Comparison

What's for dinner planner vs Simmer

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

Head to head
About

What's for dinner planner

Features
Read full description

What's on the menu tonight? Whether you want to cook more organised every week, let your kids vote on their favourite dishes, or simply avoid a bit of chaos, "What's for Dinner" gives you the perfect overview. Free. No ads. No hidden costs. Just you and your meals. PLAN TOGETHER Invite your partner or housemate and you both work in the same list. When one of you adds something, the other sees it right away. Your list stays in your own iCloud: we run no servers and never see your meals. ALWAYS WITHIN REACH • A home screen widget showing what you are eating today and tomorrow. • An Apple Watch app and complications, so it is right there on your wrist. • The list moves on by itself at midnight — even if you have not opened the app all week. SIMPLE AND SMART • Drag your meals into whatever order you like. • Days or numbers next to your meals, whichever suits you. • Emoji magic: hundreds of dishes are recognised automatically, in Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish. On devices with Apple Intelligence your iPhone works out an emoji for dishes the list does not know yet — and that happens entirely on your device. • A history of everything you have eaten, restored with a single swipe. Got brilliant ideas? Or a dish without an emoji yet? Email us at: whatsfordinnerappios@gmail.com! Download now and cook smarter, not harder.

About

Simmer

Features
Read full description

Tired of scrolling through life stories, pop-ups, and ads just to find a recipe? Simmer extracts the recipe from any website and saves it to your personal, clutter-free library. SAVE RECIPES IN SECONDS Paste a recipe URL or share it directly from Safari — Simmer automatically extracts the title, ingredients, steps, cook times, and photo. No account needed, no sign-up required. HANDS-FREE COOKING MODE Enter full-screen cooking mode with large, easy-to-read step cards. Swipe through steps while your hands are covered in flour. Turn on auto-speak and let your phone read each step aloud using natural-sounding iOS voices. SMART QUANTITY ADJUSTMENT Cooking for more or fewer people? Tap a multiplier and every ingredient quantity updates instantly. Fractions stay clean and readable — "1 ½ cups" not "1.5 cups." READ STEPS ALOUD Tap the speaker icon on any step to hear it read aloud. Simmer intelligently pronounces fractions, temperatures, and abbreviations so "½ tsp" becomes "one half teaspoon" and "350°F" becomes "350 degrees Fahrenheit." YOUR RECIPES, YOUR DEVICE All recipes are stored locally on your device. No cloud accounts, no tracking, no data collection. Your recipes stay private. ADD FAMILY RECIPES BY HAND Not every great recipe lives on a website. Use manual entry to type in grandma's secret recipe with ingredients, steps, and cook times. FEATURES • Extract recipes from any website with one tap • Share directly from Safari, Chrome, or any browser • Full-screen cooking mode with swipe navigation • Text-to-speech with natural iOS voices • Auto-speak mode for truly hands-free cooking • Adjust servings — all quantities scale instantly • Search your recipe library • Favorite your best recipes • Dark mode support • Works on iPhone and iPad • No account required

Screenshots

What's for dinner planner3 screens
Simmer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Simmer at every 5 days against What's for dinner planner's every 5 weeks. Simmer also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

What's for dinner planner ships an update every 5 weeks, Simmer every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
What's for dinner planner versus Simmer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWhat's for dinner plannerSimmer
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThom RietbergParent-AI LLC

In-app purchases

None

What's for dinner planner

No in-app purchases

None

Simmer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is What's for dinner planner free?
What's for dinner planner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simmer free?
Simmer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do What's for dinner planner or Simmer have ads?
Neither What's for dinner planner nor Simmer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, What's for dinner planner or Simmer?
What's for dinner planner ships an update every 5 weeks, and Simmer every 5 days. Most recently, What's for dinner planner was updated on October 30, 2026 and Simmer on October 31, 2026.

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