Five kinds of meal planning app
- Guided planners (Mealime, eMeals): pick from a curated set of recipes and get an aisle-sorted list. Fast to start, but they do not know what is already in your kitchen and catalogues repeat.
- Recipe managers (Paprika, Plan to Eat, Samsung Food): save recipes from anywhere, plan on a calendar, build lists from chosen recipes. Great if you already have a recipe library; the pantry is manual or absent.
- Ingredient-based finders (SuperCook): type or dictate what you have and get matching recipes from millions. Powerful for tonight, but no planning, household sharing or expiry tracking.
- Photo-to-recipe apps (Fridge AI, Pantry Pic): photograph the fridge and get recipe ideas. Closest to Cibello's scanning, but usually without a persistent inventory, weekly plan or shared list.
- Surplus-food apps (Too Good To Go, Karma): buy unsold food from shops and restaurants. Good for the planet, unrelated to the food in your own fridge.
Cibello sits where these overlap: a food inventory built from photos, receipts and barcodes, recipes ranked by what you have, a weekly plan that uses food before it expires, and a household shopping list that only contains what is missing. See how the pantry app and the AI meal planner work.
Comparison table
| Feature | Cibello | SuperCook | Mealime | Samsung Food | Plan to Eat | Paprika | Fridge AI / Pantry Pic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Builds a food inventory from photos, receipts and barcodes | Yes | No (type or dictate) | No | No | No | No | Partly (photo, per session) |
| Recipes ranked by how much you already have | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Weekly meal plan that uses expiring food first | Yes | No | Partly (guided plan) | Partly (basic calendar) | Partly (manual calendar) | Partly (manual calendar) | No |
| Shared household shopping list of only what is missing | Yes | No | Partly (auto list, limited sharing) | Yes | Yes | Partly (limited sharing) | No |
| Expiry reminders | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Import your own recipes from the web | Not a focus – recipes are matched to your inventory | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Nutrition data | Partly (estimates) | No | Partly (paid tier) | Partly (paid tier) | No | No | Partly |
| Price model | Free trial, then subscription | Free | Free + subscription | Free + subscription | Subscription | One-time purchase | Freemium |
| Languages | 12 | Several | English | Several | English | English | English |
| Data stored in the EU, delete account in-app | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
What Cibello does not do
Cibello does not import recipes from arbitrary websites yet, does not sell food or discounts, and is not a calorie counter: nutrition values are planning estimates. Its AI can misread a label or miss an item at the back of the shelf, which is why you review every scan before it is saved. If you mainly want a pay-once recipe manager, Paprika is a better fit; if you want free guided dinners with no setup, Mealime is.
How to choose
- You have a big recipe collection and like planning by hand: Plan to Eat or Paprika.
- You want dinners picked for you with zero setup: Mealime.
- You want tonight solved from what is on the shelf, no account: SuperCook.
- You want the kitchen to plan itself: inventory from a photo, recipes from what you have, a week that uses food before it spoils and one list for the household. That is Cibello. Start with tonight.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best meal planning app?
It depends on the problem. For guided dinners: Mealime. For your own recipe library: Plan to Eat or Paprika. For recipes from typed ingredients: SuperCook. For an inventory from photos, recipes from what you have, weekly plans and a shared list: Cibello.
Is there a free meal planning app?
Mealime, Samsung Food and SuperCook have free tiers. Cibello has a 14-day free trial with no card required; household features continue with a paid plan.
Which meal planning app knows what is in my fridge?
Cibello builds a food inventory from photos, receipts and barcodes and keeps it updated. SuperCook needs you to type or dictate ingredients; photo-to-recipe apps recognise a single photo but rarely keep an inventory.
Does Cibello work outside Sweden?
Yes. It is available on iOS and Android in twelve languages, with data stored in the EU.
Try Cibello for free
Snap your fridge, get dinner ideas from what you already have and share the shopping list with your household.
Updated 2026-09-04