Cooklang Chef vs What To Cook?
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted recipe managers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Cooklang Chef
Plain-text recipe markup with a CLI and server
VS
What To Cook?
Get a recipe to cook today, based on the ingredients you have at home
| Feature | Cooklang Chef | What To Cook? |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Recipe Managers | Recipe Managers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,358 | ★ 67 |
| First released | 2021 | 2025 |
| Replaces | Paprika, Crouton | — |
Why pick each one
Choose What To Cook? if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Java
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cooklang Chef or What To Cook? better?
Neither is universally better. Cooklang Chef has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cooklang Chef and What To Cook? free and open-source?
Yes. Cooklang Chef is licensed under MIT and What To Cook? under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cooklang Chef and What To Cook? with Docker?
Cooklang Chef: check the project docs for container support. What To Cook?: yes.