The Best Meal Planning Apps for Meeting Your Healthy Eating Goals

On the surface, meal planning seems like a smart, painless way to stay ahead of the game and stick to your healthy eating goals throughout the hectic workweek. But figuring out what to eat for the next seven days isn't always an easy task. Thankfully, there are plenty of free and low-cost meal planning apps to help you navigate the kitchen and grocery store.

Here, the top meal planning apps on the market that will help you stay committed to your nutrition, no matter your eating style or dietary preferences.

Best Overall Meal Planning App: Mealime

Thanks to Mealime and its 30-minute recipes, you won't dread having to whip up a homemade meal after a long commute home. This all-star meal planning app, which has tens of thousands of positive reviews in the Apple app store, allows you to create personalized eating plans with three to six recipes based on your dietary preferences, allergies, and disliked ingredients.

Once you've picked your expert-tested recipes to cook throughout the week, the meal planning app will send a grocery list to your phone, complete with pictures of the supplies and ingredient substitutes, so you can spend less time shopping and more time noshing. The cherry on top? The nutrition information for each recipe is sent to your phone's Health app, making digitally tracking your health a seamless process. (And yes, you don't need to spend a chunk of change to track your activity level.)

If you sign up for a premium subscription, you'll have access to in-depth nutrition information and exclusive recipes released each week. As an added bonus, you'll be able to prep two meal plans at once and add your own recipes to your planner.

Get it on iOS or Android. Free to download; $3/month for premium subscription access.

Best Meal Planning App for Nutrition Tracking: Eat This Much

Whether you're a bodybuilder or vegetarian, Eat This Much will help you get the macronutrients you need to stay fit. The free meal planning app takes your dietary preferences and budget into consideration to craft daily meal plans and grocery lists, all curated with calories, carbs, fat, and protein content in mind. Eat This Much takes it a step further than other apps, though, by allowing you to customize popular eating styles — such as veganism or the paleo diet — to match your tastes and nutritional needs.

By signing up for a subscription, you'll be able to plan a week's worth of meals at a time, as well as log onto the app's website and export your grocery list to popular grocery delivery services. Sorry, but now there's no excuse to have an empty fridge.

Get it on iOS or Android. Free to download; $9/month for premium subscription access.

Best Meal Planning App for Plant-Based Eaters: Forks Over Knives

While plant-based dishes seem like an afterthought on other healthy meal planning apps, Forks Over Knives makes them the star of the show. The app features more than 400 veggie-centric recipes (and counting), many of which were contributed by 50 prominent chefs — so don't expect to eat run-of-the-mill pasta every single night. Plus, to help you navigate even the most complex maze of a supermarket, the app will automatically sort the ingredients on your shopping list by aisle.

Get it on iOS or Android. One-time $5 app purchase.

Best Meal Planning App for Recipes: Paprika

When you're stocked up on groceries but have no clue what to make for dinner, turn to Paprika. Through the recipe management and meal planning app, you can import your own recipes and ones from your go-to websites, building a virtual cookbook that can be accessed across devices with its Cloud Sync feature. You won't miss that satisfying feeling of writing on print recipes, either, thanks to its interactive features that allow you to cross off ingredients and highlight directions. Before you devour your wholesome dish, don't forget to snap a drool-worthy pic to add to the recipe page.

Get it on iOS or Android. One-time $5 app purchase.

Best Meal Planning and Meal Prep App: MealPrepPro

If you'd rather spend your entire Sunday in your kitchen, baking a week's worth of chicken while surrounded by Pyrex containers, MealPrepPro is for you. The meal prep app not only builds you (and your partner, if they want!) a customizable weekly meal plan based on your diet and macro goals, but it also helps you cook in bulk; with the clear-cut calendar, you'll know ahead of time which days you'll be prepping and eating a fresh meal and which days you'll be reheating your leftovers. The app even estimates your hands-on cooking time for the week so you can schedule your after-dinner plans accordingly.

Get it on iOS or Android. Free to download; plans start at $4/month after an initial seven-day free trial.

Best Meal Planning App for New Cooks: Yummly

With more than 2 million recipes, kitchen tips, and articles on trending foods, Yummly will help cooking newbies get a lay of the land (aka the kitchen). The healthy meal planning app's sorting feature will narrow down dishes based on cooking time, cuisine, and occasion, as well as filter out recipes that don't match your eating style. And if you're a procrastinator, Yummly will send you a notification when it's time to get cooking based on your chosen recipe.

In need of a little more guidance? For $5 a month, you'll get access to step-by-step demonstration videos from leading culinary professionals.

Get it on iOS or Android. Free to download; $5/month or $50/year for premium subscription access.

Best Meal Planning App for Takeout Lovers: Suggestic

Even masters of the kitchen crave takeout every once in a while. But to make sure you stay on top of your healthy eating goals, download Suggestic — the app can recommend dishes that stick to your eating style (keto, vegan, etc.) at more than 500,000 restaurants in the country. Suggestic nails the at-home planning department too, offering simple recipes to build a meal plan for your entire week. To keep your spirits high over those seven days, the app will also send you motivational emails and notifications.

For additional recipes, educational videos, and eating programs, pick up a premium membership.

Get it on iOS or Android. Free to download; $13/month or $60/year for premium membership access.