Yummly alternative — a modern replacement after the shutdown
Yummly was discontinued in December 2024. Swoodie picks up recipe discovery and planning, and adds tracking and AI generation Yummly never had.
The bottom line
Yummly is discontinued — this isn't a feature contest, it's a replacement. Swoodie covers the recipe discovery and planning Yummly did, and adds AI generation and calorie tracking it never had.
Yummly users got blindsided in 2024 — Whirlpool laid off the team in April, shut the app down by December 20, and offered partial refunds. Many people lost their saved recipes because there was no bulk export.
Swoodie is a modern, actively-maintained replacement for what Yummly did — recipe discovery, save from a URL or social, meal planning with shopping lists — and adds AI photo calorie tracking and a couples mode. The AI runs on a 5-use free trial, then Premium.
Feature by feature
| Feature |  Swoodie | Yummly |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan (not a trial) | Free — $0 forever | Discontinued — December 2024 |
| AI photo calorie / meal scan | Trial — 5 free uses, then Premium | |
| Barcode scanner | Trial — 5 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 | |
| Recipe discovery / browse | Free — 8,000+ recipe library | App offline |
| Swipe-to-choose recipe UX | Free | |
| Filter recipes by ingredients you have | Free — Discover Mode | |
| AI recipe generation (Chef AI) | Trial — 5 free uses, then Premium | |
| Import a recipe from a URL | Trial — 5 free uses, then Premium | |
| Import a recipe from a video / social post | Trial — 5 free saves, then Premium | |
| Hands-free voice cooking mode | Free | |
| Multi-day meal planner (1/3/7-day) | Trial — 5 free uses, then Premium | |
| Shopping list merges duplicate ingredients | Trial — built with the plan | |
| Real-time couples meal matching (Swipe Together) | Host: Premium · Join: Free | |
| Shared meal plan | Premium | |
| Separate macro targets per person | Premium | |
| Multi-person session (family / friends) | Host: Premium · Join: Free | |
| Intermittent fasting tracker | Tracker: Free · Coach quips: Premium | |
| Paired wellness accountability (2-person daily score) | Free — core pairing + score | |
| Calorie & macro goal setting | Free | |
| iOS app | App offline | |
| Android app | App offline |
Where Yummly wins
Yummly was a genuinely strong recipe-discovery app for over a decade — visual search, smart recommendations, a huge library. Whirlpool shut it down on December 20, 2024, with no bulk recipe export. It isn't really a competitor anymore — it's a gap to fill.
Honest scorecard
Where Swoodie wins
- Packaged-product quality score (0–100)
- Swipe-to-choose recipe UX
- Filter recipes by ingredients you have
- Import a recipe from a video / social post
- Hands-free voice cooking mode
- Shopping list merges duplicate ingredients
- Real-time couples meal matching (Swipe Together)
- Shared meal plan
- … and 4 more on the full matrix above
The verdict
Switch to Swoodie if…
you were a Yummly user and want recipe discovery and planning — now with AI generation and calorie tracking — in an actively-maintained app.
Stay with Yummly if…
there's no staying — Yummly is offline. The only question is which replacement fits, and Swoodie's free tier is enough to test that.
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.
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