Free Programs for Organizing Your Kitchen Recipes

Free ways to declutter your recipes and plan your meals

African-american man cutting bell pepper in kitchen
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by Dave Rankin
Dave Rankin is a former Lifewire writer and a senior software developer who co-owns a digital creative agency and creates and distributes open source software.
Updated November 10, 2019

There are many free programs to help organize your kitchen recipes. If you use a mobile app or web-based software, you can quickly pull up recipes on your phone while at the grocery store. Here's a look at the best apps for managing your kitchen.

Web-based programs work on any device in any web browser, but desktop programs and mobile apps are operating system specific.

Recipe Keeper

Recipe Keeper for Android
What We Like

  • Desktop and mobile versions sync perfectly.

  • Sort your grocery lists by recipe or category to make shopping faster.

  • Import recipes directly from websites.

What We Don't Like

  • Free version is limited to 20 recipes.

  • The pro version must be purchased separately for each device.

With Recipe Keeper, you have easy access to all of your recipes on all of your devices. You can create shopping lists and meal plans that you can export as PDF files and print them out. There's even an in-app timer, so you don't have to open up another app while using your iPad in the kitchen. Available for Windows 10, Android, and iOS, Recipe Keeper is free to download on all platforms, but the premium features are well worth to few extra dollars.

Yummly

Yummly for Android
What We Like

  • Filter recipes based on food allergens and dietary restrictions.

  • Integrates with Instacart and other grocery apps so that you can have ingredients delivered to your door.

What We Don't Like

  • You can't add your own personal recipes.

  • Buggy mobile app.

  • Incessant ads.

Yummly is a web-based meal planner with a massive database containing millions of recipes. As you favorite specific entries, Yummly will recommend recipes based on your tastes. While you can use Yummly in your phone's mobile browser, there is also a Yummly app for iOS and Android.

BigOven

BigOven for Android
What We Like

  • Follow friends and family members to see what they're cooking.

  • Create meals from a list of leftover ingredients.

  • Coordinate shopping lists with other users.

What We Don't Like

  • App layout and search features need improvement.

  • Subscription required to view nutritional information.

If you have an attic full of old family recipes, the BigOven app provides a way to digitize and preserve them. When you scan handwritten recipes with your phone's camera, BigOven will convert them to digital text so that you can more easily search and manage them. The Recent Raves feature is a great way to discover new recipes, and you can also search for recipes uploaded by other users.

Paprika Recipe Manager

Paprika Recipe Manager for Android
What We Like

  • Add photos for individual steps.

  • Convert measurements to metric system.

  • Frequent improvements and updates.

What We Don't Like

  • No family sharing features.

  • Buggy in-app browser.

  • The layouts for each platform are inconsistent.

Paprika is available as an app and as a desktop program. The Windows and Android versions are free to download with a premium option, but the iOS and Mac versions require an upfront purchase. Fortunately, once you download it for one platform, it syncs with all your devices. Best of all, your phone won't go into sleep mode with Paprika open, so you don't have to touch the screen with dirty fingers.

Evernote

Evernote for Android
What We Like

  • Available for all devices.

  • Useful for more than managing recipes.

What We Don't Like

  • No recipe suggestions or meal planning features.

  • Incessant ads and pop-up notifications.

Evernote wasn't made specifically for managing kitchen recipes, but it's a powerful tool for creating and archiving task lists. You can store recipes by copying text from websites or by scanning clippings from magazines and cookbooks. Evernote automatically tags entries to help with searching and sorting. There are endless options to edit, annotate, and export your notes.