Plannie vs Paprika: the full comparison.
Paprika is a very good recipe manager, bought once per platform ($4.99 on iPhone, $29.99 on Mac) with no subscription. Plannie makes dinner one column of the family week: a recipe link becomes a meal with photo and ingredients, the ingredients go to the grocery list in a click, and everyone has their own login.
Feature by feature
| Plannie | Paprika 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared colour-coded family calendar | ✓ | ✗ Paprika's calendar holds meals in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack slots. It isn't a family events calendar. |
| Calendar sync | Two-way Google & Outlook, Apple & ICS feeds in | ● One-way export to Apple Calendar Meal entries export to a separate Paprika calendar in the iOS or Mac Calendar app. Google only through a Google calendar already added there. Nothing syncs in, and no ICS feed is documented. |
| Chores, routines & rewards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Weekly meal planning | ✓ A weekly grid of breakfast, lunch and dinner inside the family calendar. Ingredients go to the grocery list in one click. | ✓ Daily, weekly and monthly calendars, reusable Menus, and a grocery list generated from the plan, sorted by aisle, with a pantry. |
| Recipe import from a link | ✓ | ✓ A built-in browser and a bookmarklet capture recipes from hundreds of sites, with scaling and timers picked out of the directions. |
| Shared and private lists | ✓ | ● One grocery list and one pantry per account. Sharing means everyone signs into the same account, so nothing is private. |
| AI import of emails, photos & PDFs | Premium | ✗ Web-page and text-document import today. AI photo scanning is announced for Paprika 4 behind a subscription with no published price. |
| Wall display | Kiosk mode on any tablet | ✗ Cook mode keeps the screen on while you cook. There is no display mode. |
| Per-member personal mode on own phones | ✓ | ✗ One shared login Paprika 4 beta adds sub-accounts with their own credentials that see all of the owner's data. |
| Desktop & web | Web app in any browser | Mac & Windows apps, no web app Each platform is a separate purchase: Mac $29.99, Windows $29.99. |
| Open API & MCP for your own agents | Premium + MCP | ✗ |
| Subscription | $99/yr whole household | None, one-time per platform iOS $4.99, Mac $29.99, Windows $29.99; Android unlocks by in-app purchase, amount not shown on Google Play. Paprika Cloud Sync is included. |
| 3-year cost, family of four | $297 Premium No hardware to buy for either. | $39.97 Two iPhones and one Mac: $4.99 + $4.99 + $29.99, paid once. Four iPhones only: $19.96. A Paprika 4 subscription, if you take it, isn't priced yet. |
Paprika prices and platform details from paprikaapp.com, paprikaapp.zendesk.com and the App Store listings, checked 18 September 2026. In fairness, Paprika's recipe capture, scaling, timers and pantry go deeper than Plannie's recipe library, and it works offline with real Mac and Windows apps.
Sources: paprikaapp.com, paprikaapp.com: Windows, Paprika App Store listing
A cookbook and a week
Paprika is a cookbook that clips itself. Open a recipe page in its built-in browser, tap once, and the ingredients, directions and photo are stored on your device, offline, with the timers already picked out. Plan it on a daily, weekly or monthly calendar, save a Menu you like, and the grocery list writes itself by aisle. It costs $4.99 on an iPhone, once, and nothing after that. Fifty thousand App Store reviews average 4.9 stars for good reason.
It is a cooking tool for one login. To share with a partner you both sign into the same account, so there is nothing private and no idea of who is who; Paprika 4's sub-accounts will change that, behind a subscription with no price yet. The calendar holds meals rather than the family's events, and the only way out is a one-way export to Apple Calendar. There is no web app, no chores, no way to email it a school schedule, and nothing to put on the kitchen wall.
Plannie treats dinner as one column of the family week. Paste a recipe link and it becomes a meal with a photo and ingredients, sitting under Tuesday next to the swimming lesson; one click puts the ingredients on the shared grocery list. Every member has their own login and their own view, chores pay out in tickets, the Family Inbox files school paperwork, and a tablet in kiosk mode shows the week on the wall. That is what $99 a year buys, for the whole household.
Choose Paprika if…
You want the best recipe collection you can own outright, working offline on the phone and the Mac, with a meal calendar and an aisle-sorted list built around cooking. One login for the household is fine, and you plan the rest of family life elsewhere.
Choose Plannie if…
You want the week's dinners next to the week's events, recipe links that turn into meals with ingredients on the list, and everyone in the household on their own login under one $99/year plan. Add chores, a Family Inbox for school emails and a kitchen tablet in kiosk mode, and dinner stops being a separate app.
Frequently asked
Does Paprika have a family plan?+
Not in the version on sale today. Paprika 3's official way to share with a spouse is for everyone to sign into the same account, and each person may still need to buy the app for their own device. Paprika 4, in beta as of September 2026, adds sub-accounts with their own email and password that see all of the owner's recipes, lists and meal calendar; that will need a subscription whose price isn't finalised, free while the beta runs. Plannie gives every member their own login, with private lists and personal mode, on one $99/year household plan.
How much does Paprika cost for a family?+
It's a one-time purchase per platform: $4.99 on iOS, $29.99 on Mac, $29.99 on Windows, and an in-app unlock on Android whose amount Google Play doesn't display. Two parents on iPhone plus one shared Mac is $4.99 + $4.99 + $29.99, $39.97 in total, and because there's no subscription that is also the three-year cost. Cloud sync is included. Plannie is $99/year for the household, $297 over three years, with a free plan that includes the calendar and a starter meal library.
Paprika vs Plannie for meal planning?+
Paprika's planner is deeper as a cooking tool: daily, weekly and monthly calendars, reusable Menus, a grocery list built from the plan, scaling, timers picked out of the directions, and everything stored offline. Plannie's meal grid is part of the family calendar, so Tuesday's dinner sits under Tuesday's swimming lesson where everyone sees it. Paste a link and Plannie adds the recipe with its photo and ingredients; one click puts the ingredients on the shared grocery list. The free plan starts with 20 dishes and 5 photos; Premium removes the limits.
Does Paprika sync with Google Calendar?+
Only indirectly. Paprika exports meal entries one way into a separate Paprika calendar in the iOS or Mac Calendar app. To reach Google you point that export at a Google calendar already added to the Calendar app, and the time zone may need setting to UTC. Nothing syncs back in, there is no ICS feed and no web app. Plannie syncs both ways with Google and Outlook and takes Apple or ICS calendars in as feeds.
Is Paprika 4 out, and does it have AI?+
It's in beta. Support articles from July 2026 describe it as an in-place upgrade for Paprika 3 owners, with the new features behind a subscription: AI photo scanning of recipes, social media import, family sub-accounts and an Alexa skill. The price hasn't been published. One caution when searching the App Store: Recipe Saver: Recipes Manager borrows a Paprika 4 name in its URL but is an unrelated app from another developer. Plannie Assistant is available today on Premium: Magic Import reads photos, PDFs and links, and the Family Inbox turns forwarded emails into events.