Mealime is closing: is Groceree the right alternative?
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Mealime shuts down on October 21, 2026, and its owner, Albertsons Companies, is moving users to Meals Hub inside its grocery store apps. If you used Mealime to cook simple recipes and shop from one list, Groceree covers the recipes and a shared grocery list, but not Mealime’s automatic meal plans. Here is the honest comparison.
Mealime’s closing notice says the app will be discontinued on October 21, 2026, that account information does not move to Meals Hub, and that personal data will be deleted when the app shuts down. Its Pro features became free for everyone in September while it winds down.
This page is written by the team behind Groceree, so weigh the framing accordingly. The Mealime facts come from Mealime’s own closing notice, help center and app store listings, checked on October 4, 2026.
Feature comparison
What each app does, as of October 2026.
| Feature | Groceree | Mealime |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone (iOS 16.4+), Android | iPhone, iPad, Android and web, until October 21, 2026 |
| Meal planning calendar | No | Yes — builds a weekly plan around your diet, allergies and dislikes |
| Built-in recipes | Discover: more than 500 recipes from 28 cuisines, in 13 languages | Its own chef-tested recipes, moving to Meals Hub |
| Saving recipes from websites | Yes — share any public recipe page or paste its link | Paste a link from a recipe site (per its help center) |
| Saving recipes from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook | Yes — share the post or paste its link; when the caption is not the whole recipe, the video itself is read | Not listed |
| Scanning cookbook pages and handwritten recipes | Yes — up to 8 photos of one recipe, handwriting included | Not listed |
| Recipe ingredients to the shopping list | Yes — untick what you have; the rest is added by aisle and merged with what is already on the list | Yes — the plan becomes a list sorted by store section |
| Shared lists | Free, unlimited members via invite link | No — Mealime suggests signing in to one account on each device |
| Scaling a recipe to more or fewer servings | Yes — amounts rescale as you change the serving count | Servings set for the plan, up to 6 |
| Cooking mode | Yes — keeps the screen on; tap a step to cross it out | Yes — keeps the screen awake; wave a hand to move to the next step |
| App languages | 13 | English only |
| Ads and paid upgrade | Ad-supported; Groceree Plus removes ads and makes recipe imports unlimited | Free — Pro became free in September 2026 |
| Maturity | New — small but strong ratings base | Since 2016, 54,000+ ratings on the US App Store; closing October 21, 2026 |
A cell marked “Not listed” means the feature is not mentioned in that app’s own store listing, website or help pages. It may still exist — we would rather say we could not confirm it than claim it is missing.
What Mealime does that Groceree does not
If these are what you will miss, Groceree is not a like-for-like replacement.
- It plans the week for you. Mealime builds a plan from your diet, allergies and the ingredients you dislike, and picks recipes that use up what you buy. Groceree has no meal planner: you choose what to cook, and it takes care of the recipe and the list.
- It comes with its own recipes, all tested by its chefs. Groceree has a Discover tab of more than 500 recipes, but most people fill Groceree with recipes they find themselves.
- It has a web version for planning on a computer. Groceree is iPhone and Android only.
- Its successor keeps going. Meals Hub carries the Mealime recipes and planner over, free, inside the Albertsons Companies store apps such as Safeway’s. If you shop at one of those stores, it is the closest like-for-like move.
Where Groceree is the better fit
And the cases where we think Groceree suits former Mealime users better.
- You find recipes outside a single app. Share a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or Facebook post, any recipe page or a photo of a cookbook into Groceree and it writes out the ingredients and steps. Mealime cooks from its own library and links you paste in.
- You shop with someone else. Groceree lists are shared with a link, each person on their own account, and every change shows up on every phone straight away. Mealime’s advice was to share one login.
- You shop somewhere other than an Albertsons Companies store. Meals Hub lives inside those stores’ apps; Groceree works with whichever supermarket you use.
- You cook in another language, or from recipes written in one. Groceree runs in 13 languages and can translate an imported recipe; Mealime is English only.
The short answer
If what you will miss most is the automatic weekly plan, Meals Hub (if you shop at an Albertsons Companies store) or another meal planner is the closer replacement. If you used Mealime for a set of recipes you actually cook and one tidy grocery list, Groceree does that with recipes you find anywhere, and a list the whole household shares.
Common questions
- When does Mealime shut down?
- On October 21, 2026, according to Mealime’s closing notice. Account information does not transfer to Meals Hub, and Mealime says personal data will be deleted when the app shuts down.
- Can I move my Mealime recipes to Groceree?
- There is no automatic transfer. Many Mealime recipes are also published on mealime.com; open one in your phone’s browser and share the page to Groceree, which reads the recipe from it. Do it while the site is still up.
- Does Groceree make meal plans like Mealime?
- No. Groceree saves and organizes recipes, scales them to the number of people eating and turns their ingredients into a shared grocery list, but it does not schedule meals across a week.
- Is Groceree free?
- Groceree is free to download on iPhone and Android. Shared lists are free, and saving recipes is free up to five imports a week; Groceree Plus removes ads and makes imports unlimited.