Comparison

Anova Culinary vs Forked for Mealie

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

Head to head
About

Anova Culinary

Discover and create sous vide recipes with a vast collection from professional chefs and home cooks. Control your precision cooker remotely, monitor cooking progress, and share your culinary creations. Offers guided cooking, time and temperature guides, and personal recipe saving.

Highlights
  • Largest sous vide recipe collection
  • Remote cooker control
  • Guided cooking instructions
  • Recipe creation and sharing
  • Time and temperature guides
  • Personalized cooking profiles
Features
Read full description

The Anova family of precision cookers allows everyone to cook like a pro! Paired with the Anova Culinary app, now perfectly cooked restaurant quality meals are as easy as the touch of a button. Browse the largest collection of sous vide recipes by Michelin star chefs and home cooks just like you. Then simply connect your cooker to the app and start, stop, and monitor your cook right from your mobile phone. Feeling inspired? Create and share your own recipes and go viral on the ‘gram. Whatever your pleasure, the Anova Culinary app is the place for everything sous vide. FEATURES ======== • LARGEST COLLECTION OF SOUS VIDE RECIPES: Access sous vide recipes created by Michelin star chefs and home cooks just like you. • COOK FROM AFAR: Start, stop, change the temperature, set the timer, and monitor your cooking status from just about anywhere, as long as your device is within Wi-Fi range. • RECIPE DISCOVERY: Cook recipes by James Beard Award-winning chefs, food editors, celebrity chefs, and more. • GUIDED COOKING: Follow the step-by-step instructions and click start to start cooking. • COOK NOTIFICATIONS: Stay up-to-date on your cooking status without getting tied to the kitchen. • RECIPE SHARING: Share your recipe with friends directly through the app. • TIME AND TEMP GUIDES: Learn the basics with our simple sous vide guides. • MANUAL CONTROL: Customize your cook settings with manual time and temperature control. • RECIPE COLLECTIONS: A series of new and appetizing recipe collections that are sure to keep you cooking. • RECIPE CREATION: Easily create and save your own personal sous vide recipe. • FAVORITES: Have a recipe or two that you love? Mark it as a favorite for quick and easy access. • PERSONAL PROFILE: Create your personal profile and see a history of all the meals you’ve cooked. Try all the features free for 14 days. Options in-app for monthly or yearly subscription terms. Payment will be charged to the iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. The account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period, and the renewal cost will be identified. Subscriptions may be managed by the user, and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. End User License Agreement (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Forked for Mealie

This app helps you create weekly meal plans and a single grocery list from your self-hosted recipe library. It offers features for hosting meals with guests, cooking with step-by-step guidance, and managing your recipes with custom profiles.

Highlights
  • Weekly meal planning
  • Consolidated grocery lists
  • Recipe management and editing
  • Offline recipe access
  • Guest meal hosting
  • Step-by-step cooking guidance
  • Customizable chef profiles
Features
Read full description

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: HOST A MEAL WITH FORKED PRO Plan a big meal for a date and your guests. Dishes scale to your guests, the timeline works back from serving, and appetizers or dessert can come out at their own time. Cook Together runs every dish's steps at once. NEW: COOK WITH YOUR IPHONE IN REACH Start Cooking shows the ingredients each step needs. Step timers run on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, several at once, and you can stop one without opening Forked. Widgets show what's next to cook, your plan, and what's left to buy. YOUR WHOLE LIBRARY Browse every recipe as photo cards, search ingredients, steps, and notes, and filter by favorites, rating, cook time, tags, or what fits your Chef Profile. Recipes are saved for offline reading, and servings scale the amounts. EDIT, FAVORITE, AND RATE Edit recipes, add new ones, replace photos, favorite, and rate. Changes save to your Mealie server, wait safely while you're offline, and never overwrite someone else's edit without asking. 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 through iCloud. Credentials, dietary preferences, and Plan History stay private. DECIDE WHAT TO COOK Swipe through Quick Picks from your own recipes to save, pass, or favorite. Suggestions are ranked by your Chef Profile and your favorites and ratings. PLAN YOUR WEEK Generate a multi-day plan from your library, choose a vibe, swap any meal, or pick any recipe yourself. Ask Siri what's next to cook, and find recipes in Spotlight (iOS 18 and later). SHARE THE MENU Send meals from your plan as a menu card with photos and a note. With Host a Meal, the card also shows when each dish is served. ONE GROCERY LIST Add a plan, saved picks, or your own items, like "2 lb chicken thighs", to one Shopping list. Quantities combine, items group by store section, and foods are suggested as you type. IMPORT FROM A LINK Bring in a recipe from almost any cooking website. Forked reads the page on your iPhone, and you check the recipe before it saves to Mealie. CHEF PROFILES FOR EVERY DIET Record allergies, diets such as vegan, halal, and gluten-free, and the ingredients you love or avoid. Allergies and diets that leave something out remove recipes whose ingredients, title, or a "Contains" tag name it; other diets, like keto, put tagged recipes first. 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. Changes on your server arrive within minutes. FORKED PRO A $9.99 one-time purchase, shareable with Family Sharing. Pro adds Households, Host a Meal with Cook Together, 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 throughout. Requires a self-hosted Mealie server; editing, importing, and other changes need Mealie 3.21 or later. 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.

Screenshots

Anova Culinary4 screens
Forked for Mealie4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Forked for Mealie at 100% against Anova Culinary's 32%. Forked for Mealie also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and update cadence (every 11 days vs monthly). Anova Culinary's advantage is ratings volume (26K vs 2) and chart position (#47 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Anova Culinary sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Forked for Mealie sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Forked for Mealie holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Anova Culinary has 26K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 32% of Anova Culinary's written reviews are positive against 100% of Forked for Mealie's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Anova Culinary ships an update monthly, Forked for Mealie every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Anova Culinary versus Forked for Mealie: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAnova CulinaryForked for Mealie
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (26K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews31.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings26K — better2
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#47 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size80 MB25 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAnova CulinaryAaron Kannengieser

Customer experience

Anova Culinary

All ratings25,593 ratings
Positive85.1%
Neutral3.2%
Negative11.7%
Written reviews1,225 reviews
Positive31.7%
Neutral9.5%
Negative58.9%

Forked for Mealie

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Anova Culinary

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App unable to maintain connection to device
  • Timer resets unexpectedly during cooking
  • Recipes not saving properly in the app
  • Compatibility issues with certain WiFi networks
  • Notifications not working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved recipe management
  • Better app integration with smart home devices
  • More customization options for cooking
  • Clearer instructions and troubleshooting guides
  • Ability to save personal recipes

Forked for Mealie

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Anova Culinary

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Sous Vide Yearly Subscription14 Days trial$9.991 Year
4 purchases

Forked for Mealie

One-time4
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Nice Tip$2.99
  • Generous Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Forked Pro$9.99

Questions

Is Anova Culinary free?
Anova Culinary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Forked for Mealie free?
Forked for Mealie is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Anova Culinary or Forked for Mealie?
Forked for Mealie is rated higher. Anova Culinary averages 4.4 out of 5 from 26K ratings, while Forked for Mealie averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Anova Culinary or Forked for Mealie have ads?
Neither Anova Culinary nor Forked for Mealie shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Anova Culinary or Forked for Mealie?
Anova Culinary ships an update monthly, and Forked for Mealie every 11 days. Most recently, Anova Culinary was updated on November 6, 2026 and Forked for Mealie on November 5, 2026.

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