Grocy vs KitchenOwl
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted recipe managers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Grocy | KitchenOwl |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Recipe Managers | Recipe Managers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Dart |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,523 | ★ 3,692 |
| First released | 2017 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Pantry Check, AnyList | AnyList, Bring! |
What are Grocy and KitchenOwl?
Grocy
Grocy is a self-hosted groceries and household management solution. It tracks pantry stock, expiration dates, shopping lists, recipes, chores, and meal planning all in one place.
- Pantry stock and expiry tracking
- Recipe and meal planning
- Shopping lists
- Chore and task tracking
KitchenOwl
KitchenOwl is a self-hosted grocery list and recipe management application. It offers shared shopping lists, recipe storage, and meal planning with Flutter-based mobile and web clients.
- Shared grocery lists
- Recipe storage and import
- Meal planning
- Native mobile apps
Grocy vs KitchenOwl: key differences
Grocy is written in PHP, while KitchenOwl is built with Dart. Licensing differs — MIT for Grocy versus AGPL-3.0 for KitchenOwl. Grocy is the more established project (first released 2017), while KitchenOwl arrived in 2021. Grocy has the considerably larger community, at 9,523 GitHub stars versus 3,692.
Why pick each one
Choose Grocy if…
- Comprehensive household management
- Barcode scanning support
Watch out for
- Busy interface
- Initial data entry effort
Choose KitchenOwl if…
- Great mobile experience
- Real-time list sync
Watch out for
- Smaller recipe feature set
- Younger project
Frequently asked questions
Is Grocy or KitchenOwl better?
Neither is universally better. Grocy has the larger community, while KitchenOwl is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Grocy and KitchenOwl free and open-source?
Yes. Grocy is licensed under MIT and KitchenOwl under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grocy and KitchenOwl with Docker?
Grocy: yes. KitchenOwl: yes.