Mealie vs OpenEats
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
VS
OpenEats
Self-hosted recipe management web application
| Feature | Mealie | OpenEats |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 62 · Good |
| Category | Recipe Managers | Recipe Managers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Dockerfile |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,302 | ★ 695 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Paprika, Plan to Eat | Paprika, Yummly |
What are Mealie and OpenEats?
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
OpenEats
OpenEats is a self-hosted recipe management site that lets you store, search, and organize recipes. It supports importing recipes, scaling ingredients, and building a personal cookbook.
- Recipe storage and search
- Ingredient scaling
- Recipe import
- Multi-user accounts
Mealie vs OpenEats: key differences
Mealie is written in Python, while OpenEats is built with Dockerfile. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Mealie versus MIT for OpenEats. OpenEats is the more established project (first released 2017), while Mealie arrived in 2020. Mealie has the considerably larger community, at 13,302 GitHub stars versus 695.
Why pick each one
Choose Mealie if…
- Polished modern UI
- Strong import and API support
Watch out for
- Import accuracy varies by site
- Heavier than minimal apps
Choose OpenEats if…
- Straightforward to deploy
- Docker-friendly
Watch out for
- Development has slowed
- Dated interface
Frequently asked questions
Is Mealie or OpenEats better?
Mealie is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider OpenEats if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Mealie and OpenEats free and open-source?
Yes. Mealie is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OpenEats under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mealie and OpenEats with Docker?
Mealie: yes. OpenEats: yes.