Comparison

SpiceCraft vs Cookback

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

Head to head
About

SpiceCraft

Discover easy and tasty recipes, then add ingredients to your online grocery cart with a single tap. Import recipes from web links, modify them, or create your own unique dishes.

Highlights
  • Recipe discovery
  • One-click grocery cart addition
  • Import recipes from URL
  • Customize existing recipes
  • Create custom recipes
Features
Read full description

Find simple and delicious recipes, add them to your online grocery cart in just one click. Import any recipe from a url then customize or create your own recipes

About

Cookback

This app helps you document your cooking experiences, noting what worked and what didn't for future reference. It allows for detailed notes, photos, and ratings, with features to track your progress and learn from past cooks. Enhanced by live activity and dictation, it aims to improve your culinary skills.

Highlights
  • Freeform cooking notes
  • Timeline stamping
  • Photo and rating logs
  • Dish-specific cook tracking
  • Live Activity integration
  • Siri and Apple Watch support
  • AI-powered insights (Pro)
Features
Read full description

Write it down. Cook it back. Cookback is a cooking journal — not another recipe app. It's for what actually happened at the stove: the temp you ran, the rest you cut short, the tweak you swore you'd remember. Write it in your own words while you cook. Next time you make the dish, everything you learned is right there waiting. THE JOURNAL — FREE TO KEEP • Freeform notes with a light structure: Details, Prep, Cook, Thoughts, Next time. Write two lines or two pages. • A timeline in the margin stamps your notes as you cook, so "how long did it actually rest?" answers itself. • Photos, tags, and ratings for difficulty and enjoyment. • Dishes: every brisket you've ever logged, gathered in one place, so you can watch it get better cook after cook. • Cook it back: start tonight's cook with last time's notes at your side. • Insights: your year at the stove at a glance. • Search and filters: favorites, quick weeknight wins, needs-work, any tag. MESSY HANDS? COOK ANYWAY • Live Activity and Dynamic Island keep your active cook on the Lock Screen — glance at your last note, log a new one in a tap. • Apple Watch: your cook on your wrist, with dictation to add a note without touching your phone. • Siri: add a note or ask for your next step, by voice. MADE FOR iPHONE DUO • Closed, it's the phone app, with the mic and your tools in the column beside the screen. • Open it like a book and the journal becomes a spread: tonight's cook on one page, last time's attempt, its summary, or Ask about this cook facing it. • Half open, the note sits up top with a capture deck below: speak a note, mark a moment, add a photo. COOKBACK PRO The journal is free to keep. Pro is for reflecting: • Summaries: wrap up a cook and get a tidy recap in your own words — what you did, what mattered, what to try next time — with tags added automatically. • Ask: questions answered from YOUR journal, not the internet. Ask "what made this brisket better than my last two?" and get an answer that cites your actual cooks. • Recipe import: paste a link and get a clean, cook-along note — ingredients and steps, with room for your own notes on top. You get starter credits to try every Pro feature before paying a cent. Pro is an auto-renewing subscription (monthly or yearly); cancel anytime in your App Store settings. YOURS, PRIVATELY Your journal lives on your device and syncs privately through iCloud. AI is off until you turn it on, and nothing leaves your device before that. No account to create, no ads, and you can delete everything at any time. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

SpiceCraft3 screens
Cookback4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SpiceCraft at none against Cookback's 2. SpiceCraft also leads on iOS requirement (12.4 vs 18.0). Cookback's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, 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. Cookback sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. SpiceCraft asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for SpiceCraft against 5.0 for Cookback. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SpiceCraft ships an update every 2 months, Cookback every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
SpiceCraft versus Cookback: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpiceCraftCookback
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS12.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB29 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperMax MesirowSousy LLC

Customer experience

SpiceCraft

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Cookback

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

SpiceCraft

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Cookback

Subscriptions2
  • Cookback Pro$1.991 Month
  • Cookback Pro$19.991 Year

Questions

Is SpiceCraft free?
SpiceCraft is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cookback free?
Cookback is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, SpiceCraft or Cookback?
SpiceCraft and Cookback are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do SpiceCraft or Cookback have ads?
Neither SpiceCraft nor Cookback shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SpiceCraft or Cookback?
SpiceCraft ships an update every 2 months, and Cookback every 3 months. Most recently, SpiceCraft was updated on October 17, 2026 and Cookback on October 25, 2026.

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