# Plan to Eat vs Lightning Fast Meal Planner

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.

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.

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.

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

## The numbers

| Metric | Plan to Eat | Lightning Fast Meal Planner |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | [4.8 (6.1K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plan-to-eat/id1215348056/reviews) | **[5.0 (5 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lightning-fast-meal-planner/id6790597906/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **6.1K** | 5 |
| Positive reviews | 96.5% of reviews | **100.0% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | **Free** |
| Best chart rank | **#34** | — |
| Size | 18 MB | 74 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Plan To Eat, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1164609614) | [Daniel Kershner](https://appshunter.io/developer/6790597908) |

## What reviewers say

### Plan to Eat

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plan-to-eat/id1215348056)

**Currently charting:** #34 Top Grossing · Food & Drink (US App Store)

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:** macOS Compatibility, Siri integration, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One-Year Membership | $54.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Streamlines meal planning and grocery shopping
- 💡 Customizable recipe organization
- 👍 Helpful for families and busy schedules
- 👍 Saves time and money

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
- 🔍 Limited customization options for recipe categories and tags
- 🔍 Clunky handling of metric measurements
- 🔍 Freezer and leftover tracking features could be improved
- 💰 Subscription-based model may be expensive for some

**Reported bugs**

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

**Requested features**

- 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

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lightning-fast-meal-planner/id6790597906)

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:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lightning Meal Plans Pro | $2.99 | per month |
| Lightning Meal Plans Pro | $29.99 | per year |


## Frequently asked 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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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*