Comparison

Love, Manuela vs CakeCost

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

Head to head
About

Love, Manuela

Access over 470 home-baked recipes with step-by-step photos and clear instructions. Discover a wide variety of cakes, fillings, cookies, and more, all designed for delicious results. This app offers a growing digital cookbook with easy navigation and helpful features for bakers of all levels.

Highlights
  • Over 470 baking recipes
  • Step-by-step photo instructions
  • Easy recipe categories
  • Improved search and filtering
  • New Cake Mode to keep screen awake
  • Personalizable recipe notes
Features
Read full description

Love, Manuela is a baking app created by Norwegian baker Manuela Kjeilen, known as @passionforbaking. For more than a decade, Manuela has shared her love of baking with people around the world. She has published nine baking books, hosted her own baking show on TV in Sweden, and inspires more than 1.6 million followers on Instagram with her cakes, recipes, and beautiful baking ideas. Inside the Love, Manuela app, you get instant access to more than 470 baking recipes, all written in English, with high-quality step-by-step photos for every recipe from beginning to end. One-time purchase. No subscription. New recipes are included when they are added. For Manuela, taste always comes first. Beautiful cakes are lovely, but the most important thing is that every bite tastes delicious. Her recipes are created to let the flavors shine, with soft textures, creamy fillings, balanced sweetness, and desserts that taste just as good as they look. From everyday treats to celebration cakes, the recipes are made for home baking. Inside the app, you will find sponge cakes in many variations, ganaches in delicious flavors like strawberry, latte, and banana milkshake, lots of Scandinavian-style cakes, light fillings, cheesecakes, ice creams, sweet dough, frostings, cookies, cupcakes, and so much more. The app is made to feel like a growing digital baking book that you can return to again and again. It is easy to navigate, with clear recipe categories, improved search and filtering, and helpful tags so you can quickly find what you are looking for. A few more categories have also been added to make browsing even easier. Each recipe opens with a large photo and a short introduction, followed by clear directions, recipe notes, a place where you can write your own notes, and step-by-step photos that guide you through the recipe. Whether you are baking a cake, preparing a filling, whipping a frosting, or making cookies, the app is designed to help you feel confident in every step. New Cake Mode helps keep your screen awake while you read and follow a recipe, so you do not have to keep touching your phone or tablet while your hands are busy baking. The app has also been refined with improved UI, a smoother overall user experience, and an improved password reset flow. Love, Manuela is not a subscription. It is a one-time purchase of $12.99, converted to your local currency by the App Store or Google Play. You get access to all recipes inside the app instantly, and when new recipes are added in the future, they are included at no extra cost. Your purchase is connected to the store account you buy it with, either App Store or Google Play. You can restore your purchase anytime using the same store account. What you get inside the app: More than 470 baking recipes Recipes written in English only Clear and easy-to-follow instructions High-quality step-by-step photos for every recipe Easy recipe categories Improved search and filtering Helpful tags to find recipes faster A place to write your own notes inside each recipe Recipe notes and tips from Manuela Cake Mode to keep your screen awake while baking Access to new recipes when they are added One-time purchase on this platform No subscription This is not a baking video app. The Love, Manuela app is focused on written recipes, high-quality photos, clear directions, recipe notes, and step-by-step pictures for every recipe. It is created for bakers who love to read, follow, save, and return to recipes whenever they want. The Love, Manuela app has more than 75,000 registered users worldwide, and Manuela’s recipes are loved by home bakers, cake lovers, professional bakers, and bakeries around the world. If you love soft cakes, sponge cakes, ganache, creamy frostings, light fillings, cupcakes, cookies, Scandinavian-style baking, sweet dough, cheesecakes, ice creams, and homemade desserts that taste as good as they look, you are going to love the Love, Manuela app. Happy baking! XO, Love, Manuela

About

CakeCost

This app helps bakers and cake decorators accurately calculate the cost of their creations. It factors in ingredients, expenses, and your time, ensuring you charge appropriately and understand your profit margins.

Highlights
  • Calculate ingredient costs
  • Cost time and expenses
  • Set profit margins
  • View net costs
  • Determine what to charge customers
Features
Read full description

Are you struggling to figure out what to charge for your cakes and baking services? - CakeCost is designed for bakers and cake decorators, and makes recipe pricing easy. Are you unsure if you are charging enough for your baking? - CakeCost removes uncertainty by calculating prices including ingredients, expenses and your valuable time. Do you usually estimate prices and are unsure of your actual profits? - CakeCost accurately calculates prices with the profit margin you want. With CakeCost you can: - Determine the costs for your ingredients. - Properly cost your time and expenses. - Set your profit and view net costs. Use CakeCost to know exactly what to charge your customers. For more details refer to our website: http://www.cakecost.net Our Terms of Use can be found here: https://www.cakecost.net/pages/terms

Screenshots

Love, Manuela4 screens
CakeCost4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: CakeCost at Free against Love, Manuela's $12.99. CakeCost also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 5 months). Love, Manuela's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.1) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads, device support 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

CakeCost is free to download; Love, Manuela costs $12.99 up front. CakeCost sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per month. Love, Manuela asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Love, Manuela holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Love, Manuela has 170 ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Love, Manuela's written reviews are positive against 50% of CakeCost's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Love, Manuela ships an update every 5 months, CakeCost monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Love, Manuela versus CakeCost: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLove, ManuelaCakeCost
Price$12.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (170 ratings) — better3.1 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews68.2% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings170 — better30
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#3 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPassion For Baking ASCakeCost

Customer experience

Love, Manuela

All ratings170 ratings
Positive80.6%
Neutral4.1%
Negative15.3%
Written reviews179 reviews
Positive68.2%
Neutral9.5%
Negative22.3%

CakeCost

All ratings30 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral13.3%
Negative36.7%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral22.2%
Negative27.8%

Bugs and requests

Love, Manuela

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App crashes or fails to open for some users
  • Inconsistent recipe display across devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • Step-by-step video tutorials
  • Option to save and organize personal notes
  • Ability to print or export recipes

CakeCost

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Love, Manuela

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

CakeCost

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Plan - Monthly$8.991 Month
  • English US$99.991 Month

Questions

Is Love, Manuela free?
Love, Manuela costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is CakeCost free?
CakeCost is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Love, Manuela or CakeCost?
Love, Manuela is rated higher. Love, Manuela averages 4.3 out of 5 from 170 ratings, while CakeCost averages 3.1 from 30 ratings.
Do Love, Manuela or CakeCost have ads?
Neither Love, Manuela nor CakeCost shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Love, Manuela or CakeCost?
Love, Manuela ships an update every 5 months, and CakeCost monthly. Most recently, Love, Manuela was updated on October 19, 2026 and CakeCost on October 16, 2026.

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