Mealody vs Plan to Eat (2026)
Plan to Eat organises the recipes you already collect. Mealody decides the week for you and sizes every portion per person. Which one fits depends on whether you bring the recipes.
by The Mealody Team ·
| App | Price | Free plan | Platforms | Languages | Where recipes come from | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mealody | PriceFree today, no card | Free planYes — all of it | PlatformsWeb | LanguagesEnglish, Romanian | Where recipes come fromBuilt in; you can't add your own | Best atSizing one meal to each person in the house |
| Plan to Eat | Price$5.95/month or $49/year | Free planNo — 14-day trial, no card | PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android | LanguagesEnglish | Where recipes come fromYours, clipped from any site | Best atOrganising recipes you already love |
The one question that decides it
Do you already have the recipes?
If yes — a folder of screenshots, a Pinterest board, your mother's handwriting — then Plan to Eat is built for exactly that. You clip recipes from anywhere, drag them onto a calendar, and it turns the week into a shopping list. That is the whole product, and it does it well.
If no, and the actual problem is that nobody has decided what Thursday looks like, Mealody starts from the other end. You describe who eats in the house once, and it plans up to seven days from its own catalogue.
Where Plan to Eat wins
Your recipes stay yours. Clip from any site, keep them forever, export them. Mealody has no import at all — if your cooking is built on recipes you have gathered over years, that alone settles it.
It plans as far ahead as you like. The calendar is open-ended. Mealody caps a plan at seven days.
It is a proper phone app. iOS and Android, not just a web page.
It tracks macros. It calculates nutrition facts for your saved recipes and shows daily totals on the planner. Mealody shows figures but gives you nothing to log against, on purpose — if tracking is what you want, Plan to Eat is your answer.
Where Mealody is different
Portions are worked out per person. Each member of the household has an age, a goal and an activity level, and a nine-year-old and an adult at the same meal get different amounts. Plan to Eat scales a recipe by the number of servings — a real feature, but a different one.
Different diets in the same meal. Someone vegetarian gets their own version of the dish everyone else is eating, rather than a separate recipe you have to plan yourself.
It is free today, with no card. Plan to Eat is $5.95 a month or $49 a year with no free tier, which is fair for what it does but is a decision you make up front.
Two languages. English and Romanian.
Where they are the same
Both give you one shopping list from the whole plan. Neither shows live supermarket prices — you get a list to shop from, not a running total.
Pick Plan to Eat if
- You already have recipes you love and want them organised.
- You want to plan further than a week ahead.
- You want a native app on your phone.
- You want to track macros against a daily total.
Pick Mealody if
- The hard part is deciding, not collecting.
- People in the house need different amounts, or eat differently from each other.
- You want to try it without paying anything or entering a card.
What to do next
How Mealody works has the full fact sheet — what it does, and what it does not. If you are weighing more than these two, the best meal planning apps for families page covers seven, alphabetically. And if you are here because Mealime is closing, that page is the one you want.
Plan to Eat's figures were checked against its own pricing, help and tour pages on 18 September 2026. It bills in US dollars, so what you pay depends on the exchange rate and your VAT.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the main difference?
- Direction. With Plan to Eat you bring the recipes and it builds the calendar and the list around them. With Mealody you bring the people and it decides the meals. Neither is a better idea in the abstract; they suit different kitchens.
- Which one is free?
- Mealody is free today and does not ask for a card. Plan to Eat costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year, after a 14-day trial that also does not ask for a card. It has no free tier.
- Can I import my own recipes into Mealody?
- No. Mealody plans from its own catalogue. If your week is built around recipes you have collected for years, Plan to Eat is the better fit and this page will not talk you out of it.
- Does either handle different diets in one household?
- Mealody gives each person their own diet and builds everyone their version of the same meal, with portions sized by age, goal and activity. Plan to Eat scales a recipe by servings and leaves the adapting to you.
- Is there an app to install?
- Plan to Eat has iOS and Android apps as well as the web version. Mealody is web only — it runs in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to download.
- How far ahead can each one plan?
- Plan to Eat has an open-ended calendar, so you can plan as far out as you like. Mealody plans up to seven days at a time; when the week is done you generate the next one.
- Does either count calories?
- Plan to Eat does: it calculates nutrition facts for your saved recipes and shows daily totals on the planner. Mealody deliberately does not — it shows the figures for a meal, but there is no diary and no daily total to hit. Nutrition data sourced from USDA FoodData Central, not estimated.
- What languages do they work in?
- Plan to Eat is in English — its own help pages say the buttons and menus stay in English wherever you are. Mealody is in English and Romanian.