Comparison

Culinary Compass vs Mealyn

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

Head to head
About

Culinary Compass

Discover recipes tailored to your dietary needs and restrictions. Identify food items and get instant nutritional information. Plan meals and generate shopping lists for any party size.

Highlights
  • AI-powered meal assistant
  • Global recipe search
  • Picture-based nutritional identification
  • Aggregate nutritional information
  • Customizable shopping lists
Features
Read full description

Culinary Compass is an advanced tool for finding and identifying meal, recipes, and nutritional information. Using global search for recipes based on your specific needs and restrictions to advanced picture identification for nutritional information on demand. Plan your meals with aggregate nutritional information and create weekly, daily or per meal shopping lists based on your party size. End User License Agreement is located https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ and the privacy policy for the app is located https://culinary-compass.com/privacy.html

About

Mealyn

Capture your meals with photos and notes to remember the moments around them. Organize meals, track expenses, and revisit memories through a personal timeline. AI assists with descriptions and weekly reviews.

Highlights
  • Photo food diary
  • AI-assisted descriptions
  • Expense tracking
  • Personal timeline
  • Weekly reviews
  • Shareable moments
Read full description

Remember the meal. Keep the moment. Mealyn is a photo food diary for capturing everyday meals and remembering the moments around them. Take a photo, add a note, and revisit the tastes, places, and memories that make up your everyday life. CAPTURE A MEAL Take a photo or choose from your library. Keep multiple photos together, add a personal note, and organize meals by date and time. Optional AI-assisted descriptions help put a moment into words. REVISIT YOUR MEMORIES Browse your Moments timeline or zoom through your personal photo wall. As your journal grows, explore preset questions about your saved meals, favorite places, and recorded spending. REMEMBER PLACES AND EXPENSES Keep lists of restaurants you have visited or want to try. Attach a receipt to a meal or enter its cost manually. Save everyday shopping receipts, review recognized details, and make corrections before confirming. WEEKLY REVIEWS Look back on a recorded week with a short AI review of your meals and highlights, including a summary of your recorded meal and shopping receipt spending. When you share a review, you choose whether spending is included. SHARE WITH FRIENDS Choose meals or restaurants to share with friends, enjoy their posts, or create a photo card to save and share elsewhere. There is no public community feed. MADE FOR IPHONE Use Home Screen widgets to revisit a meal or jump into the camera. Control Center and Lock Screen shortcuts make it easier to capture the next moment. FREE AND MEALYN PLUS Mealyn offers a Free plan and optional monthly or yearly Mealyn Plus auto-renewable subscriptions. Plus includes higher allowances for meal recording, AI descriptions, weekly reviews, and related food tools. Current benefits, prices, and billing periods are shown before purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled; manage or cancel them in your iPhone subscription settings. AI features require an internet connection. Generated descriptions and food estimates are informational, not medical or nutritional advice. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Culinary Compass4 screens
Mealyn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Culinary Compass at every 6 days against Mealyn's every 2 weeks. Culinary Compass also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Culinary Compass sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Mealyn sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Culinary Compass ships an update every 6 days, Mealyn every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Culinary Compass versus Mealyn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCulinary CompassMealyn
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB38 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperBergosoft LLCGUOHUA DING

Customer experience

Culinary Compass

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

Mealyn

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Culinary Compass

Subscriptions2
  • Pro7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Pro7 Days trial$19.991 Year
2 purchases

Mealyn

Subscriptions2
  • Mealyn Plus Monthly1 Month trial$5.991 Month
  • Mealyn Plus Annual1 Year trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Culinary Compass free?
Culinary Compass is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mealyn free?
Mealyn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Culinary Compass or Mealyn?
Culinary Compass and Mealyn are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Culinary Compass or Mealyn have ads?
Neither Culinary Compass nor Mealyn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Culinary Compass or Mealyn?
Culinary Compass ships an update every 6 days, and Mealyn every 2 weeks. Most recently, Culinary Compass was updated on October 28, 2026 and Mealyn on October 28, 2026.

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