Compare · Updated · 7 min read
The best app for sharing recipes with family: one kitchen or many
Recipe apps share three ways: one account for the whole household, a recipe sent one at a time as a file or an email and a private feed between people who each keep their own box. Six apps compared on which they do, from the vendors’ own pages, so you can match the app to the family.
Forktales wrote this page. It makes one of the apps in it, says so where it matters and names what it does not do.
“Sharing with family” means three different things to the apps that offer it, and picking the wrong one is how a family ends up with the recipes on one phone. Decide which of the three you want before you look at the table.
Three ways to share
One account
AnyListCoziPlan to EatPaprika
The household signs in as one. Everyone sees and edits the same recipes, plan and list. Simple, and nobody has a box of their own.One recipe at a time
PaprikaCroutonAnyListMela
A recipe goes out as a file, an AirDrop or an email. The other person imports it or reads it as text. Works across apps; nothing stays in sync.A private feed
Forktales
Each person keeps their own box. A recipe shared with friends appears in their feed; they cook it, fork it or ask for the one they saw on a plate. Nothing is public.
Side by side
| Forktales | AnyList | Cozi | Plan to Eat | Crouton | Paprika 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Any phone, tablet or computer, in a browser. Installs from the browser to the home screen. No app store listing. | iOS, Android and Apple Watch. Mac and web on Complete only. No Windows. | iOS and Android apps, and a web app. | iOS, Android and Mac apps, and a web app. | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro and Apple Watch. No Android, no web. | iOS, Android, Mac and Windows apps. No web app. |
| Price | Free. AI actions spend credits: 5 on sign-up, 10 for CA$4.99, or Plus at CA$4.99 a month. | Free. Complete at CA$12.99 a year, or CA$19.99 a year for a household. | Free. Cozi Gold at CA$39.99 a year in-app. | Subscription only: US$5.95 a month or US$49 a year on the site, CA$69.99 a year in-app. 14-day trial. | Free. Crouton Plus at CA$19.99; Discover at CA$1.99 a month or CA$12.99 a year. | Bought once per platform: CA$6.99 on iOS, CA$39.99 on Mac, US$29.99 on Windows from the vendor. Android not verified. |
| Getting recipes in | Paste a link, send a page from the bookmarks bar or the Android share sheet, paste the recipe’s text or photograph it. No file import. | Links (five free), an iOS action extension, the Android share sheet, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge extensions, a two-part paste; .paprikarecipes files through the website. | Paste a link, the share sheet or a bookmarklet; otherwise typed in. | The Recipe Clipper extension and mobile share, pasted text, a camera or library photo; .html files from Paprika, Recipe Keeper and Copy Me That, plus .json, .fdxz, .mmf, .mxp, .txt and .csv. | Links, the share sheet, plain text, JSON-LD; AI import from a photo or PDF. | A built-in browser saves recipes from a page; the iOS share sheet; a clipboard toolbar fills fields from pasted text; files from Paprika, MasterCook, Living Cookbook, MacGourmet, Pepperplate and others. |
| Photos and handwriting | Photos, screenshots and handwriting, up to six photos for one recipe. The photo is read by AI and not kept. One credit a scan; a failed scan is free. | No photo scan. | No photo scan. | A photo of a recipe card, described without naming AI or handwriting. | AI import from a photo and an OCR book scan. No handwriting claim. Images stay in your iCloud; the developer has no access. | No photo scan. No handwriting. |
| Getting recipes out | No file export yet. Every recipe is plain text on its page. | One recipe by email or AirDrop. No bulk export article found. | Not found in the vendor’s pages. | All recipes to .csv or .txt from the website, free and without a subscription. | Several recipes at once to .crumb, PDF, text or Markdown. | All recipes to HTML or a .paprikarecipes file, included in the price. |
| Sharing | Private by default. A recipe shared with friends shows in their feed and opens by a link for signed-in friends. Friendship is mutual. No public profiles. | Household sharing, all or nothing, by email invite. One recipe by email as text. A shared link opens the source site, not the recipe. | One family account for up to twelve people with one password. A recipe by email or text as a link that needs no app. | Friends in the app see your non-private recipes; one account per household. A text or email link shows non-users the ingredients only. Recipes are hidden from search engines but reachable by URL. | iCloud sharing and a local link. Family Sharing shares the household’s recipes and plan. | One recipe by AirDrop, email or iMessage. One Cloud Sync account shared across your own devices; Apple Family Sharing covers the purchase for up to six. No link, no server-side sharing. |
| Planner and list | None. No planner, shopping list or pantry. | Planner on Complete. The grocery list is the main product. | Family calendar, meal planner and shopping list. | Planner and shopping list; a staples list instead of a pantry. | Planner; grocery list through Reminders. | Meal planner, grocery list and pantry. |
Read from Forktales, AnyList, Cozi, Plan to Eat, Crouton and Paprika 3 on 31 October 2026. Prices are as the vendors state them on that date; the store price in Canada can differ.
One kitchen
If the family eats together, a household account wins. Cozi runs up to twelve people on one password with the calendar and the shopping list, free. AnyList adds a household on Complete at CA$19.99 a year; the grocery list is its main product. Plan to Eat is one account per household by design and plans the week. Paprika gets there by giving everyone the same Cloud Sync login. In all four, a teenager who moves out takes nothing with them unless they export.
Several kitchens
If the family is a sister in Calgary and a parent in Laval, one account does not fit. Each person wants their own box and a view of the others’. Forktales is built for that: you invite them, the friendship is accepted on both sides, and from then on a recipe you share shows in their feed with your name on it. They can cook it and say so. They can fork it into their own version, or ask for a recipe they saw you post. Nobody outside the friendship sees anything, and there is no profile for a stranger to find. Crouton does a version of this inside one Apple family with Family Sharing, if everyone has an iPhone.
Forktales has no shared planner or list, so the week’s shopping stays in whatever you use now. The friends-only page sets out exactly who sees what.
Sharing with someone who will not install anything
Cozi is the one app in the table whose shared link opens without an account. Plan to Eat’s link shows a non-user the ingredients and nothing else. Paprika, Crouton and AnyList send the recipe as text in an email, which reads fine on any phone. In Forktales a recipe is plain text on its page; copy it into a message for the relative who will never sign up, and invite the ones who will.
What we checked, and did not
Every column is from the vendor’s own site, help centre or Canadian App Store listing, read on 31 October 2026. We make Forktales and use it with our own families. We did not set up a household in the other five apps for this page, so nothing here describes how their sharing feels day to day. Prices change.