Mealie
Mealie is a self-hosted, open-source recipe manager and meal planner. It imports recipes from URLs, supports a clean manual editor, and generates meal plans and shopping lists. A REST API and Docker-first deployment make it approachable for self-hosters who want control over their data without giving up convenience.
It’s designed for households, home cooks, and privacy-minded users who collect recipes from the web and want planning tools in one place. Power users can integrate Mealie with Home Assistant or scripts, while the Progressive Web App provides a mobile-friendly experience without a native app.
Use Cases
- Home cooks and families building a private, searchable recipe library from saved URLs and personal recipes.
- Weekly meal planning with a calendar view and automatic shopping list generation for grocery runs.
- Self-hosters running Docker on a NAS, VPS, or home server who want an open-source alternative to proprietary recipe apps.
- Automation-friendly setups that expose recipes and meal plans via the REST API for integration with Home Assistant or custom scripts.
- Users migrating from tools like Paprika, Chowdown, Nextcloud Cookbook, Copy Me That, or Tandoor Recipes using Mealie’s import helpers.
Strengths
- URL recipe importer: Scrapes structured recipe data (ingredients, steps, times, images) from many sites to speed up collection building. As noted by XDA Developers, Mealie’s import quality is among the best.
- Modern, polished UI: A clean, intuitive interface reduces friction when adding, editing, and browsing recipes; frequently praised in community discussions.
- Meal planning and shopping lists: Plan by week or month and generate organized lists grouped by store sections.
- PWA for mobile: Install the web app to home screens and use it like a native app, including offline support in many cases.
- Organization tools: Cookbooks, tags, categories, favorites, and smart/fuzzy search make large libraries manageable.
- Docker-first deployment: Official images and examples simplify installation and upgrades across platforms.
- REST API and integrations: Enables automations and smart-home scenarios; commonly paired with Home Assistant.
- Localization: UI available in 35+ languages for international households.
- Import/export and backups: Tools for migration and data safety, plus export options for long-term control.
- Active community: Regular GitHub activity and translations indicate ongoing improvements and responsiveness.
Limitations
- Import reliability on non-standard or translated pages: Sites without proper schema or pages viewed through Google Translate may fail or import in the original language, requiring manual cleanup.
- Bulk import/export rough edges: Users have reported broken or incomplete batch flows (e.g., JSON imports). A GitHub issue notes that bulk import/export has been “currently broken” at times; verify the latest status before large migrations.
- No native mobile app: The PWA covers most needs but lacks some native conveniences that dedicated shopping apps offer.
- Limited automatic measurement conversion: Imperial/metric conversions aren’t fully automatic; expect manual adjustments.
- Occasional integration issues: SSO/OIDC and similar setups can require extra configuration or patching; test thoroughly.
- Experimental features: AI/video-based importers are promising but immature; treat them as optional.
Final Thoughts
Mealie is a practical, well-designed choice for self-hosted recipe management and meal planning. Its URL importer, planning tools, and Docker-first approach make it strong for everyday use, while the REST API caters to automation-minded users.
For best results: start with a small set of recipes to validate imports and your backup routine; test PWA behavior on your devices; and, if migrating a large library, pilot a subset first and check current status of bulk import/export and integrations (e.g., OIDC). If you want privacy, control, and an all-in-one workflow, Mealie is easy to recommend.