Chefless vs Paprika: an honest comparison

Paprika 3 is bought once per platform and each version is sold separately (Paprika home page). US prices: iPhone and iPad $4.99 (Paprika App Store listing), Mac $29.99 (Paprika Mac App Store listing), Windows $29.99 (Paprika Windows page).

Android: the price is not listed on Paprika's site. Google Play shows it as free to install with in-app purchases of $4.99 to $19.99 per item (Paprika Google Play listing).

Paprika 4, in beta, is free to download and its premium features will need a subscription after the beta. The price is not listed on Paprika's site (Paprika 4 guide).

Free to download. Chefless Premium costs $5.99 a month or $34.99 a year in US dollars. Other countries see local prices in the store. Cancel any time in store subscription settings.

The Windows version of Paprika 3 has a free trial with no time limit, limited to 50 recipes and without cloud sync (Paprika Windows page).

A free plan with no time limit: up to five recipes (your own and saved together), one remix, one cookbook, a Kitchen of two members, and planning from two days before today to two days after. Cook mode, shopping lists, following cooks and the passport are free.

iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac and Windows (Paprika home page).

iPhone and Android. There is no desktop or web app.

Paprika 3 saves recipes from websites with a built-in browser and a bookmarklet, and imports files from other recipe apps (Paprika home page, Paprika App Store listing).

The Paprika 4 beta adds photo scanning, clipboard text import and social media import from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, all marked as premium (Paprika 4 news post).

Paste a link from a recipe website or a public social post with the recipe in its caption, paste recipe text, or choose up to four photos of a cookbook page, screenshot or handwritten card. Share sheet import works on iPhone and Android. You review each recipe before saving. Chefless does not watch videos or listen to audio.

Daily, weekly and monthly calendars and reusable menus (Paprika 3 guide). On iPhone, meals export to the Calendar app (Paprika App Store listing).

The Paprika 4 beta adds calendar feeds for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar and Outlook (Paprika 4 news post).

Week, month and year views. Each planned meal has its own servings. Copy a week, plan leftovers, and use one tap Plan it on meal ideas on Home. A Tonight widget shows the evening's meal on iPhone and Android.

Ingredients sort by aisle and similar ingredients combine, with multiple lists and custom aisles (Paprika home page).

One list from your plan for the days you choose. Repeated ingredients add together and sort by aisle. Update from plan keeps what you checked and added. Send list shares what is left to buy.

A pantry that records quantity, purchase date and expiry date (Paprika 3 guide). The Paprika 4 beta adds extra pantry locations and barcode scanning as premium features (Paprika 4 news post).

Pantry and What You Can Cook show recipes you can make from what you have. They are part of Chefless Premium.

One Paprika Cloud Sync account serves all devices that share a recipe collection, so partners use one login (Paprika 3 guide). Sync comes with the purchase at no extra fee and with no recipe limit (Paprika Windows page). Recipes can be emailed to other Paprika users (Paprika Windows page).

The Paprika 4 beta adds family sharing for up to five members, each with their own login, plus in-app messages, as premium features (Paprika 4 family sharing guide).

A Kitchen shares one calendar, one shopping list and members' shared recipes. People join with an invite code. A free Kitchen holds two members, and Chefless Premium allows unlimited members in a Kitchen you lead. Roles are Head Chef, Editor and Approver: members suggest meals and the Head Chef or an approver confirms them. A person can be in one Kitchen at a time.

Data is stored on the device, so no internet connection is needed to view recipes (Paprika Windows page, Paprika App Store listing).

Opens with what you saw last when you are offline, and Cook mode keeps its steps and timers on the phone. Most other screens need a connection.

A feed of other cooks, following, ratings from others or public profiles are not listed on Paprika's site. Its pages describe saving recipes from the web.

For You, Trending, Friends and Seasonal feeds. Follow other cooks, like, comment, rate, and post a photo of what you cooked. Accounts are public by default and can be private, recipes can be private or shared, and you can block and report.

16 languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Czech, Finnish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Hungarian, Polish and Norwegian Bokmål. Arabic and Turkish are not listed. Natural language parsing of recipes and automatic aisle assignment work in English only (Paprika Windows page).

English, Arabic (right to left), Spanish and Turkish.

Prints recipes, grocery lists, menus and meal plans. On iPhone, grocery lists export to Reminders (Paprika App Store listing). Recipes export as HTML or in the Paprika Recipe Format (Paprika 3 guide).

Recipes can be shared by link and shopping lists sent with Send list. Printing, file export and calendar export are not in the app today.

Paprika 3 stores nutrition information that it saves from sites that provide it (Paprika Windows page). The Paprika 4 beta adds nutrition analysis from USDA ingredient data as a premium feature (Paprika 4 news post). Diet filters are not listed on Paprika's site.

Diet tags and filters including Halal, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan, Pescatarian, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Low FODMAP and Keto. You can type calories on a recipe. Chefless does not calculate nutrition and does not certify any recipe as halal or allergen free.