Riff.kitchen vs Plan to Eat
Plan to Eat is for people who already know what they want to cook: save recipes from anywhere, drop them on a calendar, and it writes the shopping list. It is $5.95 a month or $49 a year after a 14-day trial with no card. Riff.kitchen runs the other way, from what is in your kitchen and closest to expiring, and it is free. Planning versus salvaging.
Claims about Plan to Eat last checked 2026-09-22. Features and pricing change, so check their site for current details.
Where Plan to Eat is the better choice
Listed first, and honestly. If one of these describes you, use it instead.
- It saves recipes from any website and keeps them in one place. Riff.kitchen cannot import a recipe collection at all.
- A proper planning calendar for people who like to choose the week in advance.
- Nutrition and macro tracking, which we do not offer on the planner.
- A 14-day trial with no card, then one price for everything, with no separate paid features.
- Years of use by people who have built up a collection there, which is worth more than any feature list.
Where Riff.kitchen is the better choice
- You do not need to have chosen anything: tell it what is in the fridge and it writes the recipe.
- A pantry that persists with expiry dates. Plan to Eat does not describe pantry or expiry tracking.
- The plan starts with whatever is about to go off, so the week is built around waste rather than around a menu.
- The shopping list is only the gap between the recipe and what you already own.
- Free, with no card and no trial clock: generation, pantry, planner and shopping list are all on the free tier.
Feature comparison
| Criterion | Riff.kitchen | Plan to Eat | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Save recipes from any website | No | Yes | Them |
| Planning calendar | Simple planner | Yes, the core of the product | Them |
| Nutrition and macro tracking | On demand, not in the planner | Yes | Them |
| Free tier | Yes, no card | No, a 14-day trial then $5.95/mo or $49/yr | Riff |
| Pantry inventory | Yes, persistent | Not described | Riff |
| Expiry tracking | Yes | Not described | Riff |
| Recipes generated from your ingredients | Yes | No, you supply the recipes | Riff |
| Automatic grocery list | Yes, only the gap | Yes, from the plan | Equal |
Common questions
Is Riff.kitchen a Plan to Eat alternative?
Only if your problem is deciding what to cook. Plan to Eat assumes you have recipes you like and want them organised into a week; it does that better than we do and it imports from any website, which we cannot. Riff.kitchen is for the evening when nothing is planned and the fridge has to decide.
Which is cheaper?
Riff.kitchen. Its free tier includes recipe generation, the pantry, the planner and the shopping list with no card. Plan to Eat has a 14-day trial with no card and then costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year. Our paid tier, Chef’s Pass at $6.99 a month, adds voice cooking, an advanced planner and AI images, none of which you need for the basics.
I am leaving Mealime. Which should I choose?
If you want to keep a recipe collection and plan ahead, Plan to Eat is the closer replacement and it imports recipes from web pages, which matters because Mealime provides no export. If the thing you will miss is being told what to cook, try Riff.kitchen. Our Mealime guide explains how to save your recipes before October 21 either way.
Try it on tonight’s dinner
Pick something you already have in and see what it does with it. Free, no card needed, nothing to install.
Or type what is actually in your kitchen