Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to I quit my job, took up cooking as a hobby and built a Meal Planning app
Around the middle of this year I quit my decently paid, high stress SWE job so I could spend some downtime doing things that make me happy. I did some travelling, both interstate and abroad, spent time working on projects around the house, did some gardening and took up cooking as a hobby. While cooking, I found that most of the apps already out there that focused on meal planning and recipe/shopping list management didn't quite work out how I wanted them to. Some would only work on limited devices, or bombarded me with pointless social features, or they didn't allow importing external…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I quit my job, took up cooking as a hobby and built a Meal Planning app launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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Meals▲97Plan out your dinners. Save recipes. Live more. Stress less.
2018 · apparmory.com · its alternatives →
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Groceed▲69Hi HN, I started working on Groceed after Google shut down a shopping list tool I had relied on for years. It wasn't perfect, but it solved a very real problem for me: having a simple, shared list that didn't get in the way. When it disappeared, I tried replacing it. Most apps I found felt wrong in opposite ways: either they were just plain bullet lists, or they tried to turn grocery shopping into a full-blown system with reminders, recipes, suggestions, and settings I never asked for. The main frustration was repetition. Every week I was typing the same items again, even though my shopping…
2023 · groceed.app · its alternatives →
- 5IM
My free to use app lets you schedule your favorite recipes with a few clicks
2024 · simplechore.xyz · its alternatives →
- 6AD
Hi guys, This is my first time building something from scratch so go easy on me. I've always used to-do lists to keep me productive and stave off anxiety (not sure why they work so well for me but they do). I get kinda annoyed at the to-do list apps on the app stores because they move tasks to the bottom of the list when you tick them off. Some people may like that, but it annoys the shit out of me, because I like to feel a sense of progression as I go down through the list over the course of the day. So this was borne out of my frustration really. I also made it browser-based so it's easy…
2022 · anotherdarntodo.com · its alternatives →
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Hello everyone, I created a EasyCook app, this app will generate food recipes based on your ingredients. The idea is not to waste food, and if you have left some ingredients in the Kitchen, you can write it down in app and get a recipe based on these ingredients. The app is free to use, however have more features available for paid users. Would be thankful for feedback, so I can improve the app more!
2024 · easycook.app · its alternatives →
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Hi all, I’m a parent and meal planning for my kids always felt overwhelming. I built a web app that would let me create profiles for my children, plan their meals, put their meal preferences, recipes, export the plan to my calendar, and share links to the timetable with others, and of course an AI helping with the plan and recipe . For now it has a free plan and also paid plan with more functionalities. I hoped it would be helpful for other parents. So i shared it with some family and friends. I would really appreciate your feedback. Thanks
2025 · yumm-yummy.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN! I built this tool for my wife to save her the headache of meal planning. She finds it helpful and I think you might too. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
2024 · platepickers.com · its alternatives →
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I built this because I see that grocery savings are achievable in NYC. People usually just go to the store they're used to going to, and it's rarely worth the effort of combing through card cashback, weekly coupons, CPG rebates. Most people leave real money on the table by not stacking them, and even more don't even know that these deals are out there.... so I built a way to automate it. You can use it for free, no login, currently NYC-only with ~690 stores. I built it so that you just search whatever you want (use commas if you want to search multiple items). Or - use the AI tool to help…
Jul 2026 · sbnyc.app · its alternatives →
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Hi, I built this iOS App that would let parents create profiles for my children, plan their meals, put their meal preferences, recipes, lunchboxes, export the plan to their calendar, and share links to the timetable with others, and of course an AI helping with the plan and recipe . For now it has a free plan and also paid plan. Initially i built this as a web app but then after feedbacks from close people i developed this iOS app. I would really appreciate your feedback.
2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Hey, I'm an iOS engineer who took on the seemingly mad task of creating a new grocery app in this day and age. Yes, there are plenty out there, but I promise there's a method to my madness. It's born out of a personal need – my wife would rattle off a list of things to buy, and I'd struggle to remember them all. She's not a fan of typing into apps or shared notes, and honestly, neither am I when it's about speed. The epiphany was that all existing grocery apps have an input problem. They're not catering to the way real people communicate about errands. So, I built HoneyDo to solve my own…
2024 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 13BY
I've just published my app and I would love to have more feedback on it. I got the idea when I was busy moving around several projects during my last semester. And I always don't know which project I should work on next. Even worse, whenever I'm busy with something, I no longer have time to "read book", "go jogging" etc. That's when I thought it would be great if there is an app that keeps track of all the tasks that you want to do and habits that you want to make. And here it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKVr0k9Hax0…
2014 · its alternatives →
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I got tired of trying to figure out my vacation balance throughout the year, so I made this website to be a stupid simple solution. It was pretty satisfying to bang it out over a weekend. * not all holidays are supported, and probably will do some custom-holiday-in-cookie functionality, but this is a common US list. * basically only looks good on 'normal' sized browsers
2023 · daysoffplanner.com · its alternatives →
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Offline desktop app for storing recipes, creating meal plans and generating grocery lists on a budget - budget-meal-planner/README.md at master · benjaminogles/budget-meal-planner
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17CT
Hey HN! I've just launched CookThis, my new app that helps fight food waste by using up leftover ingredients. It uses ML in a couple of ways to aid this, both by using a CNN to detect ingredients from a camera feed, and by using an LLM to generate new recipes. Would be great to get some feedback! There's a week free trial available with no commitment
2023 · its alternatives →
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Hey Everyone! This is my first post on Hacker News, and I wanted to share my project with you! From a young age, I dreamed of becoming a chef, but life took me down the path of software engineering instead. Nevertheless, my passion for creating delicious meals has always remained close to my heart. This journey led me to seek out recipes to enhance my cooking skills, but I often found myself frustrated by the websites I encountered—ads everywhere, walls of text, and recipes that were difficult to follow. That’s where PurePlates comes in. PurePlates allows users to share a recipe through…
2024 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 19IM
Hi HN, I am a solopreneur in the evenings and a software engineer during the day. In the past, I have created lots of calculators for my web projects and freelancing friends. These were pretty basic, but users always welcomed them. I also used currently available builders, but the problem was that they were either slow, broke on mobile devices, had nonsense page view limits, or were expensive. Some even ticked all those boxes. So I have decided to create my own, with a simple interface, and called it Creative Widgets (if it ever takes off, I plan to add more exciting stuff like charts, etc,…
2024 · creativewidgets.io · its alternatives →
- 20MW
I created https://foundermeals.com as a weekend project, and as part of an internal competition we do at http://www.freshform.com I love the concept, and I'll be ecstatic if the project is funded and can move forward. But I'm curious if I'm focusing too much on my own insane hunt to find the simplest way to cook, or if that appeals to others. Most people I've told about this respond with, "You're kinda analytical, huh?" or "You think people would pay for that?" or even "...." The thing is, I'm not trying to sell recipes, I'm trying to sell convenience, and I'm not sure I've communicated that…
2012 · foundermeals.com · its alternatives →
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OpBoard▲7I’m a financial analyst, and for years I managed our family budget in a massive Excel sheet. I loved the control, but it eventually became an "unpaid second job" of fixing broken CSV formats and patching formulas. The real problem: The spreadsheet was a barrier, not a bridge. It didn’t help me have better money conversations at home. Telling my wife “Dining is high” wasn't helpful; we needed to see where we were overspending (e.g., that one specific cafe vs. grocery runs) without me having to act as a "human pivot table" every Sunday night. I didn't want an app that required our bank…
Feb 2026 · opboard.io · its alternatives →
- 22MP
TLDR; I applied the concept of "don't make me think" to the task of selecting meals, and assembling the shopping list for your grocery run. The basic idea for what I wanted is very simple: Rather than making a shopping list, I wanted to create a re-usable 'meal', with a list of ingredients I'd need to add to my shopping list to make that meal. Then, after selecting meals for the week I'd have a quick 'check' step, where I'm prompted to check the cupboard for each ingredient, before it's added to the shopping list (ie: I'll need ground beef to make tacos, but I already HAVE ground beef in the…
2024 · its alternatives →
- 23IB
A few years ago, I started managing my finances using Google Sheets. It worked fine for a while, but then I hit some limitations. As my financial planning needs grew more complex, I found myself struggling with tracking assets and forecasting future financial scenarios. Thus, I started to work in my spare time on building FinancialAha: https://www.financialaha.com - a financial planning app designed to do everything my spreadsheets couldn’t. It is completely free and I intend to add some paid features later on as listed on the pricing page, but I want to keep it free for people…
2024 · its alternatives →
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Recipes, shopping lists, and kitchen inventory made simple
Mar 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →