# Alternatives to Tandoor

Self-hosted recipe management.

Tandoor ranks #2 of 8 in Recipe managers, with an Alt Score of 82. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause, open source with paid hosting from €1.99/mo and available on Linux and Web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tandoor/
Category: Recipe managers

## Where Tandoor stands out

- **Self-hostable** — 3 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Home cooks and families who want to consolidate recipes from cookbooks, bookmarks, and scattered notes into one searchable system, and anyone who prefers a self-hosted, ad-free alternative to commercial recipe sites.
- **What you get**: A recipe manager with structured ingredient and step organization, a URL importer that pulls recipes from thousands of sites, and full-text search across your collection. It adds meal planning (manual or automated) with calendar export, shopping lists generated from planned recipes with items grouped by supermarket layout, and automatic nutrition and cost calculations per recipe. Multi-user support lets you share cookbooks with family or friends under configurable permissions.
- **How it works**: Add recipes by entering them manually or importing from a URL, then organize them into books and tag them for search. From there, schedule recipes on a meal plan, which can auto-generate a shopping list of the needed ingredients that syncs across devices.

## Profile

- **License**: AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Starts at**: €1.99/mo (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Platforms**: Linux, 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 | [Crouton](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/crouton.md) | 78 | ? | iOS, macOS |
| 3 | [Mealie](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mealie.md) | 73 | AGPL-3.0 | Web |
| 4 | [Mela](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mela.md) | 73 | Proprietary | iOS, macOS |
| 5 | [Samsung Food](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/samsung-food.md) | 73 | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Web, macOS |
| 6 | [KitchenOwl](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kitchenowl.md) | 68 | AGPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS |
| 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 | Tandoor | Paprika | Crouton | Mealie | Mela | Samsung Food |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | OSS + paid hosting | One-time | Freemium | Free | One-time | Freemium |
| Starts at | €1.99/mo | $4.99 | $1.99 | Free | $6.99 | $6.99/month |
| License | AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause | Proprietary | ? | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Linux, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | iOS, macOS | Web | iOS, macOS | iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Browser extension |
| 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 | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Cross-device sync | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access | Partial | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| One-time purchase option | No | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | No |
| OCR from photos | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Tandoor. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: AGPL-3.0 with Commons Clause — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/LICENSE.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: AGPLv3 with a Commons Clause selling exception (source-available, not OSI-approved); per README.
  - Quote: “License:  GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE v3”
- **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “We are offering a hosted version (https://app.tandoor.dev) where all profits support us and the development of tandoor (currently only available in germany).”
- **Platforms**: Linux, Web — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/install/docker/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Also installable as a PWA (Web); no native mobile/desktop apps.
  - Quote: “Setting up this application using Docker is recommended. This does not mean that other options are bad, but its the only method that is officially maintained and gets regularly tested.”
- **Status**: active — <https://api.github.com/repos/TandoorRecipes/recipes> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: pushed_at": "2026-07-10T11:10:32Z", "archived": false"
- **Starts at**: €1.99/mo — <https://tandoor.dev/#pricing> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Cheapest hosted tier; self-hosting is free.
  - Quote: “Basic ... €1.99 / mo”
- **Web clipper / URL import**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “📥️ Import recipes from thousands of websites supporting ld+json or microdata”
- **Meal planning**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “📆 Plan multiple meals for each day”
- **Grocery lists**: Yes — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/features/shopping/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Shopping lists allow you to easily convert a recipe or even a whole meal plan into a shopping list.”
- **Scaling & unit conversion**: Partial — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/features/external_recipes/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Recipe scaling documented; automatic unit conversion not explicitly stated.
  - Quote: “support features like shopping lists, scaling and steps”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “🐳 Easy setup with Docker and included examples for Kubernetes, Unraid and Synology”
- **Cross-device sync**: Yes — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/features/shopping/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “When checking items in viewing mode the change is synced to all other clients that currently have the same list open.”
- **Offline access**: Partial — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/faq/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Only recently-accessed recipes cached offline, not full offline functionality.
  - Quote: “Tandoor can be installed as a progressive web app (PWA) on mobile and desktop devices. The PWA stores recently accessed recipes locally for offline use.”
- **One-time purchase option**: No — <https://tandoor.dev/#pricing> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “All plans are charged per month.”
- **OCR from photos**: Yes — <https://docs.tandoor.dev/features/ai/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Importing recipes from images, PDFs, or raw text.”
- **Sharing**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TandoorRecipes/recipes/develop/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “👪 Share and collaborate on recipes with friends and family”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/