Mela alternative — recipes supplied, tracked and decided together
Mela is the most elegant recipe manager on iOS, $6.99 once. Swoodie brings its own recipe library, nutrition tracking, AI tools, Android support and a couples mode.
The bottom line
Mela and Swoodie barely compete — they answer different questions. Mela: 'where do I keep the recipes I find?' Swoodie: 'what should we cook, is it healthy, and who decides?' If the second question is yours, Mela was never going to answer it; if the first is your only question, Mela's $6.99 is unbeatable. Prefer paying once? Swoodie Lite is a $9.99 one-time purchase that unlocks the whole app except the AI features.
Mela, an Apple Editors' Choice, is arguably the prettiest recipe manager on iOS: clip recipes from any website, scan them from cookbook pages, plan via Calendar, shop via Reminders — all for a one-time $6.99.
It's deliberately narrow: no recipe library of its own, no nutrition info, no tracking, no generative AI, no Android — video links import via their text descriptions only. Swoodie plays the full game — 8,000+ recipes plus Chef AI generation, calorie and macro tracking, recipe import from the video itself, and Swipe Together for deciding as a couple, on both platforms.
Features evolve fast
Swoodie ships new features regularly, so this page may not reflect the very latest. The homepage is always up to date — check there for everything Swoodie does today.
See the latest on the homepage →Feature by feature
| Feature |  Swoodie | Mela |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan (not a trial) | Free — $0 forever | Free download; $6.99 unlocks all |
| Annual price | $39.99 / year | $6.99 one-time (iOS) |
| One-time purchase option | $9.99 one-time (Swoodie Lite) — everything except the AI features | One-time purchase |
| Start without creating an account | Free — guest mode | No account — iCloud sync |
| AI features without paying | 10 free one-time uses, no card | No AI tools — on-device ML import only |
| AI photo calorie / meal scan | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | |
| Multi-photo / multi-dish scan | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | |
| Barcode scanner | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | |
| Log a meal you ate ("ate it") | Free — basic calorie logging | |
| Meal journal / food diary | Free: last 3 days · Premium: full history | |
| Packaged-product quality score (0–100) | Free — scan, score & breakdown · Premium: better swaps + Ask AI | |
| Blood-sugar impact read on a scanned meal | Blood Sugar Score — Free: steady / moderate / spiky, estimated from carbs & fibre | No nutrition analysis at all |
| One-tap steadier swap for a spiky meal | Smart Swaps — Premium | |
| Recipe discovery / browse | Free — 8,000+ recipe library | Bring your own recipes |
| Swipe-to-choose recipe UX | Free | |
| Filter recipes by ingredients you have | Free — Discover Mode | |
| AI recipe generation (Chef AI) | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | |
| Import a recipe from a URL | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | Best in class |
| Import a recipe from a video / social post | Trial — 5 free saves, then Premium | From video descriptions (YouTube / TikTok / IG) |
| Hands-free voice cooking mode | Free | Cook mode + timers, no voice |
| Save / favourite recipes | Free: 30 · Premium: unlimited | Unlimited |
| Built-in kitchen tools (converters, scaler, cook times) | Kitchen Tools — Free: 6 offline tools (unit, oven & air-fryer converters, scaler, cook times, safe temperatures) | Scaler + metric/US conversion + cook timers |
| Multi-day meal planner (1/3/7-day) | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | Via Calendar app |
| AI-built meal plan | Trial — 10 free uses, then Premium | |
| Auto-generated shopping list | Trial — built with the plan | Via Reminders app |
| Shopping list merges duplicate ingredients | Trial — built with the plan | |
| Real-time couples meal matching (Swipe Together) | Host: Lite or Premium · Join: Free | |
| Shared meal plan | Host: Lite or Premium · Join: Free | |
| Separate macro targets per person | Free | |
| Multi-person session (family / friends) | Host: Lite or Premium · Join: Free | |
| Intermittent fasting tracker | Tracker: Free · Coach quips: Premium | |
| Paired wellness accountability (2-person daily score) | Host: Lite or Premium · Join: Free | |
| Shareable meal report card | Meal Report Card — Free | Recipe sharing only |
| Calorie & macro goal setting | Free | |
| BMR / TDEE auto-calculation | Free | |
| Body-stat & weight tracking | Free — on-device | |
| Diet-style macro targets (keto / low-carb / high-protein) | Free | |
| Custom macro targets (set your own grams) | Premium | Not a tracking app |
| Daily insight drawn from what you logged | Coach Ollie — daily insight: Free · Pattern insights: Premium | No logging |
| iOS app | ||
| Android app | Apple only |
Cost over time
Drag the slider to see what each app costs you across the years.
Mela is a one-time $6.99 purchase. Over 2 years Swoodie costs $79.98 — but Swoodie also scans food, counts calories and plans meals.
Prefer paying once? Swoodie Lite is a $9.99 one-time purchase that unlocks the whole app except the AI features.
Swoodie is $39.99/year — about $3.33/month billed yearly. Mela+ on iOS/iPadOS; the Mac app is a separate purchase. Apple platforms only.
Mela pricing verified July 2026 · source
Where Mela wins
As a pure recipe manager on Apple devices, Mela is close to perfect: best-in-class web clipping, cookbook-page scanning, recipe-blog feeds, native Calendar and Reminders integration, and a $6.99 one-time price no subscription can argue with. If filing recipes is the whole job, Mela does it with the most taste.
Honest scorecard
Where Swoodie wins
- Swipe-to-choose recipe UX
- Real-time couples meal matching (Swipe Together)
- Multi-person session (family / friends)
- Paired wellness accountability (2-person daily score)
The verdict
Switch to Swoodie if…
you want recipes supplied and generated rather than just filed, nutrition tracked from what you cook, import from Instagram/TikTok/YouTube, or a partner in the decision — especially on Android.
Stay with Mela if…
you live on Apple devices, your recipes come from blogs and cookbooks you already love, and a one-time purchase with zero tracking is exactly the deal you want.
Made up your mind? Start free.
Swoodie plans the week, tracks what you eat and lets two people pick dinner together. The recipe library and tracking are free, no account needed — every scan carries a Blood Sugar Score, six Kitchen Tools work offline, and Premium is free for 7 days on the yearly plan.
We put these comparisons together from publicly available information and each app's own website. Prices and features change — if you spot anything inaccurate or out of date, email support@swoodie.app and we'll correct it. We want this comparison to stay fair.
Related comparisons
Free calculators to try first
No sign-up, no app needed — get your numbers in seconds.
Try Swoodie free — 8,000+ recipes included, no account needed