Menu Planner Reviews

by Mindy224

I’ve had MenuPlanner for years and paid to buy it initially for full use of MenuPlanner . But with the most recent update I’ve very upset to see that it has switch to a pro subscription service where I have to pay monthly or yearly to sync the files to the online site. It is much easier to edit recipes online than the mobile app but I can only upload recipes on MenuPlanner so now I’m stuck from adding any new recipes. I tried to look for the developer’s contact information to reach out to see if there was something to be done for a loyal customer since 2015, but I couldn’t find anything. I’m disappointed to have to look for a new app to use and start from scratch building my recipe database again.

by BeBop A DoWap

This used to be a great app. I’ve been using it for years, bought the original app, and spent time in importing all my recipes. The most recent upgrade takes away the sync feature that was previously included in the price I paid for MenuPlanner . The yearly subscription rate to continue this feature is now FOUR TIMES...PER YEAR what I originally paid for MenuPlanner . I would never have bought the original or invested the time if I’d known this was going to happen.
I will be looking for a better app to transition to for the future. Very disappointed in the decision to take away this feature from those of us who already paid for it in the past.

by Sushi Wob

I am writing in response to the recent decision of the developer to unfairly force long time users into purchasing the “Pro” version in order to use the sync and web access features. My family has been using MenuPlanner for 4 years, now, and it is very good. Some functionality could be improved with the importing of recipes, but MenuPlanner has really helped us schedule our family meals, as well as become our recipe library. I am quite upset about having to pay ~$20/year, now! I understand there are costs being incurred, but I strongly disagree with punishing loyal customers who rely on MenuPlanner daily! We have over 300 recipes/entries in MenuPlanner , so now we have a gun to our head to either pay to continue to access our own recipe library or try to find another app and start the entire process over again...is that fair? I am not opposed to paying to help offset the costs incurred; however, I believe it should be a lesser amount for loyal customers. So, I strongly urge the developer to reconsider the current plan of action! I recommend “grandfathering” loyal customers and cutting the cost to $10/year while charging new customers the $20/year.

by Busy.family.of.four

A while ago I PAID for MenuPlanner. As in I purchased it. I want to say it was $10 or $15? But now it is free to download and there is a monthly subscription. At the time I paid for it there was no monthly subscription. But instead of getting grandfathered in they want me to start paying the monthly subscription for something I already bought. Right now I can’t even open MenuPlanner and all the recipes I spent hours typing in are gone! Can you imagine purchasing a car outright/cash and then having the dealership come back and say they will repossess your car if you don’t start paying them monthly! I should get to keep what I originally paid for. So what happens if you spend hours putting in your data and they then double the monthly fee? I wouldn’t trust them.

by Ashbash1

Update - still ZERO response from Menu Planner about my issues. I have purchased a new app that is so much better and UPDATED! It took a week of non-stop work to get my recipes transferred but I am so happy I did. Shame on you for charging a subscription and not updating the obvious issues.

I have contacted MenuPlanner ’s customer support a couple times about the fact that photos disappear from the recipes every time I log in or out. I make sure that MenuPlanner has synced. I am using the iPhone Xs and IPad Pro 11. Just now I had to find over ten photos that had been deleted from the iPhone. They do not respond to any requests for help. I should add, I am paying for the yearly subscription fee. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? It is unbelievably frustrating!

by Ml317

I have used MenuPlanner for a good part of ten years now. I absolutely loved it! Then one day recently MenuPlanner updated and I wasn’t able to use it because it kept closing. So I deleted and reinstalled it. Then magically, it got past the title screen. However, upon logging in I quickly realize not one of my recipes are there. I have to start over! I’m not paying you for an app that I put a lot of time and effort into just to have it vanish. I have a tried and true method, it’s called paper, pen and a recipe box found in my kitchen. The only thing it will cost me is the price index cards and the ink to write them. I’ll be keeping my own recipes safe.

by Hihowrye

Updated Review: BEWARE!

After using MenuPlanner for YEARS...installing it on iPads and phones for both me and my husband, without warning this developer pulls the syncing option in an update. We are furious that we spent the money to buy MenuPlanner , the enormous amount of time gathering favorite recipes and inputting data, now to be abandoned by this developer. NEW USERS BEWARE! We will not allow our data to be held in some kind of ransomware scheme. The developers’ need to recoup his cloud service costs should and could have been handled more fairly. Shame on his name.

**************Previous review
I agree that it takes time to set up and that MenuPlanner needs a more streamlined printing feature, but my husband and I have used MenuPlanner for a year and we use it every day. The dev has worked hard to respond to requests with quick replies on MenuPlanner 's website. It syncs across our two ipads for menus, shopping lists, and recipes. You can take photos of your creations and store with the recipe. It scans barcodes for pantry inventory. Taking the time to learn it has made it one of our most useful apps.

by Misc.09

It is against Apple Store Policy to take away features users previously paid for.

3.1.2(a) Permissible uses: (bullet-point #7)

“If you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for. For example, let customers who have already purchased a “full game unlock” continue to access the full game after you introduce a subscription model for new customers.”

Many of us already purchased MenuPlanner, including the sync feature. We recommended it to all our family and friends. We participated in the forum on the developer’s website and overall became huge supporters of what this developer had built.

Then the developer disappeared for three years. No updates were made, he stopped responding to people in the forum, and eventually the forum disappeared. Now there isn’t even an email address to contact the developer.

It’s fine to charge new customers a subscription, I get it. But to treat your previous biggest fans this way is truly appalling

by Mal Exemplar

I'd give this 1 start, but it did seem to work at one point and I'm hoping they get it fixed soon. It seems like every other update breaks more than it fixes. I used it quite a bit when I first got it about a year ago. Had started putting receipts in and was going to start using it for pantry tracking/grocery shopping. But the interface was a bit clunky and it fell out of use. I used it occasionally when it got updated, but there was always something that made it more work than it was worth. I started using it again a few weeks ago, and now it's practically useless. My biggest complaints are its speed (slow to doesn't respond), and quantities. Examples: Enter 1/4 cup grated Parmesan in a recipe and MenuPlanner converts it to .3 cups when you view the recipe. Open the recipe to edit, select the item, and it's there as 1/4 cup. Also, at times items don't get added to menus when you click the "+" (as far as you can tell), but come back to that day's menu plan later and it's in there multiple times. And finally, sometimes I can't open a recipe from the menu plan from that day. I have to go to the sidebar menu, open the recipes list, and search for it.

by FullOfIdeas

Used to love MenuPlanner. I have used it for years and put tons of time in to it saving all the meals that I make for my family. THEN, you all decided to "upgrade" MenuPlanner and took away the most useful piece of the whole app- the CATEGORIES in the food list. I had my foods set up as "fish dishes, chicken, soup, vegetarian..." And it made it super simple to make my meal plans for each week. Now I just have one massive alphabetical list of items and it really doesn't help me at all.
So upset about it because I had spent so much time in MenuPlanner and it was super helpful. I can't find another app that had such an easy interface and all my meals are already loaded.
Can you please fix this?!? Give us back this simple user friendly item and stop adding bells and whistles!

by Dhdjwofh Jd

I have been a loyal user of MenuPlanner for over 10 years, originally a one time purchase (less than $4) but developers are now using a Pro subscription price model that for $20 yearly basically just gets you syncing across devices — not a very smart offer. MenuPlanner could use A LOT of updating to justify this Pro cost:
1. Enable the barcode feature to actually input product and nutrition info. Right now, it’s not really useful at all.
2. Improve recipe clipping from the internet. Currently a very cumbersome system that relies on a lot of cut and paste.
3. Enable recipe save from photos. This should be standard.
4. Improve customer service & developer responsiveness. This used to be excellent in early days of MenuPlanner development. Now seemingly non-existent.

by Kkacnf

I use this on a regular basis. App was very helpful until I had to reinstall on a new iPad. Now what is in my phone won’t sync with my iPad which is a real pain since I prepare recipes from my iPad and use the phone for the grocery list. Please fix this! It is helpful in making grocery lists and planning meals if you can sync between devices. Set up takes a while since you have to enter everything. I would love to merge something like Grocery Pal with MenuPlanner to update store prices with weekly sales. With store Aisle set up, I can easily organize my shopping list for my favorite stores. As a cost conscious shopper, I would love to see the ads in one place to compare prices.

by Dafffodil05

I like to plan my menus several weeks in advance. In the past, I kept my menu planning papers in my kitchen drawer. Unfortunately sometimes, I would lose these papers. I have recently (three months ago ) started using MenuPlanner for my menu planning. I can thankfully say I have no longer lost my menus. So why only four stars? It takes a while to figure out the navigation. Other than that, it is a great app.

by Fran Noerr

Love it! I have been using MenuPlanner for YEARS. I have over a thousand entries. I was delighted to sync to my iPhone. I just noticed it will sync to my watch! Well worth the money. Too many great features to list! Don't believe the bad reviews. Make sure you back up your app occasionally. I love to cook. I'm a mother of 5. I'm constantly inventing new recipes. I jot them down in MenuPlanner . If I like it it stays if not I delete it. Super simple interface. I never leave reviews but MenuPlanner is that great.

by McMammaMia

Update: subscription need is understood but the pricing is way too steep for the actual data being stored. I spend $1.99 monthly for TB of storage! Maybe $5/year I would do but I’m curious to see web site sync functionality improve and the web version update before committing. Long time user. Would love the “save from web” feature to stay strong! I use it mainly for recipe import from the web but it's very comprehensive, user friendly and useful! Thank you!!

by LadyMacleod

I love MenuPlanner. It syncs very well with all the recipe sights I use. I’ve stored my recipes here for years and can share them with anyone with just the click of a button. I love the shopping list and if I forget my iPad, no problem because it syncs to my iPhones and my Apple I watch. I love that it auto tracks my pantry and the number of times I’ve used a recipe. It’s so easy to edit a recipe or add notes for other possible uses. When I just don’t know what to make , I can look thru my old menus or look up recipes by ingredient. Very Convenient!

by ~Kabuki~

This is by far the best recipe app I've used. Its a one stop app for everything dealing with planning and organizing what I want to eat, from lists to pantry to recipes to meals. I like that I can plan from my ipad and have the shopping list available on my phone. Best of all I can view the meals by week or month. This is especially useful when I end up too busy to cook for a few days and I need to reorganize my meal planning.

2017 I've tried other menu planners, but I always go back to this one because its so functional! I'm ecstatic to see its still being updated.

by GemCoder

I’ve used MenuPlanner for five years- and I absolutely love it. I cook almost entirely from scratch, and I’m delighted to be able to track my pantry levels, review past menus, and easily add recipes from anywhere. The calorie syncing with Health is nice, and I’m delighted to see the widget on Apple Watch. As a long time user I’m excited to see where the developer is going with this- the pro subscription is worth every penny!

Feature Wishlist:
- I would love to be able to get a price per meal when I’m working out the meal plan for the month. Total shopping list price for my local stores is great, but I still break out scratch paper to figure cost per meal.

- Siri integration would be AMAZING. Ideally “Hey, Siri, what’s for dinner tonight?” And she’d tell me what I have planned. Even better would be if it would take into account the prep time on the recipe- “You’re having Pot Roast, and you’ll need to start it at 10am. Would you like me to remind you?”

- I’d also like to see a newsletter or something announcing app development and changes.

by TookieLOrange

I’ve been using this little app for over five years. It’s underrated in my opinion so I’m contributing my review. First of all, no advertisements! In this age where you can barely see a recipe under all the ads, this ad-free app is a relief. I’ve imported recipes from many sites, and made my own changes and notes without problems. I use it all the time for grocery lists. I tried the pantry function, but the function wasn’t worth the effort. Not the apps fault, it’s just not something I need. There is a lot more functionality that I just don’t need, but it’s there for those who want food management as their top priority. After more than five years this little app continues to perform.

by Homanmom29

MenuPlanner now has issues it didn't have before. I have probably thousands of recipes on MenuPlanner and the lack of being able to use MenuPlanner with multiple devices without having to sync and restore on different devices makes it difficult to use. My sync doesn't transfer correctly when uploading in other devices and makes it useless on my phone. If the data was online instead of app based this wouldn't be a problem. I understand they have plans to make it Internet based but are to busy trying to fix syncing issues and other problems to take the time to make it Internet based... Just make it Internet based and you would correct all the current syncing and file issues! Hoping it becomes Internet based in the near future or I will have to give up on it being a good use of my time.