Pluck: A Plan to Eat Alternative with a Free Plan
Plan to Eat has been a favourite of serious meal planners for over fifteen years: clip recipes from anywhere, drag them onto a calendar, and get a shopping list, on the web and on your phone. It has no free plan, the week is planned by hand on purpose, a household shares one login, and the app is in English only. Pluck is free to start, plans the week for you from your own recipes on Plus and Pro, and shares the grocery list with up to 5 people on their own accounts.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pluck | Plan to Eat |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes (3 extractions a month, 10 saved recipes) | No (14-day trial, then a subscription) |
| Meal planning | Yes (weekly; free: current week) | Yes (drag-and-drop calendar, reusable menus) |
| Plans the week for you | Fill my week, from your own recipes (Plus and Pro) | No (you plan it yourself, by design) |
| Grocery list | Yes (merged, sorted by aisle, shared with up to 5 people) | Yes (merged, sorted by store and category) |
| Shared grocery list | Yes (with up to 5 others, own accounts, live) | One shared login per household |
| Recipes from websites | AI (reads any page) | Yes (clipper and browser extension) |
| Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook | Yes (frames, on-screen text, audio and caption) | Yes (caption; audio and on-screen text on Reels) |
| Photo / handwriting | Yes (cookbooks, handwriting, screenshots) | Yes (camera import; handwriting not stated) |
| Cook from what you have | "What can I cook?" search (free) and pantry scan from a photo | Search by ingredient (its pantry was discontinued) |
| Cook mode | Yes (step timers, ingredients per step) | Yes (step by step, timers) |
| AI cooking assistant | Yes, in cook mode (paid plans) | AI substitutions and simplified directions |
| Cooking log | Yes (times cooked, last cooked) | Times planned (recipe history) |
| Nutrition | No | Yes (automatic, with daily totals) |
| Import from other apps | Paprika, Mela, Crouton, CopyMeThat, JSON-LD | Paprika, Recipe Keeper, Copy Me That and others |
| App languages | 6 | English only |
| Platforms | iOS, Android (no web app) | iOS, Android, web, browser extension |
| Price | Free; paid plans from $2.99/mo ($23.99/yr) | $5.95/mo or $49/yr ($54.99 through the App Store) |
Where Plan to Eat falls short
No free plan
Plan to Eat gives you a 14-day trial with no card, then costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year. To its credit, it doesn't delete your recipes when a subscription lapses and you can still export them, but you need an active subscription to use the account.
It won't plan the week for you
Plan to Eat says it doesn't provide recipes or meal plans: you drag your own recipes onto the calendar, and you can save a week as a reusable menu. That is a deliberate choice, and some people prefer it. If you would rather be handed a draft, there isn't one.
One login per household
Plan to Eat's help pages say to share your login with the people you live with, and that it offers no multiple logins for one account. Friends with their own paid accounts can swap recipes, but the plan and the shopping list belong to the one login.
English only
The App Store lists Plan to Eat in English, and Plan to Eat says it doesn't translate its apps or recognise units written in other languages. Pluck's app runs in six.
What Pluck does differently
A draft of the week, from your own recipes
On Plus and Pro, Fill my week fills the empty days of your meal plan from the recipes you saved: favourites mixed with ones you haven't tried, nothing repeated from last week, and dishes that share fresh ingredients. You swap or remove what you don't want before anything is added. How it works.
A grocery list for separate phones
Invite up to 5 people to a list. Each uses their own free Pluck account, everyone adds and ticks off items, and changes show on each phone within seconds. No shared password.
A photo of your fridge finds dinner
"What can I cook?" ranks your saved recipes by the ingredients you type in, free on every plan. Pantry scan reads them from a photo of your fridge or cupboard instead.
An assistant inside cook mode, in six languages
On paid plans, "Ask about this step" brings in an AI cooking assistant that knows the recipe and the step you're on. It can also translate a recipe you saved in another language.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pluck a good Plan to Eat alternative?
If you plan at a computer, want nutrition totals, or like building every week by hand, Plan to Eat is the stronger tool. If you want a free plan, a week drafted for you from your own recipes, a grocery list each person opens on their own account, or an app in a language other than English, Pluck is the better fit.
Is there a free version of Plan to Eat?
No. Plan to Eat has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, then costs $5.95 a month or $49 a year ($54.99 through the App Store). Pluck has a free plan with 3 extractions a month and 10 saved recipes, and paid plans from $2.99 a month.
Can Plan to Eat plan my week automatically?
No, and it says so: Plan to Eat doesn't provide meal plans, and you fill the calendar yourself. In Pluck, Fill my week does it for you on Plus and Pro, from your own saved recipes, and nothing is added until you accept the suggestion.
Does Plan to Eat save recipes from Instagram and TikTok?
Yes. Plan to Eat imports from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest through the share sheet, and since April 2026 it transcribes the audio and reads on-screen text on Instagram and Facebook Reels. Pluck reads frames, on-screen text, audio and caption together on all four video apps, and turns a photo carousel into one recipe.
Can I move my Plan to Eat recipes to Pluck?
Not in one step. Plan to Eat exports your recipes as a CSV or text file, which Pluck doesn't read. For a recipe that came from a website, paste the original link into Pluck and it extracts the recipe again. Each one uses an extraction.
Where is Plan to Eat ahead?
A web app and browser extension, automatic nutrition with daily totals, reusable menus, bulk import from more recipe apps, and a CSV export that works even without a subscription. Pluck is a phone app and has no nutrition information.
Read our comparison of the best recipe apps in 2026.
Related reading: Best Recipe Apps 2026, Best recipe app for meal planning, An AI meal planner that uses your own recipes, Pluck vs AnyList, Mealime alternatives, and Pluck vs Paprika.
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