Best grocery budgeting apps, compared honestly
We make one of these apps, so read this accordingly. What we can offer is that every price and feature below was read off the vendor’s own page on , and that the section on where MealBudget is the wrong choice comes before the section on where it is the right one.
The question that actually separates these apps
Nearly every app here will build you a shopping list. The real difference is where the number comes from, and there are three answers:
- Prices you type in yourself. The app adds them up. Accurate if you keep it current, and nobody does for long.
- Advertised deals. Weekly flyers and offers. Real, but only for what is on promotion.
- Shelf prices read at named shops. What the product costs today. Only Basketr and MealBudget work this way among the apps here.
Where MealBudget is the wrong choice
Putting this first because it is the part you cannot get from our marketing, and because it is short and specific.
In Britain, if you only want the cheapest single product, use Basketr. They compare 13 UK and Irish chains. Our British page currently covers 2. That is not a gap we can talk our way out of and it is the right tool for that job.
If you want groceries delivered from your plan, use eMeals. It hands the basket to Walmart, Kroger, Instacart and others. MealBudget has no retailer integration at all.
If you want to pay as little as possible, we are not it. AnyList is $9.99 a year and Paprika is a one-time $4.99 on iOS. MealBudget is a monthly subscription and costs more over a year.
And we are iPhone only right now. Several apps here run on Android, web and desktop.
The apps, and what each is genuinely best at
Prices as stated by each vendor on . They change; check before you buy.
Basketr
- Price
- Free tier; Plus £2.99/mo; Pro £4.99/mo
- Price data
- Live retailer prices from 13 UK and Irish chains
- Best at
- Finding the cheapest shop for one product in the UK or Ireland. This is the one that beats us outright on price depth: 13 chains against our 2 in Britain, with price history and alerts. It does not mention meal planning or recipes anywhere on its homepage.
Source: basketr.app, read 22 Sep 2026
AnyList
- Price
- Free tier; Complete $9.99/yr individual, $14.99/yr household
- Price data
- Prices you type in yourself
- Best at
- A shared family shopping list that syncs everywhere, at a genuinely low annual price. Budget tracking and meal planning are in the paid tier. The totals are of your own entered prices, not store data.
Source: anylist.com/complete, read 22 Sep 2026
Paprika Recipe Manager
- Price
- One-time purchase, sold per platform — $4.99 on iOS
- Price data
- No price feed
- Best at
- Owning your recipe collection outright with no subscription, and clipping recipes from any website. Best-in-class at consolidating a list — it adds 1 egg and 2 eggs into 3. Buy it once and it is yours.
Source: paprikaapp.com and the iOS App Store listing, read 22 Sep 2026
Plan to Eat
- Price
- $5.95/mo or $49/yr ($54.99 if bought through the App Store)
- Price data
- No price feed
- Best at
- Flexible calendar-style planning across web and mobile on one family account, with a 14-day trial that asks for no card and a 60-day refund policy. Unusually generous terms.
Source: learn.plantoeat.com pricing help page, read 22 Sep 2026
eMeals
- Price
- "as low as $4.99 a month for a 12-month subscription"; 3 months for $37.50
- Price data
- Prices appear at the retailer, not in eMeals
- Best at
- Handing the finished basket straight to Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, Amazon, Albertsons or Safeway for pickup or delivery. Nothing here matches that store integration, and its plans are dietitian-written.
Source: emeals.com/how-it-works, read 22 Sep 2026
Where MealBudget is the right choice
One thing, and it is the thing none of the others do: it plans a week of meals against a number you set, and prices that plan from shelf readings before you go to the shop. Basketr has the deeper price data and no meal planning; the planners have the recipes and no price data. MealBudget is the one joining the two.
- 2,208 priced grocery items across 11 countries, each carrying the shop it was read at and the date it was read. You can read every price we publish without installing anything, and download it as CSV.
- It plans across meals, not per recipe. A bunch of coriander gets used up by the third dinner instead of rotting, which is where most household food waste comes from.
- It counts whole packages. You cannot buy a quarter of a bunch, so the total reflects what you actually pay at the till.
- Where a price is missing, it says so rather than estimating one. Blanks are honest; invented numbers are how a budget app quietly stops being useful.
Common questions
What is the best grocery budgeting app?
It depends on which problem you have. If you want the cheapest shop for individual products in the UK or Ireland, Basketr compares 13 chains and is better at that than MealBudget, which covers 2 British chains. If you want a cheap shared shopping list, AnyList costs $9.99 a year. If you want recipes you own forever with no subscription, Paprika is a one-time purchase. MealBudget is the right choice if what you want is a week of meals planned against a budget you set, priced from real shelf readings before you shop.
Is Mealime shutting down?
Yes. Mealime’s own homepage carries the notice "Mealime will shut down on October 21, 2026", checked on 22 September 2026. Most "best meal planning app" articles still recommend it, so it is worth knowing before you start building plans in it.
Which grocery apps show real supermarket prices?
Very few. Most shopping-list apps total prices you type in yourself, and flyer apps show advertised weekly deals rather than shelf prices. Of the apps compared here, Basketr and MealBudget are the two working from actual retailer prices. Basketr covers more chains in the UK and Ireland; MealBudget covers 11 countries and attaches the prices to costed recipes.
When should you not use MealBudget?
If you only want to compare the price of single products in Britain, Basketr covers more chains. If you want a free app and will not pay anything, AnyList and Paprika cost far less over a year. If you need groceries delivered from your plan, eMeals integrates with the major US retailers and MealBudget does not.
Competitor prices and features were read from each vendor’s own website on and are reproduced as stated there. Nothing on this page is drawn from review sites or from memory. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.