Forked Recipes vs Pantry Next
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Forked Recipes
Discover what to cook from your existing recipe collection with smart filtering based on your dietary needs and preferences. Generate personalized meal plans and create a unified shopping list from your chosen meals. Your recipes remain on your own server, ensuring privacy and control.
- Swipe-based recipe discovery
- Multi-day meal plan generation
- Customizable Chef Profile for dietary needs
- Persistent global shopping list
- Step-by-step cooking instructions
- Accessibility features
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Forked turns your self-hosted Mealie recipe library into a weekly meal plan and one grocery list, on your iPhone. Your recipes stay on your server. No Forked account, no ads, no tracking. NEW: HOUSEHOLDS Cook from one plan with the people you live with. A Forked Pro owner can invite up to four people for free to share a meal plan and shopping list, and everyone's edits sync through iCloud. Only your chosen name and emoji are shared. Your server credentials, dietary preferences, and Plan History stay private. DECIDE WHAT TO COOK Swipe through Quick Picks from your own recipes to save or pass. Suggestions are ranked by your Chef Profile and your Mealie favorites and ratings. PLAN YOUR WEEK Generate a multi-day plan from your library, choose a vibe, and swap any meal you don't want. ONE GROCERY LIST Add a plan, saved picks, or your own items to one Shopping list. Matching quantities combine, items are grouped by store section, and you can paste several items at once or share the list. COOK STEP BY STEP Follow instructions one step at a time with built-in timers, and keep the screen on while you cook. CHEF PROFILES FOR EVERY DIET Record allergies, diets such as vegan, halal, and gluten-free, and the ingredients you love or avoid. Forked filters and ranks using the ingredients and tags in your library. Filtering cannot guarantee allergen safety: always check ingredients and labels. Shared and reused meals may not match your current profile, and Household members' dietary profiles are not combined. WORKS WHEN YOUR SERVER DOESN'T After your first sync, saved recipes, plans, Quick Picks, and Shopping stay ready while your server is slow or unreachable, and Forked refreshes when it's back. FORKED PRO A $9.99 one-time purchase, shareable with Family Sharing. Pro adds Households, Plan History, Use This Plan Again, Reuse Ingredients, and Avoid Recent Meals. Everything else in Forked stays free. Optional tips unlock nothing. Household members each need Forked, iCloud with iCloud Drive, and their own access to the same Mealie library. Turning on or accepting sync shares the Plan or Shopping list, and accepting replaces that list on your device. BUILT FOR EVERYONE VoiceOver, Voice Control, Larger Text, Reduce Motion, status that doesn't rely on color, and light and dark appearance across setup, Quick Picks, plans, Shopping, and cooking. Requires a self-hosted Mealie server. Complete ingredients, tags, and categories give better suggestions and shopping lists. Forked is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Mealie project.
Pantry Next
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Your cookbook. Finally in one place. Grandma's handwritten card, the cookbook lying open on the counter, the two hundred bookmarks in your browser — Pantry Next brings them together and keeps them where they belong: on your device. No server, no account, no subscription. TAKE A PHOTO. THAT'S IT. Point the camera at a cookbook page or a handwritten card — Pantry reads out the ingredients and the steps, right on your device. No page ever leaves your phone. From iOS 26 on, the app reads the page as a document and the ingredient column as a list. Where Apple Intelligence is available, the model turns the page into a finished recipe on the device itself. Without either, Pantry still reads it — just a little rougher. You always see a draft first. Nothing is saved until you have confirmed it. RECIPES COME IN OTHER WAYS TOO • From the web: found a recipe in your browser? Tap share, pick Pantry • By hand: write it, photograph it, group it into sections • From another Pantry: "Share nearby" sends a recipe straight to a device in range — no server, no internet WHEN YOU'RE AT THE STOVE Turn 2 servings into 6 and the amounts follow live — all the way to the shopping list. Halfway through step 7 and forgot how much coconut milk? Tap the step and the ingredients slide up for a peek. The screen stays awake while you cook. And "potatoes" finds every recipe with potatoes, because the search looks inside the ingredients and not just the title. PLAN THE WEEK, SHOP ONCE Drop recipes into your week with a tap, then collect a whole week's ingredients onto the list at once. Several lists side by side, and matching items are added up for you: 500 g flour and 300 g flour become 800 g. On your home screen, widgets in three sizes show what is cooking today and what is still missing. And Siri knows: "What's on my shopping list in Pantry?" PASSING IT ON To other Pantry users, lossless, with photo, sections and nutrition. To everyone else as a PDF that looks like a recipe page — on a single page, nutrition beside the ingredients. ACROSS YOUR DEVICES iCloud keeps iPhone and iPad in step — if you switch it on. Keep a backup in Files, with a preview of its size. Where your recipes travel is your decision: nothing leaves the device on its own. WITH MEALIE, IF YOU LIKE If you run a Mealie server (mealie.io, open source and self-hosted), Pantry syncs with it. On top of that you can add the servers of friends and family — their recipes appear marked next to yours, and their ingredients land on YOUR shopping list. You sign in with a username or an API token; credentials live in the Keychain and your password is never stored. None of it is required. BUY ONCE, KEEP IT Try everything for 7 days, then a single one-time purchase unlocks the app forever. No subscription, no ads, no tracking, no analytics. Your recipes are yours. Pantry Next is an independent app and is not affiliated with the Mealie project.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pantry Next at none against Forked Recipes's 3. Pantry Next also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Forked Recipes sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Pantry Next asks for nothing beyond the download.
Forked Recipes ships an update fortnightly, Pantry Next every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Forked Recipes | Pantry Next |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Aaron Kannengieser | Steffen Hoschel |
In-app purchases
Forked Recipes
- Small Tip$0.99
- Nice Tip$2.99
- Generous Tip$4.99
Pantry Next
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Forked Recipes free?
Is Pantry Next free?
Do Forked Recipes or Pantry Next have ads?
Which is updated more often, Forked Recipes or Pantry Next?
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