Mealime vs Paprika.

Which one fits your routine?

Mealime’s familiar starting point is dishes shaped by your eating preferences, followed by a meal plan and grocery list. Paprika starts with recipes you collect. One helps narrow the dinner decision; the other gives you control over a personal cookbook.

• Choose Paprika for a collection you actively edit. It suits cooks combining favourite website recipes, family dishes and personal adaptations, especially when organising on a computer matters.
• Choose Meals Hub for continuity. It carries the Mealime catalogue and comes from the same core team. Some preferences need setting up again; recipe availability is not a transfer of your old account.
• Consider MealPot for a new planning routine. We make MealPot. Our Mealime vs MealPot guide explains its weekly plans and individual recipe-import route so you can compare that next step with managing your own Paprika library.

This comparison uses Paprika 3 store listings and the developers’ published workflows. The import instructions below are documented routes; we have not measured Paprika’s success rate on Mealime links.

Mealime and Paprika compared

Sources: Mealime’s overview, Mealime web import, Mealime platform and sharing help, and Paprika’s feature overview. Mealime does support personal recipes; the distinction is how you build your usual week.

Prices: US$4.99 on iPhone, US$34.98 with a Mac

Public prices checked on 12 September 2026. Apple figures use the US storefront; local prices and taxes can differ.

Purchase arithmetic: iPhone plus Mac is $4.99 + $29.99 = $34.98; iPhone plus Windows is the same. Both desktop versions plus iOS total $64.97. These are app costs, separate from groceries. A phone-only cook does not need a desktop licence to use the recipe library.

Paprika’s licensing policy includes cloud sync with paid purchases; licences do not transfer between platforms. Its current Paprika 3 policy has no recurring subscription fee.

Paprika 4 changes the future offer

Paprika’s July 2026 FAQ says new Paprika 4 features will require a subscription after beta, covering all platforms. Pricing has not been finalised there. Existing users can keep their current features without subscribing and are promised an in-place upgrade with continued sync, operating-system support and fixes. Today’s Paprika 3 purchase does not promise access to every future feature. Read the Paprika 4 policy.

How to move a Mealime recipe into Paprika

The practical unit of migration is one recipe page. Mealime’s iOS instructions say to open the recipe, use the more button and select the share icon. Copy its link; our copy-link guide shows the Mealime side of that process.

1. Open the page in Paprika’s Browser. Paste its link into the address bar. The recipe needs to be visible on the page.
2. Tap Download, review, then Save. On iPhone, Safari’s Share menu also offers a Paprika 3 extension.
3. If clipping fails, use the clipboard tools. Select the title, ingredients and directions from the page, assign each to its matching field, then save.
4. Use Edit for your saved copy. Preserve the source URL and original serving count; put personal changes in Notes.

These routes come from Paprika’s iOS guide. On Android, sharing a link from an external browser opens it in Paprika’s browser, where you use Download and Save. Android instructions.

A clipping route does not establish that every Mealime page imports completely. Missing source quantities or steps need resolving from your original recipe before the copy becomes a dependable shopping reference. Our free recipe backup tool provides a readable copy to compare.

What transfers—and what needs rebuilding

Paprika supports files from named recipe managers and a structured YAML format. Its format list does not name a Mealime account transfer. A downloaded reference, JSON file or PDF is not automatically a supported import file. Mealime favourites membership, account preferences and planning history are separate from recipe text and need rebuilding. See Paprika’s import formats.

Paprika can also export recipes as HTML for reading outside the app, or in its own recipe format for importing into Paprika. That makes it particularly relevant if leaving a service has made keeping an independent recipe archive a priority. Paprika’s export instructions.

From recipe collection to a usable week

This original workflow map summarises the published controls and shows where your work moves when you switch.

Original MealPot workflow map, based on Mealime’s overview and the Paprika Android guide.

In Paprika, save a repeatable week as a seven-day menu, then place it in the calendar with a chosen start date. When creating groceries, the selected calendar view matters: the action adds the visible day, week or month. For a three-dinner week, use the weekly view rather than adding the entire month. Pantry items are automatically deselected in the ingredient picker; maintain that record so it reflects your cupboard.

Paprika’s scaling carries through when a recipe is added to groceries. Its guide recommends ingredients written as quantity, unit and ingredient, so clean imported text matters beyond readability. Scaling quantities does not establish a new cooking time: doubling a recipe may require another pan or batch. Paprika’s scaling instructions.

Saved recipes can be read offline, according to the developer’s Android listing. That helps in a kitchen or shop with poor reception. Downloading a new web recipe and syncing another device still involve an online service.

Frequently asked questions

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Return to the Mealime guide for account changes, recipe backups and next steps.