Tandoor Recipes Alternative - Free & Open Source

Tandoor Recipes is a self-hosted recipe manager. To use it, you either run your own server with Docker or pay for a hosted plan on tandoor.dev. Running your own server means keeping up with updates, backups, and downtime yourself.

My wife and I made RecipeSage as the recipe app we wanted ourselves. It's free and open source too, but you don't need a server to use it. Sign up at recipesage.com and use it in any browser, in native iOS and Android apps, or on the desktop. You can still self-host RecipeSage if you'd like to.

How they price

RecipeSage

Free forever, hosted for you. No paywall, no ads, no recipe cap, and self-hosting is optional.

Tandoor Recipes

Free to self-host. Hosted plans on tandoor.dev: Free (10 recipes, 1 member), Basic EUR 1.99/month, Standard EUR 3.49/month, and Premium AI EUR 4.99/month.

Feature by feature

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

Feature	RecipeSage	Tandoor Recipes
Price	Free, open source	Free to self-host, hosted plans up to EUR 4.99/month
Free hosted account, no server neededTandoor's free hosted plan allows 1 member and 10 recipes. Then it starts at EUR 3.49/month, whereas RecipeSage is free.	Unlimited recipes	10 recipes
iOS and Android appsTandoor installs as a progressive web app. Some community-made clients connect to a Tandoor server, but they aren't made by the Tandoor project.	Free	PWA or unofficial apps
Native desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux)	Yes	PWA
Firefox and Chrome extension	Yes	No
Printable PDF cookbook generatorTandoor has printing views and an experimental PDF export. RecipeSage'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	Partial
Import from a photo or PDFTandoor's AI import reads text, images, and PDFs. It needs an AI provider on a self-hosted install, or AI credits on the hosted plans.	Yes	Yes
Real multi-user collaborationTandoor's Spaces and Households share meal plans, shopping lists, and the pantry across a household automatically.	Yes	Yes
Public sharing by link, no account neededBoth share recipes by link. RecipeSage also gives you a public profile to share a label or your whole collection, plus website embed codes.	Yes	Yes
Web app	Yes	Yes
Works offline	Yes	Yes
Auto import from a URL	Yes	Yes
Meal planner	Yes	Yes
Smart shopping list with aisle categorizationTandoor orders the list by supermarket categories you configure for each store.	Yes	Yes
Recipe scaling and unit conversion	Yes	Yes
Nutrition trackingTandoor calculates nutrition and price from food properties. RecipeSage tracks macros, vitamins, and minerals per serving and can auto-fill from a pasted nutrition label.	Yes	Yes
Data portabilityTandoor exports a full .zip in its own format, plus several other formats. RecipeSage supports well-recognized standardized formats.	Yes	Yes
Automatic meal plannerTandoor can fill a meal plan automatically from rules you set. RecipeSage plans are built by hand.	No	Yes
Pantry with expiry dates	No	Yes
Open sourceBoth are AGPL. Tandoor adds the Commons Clause, which rules out selling the software or paid hosting of it by anyone other than the licensor.	Yes	Yes
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes

Why people switch from Tandoor Recipes to RecipeSage

No server to runRecipeSage is hosted for you at recipesage.com, for free, with no recipe cap. No Docker, no reverse proxy, no database upgrades, and no backups to remember. If you'd still like to self-host, you can.
Native mobile and desktop appsRecipeSage has its own iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux apps. Tandoor runs as a web app or PWA, and native mobile clients come from the community rather than the Tandoor project.
A one-click browser extensionRecipeSage's Firefox and Chrome extension clips a recipe from the page you're reading into a clean, structured recipe.
Easy for the whole familyEveryone in the house can make their own free account and share recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists, without anyone needing to be the family sysadmin.
Share your recipes with anyoneRecipeSage gives you a public profile to share a single recipe, a whole label, or your entire collection by a link anyone can open without an account, plus embed codes to drop a recipe onto a website or blog.
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.

Where Tandoor Recipes is honestly stronger

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

Power features for self-hostersTandoor has OpenID Connect login, Spaces for running several groups on one install, home automation connectors, a chat bot, file storage sync, and AI providers you choose yourself. If you love running your own server, it's a richer toolkit than RecipeSage's self-host setup.
Automatic meal planning and a pantryTandoor can fill your meal plan automatically from rules you set, and its pantry tracks where food is stored and when it expires. RecipeSage has neither today.

Bringing your Tandoor recipes over

Tandoor has a built-in RecipeSage export. It produces a single .json file that RecipeSage's JSON-LD importer reads directly, with your recipe names, descriptions, servings, ingredients, and steps.

1In Tandoor, open Settings and click Export in the Space section.
2Set Type to Recipesage, tick All Recipes, and click Export. When it finishes, click Download to save the .json file.
3Create a free RecipeSage account at recipesage.com.
4In RecipeSage, open Settings then Import then JSON-LD, and upload the .json file from Tandoor.

Tandoor's RecipeSage export doesn't include images, keywords, or source URLs, so you'll want to add photos back to your favorites after importing. Your Tandoor instance isn't changed by the export.

Start importing Read the JSON-LD 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 Tandoor Recipes

Can I keep running Tandoor while I try RecipeSage?

Yes. Exporting from Tandoor doesn't change anything on your instance. Try RecipeSage for a few weeks and keep whichever one fits your kitchen.

Will my photos come across from Tandoor?

Not through the export. Tandoor's documentation notes that images aren't supported in its RecipeSage export. Recipes that came from a website can be re-clipped from the original page with RecipeSage's browser extension to bring their photos along.

I like self-hosting. Can I self-host RecipeSage too?

Yes. RecipeSage's code is on GitHub under the AGPL and you can run it on your own server. The difference is that you don't have to, since the hosted version at recipesage.com is free.

Is there a free alternative to Tandoor Recipes?

Yes. RecipeSage is a free, open source alternative to Tandoor, 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.

Tandoor is a capable project if you enjoy running your own server. If you'd rather just cook, with native apps and nothing to maintain, give RecipeSage a try. It's free, so there's no harm in seeing how it feels :)

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The free, open source Tandoor alternative with no server to run