Grocy
Grocy is an open‑source, web‑based, self‑hosted groceries and household management app (PWA). It centralizes pantry and fridge inventory, meal planning, shopping lists, chores and equipment maintenance, and exposes a REST API for integrations.
The project targets self‑hosters, home‑automation enthusiasts and households that want privacy and control over their data. It runs well on Docker, small devices (Raspberry Pi) or a VPS, and offers mobile/PWA clients and barcode support for convenient in‑shop use.
Use Cases
- Individuals or families who want a single tool to reduce food waste and avoid duplicate purchases by tracking stock and best‑before dates.
- Home‑automation users who integrate inventory and notifications with Home Assistant or custom scripts using Grocy’s REST API.
- People who plan meals and want shopping lists generated from recipes and current stock to speed grocery trips.
- Households that need recurring chores, equipment maintenance schedules, warranty records and calendar exports consolidated in one place.
- Self‑hosters who prefer privacy‑preserving, extensible solutions deployable on Docker, a Raspberry Pi or a small VPS.
Strengths
- Open source and free — no subscription, code is auditable and community‑driven.
- Self‑hosting friendly — official/community Docker images and documented installs for low‑power hardware.
- Comprehensive household feature set — inventory, expiry tracking, recipes, meal planning, shopping lists, chores and equipment management in one app.
- Good integration surface — full REST API with Swagger UI makes automations and Home Assistant integrations straightforward.
- PWA and mobile support — responsive UI, installable PWA and mobile clients with barcode scanning for fast product entry.
- Customizable — custom fields/objects and feature flags let you adapt Grocy to specific workflows without changing source code.
- Flexible storage and maintenance tooling — SQLite by default, optional MySQL/MariaDB, and upgrade/backup guidance for self‑hosts.
- Localization and reporting — multi‑language support, statistics on consumption/waste and basic reports to analyze habits.
- Active community — GitHub issues, forums and community contributions help with deployment patterns and troubleshooting.
Limitations
- Technical setup and upgrades — Docker and manual installs require attention to persistent volumes, permissions and upgrade steps; non‑technical users may need help.
- Occasional compatibility issues — some users report upgrade‑related errors (e.g., web server rules, migration hiccups); plan for backups and testing.
- Limited offline sync — PWA offers convenience but not full native offline sync and conflict resolution for all features.
- UI learning curve — rich feature set leads to a denser interface; expect some configuration and learning time to reach efficiency.
- Feature gaps and bugs — certain advanced requests (e.g., consumption‑based expiry prediction) or unit conversion edge cases may require workarounds, community plugins or custom scripts.
Final Thoughts
Grocy is a practical, privacy‑focused choice if you are comfortable running and maintaining software on your own hardware. It consolidates many household workflows and provides a healthy integration surface for automations.
If you decide to self‑host: deploy via Docker or a supported image, keep data on persistent volumes, schedule regular backups, and test upgrades (or snapshot your instance) before applying them to production. Use the REST API to connect Grocy to Home Assistant or scripts for reminders and automation, and leverage barcode/Open Food Facts to speed data entry. If you need guaranteed commercial support, robust full offline sync, or prefer zero maintenance, a hosted SaaS may be a better fit.