groceri.es vs Mealie
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted recipe managers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mealie
Self-hosted recipe manager and meal planner
| Feature | groceri.es | Mealie |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 11 · At risk | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Recipe Managers | Recipe Managers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | HTML | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 392 | ★ 13,302 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Paprika, Mealie | Paprika, Plan to Eat |
What are groceri.es and Mealie?
groceri.es
groceri.es is a self-hosted recipe manager and meal planning tool built with Flask. Scheduling recipes onto a weekly planner automatically adds the required ingredients to a grocery list.
- Recipe collection management
- Weekly meal planner
- Automatic grocery lists
- Built with Flask
Mealie
Mealie is a self-hosted recipe manager, meal planner, and shopping list application. It can import recipes from URLs, organize them with tags and categories, and generate grocery lists.
- Import recipes from URLs
- Meal planning calendar
- Shopping list generation
- REST API and integrations
groceri.es vs Mealie: key differences
Groceri.es is written in HTML, while Mealie is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for groceri.es versus AGPL-3.0 for Mealie. Groceri.es is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Mealie. Mealie has the considerably larger community, at 13,302 GitHub stars versus 392.
Why pick each one
Choose groceri.es if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in HTML
Choose Mealie if…
- Polished modern UI
- Strong import and API support
Watch out for
- Import accuracy varies by site
- Heavier than minimal apps
Frequently asked questions
Is groceri.es or Mealie better?
Neither is universally better. Mealie has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are groceri.es and Mealie free and open-source?
Yes. groceri.es is licensed under MIT and Mealie under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run groceri.es and Mealie with Docker?
groceri.es: yes. Mealie: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, groceri.es or Mealie?
groceri.es has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Mealie. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.