Comparison

Chef Notebook vs Chef Tools

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

Head to head
About

Chef Notebook

Features
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Chef Notebook is a recipe keeper and cooking app for saving, importing, editing, scaling, and cooking the recipes you actually make. FREE ACCESS Browse saved recipes and export your full recipe library at any time as portable JSON-LD. Your recipes stay yours, even if you do not subscribe. CHEF NOTEBOOK PRO Unlock recipe import, editing, version history, smart scaling, Cook Mode, iCloud sync, printing, and formatted recipe sharing with Chef Notebook Pro. SAVE RECIPES FROM ANYWHERE Snap a photo of a magazine page, paste a recipe link, or start from scratch. Chef Notebook turns your source into a clean, structured recipe with ingredients, steps, notes, and photos. BUILD YOUR PERSONAL COOKBOOK Edit ingredients, rewrite steps, add notes, save variations, and keep a version history of what worked. Roll back to an earlier version any time. SCALE RECIPES PRACTICALLY Scale a recipe for two, six, or a crowd. Chef Notebook adjusts ingredients and timing with practical cooking logic for salt, leavening, eggs, and pan sizes. COOK WITH LESS FRICTION Cook Mode keeps your screen awake and walks you through one step at a time. Built-in timers are ready when you need them, and Siri can advance to the next step hands-free. ORGANIZE YOUR KITCHEN Group recipes into collections, add tags, search your whole library, and archive recipes you do not make often. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Recipes sync with your private iCloud and follow you across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. One subscription unlocks every device. PRINT AND SHARE Print recipes on standard paper or 4x6 index cards. Share a recipe as a formatted image when you want to send it to someone else. PRICING Try Chef Notebook free for 7 days with the yearly plan. Monthly and yearly subscriptions are available. See the app for current pricing. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage subscriptions in your Apple account settings. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://chefnotebook.com/privacy

About

Chef Tools

Features
Read full description

Chef Tools is an all-in-one kitchen companion built for chefs, cooks, culinary teams and serious home cooks who need speed, organization and clarity during prep, service and planning. Keep your recipes, timers, prep lists, kitchen photos, allergen checks, notes, schedules and unit conversions in one clean app designed for real kitchen workflow. Build and manage your recipe library with ingredients, steps, yield, categories, tags, photos and allergen information. Scale recipes by portion count, then share, save as PDF or print updated versions for prep, training or service. Run multiple kitchen timers with a compact layout, clear status, longer alerts, vibration support and overrun tracking so you can see how long an item stayed past the target time. Use Prep List to quickly capture what needs to be done before or during service. Add items fast, mark them complete, attach quantities, stations, notes and dates, and keep your mise en place organized without slowing down. Save kitchen photos for dishes, plating references, prep batches, labels, stations and other visual notes. View photos full screen, zoom in, share, print or export them as PDFs. Check allergens using an on-device allergen database and OCR-based photo scanning. Scan a recipe or ingredient text and Chef Tools helps identify possible allergens without relying on an internet connection. Allergen support is designed around common US, Canadian and international kitchen needs, including gluten/wheat, dairy/milk, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame, fish, shellfish, mustard, sulphites and more. Plan your work with tasks, quick notes and schedule tools. Add reminders, organize prep, service, cleaning and admin items, and keep important kitchen notes easy to access from the home screen. Use the built-in converter for common kitchen measurements including weight, volume and temperature. Convert quickly while cooking, scaling or adjusting recipes. Chef Tools also supports iCloud sync, so your recipes, notes, schedules, tasks, prep lists and kitchen data can stay available across iPhone, iPad and Mac when iCloud is enabled. Why chefs use Chef Tools: • Recipe manager with ingredients, steps, yield and photos • Recipe scaling for different portion counts • Share, save PDF and print recipe sheets • Multiple compact kitchen timers • Timer overrun tracking • Prep list for fast kitchen organization • Kitchen photo library with zoom, PDF, share and print • On-device allergen keyword checks • OCR photo scanning for recipe and ingredient text • Tasks, reminders and quick notes • Schedule and service planning • Unit, volume and temperature converter • iCloud sync across Apple devices • Clean, compact interface built for daily kitchen use • Multilingual interface support Whether you are preparing service, documenting recipes, checking allergens, timing dishes, saving plating photos or organizing your daily prep, Chef Tools helps keep the kitchen moving with less friction. Designed for practical kitchen work. Built to keep important details close when timing, accuracy and organization matter.

Screenshots

Chef Notebook4 screens
Chef Tools4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chef Tools at none against Chef Notebook's 2. Chef Tools also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.5). On price, ads 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. Chef Notebook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Chef Tools asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Chef Notebook versus Chef Tools: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChef NotebookChef Tools
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.516.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCasey SmithYaroslav Mykolaienko

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Chef Notebook

Subscriptions2
  • Chef Notebook Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Chef Notebook Pro Yearly7 Days trial$49.991 Year
None

Chef Tools

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chef Notebook free?
Chef Notebook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chef Tools free?
Chef Tools is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chef Notebook or Chef Tools have ads?
Neither Chef Notebook nor Chef Tools shows ads.

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