Comparison

Meal Planner vs FixDinner

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

Head to head
About

Meal Planner

Quickly plan your week's dinners with visual recipe cards and generate a combined grocery list. Save favorite meals to a personal recipe book for easy future planning. Designed to simplify weeknight meal decisions before you shop.

Highlights
  • Visual dinner idea cards
  • Weekly dinner plan creation
  • Combined grocery list generation
  • Save recipes to a recipe book
  • Quick recipes with times and difficulty
  • Optional partner planning flow
Features
Read full description

Plan your week's dinners before the grocery run. Swipe through quick dinner ideas, build a weekly Dinner Plan, and shop one combined grocery list from the recipes you picked. Swipe for Dinner is made for people who want dinner handled before they are standing in the aisle. THE WEEKLY FLOW - Swipe through visual dinner cards - Pick the recipes you want this week - Review everything in your Dinner Plan - Build one combined Shopping List - Save keepers to your Recipe Book - Open ingredients and steps when it is time to cook BUILT FOR REAL WEEKNIGHTS - 220+ dinner ideas - Quick recipes with times and difficulty - Family-friendly tags - Saved recipes you can add back to future plans - Shopping list grouped for easier grocery runs - Optional partner flow when two people plan together FREE TO TRY Create a free account to preview the app and start swiping dinner ideas. PREMIUM Premium unlocks the full recipe library, weekly Dinner Plan, combined Shopping List, Recipe Book, and new dinners added regularly. Subscription auto-renews unless canceled in App Store settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://swipefordinner.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://swipefordinner.com/privacy INDEPENDENT Swipe for Dinner is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Trader Joe's Company. Trader Joe's is a trademark of its owner.

About

FixDinner

Struggling with "what's for dinner"? This app generates meal ideas based on a few ingredients you have on hand. It provides quick assembly steps and cooking method preferences, perfect for busy individuals.

Highlights
  • Dinner ideas from selected ingredients
  • Match percentages for readiness
  • Quick assembly steps
  • Cuisine and cooking method preferences
  • Useful pro tips
  • Grocery store ingredient selection
Features
Read full description

It's 5:17 PM. You're answering a work email in the school pickup line. Your kid needs cleats for practice at 6. You went to Costco two days ago, but somehow there's "nothing to eat." You already know how this ends: pizza. Again. FixDinner exists for that exact moment. Tap a few ingredients. Get real dinners. That's it. Chicken thighs that need using up? Zucchini that's seen better days? A random can of tuna? Pick what you want to build dinner around, not your whole fridge, and FixDinner figures out the rest. HOW IT WORKS Tap a few ingredients. Set your time and how you want to cook. Hit "Find Dinners." Ideas stream in as they're ready, each with a match percentage showing how much of it you already have. REAL DINNERS, NOT SIDE DISHES Every suggestion is a complete dinner. If your ingredients can't make a full meal on their own, FixDinner tells you the one thing to pick up. NO PANTRY HOMEWORK No logging every jar. A 30-second Pantry Check-In once a week keeps your dinner ideas accurate. A GROCERY LIST THAT BUILDS ITSELF Tap "Get it" on anything you're missing. Edit items to match what you buy, tick them into your pantry or tonight's dinner, and share the list with whoever is at the store. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO COOK IT Calories and nutrition per serving. Assembly steps for a busy person, and a full-screen Cook mode with the ingredients, amounts and timers for each step. Pro tips that help. Ask about this dish: swaps, technique, timing, storage, pairing. Dietary needs, cuisines and cooking methods, scaling to 2x or 3x, and saved favorites. FREE FOR EVERYONE, RIGHT NOW Every feature works for free. A small ad in your dinner ideas list helps keep it that way. Paid Plus subscribers never see ads. FixDinner uses AI to suggest dinners. Suggestions aren't individually tested, so use your judgment on food safety and allergies. Stop opening the fridge, sighing, and ordering pizza. FixDinner. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Meal Planner4 screens
FixDinner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Meal Planner at none against FixDinner's shown. Meal Planner also leads on chart position (#200 vs unranked). FixDinner's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Meal Planner sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and FixDinner sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 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 Meal Planner against 5.0 for FixDinner. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 7 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meal Planner ships an update every 2 months, FixDinner every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Meal Planner versus FixDinner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeal PlannerFixDinner
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings37 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
Best chart rank#200 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJeff ManganoKovaWorks, LLC

Customer experience

Meal Planner

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

FixDinner

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Meal Planner

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$34.991 Year
1 purchases

FixDinner

Subscriptions1
  • FixDinner Plus7 Days trial$2.991 Month

Questions

Is Meal Planner free?
Meal Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FixDinner free?
FixDinner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Meal Planner or FixDinner?
Meal Planner and FixDinner are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 7 ratings respectively.
Do Meal Planner or FixDinner have ads?
FixDinner shows ads; Meal Planner does not.
Which is updated more often, Meal Planner or FixDinner?
Meal Planner ships an update every 2 months, and FixDinner every 2 days. Most recently, Meal Planner was updated on October 25, 2026 and FixDinner on October 24, 2026.

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