Don’t take too long though as items already cooking may overcook, MealTime will warn you of items that will be overcooked whenever you pause the meal. For hands free operation you can make MealTime say the cooking instructions out loud so that you can concentrate on cooking your meals. MealTime will automatically time share your microwave oven if you’re cooking more than one microwave item in your meal. If you’re using an oven to cook any item then it can automatically tell you to preheat your oven just in time for the first oven item to start cooking. Scan barcodes for items you add and you’ll be able to quickly add them to new meals in the future by just scanning their barcode. You can visualise the cooking steps in a timeline by rotating your phone onto its side whilst you’re cooking a meal. Its easy to setup a meal to start or end cooking at a specific time, MealTime will then move all of its notifications to fit the time you request. Beyond the managed meals, MealTime also includes simple timers, that you can create with 5 second precision instead of the 1 minute precision of the iOS clock timer. You can also start, stop and pause as many of these timers at once as you’d like. Microwave wattage adjustments let you calculate the cooking time for an item specified in a certain wattage that’s correct given your microwave’s own wattage, so if an item tells you to cook for 2 minutes in a 750 watt oven then MealTime can tell you that you'll need to cook that item for 1 minute and 30 seconds in a 1000 watt oven. MealTime includes an iOS Today Widget and Apple Watch App and Complication which lets you glance at the progress of mealtime without having to open the app. MealTime has been developed with a real focus on VoiceOver support for vision impaired users to enable them to use all the apps features with ease.

About

Cooking

Simplify meal preparation by coordinating multiple dishes to be ready simultaneously. Input your desired mealtime and individual cooking durations, and the app generates a precise schedule for starting each item. Avoid juggling multiple timers and ensure perfectly cooked food for any occasion.

Highlights
  • Synchronize multiple dish cooking times
  • Set desired meal completion time
  • Input individual ingredient cooking durations
  • Generate start/finish time plan
  • Create custom alerts for each step
  • Ideal for holidays and dinner parties
Features
Read full description

Cooking multiple dishes for Christmas, a Sunday roast or a big family meal? CookingTimer takes the maths and stress out of meal preparation by ensuring all your food is ready at the same time. Add all your dishes in one place, set when you want to eat, and let the app tell you when to start each one. Perfect for: • Christmas dinner • Sunday roasts • Dinner parties • Meal prep and batch cooking Simply follow these 4 simple steps for a stress free evening of cooking: 1. Enter the time you want to eat. 2. Add all your ingredients and their cooking times. 3. Click the create time plan button to see the start/finish times for each ingredient. 4. Create alerts so you don't miss a thing! Never juggle multiple timers again - CookingTimer ensures perfectly timed meals every time! Download now and take control of your kitchen.

Screenshots

MealTime4 screens
Cooking4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Cooking at Free against MealTime's $1.99. MealTime's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On update cadence and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Cooking is free to download; MealTime costs $1.99 up front. Cooking sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. MealTime asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and August 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
MealTime versus Cooking: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMealTimeCooking
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews92.3% of reviews — better63.6% of reviews
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#150 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJames BamfordAlexander Richardson

Customer experience

MealTime

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive92.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative0.0%

Cooking

Written reviews11 reviews
Positive63.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative36.4%

In-app purchases

None

MealTime

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Cooking

Subscriptions1
  • Go Ad Free$0.991 Month

Questions

Is MealTime free?
MealTime costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cooking free?
Cooking is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MealTime or Cooking have ads?
Cooking shows ads; MealTime does not.
Which is updated more often, MealTime or Cooking?
MealTime ships an update every 2 months, and Cooking every 2 months. Most recently, MealTime was updated on September 21, 2026 and Cooking on August 1, 2026.

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