Comparison

PrivateCookbook vs Kitchen Timer

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

Head to head
About

PrivateCookbook

Digitize and organize your cherished family recipes in a visually stunning digital cookbook. Preserve culinary heritage with a sleek, distraction-free interface and intuitive categorization. Enjoy a private space for your personal collection without social clutter or advertisements.

Highlights
  • Stunning Liquid Glass Design
  • Organized Cookbooks by Category
  • Light & Dark Mode Themes
  • Detailed Recipe Management
  • Private & Personal Collection
  • No Social Clutter or Ads
Features
Read full description

PrivateCookbook is the recipe keeper for the recipes that matter to you: family classics from handwritten cards, favorites from your cookbooks and your own creations. No account, no ads, no social feed. KEEP YOUR RECIPES β€’ Ingredients with amounts and units, step-by-step instructions, servings, prep time, difficulty and a photo β€’ Organize recipes in your own cookbooks – one recipe can live in several β€’ Search by recipe name or ingredient and mark your favorites β€’ Keep versions of a recipe while you refine it SCAN PRINTED RECIPES Photograph a recipe from a cookbook or magazine. Text recognition runs on your iPhone, then AI turns the text into ingredients and steps. Only the recognized text is sent for processing, never your photos. Scanning requires Premium or the Lifetime license with your own OpenAI key. MEAL PLANNER & GROCERY LIST β€’ Plan recipes for specific days, with servings per meal β€’ Turn your plan into a grocery list: the same ingredients are combined and scaled to your servings β€’ Check items off while shopping or share the list COOKING MODE Full screen, step by step, with the ingredients you need for each step. The screen stays on while you cook. SYNC & SHARE β€’ iCloud sync across your iPhone and iPad β€’ Share cookbooks with your family and edit them together (Premium or Lifetime) β€’ Send a recipe as a link or file, or export recipes as PDF PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no tracking, no ads. Your recipes stay on your devices and in your iCloud. Liquid Glass design with light and dark mode. SUBSCRIPTION AND LEGAL Premium is a monthly auto-renewable subscription. It renews automatically unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period in your Apple Account settings. The Lifetime license is a one-time purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://private-cookbook.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://private-cookbook.com/privacy.html

About

Kitchen Timer

Features
Read full description

Cooking three things at once while the oven clock tracks only one? KitchenTime is a kitchen timer built for real cooking: pasta, rice, tea and eggs counting down side by side, each with its own loud alarm. Most timer apps hand you a single countdown. KitchenTime hands you a board: up to 12 timers running at the same time, each with its own name, a big readable countdown and an alert that fires even when your phone is locked or the app is closed. WHAT YOU GET β€’ Dinner where the pasta, the sauce and the roast veg all land together β€” up to 12 timers running side by side β€’ A soft egg at exactly 6:00 from one tap β€” 10 kitchen presets covering pasta, rice, eggs, tea, steak rest and proofing dough β€’ Your own β€œRoast chicken β€” 45 min” saved once, started in one tap every week after β€’ An alarm that still rings with the screen off, the app closed, or even after your phone restarts β€’ Start all and Pause all for the moment everything hits the stove at once β€’ Countdown digits big enough to read from across the kitchen with wet hands PERFECT FOR β€’ Home cooks juggling three pots and an oven β€’ Parents lining up dinner, homework and bath time β€’ Tea and coffee drinkers steeping more than one cup β€’ Meal preppers batch-cooking a whole Sunday afternoon WHY NOT JUST THE CLOCK APP? The built-in timer runs one countdown and calls it β€œTimer”. When the rice, the eggs and the tea all need watching, one nameless countdown is how dinner burns. KitchenTime names every timer, runs them all at once, and tells you exactly which one just finished. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No account, no sign-up, no tracking. Your timers and presets live on your phone and nowhere else. FULL ACCESS KitchenTime requires a Full Access purchase: an auto-renewing weekly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime unlock. Full Access opens the entire app β€” up to 12 simultaneous timers, all 10 kitchen presets, custom timers up to 3 hours, and your own saved presets. Put a name and a countdown on everything you cook β€” get KitchenTime and run your first full board tonight. Terms of Use: https://leanstudio.asia/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://leanstudio.asia/privacy-policy Support: support@leanstudio.asia

Screenshots

PrivateCookbook4 screens
Kitchen Timer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: PrivateCookbook at every 2 weeks against Kitchen Timer's every 4 months. Kitchen Timer's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

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

Both are free to download. PrivateCookbook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Kitchen Timer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PrivateCookbook ships an update every 2 weeks, Kitchen Timer every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 6 level
PrivateCookbook versus Kitchen Timer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrivateCookbookKitchen Timer
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsβ€”
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks β€” betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesβ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad β€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.017.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size5 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPeter EsserLEAN ASIA CO., LTD

In-app purchases

2 purchases

PrivateCookbook

Subscriptions1
  • Premium$0.991 Month
One-time1
  • Lifetime License$6.99
3 purchases

Kitchen Timer

Subscriptions2
  • Egg Boil Weekly$2.997 Days
  • Chef Presets Yearly$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Tea Brew Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is PrivateCookbook free?
PrivateCookbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Kitchen Timer free?
Kitchen Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PrivateCookbook or Kitchen Timer have ads?
Neither PrivateCookbook nor Kitchen Timer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PrivateCookbook or Kitchen Timer?
PrivateCookbook ships an update every 2 weeks, and Kitchen Timer every 4 months. Most recently, PrivateCookbook was updated on October 30, 2026 and Kitchen Timer on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons