Mealie
A household recipe server with meal plans and grocery lists; you supply the server and patience.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-10
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Open Source)
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Hosting Model
- Self-host (your server)
- Platforms
- webself-hosteddocker to self-host
- Installation
- Docker Compose
- Operational Setup
- A non-expert needs Docker, persistent volumes, an update/backup routine, and usually a domain plus HTTPS; importing recipe sites also produces parsing failures that must be cleaned up manually.
- Where Your Data Lives
- Recipes, users, groups, meal plans, and shopping-list records live in SQLite by default or PostgreSQL when configured; recipe images and application assets live in the mounted data directory, and Mealie's backup/export archives keep portable copies of the database and media.
- The Catch / Trade-off
- Mealie shares recipes and shopping lists, but its web-first recipe-server workflow is slower for aisle-side list entry, notifications, Siri/Alexa capture, and offline mobile use than AnyList.
Replaces 4 paid apps
up to $9.77/mo ($117/yr) in subscriptions
Mealie FAQ
Common questions
Is Mealie free and open source?+
Mealie is an open-source tool licensed under AGPL-3.0 that runs on self-host. A household recipe server with meal plans and grocery lists; you supply the server and patience.
What paid software does Mealie replace?+
Mealie serves as a free replacement for 4 paid SaaS applications: AnyList Complete, Mealime Pro, Paprika Recipe Manager, Plan to Eat, saving up to $9.77/month ($117/year) in subscription bills.
How do you install and set up Mealie?+
Installation: Docker Compose. Setup notes: A non-expert needs Docker, persistent volumes, an update/backup routine, and usually a domain plus HTTPS; importing recipe sites also produces parsing failures that must be cleaned up manually.
What is the catch or trade-off with Mealie?+
Mealie shares recipes and shopping lists, but its web-first recipe-server workflow is slower for aisle-side list entry, notifications, Siri/Alexa capture, and offline mobile use than AnyList.