Comparison

Dumpling vs Recipe Box

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

Head to head
About

Dumpling

Features
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Dumpling is a recipe lab notebook for home cooks who keep improving what they make. Instead of overwriting a recipe after every test cook, save a new version. Compare what changed, restore an older version as a draft, and keep cooking notes so the next batch starts from what you learned. Build your cooking loop: Save ingredients, steps, photos, links, tags, categories, servings, prep time, and cook time. Track every version with change notes and compare it with the latest recipe. Cook step by step with built-in timers. Save satisfaction and a cooking memo after you finish. Add recipe ingredients to a shopping list. Track stored ingredients, quantities, units, locations, and expiration dates. Use quick kitchen timers and review timer history. Store recipe files locally or in iCloud Drive. Dumpling is made for people who learn by trying: adjust the sauce, change the timing, swap an ingredient, and keep the version worth making again. Start free with 5 recipes and 20 stored ingredients. A one-time purchase unlocks unlimited personal recipes and stored ingredients. Your recipe files remain yours. --- Privacy Policy: https://www.appgarage.app/apps/dumpling/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://www.appgarage.app/apps/dumpling/terms/

About

Recipe Box

Features
Read full description

PREMIUM โ€” PURCHASE REQUIRED: All features described below are part of Pro and require a purchase: a weekly or yearly auto-renewing subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Every recipe you actually cook, saved in one private notebook โ€” typed in or pasted in, filed into your own cookbooks, and ready the moment the stove is on. RecipeNote is a digital cookbook for YOUR recipes โ€” the ones on index cards, in screenshots, in a text from your mum โ€” not another feed of someone else's dinners. Paste any recipe text and the importer sorts it into title, ingredients and steps right on your device. No accounts, no social feed, no AI, nothing leaves your phone. WHAT YOU GET โ€ข Grandma's handwritten lasagna, typed in once and safe forever, with a photo of the finished dish โ€ข Paste a recipe from anywhere and watch it split itself into ingredients and numbered steps โ€ข Cooking for 8 instead of 4? One tap rescales every quantity โ€” 1 1/2 cups becomes 3 cups โ€ข Cooking mode keeps the screen awake and walks you step by step, even with flour on your fingers โ€ข Tap the cart on any recipe and its ingredients land on your shopping list, grouped by dish โ€ข Your own cookbooks โ€” Sunday Baking, Weeknight Dinners, Christmas โ€” plus favorites, tags, and search that digs through ingredients PERFECT FOR โ€ข Family cooks preserving recipes that only exist on stained cards and in grandma's head โ€ข Home bakers who keep tweaking โ€” notes, tags and a source line on every recipe โ€ข Meal-preppers who shop from real recipes instead of memory โ€ข Anyone with 90 screenshots of recipes and no way to find the one they need WHY NOT JUST USE NOTES? A notes app can't scale 3/4 cup for a double batch, won't keep the screen on while you cook, and can't turn a recipe into a shopping list. A notebook built for cooking does all three โ€” and keeps every recipe searchable and organized instead of buried in a pile of text. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Everything is stored on your device and works fully offline. No account, no cloud, no tracking. PREMIUM (PURCHASE REQUIRED) RecipeNote requires Full Access: a weekly or yearly auto-renewing subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Full Access unlocks the entire app โ€” unlimited recipes, cookbooks, paste import, ingredient scaling, cooking mode and shopping lists. Type in the first recipe tonight โ€” the one you'd be saddest to lose. Terms of Use: https://leanstudio.asia/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://leanstudio.asia/privacy-policy Support: support@leanstudio.asia

Screenshots

Dumpling4 screens
Recipe Box4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Recipe Box at none against Dumpling's 1. Recipe Box also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 27.0). Dumpling's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Dumpling sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Recipe Box asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dumpling ships an update weekly, Recipe Box every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Dumpling versus Recipe Box: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDumplingRecipe Box
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS27.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size21 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperApp GarageLEAN ASIA CO., LTD

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Dumpling

One-time1
  • Dumpling Unlimited$9.99
None

Recipe Box

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Dumpling free?
Dumpling is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Recipe Box free?
Recipe Box is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Dumpling or Recipe Box have ads?
Neither Dumpling nor Recipe Box shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dumpling or Recipe Box?
Dumpling ships an update weekly, and Recipe Box every 5 months. Most recently, Dumpling was updated on October 17, 2026 and Recipe Box on October 31, 2026.

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