Comparison

Crouton vs KitchenIdea

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

Head to head
About

Crouton

Organize your favorite recipes from any source, plan your weekly meals, and generate grocery lists automatically. Features step-by-step cooking guidance, integrated timers, and AI-powered recipe importing.

Highlights
  • Import recipes from websites, books, and handwritten notes
  • AI and OCR recipe scanning
  • Weekly meal planning and automatic plan generation
  • Step-by-step cooking mode with hands-free navigation
  • Integrated timers and ingredient quantity display
  • Automatic grocery list creation
  • Cloud syncing across devices
Features
Read full description

Crouton is simple feature packed recipe organizer & meal planner. The best place to store your favorite recipes from where ever you find them, websites, cookbooks or a handwritten note from your Grandma. IMPORT ANYWHERE Crouton supports importing recipes from almost everywhere! Pull recipes automatically out of websites and just save the bits you need. You can also scan recipes straight out of your recipe book using AI and OCR PLAN YOUR WEEK With your favourite recipes on hand, Crouton makes it very easy to plan your meals for the week (or even long into the future). If you’re stuck for recipe ideas let Crouton automatically generate the meal plan from your organized dinner recipes. STEP BY STEP MODE Crouton offers a unique step by step mode. Focus on one recipe step at time as you cook, you can tap on ingredients within a step to get the quantity (saves you jumping back and forth between the steps and ingredients). With hands free mode you can move between steps without touching your device! Perfect for when you have messy hands. TIMERS Start timers with a tap. Crouton detects times within recipes and lets you start timers straight from the steps. A convenient heads up display keeps the times front of mind while you continue to use the app. GROCERY LISTS Create shopping lists directly from your recipes, easily copy just the ingredients you need to your list. Integrates with Reminders for convenient access. Your groceries have never been easier! CLOUD SYNCING All of your recipes are conveniently synced between all of your devices using iCloud. RECIPE FEEDS Save your favourite recipe RSS feeds into Crouton to see new recipes as they’re published from your favourite blogs. AI IMPORTING Quickly import recipes using AI. Import a recipe from a single photo with no manual entry required. Also supports plain text and images. FAMILY SHARING Share your recipes with friends and family using iCloud, so everyone knows what’s for dinner. GUIDED WEIGHING Pair to supported Bluetooth scales (such as the Acaia coffee scales) and have Crouton guide you through weighing your ingredients, avoid the mental juggling of recipe steps and amounts COMBUSTION PROBE SUPPORT Crouton pairs with Combustion's temperature prove to provide live updates on your cook Crouton also offers a range of customization including custom icons and app colors. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

KitchenIdea

Control a smart stir-fry robot remotely. Browse recipes and send cooking instructions to your connected device for automated meal preparation.

Highlights
  • Recipe browsing
  • Remote robot control
  • Cooking instruction execution
  • Connect to KODY robot
  • Automated meal preparation
Features
Read full description

Kitchenidea is the exclusive application for KODY, a Chinese-style stir-fry robot. Once downloaded and connected to your KODY, you can browse its recipes on your phone and remotely control KODY to execute cooking instructions.

Screenshots

Crouton4 screens
KitchenIdea4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Crouton at 79% against KitchenIdea's 0%. Crouton also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (2.9K vs 2). KitchenIdea's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.1). On price, update cadence and ads 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. Crouton sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. KitchenIdea asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Crouton holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Crouton has 2.9K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Crouton's written reviews are positive against 0% of KitchenIdea's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Crouton ships an update monthly, KitchenIdea every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Crouton versus KitchenIdea: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCroutonKitchenIdea
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.9K ratings) — better3.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews78.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2.9K — better2
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#58 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.112.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size345 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCrouton LLC浙江田螺云厨科技有限公司

Customer experience

Crouton

All ratings2,910 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral1.7%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews539 reviews
Positive78.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative13.0%

KitchenIdea

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Crouton

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Grocery list not remembering checked items
  • Syncing issues between devices
  • Inability to add more than 5 recipes in free version

Requested features

6 requests
  • Recipe rating system
  • Nutrition information
  • Ability to add recipe notes and descriptions
  • Improved grocery list organization
  • Web/Windows app version
Show 1 more
  • Ability to export recipes in bulk

KitchenIdea

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Crouton

Subscriptions2
  • Discover Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Discover Yearly3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time6
  • Kind Tip$0.99
  • Great Tip$1.99
  • Amazing Tip$3.99
Show 3 more
  • Outrageous Tip$7.99
  • Crouton+ Early Bird$17.99
  • Crouton Plus$24.99
None

KitchenIdea

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Crouton free?
Crouton is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is KitchenIdea free?
KitchenIdea is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Crouton or KitchenIdea?
Crouton is rated higher. Crouton averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.9K ratings, while KitchenIdea averages 3.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Crouton or KitchenIdea have ads?
Neither Crouton nor KitchenIdea shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Crouton or KitchenIdea?
Crouton ships an update monthly, and KitchenIdea every 2 months. Most recently, Crouton was updated on October 29, 2026 and KitchenIdea on October 11, 2026.

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