Mealie vs Recipya
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
Recipya
Clean self-hosted recipe manager in Go
| Feature | Mealie | Recipya |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,302 | ★ 412 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Paprika, Plan to Eat | Paprika, Whisk |
What are Mealie and Recipya?
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
Recipya
Recipya is a clean, easy, and powerful self-hosted recipe manager written in Go. It imports recipes from thousands of websites, organizes a cookbook, and offers meal planning.
- Import from many recipe sites
- Cookbook organization
- Meal planning
- Single-binary Go app
Mealie vs Recipya: key differences
Mealie is written in Python, while Recipya is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Mealie versus GPL-3.0 for Recipya. Recipya is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Mealie. Mealie is the more established project (first released 2020), while Recipya arrived in 2022. Mealie has the considerably larger community, at 13,302 GitHub stars versus 412.
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 Recipya if…
- Fast and lightweight
- Strong website import support
Watch out for
- Single-user oriented
- Younger project
Frequently asked questions
Is Mealie or Recipya 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 Mealie and Recipya free and open-source?
Yes. Mealie is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Recipya under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mealie and Recipya with Docker?
Mealie: yes. Recipya: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Mealie or Recipya?
Recipya has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Mealie. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.