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Published August 7, 2026. Updated October 10, 2026.
This article covers meal planning software generally, including how each app handles calorie and macro targets. It is for general informational purposes only and is not individualized nutrition advice. Talk to a registered dietitian or your doctor before making changes based on any app’s numbers.
eMeals and Eat This Much are the two meal planning apps left to compare in late 2026. Eat This Much is the one that builds a plan around a specific calorie or macro target instead of a diet label. eMeals wins on grocery-ordering reach, tying into eight retailers to Eat This Much’s one. Mealime is out: its own App Store notes say it shuts down on October 21, 2026. PlateJoy shut down in 2025.
I have cooked for road trips, boat days and long farm summers for years. Planning is the hard part, not the cooking. A plan that fits real life beats a perfect plan nobody follows. So I judge these apps on what they ask of you each week.
How do the meal planning apps compare?
Eat This Much wins on macros, and eMeals wins on grocery reach. The table comes from each app’s current App Store and Google Play listings, official help docs and product pages.
| Criteria | eMeals | Eat This Much |
|---|---|---|
| Plans to a specific calorie/macro target | No; manual pick from 15 preset menus | Yes; core feature |
| Auto-generates a grocery list | Yes | Yes |
| Sends the list to a retailer for ordering | Yes; 8 retailers | Yes; 1-click Instacart export |
| Filters allergies/disliked ingredients | No | Yes |
| Serving-size scaling | Fixed per-recipe (2-4 or 6-8) | Family scaling on Premium |
| Usable free tier | No; 14-day trial only | Yes, but one day’s meals only |
Which meal planning apps fit which cook?
- Best for strict macros: Eat This Much. It plans meals around an exact calorie or macro number, not a diet label.
- Best grocery-ordering reach: eMeals. Its list pushes to Walmart, Instacart, Shipt, Amazon Fresh, Kroger and more.
Picture two people opening the App Store on a Sunday afternoon. The first is hitting a protein number every day because of a training block or a doctor’s macro targets. That is an Eat This Much user. The second has a family with three different sets of tastes and would rather have Walmart or Instacart pick up the bags. That is who eMeals is built for.
None of these apps are meal-kit services. They do not ship you a box of pre-portioned ingredients the way HelloFresh or Blue Apron do. See our HelloFresh vs. Blue Apron vs. Home Chef comparison if that is what you want. Nor are they pre-cooked meal delivery, like CookUnity vs. Splendid Spoon vs. Daily Harvest. Both apps assume you are buying groceries and cooking. They just decide what to cook and build the list.
Where is PlateJoy?
Gone. We planned to include PlateJoy, since it has been a go-to name in meal planning software for years. But PlateJoy’s own support site now displays a notice reading “PlateJoy is ending July 1st, 2025,” and its Android app was pulled from Google Play in March 2025, per app-analytics tracker AppBrain. A live, subscribable app is a baseline requirement for a comparison like this. So we swapped in eMeals, the closest direct alternative in the same price-and-feature range, instead of recommending a service you can no longer sign up for. Mealime is going the same way: its App Store notes say the app shuts down on October 21, 2026, so it is no longer a pick here either.
How do meal planning apps choose your meals?
Two different ways, and this is the part most reviews gloss over.
Eat This Much works backward from a number. You set (or it calculates) a daily calorie and macro target, and the app assembles meals to hit it, day by day. That includes your own saved recipes, and Premium adds different targets for workout and rest days.
eMeals does not run an algorithm in the way Eat This Much does. According to its own how-it-works page, you browse 15 preset weekly menus, such as Clean Eating, Keto, Budget Friendly and Kid Friendly. You then pick the meals you want manually, mixing and matching across menus. That is a real tradeoff. It is less of a black box, but it has no personalized recommendation loop that learns your taste over time.
What do meal planning apps cost in 2026?
Both land at $59.99 a year on their cheapest annual plan. eMeals and Eat This Much both reward committing to a year, and both punish paying month to month.
| App | Free tier? | Cheapest verified plan | Effective $/month | Pay-as-you-go option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eMeals (Dinner Plan) | No; 14-day free trial only | $59.99/year | $5.00 | $37.50 per 3 months (~$12.50/mo) |
| Eat This Much | Yes; today’s meals only | Premium, $59.99/year | $5.00 | $14.99/mo |
Run the math and the annual plans for eMeals and Eat This Much land at the same effective $5 a month ($59.99 ÷ 12). The real decision is not price. It is whether you want a calorie-target engine (Eat This Much) or broader retailer-ordering support (eMeals). eMeals’ All Day Plan bundle adds breakfast and lunch plans and runs $99.98 a year instead of $59.99, per eMeals’ own pricing help page. Eat This Much’s month-to-month price of $14.99 is the steeper short-term option if you are not ready to commit to a year.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
Does the grocery list save you a trip?
Yes, with both. eMeals’ list pushes directly to Walmart, Instacart, Shipt, Amazon Fresh, Albertsons, Safeway, H-E-B and Kroger for pickup or delivery. You can go from menu to a filled cart without leaving the app. Eat This Much offers a 1-click export straight to Instacart, with delivery in as little as an hour according to its own product page.
Which app handles allergies and family size?
Eat This Much handles allergies, and eMeals does not. If you or someone in your house has a real allergy or a disliked-ingredient list, eMeals is the weak link. It does not offer allergy or ingredient-exclusion filtering, according to third-party pricing breakdowns of its plan structure. You choose from preset menus and swap meals manually. Eat This Much lets you filter out allergens and disliked ingredients before a plan is generated, and it lets you save custom recipes into the rotation.
Serving-size scaling is the real dealbreaker to know about before you sign up. eMeals caps most recipes at 2-4 or 6-8 servings per plan, without free adjustment. Eat This Much’s Premium tier explicitly markets “family meal planning with ingredient scaling.” That makes it the more flexible of the two for larger or mixed-diet households.
Which meal planning apps should you get?
If you are training toward a specific number, get Eat This Much. That covers cutting weight, hitting a protein target or following a coach’s macros. It is the one built to reverse-engineer a meal plan from a target instead of a diet label, and its Instacart export closes the loop from plan to cart. Its real weakness is the free tier, which only plans one day at a time. You will want Premium for the weekly automation that makes the app worth having.
eMeals earns its spot for households that want the grocery order handled, not just the list. Nothing here ties into as many retailers. But go in knowing it will not personalize around allergies or an exact macro number. You are the one doing the substituting.
How we compared meal planning apps
Pricing, feature availability and platform support come from each app’s current App Store and Google Play listings, official help-center and pricing pages, and product pages. We cross-checked them against patterns reported in recent published user reviews. Our full process, including how we handle affiliate relationships, is on our editorial standards page.
Looking for more ways to make meal prep faster once the plan is set? Browse our full Healthy Meal Prep archive, including how to store what you batch-cook.
Frequently asked questions about meal planning apps
Is PlateJoy still a meal planning option in 2026?
No. PlateJoy’s own support site confirms the service ended July 1, 2025, and its Android app was removed from Google Play in March 2025. Any 2026-dated review still describing it as an active signup option is outdated. Treat it as discontinued.
Do I need a paid plan to use these meal planning apps?
Eat This Much’s free tier only plans one day at a time, so weekly automation requires Premium. eMeals has no ongoing free tier at all, just a 14-day trial before billing starts.
Which app is best for tracking specific macros?
Eat This Much, by a clear margin. It is the one of these two that builds a meal plan around a calorie or macro number you set, rather than filtering recipes by diet type alone.
Will any of these apps place a grocery order for me?
eMeals and Eat This Much both push your generated list into a retailer’s cart. eMeals does it across Walmart, Instacart, Shipt, Amazon Fresh and several grocery chains, and Eat This Much does it via a 1-click Instacart export.
Can these apps handle a big family or mixed diets?
Eat This Much’s Premium tier is built for it, with family meal planning and ingredient scaling. eMeals’ recipes carry fixed serving ranges you cannot freely adjust.
How is a meal planning app different from a meal kit?
Meal planning apps like these two tell you what to cook and build the grocery list, and you still buy the ingredients and cook. Kits ship pre-portioned ingredients to your door. Delivery services ship the food already cooked.
