Comparison

Chef vs HeyChef!

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

Head to head
About

Chef

Discover and cook thousands of recipes with a modern interface. Create your own recipes, generate shopping lists, and analyze nutritional values. Offers premium features for unlimited recipe creation and private recipes.

Highlights
  • Recipe discovery
  • Custom recipe creation
  • Automated shopping lists
  • Nutritional value analysis
  • Recipe scheduling
  • Modern design
Read full description

Chef® helps you discover thousands of recipes and to schedule and cook them, from shopping to serving. • Discover a new way to explore flavors with Chef®'s modern design. • Create your own recipes to schedule them. They will also be analyzed by our unique algorithm to estimate their nutritional values. • Simplify groceries by automatically generating shopping lists, and add your own items. The Chef® Plus subscription allows you to create as many recipes and shopping lists as you want, and to create private recipes. With the Chef® Max subscription, enjoy all the benefits of Chef® Plus, but also get the nutritional values of your recipes and enhance your recipe images. Renewed monthly, these subscriptions will be charged to your iTunes account. At the end of the one-month period, unless you have disabled this feature, your subscription will automatically renew for your iTunes account. You will be charged the subscription price within 24 hours after the end of the validity of the initial purchase. You can cancel the automatic renewal at any time before these 24 hours. No refund can be made for the unused period of a subscription. For more information on the terms of use and privacy policy of Chef®, visit https://the-chef.app/policy. By using the app, you accept its terms of use, available at https://the-chef.app/terms.

About

HeyChef!

This AI-powered cooking companion helps you discover recipes based on ingredients you already have. It offers personalized meal planning, generates shopping lists, and adapts recipes to your dietary needs and preferences.

Highlights
  • Scan fridge for ingredient-based recipes
  • AI-powered recipe generation and modification
  • Personalized weekly meal planning
  • Automatic shopping list creation
  • Dietary restriction and allergy filtering
  • Voice command navigation
  • Nutritional information tracking
Features
Read full description

HeyChef — your AI-powered cooking buddy "What's for dinner tonight?" The fridge is full, but inspiration is nowhere to be found. HeyChef answers for you: snap a photo of your fridge, get personalized recipes, plan your week, and generate your shopping list in a single click. SCAN YOUR FRIDGE, FIND YOUR RECIPE Point your phone at the fridge or pantry. HeyChef recognizes your ingredients and suggests recipes you can make right now with what you already have. Less waste, more inspiration. CHEFBOT: TALK TO IT LIKE A FRIEND No need for fancy culinary terms. "I've got chicken, I'm feeling lazy, and I don't want to make a huge mess." ChefBot gets it and offers real options. Want to skip the cheese? Swap out the butter? It adapts the recipe, explains the change, and saves your custom version. No fuss, no judgment. And if the recipe you're looking for doesn't exist yet, it creates it on the spot: ingredients, steps, all right inside the chat. MEAL PLANNER: YOUR WHOLE WEEK ON A SINGLE SCREEN Pick a day and meal, and the app offers suggestions based on your profile. You approve, swap, or adjust. HeyChef automatically balances proteins, veggies, and carbs throughout the week. Check off meals as you go to keep track of what you've cooked. ALLERGIES AND DIETARY RESTRICTIONS: SET IT ONCE AND FOR ALL Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, allergies, or medical restrictions. Set up your profile once, and the app automatically filters everything. Every recipe shown is one you can actually eat—no need to double-check ingredients every single time. AUTOMATIC SHOPPING LISTS One tap, and your grocery list is generated straight from your meal plan. Share it with whoever's running to the store—no more relying on memory or scribbled notes. A COMMUNITY, NOT A DATABASE Follow cooks who inspire you, see their recipes in your personalized feed, comment, reply, and share your own creations. Real people cooking everyday meals, not an anonymous catalog. HANDS COVERED IN FLOUR? USE YOUR VOICE Follow your recipe step-by-step using voice commands and navigate without touching your screen. NUTRITION, HASSLE-FREE Nutritional values on every recipe, recalculated automatically whenever you adjust quantities. AN AI YOU CAN TRUST ChefBot double-checks its own modifications before showing them to you, ensuring trustworthy recipe tweaks. MAKE IT YOURS Pick your app theme color—purple, orange, or green—and organize your kitchen just the way you like. HEYCHEF IS MADE FOR YOU IF… You open the fridge three times a night without finding a single idea. You eat the exact same thing every week and feel stuck in a rut. You keep throwing away forgotten veggies from the back of the crisper drawer. You want to eat better without spending your whole evening in the kitchen or counting calories. You have allergies or dietary needs and are sick of reading fine-print labels. You're a beginner cook who wants friendly guidance without being made to feel clueless. OUR PHILOSOPHY At HeyChef, there's zero judgment. Ordering takeout, dining out, skipping a week of cooking—that's life. Going from cooking 0 days a week to 2 is already a win. We're here to guide you step-by-step, not to lecture you. Download HeyChef for free and never stare blankly at your fridge again.

Screenshots

Chef4 screens
HeyChef!4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chef at 50% against HeyChef!'s 0%. Chef also leads on iOS requirement (13 vs 15.0). HeyChef!'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 21 months). On price, ads and device support 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. Chef sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. HeyChef! asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chef ships an update every 21 months, HeyChef! fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chef versus HeyChef!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChefHeyChef!
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (21 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings21 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 21 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size109 MB6 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGuillaume CendreHeyChef

Customer experience

Chef

All ratings20 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

HeyChef!

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chef

Subscriptions1
  • Chef Premium - One Month$1.991 Month
None

HeyChef!

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chef free?
Chef is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HeyChef! free?
HeyChef! is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chef or HeyChef! have ads?
Neither Chef nor HeyChef! shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chef or HeyChef!?
Chef ships an update every 21 months, and HeyChef! fortnightly. Most recently, Chef was updated on October 24, 2026 and HeyChef! on October 30, 2026.

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