# Alternatives to KitchenOwl Self-hosted shopping lists and recipes. KitchenOwl ranks #7 of 8 in Recipe managers, with an Alt Score of 68. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, free from Free and available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Web. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kitchenowl/ Category: Recipe managers ## Where KitchenOwl stands out - **Self-hostable** — 3 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Households and families who want to run their own grocery-list and meal-planning app instead of relying on a third-party service, and who share shopping duties and costs across multiple people. - **What you get**: A self-hosted, open-source app for shopping lists, recipe storage, and weekly meal planning. Shopping lists group items by category and learn your usual order and preferred recipes. Recipes can be saved from the web or written manually, and used to auto-fill shopping lists. It also tracks shopping expenses and splits costs among household members. - **How it works**: You deploy KitchenOwl yourself (e.g. via Docker) and set up a household that multiple users can join. From there you add items to shared shopping lists, attach recipes to a weekly meal plan, and log expenses that get divided automatically among household members. ## Profile - **License**: AGPL-3.0 (verified 2026-07-10) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-10) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-10) - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-10) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Paprika](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/paprika.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | | 2 | [Tandoor](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tandoor.md) | 82 | AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause | Linux, Web | | 3 | [Crouton](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/crouton.md) | 78 | ? | iOS, macOS | | 4 | [Mealie](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mealie.md) | 73 | AGPL-3.0 | Web | | 5 | [Mela](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mela.md) | 73 | Proprietary | iOS, macOS | | 6 | [Samsung Food](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/samsung-food.md) | 73 | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Web, macOS | | 7 | [Mealime](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mealime.md) | 60 | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Web | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Recipe managers checklist | KitchenOwl | Paprika | Tandoor | Crouton | Mealie | Mela | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | One-time | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | Free | One-time | | Starts at | Free | $4.99 | €1.99/mo | $1.99 | Free | $6.99 | | License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause | ? | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary | | Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Linux, Web | iOS, macOS | Web | iOS, macOS | | Web clipper / URL import | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Meal planning | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Grocery lists | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Scaling & unit conversion | ? | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | | Self-hostable | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | | Cross-device sync | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | | Offline access | Partial | Yes | Partial | ? | ? | ? | | One-time purchase option | No | Yes | No | Partial | No | Yes | | OCR from photos | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for KitchenOwl. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “We love open-source software; thus we will never monetize or sell your information, and this service and software will always stay free and open.” - **License**: AGPL-3.0 — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 19 November 2007” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “KitchenOwl is a free, open-source application for grocery list management, recipe organization, meal planning, and household expense tracking.” - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “The KitchenOwl applications, including the Android, iOS, Web, Windows, macOS, and Linux applications, and websites, including the homepage and documentation, do not send any data to any service withou” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: v0.7.9 released 2026-06-04; repo pushed 2026-06-28, not archived. - Quote: “KitchenOwl v0.7.9” - **Web clipper / URL import**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Automatically scrape recipes from popular websites to save time and effort” - **Meal planning**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Create a detailed meal plan to always know what you’ll be eating throughout the week” - **Grocery lists**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Add items to your shopping list with ease and sync them in real time across multiple users and devices” - **Self-hostable**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “There are multiple ways you can install the KitchenOwl server. Official Installation The official installation method is using Docker and docker-compose” - **Cross-device sync**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Cross-platform synchronization to keep your data consistent no matter where you access it” - **Offline access**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Partial offline support ensures you never lose track of your grocery list, even without an internet connection” - **One-time purchase option**: No — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: No purchase mechanism; entirely free. - Quote: “this service and software will always stay free and open” - **OCR from photos**: No — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: Ingredient parsing is from scraped text, not photos; no OCR-from-photo feature. - Quote: “The scraping only returns a list of ingredients (like 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 carrots chopped) from which we need to extract the ingredient name and description.” - **Sharing**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Share your favorite recipes with friends and family or import theirs” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/