Comparison

SideСhef vs Chef

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

Head to head
About

SideСhef

Discover and cook delicious meals with step-by-step instructions, personalized recommendations, and integrated grocery shopping. This app simplifies meal planning and helps you explore new cuisines, even if you're a beginner cook.

Highlights
  • Step-by-step recipe guidance
  • Personalized recipe recommendations
  • Integrated grocery list creation
  • One-click online grocery shopping
  • Meal planning tools
  • Smart appliance control
  • Beginner-friendly cooking tutorials
Features
Read full description

SideChef’s 18,000 step-by-step recipes help you get from “what’s for dinner?” to cooking your next meal in just minutes. Filter by diet and preferences, search by ingredients, create a grocery list, and instantly shop ingredients from your favorite grocer. Called “best app” by USA Today and the New York Times’s “favorite cooking app,” SideChef empowers you to eat healthier, save money, and live your most delicious life. PERSONALIZED RECIPE RECOMMENDATIONS Quickly find recipe inspiration tailored to your preferences. Filter by dietary requirements, allergies, food preferences, and ingredients you already have at home to find a recipe you like in less than one minute. ONE-CLICK GROCERY SHOPPING Easily create a grocery list, and shop ingredients directly from Instacart, Walmart, Amazon Fresh, Target, and more online grocers. Ingredients are intelligently matched to in-store products, and updated with real-time prices and availability. Make smarter decisions by seeing the percentage of each ingredient used in a recipe – an easy way to plan for leftovers and minimize food waste, while also saving money. GREAT FOR BEGINNERS New to cooking? Our step-by-step recipes include an image or video at every cooking step so you know exactly what to do. Built-in timers ensure you never overcook anything again, while how-to videos teach you valuable culinary skills – from how to properly dice an onion, to how to press tofu. Rate recipes, upload photos, exchange tips, and share cooking fails and successes with the SideChef home cooking community. EASY MEAL PLANNING Use our meal planning tool to select recipes for the week, or save appealing recipes to your cookbook. Browse thousands of curated recipe collections and meal plans for more inspiration and ideas on what you’ll cook next. RECIPES FOR EVERYONE Personalized recipe recommendations for these diets and allergens: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Low-Carb, Paleo, Keto, Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Soy, Peanut, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish Recipes cover a variety of cuisines: American, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, French, and more! Browse recipes from your favorite culinary influencers – top food bloggers, writers, and renowned chefs. PRAISE FROM MEDIA “If you’re always scorching the stew and you just can’t seem to achieve perfectly puffed chocolate chip cookies, let this free app serve as your new cooking companion.” — Real Simple “If you’ve ever ruined an entire meal because of a seemingly tiny mistake in timing or ingredient proportioning, then we have an app for you.” — Business Insider _________________ By downloading and using this app or purchasing a SideChef Premium subscription, you are agreeing to the SideChef terms of use and service: https://www.sidechef.com/terms For more information about how we use your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy: https://www.sidechef.com/privacy-policy. By downloading this app, you acknowledge the terms of our Privacy Policy. SIDECHEF PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS SideChef is free to download and use. Should you choose to upgrade to SideChef Premium, we offer two auto-renewing subscription options: * Monthly SideChef Premium subscription: $4.99 USD. Cancel anytime. * Annual SideChef Premium subscription: $49.99 USD. Cancel anytime. These auto-renewing subscription plans renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours prior to the end of the subscription period. Your payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription will automatically renew each month or year 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can turn off auto-renew at any time from your iTunes account settings.

About

Chef

Discover and cook thousands of recipes with a modern interface. Create your own recipes, generate shopping lists, and analyze nutritional values. Offers premium features for unlimited recipe creation and private recipes.

Highlights
  • Recipe discovery
  • Custom recipe creation
  • Automated shopping lists
  • Nutritional value analysis
  • Recipe scheduling
  • Modern design
Read full description

Chef® helps you discover thousands of recipes and to schedule and cook them, from shopping to serving. • Discover a new way to explore flavors with Chef®'s modern design. • Create your own recipes to schedule them. They will also be analyzed by our unique algorithm to estimate their nutritional values. • Simplify groceries by automatically generating shopping lists, and add your own items. The Chef® Plus subscription allows you to create as many recipes and shopping lists as you want, and to create private recipes. With the Chef® Max subscription, enjoy all the benefits of Chef® Plus, but also get the nutritional values of your recipes and enhance your recipe images. Renewed monthly, these subscriptions will be charged to your iTunes account. At the end of the one-month period, unless you have disabled this feature, your subscription will automatically renew for your iTunes account. You will be charged the subscription price within 24 hours after the end of the validity of the initial purchase. You can cancel the automatic renewal at any time before these 24 hours. No refund can be made for the unused period of a subscription. For more information on the terms of use and privacy policy of Chef®, visit https://the-chef.app/policy. By using the app, you accept its terms of use, available at https://the-chef.app/terms.

Screenshots

SideСhef4 screens
Chef4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: SideСhef at every 2 months against Chef's every 21 months. SideСhef also leads on ratings volume (1.7K vs 21) and review sentiment (67% vs 50%). Chef's advantage is iOS requirement (13 vs 15.1). On price, rating, ads 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. SideСhef sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Chef sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 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 — 4.7 for SideСhef against 4.7 for Chef. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SideСhef has 1.7K ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of SideСhef's written reviews are positive against 50% of Chef's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SideСhef ships an update every 2 months, Chef every 21 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
SideСhef versus Chef: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSideСhefChef
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.7K ratings) — better4.7 (21 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.7K — better21
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 21 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#200 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.113 — better
Further details — not scored
Size71 MB109 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperSideChef Group LimitedGuillaume Cendre

Customer experience

SideСhef

All ratings1,669 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral1.4%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews150 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral4.0%
Negative29.3%

Chef

All ratings20 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

SideСhef

Subscriptions2
  • SideChef Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • SideChef Premium - Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
1 purchases

Chef

Subscriptions1
  • Chef Premium - One Month$1.991 Month

Questions

Is SideСhef free?
SideСhef is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chef free?
Chef is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, SideСhef or Chef?
SideСhef is rated higher. SideСhef averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while Chef averages 4.7 from 21 ratings.
Do SideСhef or Chef have ads?
Neither SideСhef nor Chef shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SideСhef or Chef?
SideСhef ships an update every 2 months, and Chef every 21 months. Most recently, SideСhef was updated on October 29, 2026 and Chef on October 24, 2026.

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