Comparison

Plan to Eat vs Lightning Fast Meal Planner

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

Head to head
About

Plan to Eat

Organize your recipes, plan your weekly meals, and automatically generate a shopping list. This app helps you find joy in meal preparation and makes cooking easier with step-by-step instructions.

Highlights
  • Recipe storage and import
  • Automated grocery list generation
  • Personalized meal planning
  • Step-by-step cooking instructions
  • Recipe sharing with friends and family
  • Cross-device syncing
Features
Read full description

Meal planning doesn’t have to feel like an inconvenience. Store all your recipes in one place, auto-generate a shopping list for your week, and let Plan to Eat help you find joy in meal planning again. Plan to Eat is the meal planning app designed with the planner in mind. Try Plan to Eat FREE for 14 days, no payment information required at sign-up. After that, annual subscriptions can be purchased in the app. Key features of the app include: - ALL YOUR RECIPES IN ONE PLACE: Tap the share icon in your web browser to import recipes from the web, or enter your family recipes manually in the app. - PERSONALIZED PLANNING: Create meal plans that work for you and your schedule. You can scale servings, reschedule recipes, plan leftovers, and track frozen meals. - UPGRADE YOUR SHOPPING LIST: The shopping list auto-generates an organized grocery list based on the ingredients in your meal plan. You can also add extra items to your list, add frequently purchased items from the staples list, customize and re-order your list categories, and create lists for specific stores. - SHARE WITH FRIENDS: Connect with friends and family to share recipes and saved menus, or send a recipe by text or email. - STEP-BY-STEP COOKING: Tap "Start Cooking" when viewing a recipe to get step-by-step recipe instructions that make cooking easy. - FIND THE PERFECT RECIPE: Search your recipe book based on title, ingredients, course, main ingredient, tags, recipe rating, and more! - STAY IN SYNC: Your Plan to Eat account automatically syncs your recipes, planner, and shopping list across all of your devices, and your family's, too! Sign in on all of your mobile devices, and at plantoeat.com, to share recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists. If you want to feel more organized, save a ton of money, and share your favorite recipes easily, sign up today! Reach out to us at help@plantoeat.com with questions or feedback. Thanks for using Plan to Eat!

About

Lightning Fast Meal Planner

Effortlessly plan your weekly meals and generate consolidated grocery lists. This app scrapes recipes from the web, saves your favorites, and uses AI to create custom menus based on your dietary needs and pantry ingredients, eliminating food waste and mealtime stress.

Highlights
  • AI-powered weekly meal planning
  • Automated recipe scraping from web links
  • Consolidated and aisle-sorted grocery lists
  • Duplicate ingredient merging and quantity scaling
  • Customizable dietary goals and pantry ingredient input
  • Save and rate favorite meals with custom notes
Features
Read full description

Less time deciding what's for dinner. More time enjoying it. Lightning Meal Plans brings your recipes, weekly meal plan, grocery list, and cooking steps together. Save something delicious when you find it, plan meals around your life, and head into the kitchen knowing what to do next. PLAN YOUR WEEK IN SECONDS Take the daily "what's for dinner?" decision off your plate. Tell Lightning Meal Plans your dietary goals, allergies, preferences, ingredients you already have, or what you're craving. Get a personalized weekly meal plan in seconds you can adjust anytime. SAVE RECIPES WITHOUT THE BLOG CLUTTER Found a recipe you want to try? Share it directly to Lightning Meal Plans from your browser or another app, or paste the link in the app. Get the ingredients and instructions without scrolling through long stories and pop-up ads. Save it for later or add it straight to your meal plan. KEEP YOUR FAVORITES IN ONE PLACE Build a personal recipe collection, even for meals you haven't planned or cooked yet. Search your saved recipes, rate your favorites, and add notes like "use less salt next time." Find a dinner you loved and add it back to your plan whenever you want. TURN YOUR PLAN INTO ONE GROCERY LIST Skip copying ingredients from recipe to recipe. Ingredients from your planned meals are automatically combined, duplicate items are consolidated, and quantities scale to your preferred servings. Your list is organized by grocery aisle to make shopping easier. COOK WITHOUT LOSING YOUR PLACE Start cooking mode for clear, readable instructions you can follow step by step. See ingredient amounts as you go and open the full ingredient list whenever you need it. Your screen stays on while you cook, so you can stop waking up your phone with messy hands. When you're done, leave a rating or note for next time. NUTRITION AT A GLANCE See nutrition information per serving to help you choose meals that fit your goals. Whether you're feeding a busy family, working around dietary preferences, using up ingredients, or looking for dinner inspiration, Lightning Meal Plans helps you get from idea to table with less effort. Save the recipe. Plan your week. Get dinner handled — in a flash. Terms of Use: https://lightningmealplans.com/terms

Screenshots

Plan to Eat4 screens
Lightning Fast Meal Planner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Lightning Fast Meal Planner at free against Plan to Eat's free with in-app purchases. Plan to Eat's advantage is ratings volume (6.1K vs 5) and chart position (#34 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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

Both are free to download. Plan to Eat sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Lightning Fast Meal Planner sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lightning Fast Meal Planner holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Plan to Eat has 6.1K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 97% of Plan to Eat's written reviews are positive against 100% of Lightning Fast Meal Planner's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Plan to Eat versus Lightning Fast Meal Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlan to EatLightning Fast Meal Planner
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (6.1K ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews96.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6.1K — better5
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#34 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB74 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPlan To Eat, LLCDaniel Kershner

Customer experience

Plan to Eat

All ratings6,114 ratings
Positive97.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews947 reviews
Positive96.5%
Neutral1.3%
Negative2.2%

Lightning Fast Meal Planner

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Plan to Eat

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Occasional recipe import failures
  • Inconsistent behavior when updating the shopping list
  • App crashes or becomes unresponsive at times

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to scan recipes from cookbooks
  • Integrate with grocery delivery services
  • Improve syncing and offline access
  • Add more customization options for recipe organization
  • Enhance freezer and leftover tracking features

Lightning Fast Meal Planner

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Plan to Eat

One-time1
  • One-Year Membership$54.99
2 purchases

Lightning Fast Meal Planner

Subscriptions2
  • Lightning Meal Plans Pro$2.991 Month
  • Lightning Meal Plans Pro7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Plan to Eat free?
Plan to Eat is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lightning Fast Meal Planner free?
Lightning Fast Meal Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Plan to Eat or Lightning Fast Meal Planner?
Lightning Fast Meal Planner is rated higher. Plan to Eat averages 4.8 out of 5 from 6.1K ratings, while Lightning Fast Meal Planner averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Plan to Eat or Lightning Fast Meal Planner have ads?
Neither Plan to Eat nor Lightning Fast Meal Planner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Plan to Eat or Lightning Fast Meal Planner?
Plan to Eat ships an update fortnightly, and Lightning Fast Meal Planner fortnightly. Most recently, Plan to Eat was updated on November 10, 2026 and Lightning Fast Meal Planner on November 10, 2026.

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