Cookmate Alternative - Free & Open Source

Cookmate (formerly My CookBook) is a recipe app with a cap of 60 cloud recipes and 1 shopping list, and shows ads inside recipes. Premium is $1.99 per month or $22.99 per year on iOS, or 20 EUR per year, which lifts the caps and removes ads.

My wife and I made RecipeSage as a free, open source alternative with no recipe limit and no ads anywhere. It has its own Firefox and Chrome clipper, auto-import from photos, PDFs, and Word docs, drag-and-drop meal planning, a smart aisle-sorted shopping list, and nutrition tracking.

How they price

RecipeSage

Free forever. Unlimited recipes, no ads, no paywall. Open source under the AGPL.

Cookmate

Free up to 60 cloud recipes and 1 shopping list, with ads inside recipes. Premium is $1.99/month or $22.99/year on iOS, or 20 EUR/year.

Feature by feature

We've tried to be fair here. Where Cookmate is genuinely stronger, we say so. Numbers and feature claims are sourced from each product's own documentation as of August 2026.

Feature	RecipeSage	Cookmate
Price	Free, open source	Free up to 60 recipes, then paid
Web app	Yes	Yes
iOS app	Free	Free
Android app	Free	Free
Unlimited recipes for freeCookmate's free cloud is capped at 60 recipes.	Yes	No
Ad-free while cookingCookmate's free tier shows ads inside recipes.	Yes	No
Firefox and Chrome extension	Yes	Yes
Auto import from any URL	Yes	Yes
Import from a photo (OCR)Cookmate's photo import counts against a 50/month AI credit pool on the free tier.	Yes	Partial
Import from PDF	Yes	No
Import from Word documents	Yes	No
Drag-and-drop meal planner	Yes	Yes
Recurring meal plan items	Yes	No
Smart shopping list with aisle categorizationCookmate's shopping list is a flat list with no aisle sorting and no automatic grouping.	Yes	No
Recipe scaling and unit conversionCookmate scaling is Premium-only and text-math, so 1 teaspoon times 50 becomes 50 teaspoons rather than a fraction of a cup.	Yes	Partial
Nutrition tracking (macros, vitamins, minerals)	Yes	No
AI cooking assistantCookmate has a ChatGPT recipe generator and image generator, but no equivalent cooking assistant.	Yes	Partial
Typo-tolerant search	Yes	Partial
Real multi-user collaborationCookmate's friends feature is view-only between separate accounts. Shared cookbooks mean sharing one login.	Yes	Partial
Works offlineCookmate's Android app works offline. The web app does not.	Yes	Partial
Open source	Yes	No
Self-hostable	Yes	No
Data portabilityCookmate exports a proprietary .mcb ZIP. RecipeSage supports well-recognized standardized formats.	Yes	Partial
Public sharing by link or embed, no account neededRecipeSage gives you a public profile to share a recipe, a label, or your whole collection by link, plus website embed codes. Cookmate's friends feature is view-only between accounts, with no public profile or embed.	Yes	No
Native desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux)RecipeSage has native desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Cookmate runs on the web and mobile only.	Yes	No
Cook Mode (full-screen, distraction-free cooking view)Cookmate has cooking timers but no dedicated cook mode.	Yes	No
Built-in kitchen toolkitRecipeSage's toolkit includes a measurement converter, a pan and bakeware converter that rescales ingredients and suggests bake time and temperature adjustments, and a cooking-temperature reference for safe internal temperatures. Cookmate has none of these.	Yes	No
Printable PDF cookbook generatorRecipeSage's Cookbook Generator compiles your recipes into one printable PDF with a cover page, optional table of contents, and each recipe on its own page.	Yes	No

Why people switch from Cookmate to RecipeSage

Cook ModeRecipeSage's full-screen Cook Mode shows the ingredients and steps together, lets you check off each as you cook, scale servings on the fly, and keeps the screen awake with a large adjustable font. Cookmate has no dedicated cook mode.
Built-in kitchen toolkitRecipeSage has built-in converters for units, pan sizes, and cooking temperatures. Cookmate has none of these.
No 60-recipe capSave 100 recipes, save 10,000. RecipeSage is free and does not cap. Cookmate's free cloud stops at 60 recipes and 1 shopping list.
No ads while you cookRecipeSage never shows ads. Cookmate's free tier shows ads inside the recipe you're following.
Built-in nutritionRecipeSage tracks macros, vitamins, and minerals per serving, and you can paste a nutrition label to auto-fill. Cookmate doesn't track nutrition at all.
Aisle-sorted shopping listRecipeSage groups your list by aisle and you can rename, reorder, and delete categories to match your store. Cookmate's list is flat with no aisle sorting.
Collaboration with separate accountsEach family member can have their own RecipeSage account and still share recipes, plans, and shopping lists. Cookmate's friends are view-only and shared cookbooks mean sharing one login.
Turn your collection into a printable cookbookRecipeSage's Cookbook Generator assembles your recipes into a single PDF, with a cover page, an optional table of contents, and each recipe on its own page with its image and nutrition. It's an easy way to print a personal cookbook or give one as a gift. Cookmate has no built-in cookbook generator.

Where Cookmate is honestly stronger

We're not pretending RecipeSage wins on everything. Here's whatCookmate does better than us today.

Alexa and Google Assistant voice controlCookmate has a real Alexa skill and a Google Assistant action that read out ingredients and steps hands-free on Echo and Google Home. RecipeSage doesn't have native voice-assistant integrations.

Bringing your Cookmate recipes over

RecipeSage has a dedicated Cookmate importer. The .mcb archive is a ZIP of XML plus image assets, so titles, ingredients, directions, source, notes, categories, and photos all come across.

1In the Cookmate Android app, open the File Import/Export screen and export your cookbook as a .mcb archive. From the website, you can export from the same area in settings.
2Create a free RecipeSage account at recipesage.com.
3In RecipeSage, open Settings then Import then Cookmate, and upload the .mcb file. The import runs as a background job and every imported recipe is tagged with a timestamped label so the batch is easy to review.

Start importing Read the full Cookmate import guide

About the people behind RecipeSage

My wife and I built and run RecipeSage. We're not a venture-backed startup. We cook every night, we got tired of paying subscriptions and losing access to recipes when an app changed hands, so we built the app we wanted to use. Hosting is funded by optional contributions and has been since 2018, and the source code is on GitHub under the AGPL.

If you ever want to leave RecipeSage, you can export everything in standard formats or run the whole thing on your own server. Your recipes are yours.

Common questions about switching from Cookmate

How is RecipeSage free when Cookmate caps the free tier at 60?

RecipeSage is a side project from the two of us, not a business with employees and a marketing budget. Hosting is funded by optional contributions and has been since 2018.

Will my Cookmate photos come through?

Yes. The .mcb archive is a ZIP of XML plus image assets.

I have a Cookmate Premium subscription. Is it worth switching?

That's your call. $1.99/month isn't nothing! If you want nutrition tracking, an aisle-sorted shopping list, recurring meal plans, or separate accounts for each family member, RecipeSage covers those at no cost.

Is there a free alternative to Cookmate?

Yes. RecipeSage is a free, open source alternative to Cookmate, with no paywall and no ads. You can import your recipes, plan meals, build shopping lists, track nutrition, and use it on the web, desktop, iOS, and Android. If you ever decide to leave, you can export everything or self-host.

If you've hit the 60-recipe cap, or you'd rather not see ads inside the recipe you're cooking, bring your .mcb over and try RecipeSage. It's free, so there's really no downside :)

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The free, open source Cookmate alternative