Cooking is not exactly easy, at least not for everyone, which is why we’ve decided to compile a list of the very best cooking apps for Android. These applications can be quite useful, and not only for beginners. You can spruce up your cooking skills by using them, and get some fresh ideas as well. If you’re ever in need of some cooking tips, or recipes perhaps, a good cooking app can be quite useful. It’s never late to learn a new trick and improve your cooking abilities. Nobody is perfect, after all.
If you’re a beginner, on the other hand, these apps will be even more useful. Most of them are made so that basically anyone can use them, and learn quite a bit. You will find 10 cooking applications down below. All of these apps are focused either on cooking one way or the other, so read on if you’re interested.
Best cooking Android apps 2023
Below is a quick overview of the best cooking Android apps for 2023, including any download and in-app purchase costs.
| Download Cost | In-app cost (per item) | |
| Tasty | ✕ | ✕ |
| Yummly | ✕ | $0.99-$29.99 |
| BigOven | ✕ | $2.99-$59.99 |
| Oh She Glows | $2.99 | $0.99 |
| Food Network Kitchen | ✕ | ✕ |
| Allrecipes Dinner Spinner | ✕ | ✕ |
| Cookpad | ✕ | $1.49-$17.99 |
| COOKmate | ✕ | $2.49-$104.99 |
| KptnCook | ✕ | $5.99-$59.99 |
| Kitchen Stories | ✕ | $4.99-$24.99 |
Best cooking Android apps 2023 downloads
Below is a little more information on each app, and a direct link for easy downloading.
All download links go to the app’s Google Play Store listing. Users are always recommended to download apps from Google Play or an authorized app store.
Tasty
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Tasty is easily one of the most popular cooking-related applications. We do consider this app to be the best for the vast majority of users, because it will guide you while cooking, in detail. The vast majority of recipes that you find in this application come with a video clip showing you how it is made.
Tasty managed to become quite popular thanks to these video clips. They are all edited, and it’s quite easy to figure out what’s happening at all times. Tasty includes written instructions in those videos as well, so that you know exactly what’s going on. They list every ingredient that is being used.
This application delivers over 3,000 recipes that you can access, and all come with a step-by-step instruction mode. The app will offer recommendations for your next meal, based on the time of day, day of the week, and major holidays. You can even personalize this app to automatically hide recipes with meat, just in case you’re a vegetarian. You can save your favorite recipes on the side, within the app, and the app is completely free to use.
Yummly
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $0.99-$29.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Yummly is a great cooking application for tracking down some great recipes. In addition to that, this application includes a shopping list, or a grocery list, if you will. The developer refers to this app as your “smart cooking sidekick”, which is something we could say for the vast majority apps from this list.
This app comes with a ton of recipes. If you install it, you will get access to over 2 million recipes. That is more than enough to keep you going for forever, basically. Some of these recipes are Yummly’s very own recipes, while you will also receive recipes from AllRecipes, Epicurious, Food52, and a number of oother cooking blogs. The company also notes that thousands of new recipes are being added on a weekly basis.
Yummly’s very own recipes include step-by-step instructions, and video tutorials. You will also be able to set timers for those recipes using this app, which is a neat addition. You can create your very own recipe collections by saving recipes you find here. If you’re a vegan, or on a gluten-free diet, well, you can personalize recipes as well. In other words, you can filter your searches without a problem.
BigOven
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $2.99-$59.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
BigOven is a really nice-looking cooking app. This is a rather versatile application as well, and it will help you simplify cooking. This app is home to tons of recipes, while it can also serve as your grocery list. On top of that, a full-fledged meal planner is included in this application, so you can set everything up for the coming week or so.
Now, the best aspect of this app may be the fact it is social. You can get recipe ideas the moment you open the application, as it allows you to follow what your friendly, family, or something else entirely is cooking. You can favorite your favorite cooking bloggers, and see what they’re up to, or check out some seasonal collections that are available on the home screen.
The app also allows you to add recipes you find to your own lists, and save them by doing so. You can also post your own recipes via this app, and get push notifications when someone comments on them. BigOven even allows you to type in the leftovers that you find in your fridge, and it will suggest meals based on that.
Oh She Glows
- Price: $2.99
- In-app purchases: $0.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
If you’re looking for plant-based recipes only, Oh She Glows is a great app to have. This app can be extremely useful to vegans, as not only is it well-designed, but it also filters recipes for you. You will not find any meat-based recipes in this application, not at all. Despite that, there are over 150 plant-based recipes included here, and they’ve all been tested.
These recipes have been collected from the award-winning recipe blog OhSheGlows.com, by Angela Liddon. Not only are these recipes really tasty, but they all come with professional photos attached to them. Anglea Liddon has been creating these recipes for over 9 years at this point, she has a ton of experience when it comes to veggie recipes.
Now, over 140 of these recipes are gluten-free, so this app is also perfect for those of you who are on a gluten-free diet. Do note that some of the recipes in this app are not free, though. In any case, make sure to check out the bundles page You can also filter recipes within this app based on dietary/allergy info, season, dish type, and more. You can even add your own notes to these recipes, and mark recipes for offline access. This app is not free, though, you will have to pay up before you download it.
Food Network Kitchen
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
If you’re looking to get some proper cooking lessons, well, this is the app for you. The Food Network Kitchen app delivers live cooking classes to your smartphone, thanks to this application. Do note that the app is not free, though. You can download it, and start a free trial, but you’ll have to pay up to continue using it.
This app offers over 25 live cooking classes each week. These classes are taught by the Food Network stars, culinary experts, award-winning chefs, cookbook authors, and even a celebrity from time to time. That is not everything this app has to offer, though. The Food Network Kitchen app brings step-by-step videos to your phone as well, though you’ll need a subscription to get access to them, they’re not available during the trial period.
Using the Food Network Kitchen app, you can even stream your favorite cooking shows. There are over 80,000 recipes available via this app, and you can save them on the side if you want. The best of all, if you purchase a premium annual subscription to this app, you will provide up to 100 meals for kids living with hunger, as the Food Network partnered up with No Kid Hungry organization.
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner is a food-focused, social app. The community plays a huge part here, as it submits tons of recipes, which are then reviewed by other people. This app is home to tons of recipes, and it’s really easy to see which ones are the best. All of this is provided by a community of more than 30 million home cooks, says the company behind the app.
The design of this application is really simple, and yet so great at the same time. All the focus is on the recipes themselves, and when you open one, it’s easy to see the details. The app is also personalized for you, as it gets smarter with every recipe you save and / or make, and each cook you follow.
The app also has a really powerful search option. You can search for recipes by a keyword, ingredients, and time ready to make a certain meal. The last option is extremely useful if you don’t have much time to cook a meal. Step-by-step cooking videos are also provided for some recipes, over 1,000 of them, in fact. You can also check out cook’s profiles, and assemble your shopping lists via this app.
Download Allrecipes Dinner Spinner
Cookpad
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $1.49-$17.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
If you love to share your recipes with other people, Cookpad is a great choice. This app is not all about sharing, though, it’s also a collection of recipes from other people, of course. You can get various cooking ideas by using this application, and the app’s UI is really simplistic. That is a good thing in this case, as the app is easy to use, and all the emphasis is on the recipes and belonging pictures
Cookpad is an app that focuses on people who love to cook at home. It allows you to build your own cooking plan, and collection of recipes You can, of course, share those recipes with others, if you want. Cookpad provides a rather easy-to-use recipe creation tool, which allows you to create nice-looking recipes to share with others in no time. Getting commended for a really good recipe that someone else used is a great feeling.
Thousands of new recipes are being added to Cookpad on a weekly basis, so you’ll never be short on those. In fact, you’ll find it hard to check out a tiny portion of recipes Cookpad offers. All in all, this is a community-powered application, and it stands out from the rest in that regard. On top of that, it has a really powerful search function.
COOKmate
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $2.49-$104.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
If you’re looking for a great way to organize your recipes, well, COOKmate is the way to go. This app’s main focus is to provide you a way to enter and organize all your recipes. This app will basically provide you a way to create your very own digital cookbook, hence its name. You can not only add the ingredients and images, but also add your own comments, and various other details.
If you already have a digital collection of recipes somewhere, COOKmate allows you to import them. You can import various different files, including Meal Master (.mmf), MasterCook (mxp), LivingCookBook (.fdx), and ReKconv (.rk)… amongst others. So if you’ve already used another platform, and are looking to make the switch, that is extremely easy to use with COOKmate.
This app also allows you to create shopping lists, in case you need something of the sort when buying groceries. You can synchronize your recipes on different devices using Dropbox, and scale the ingredients to serve more or less people. This app even comes with a ‘speech feature’, which can read you your recipes. COOKmate even offers some customizations options. You can change the app’s theme, font size, categories, and it is even fully compatible with Wear OS.
KptnCook
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $5.99-$59.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
If you’re into healthy recipes, KptnCook is here to help. This app focuses on healthy recipes that you can cook in less than 30 minutes. So, these recipes should appeal to a lot of people, and they’re not limited to vegan recipes. Truth be said, there are a ton of vegan recipes here, but the database varies from vegan, to fish, to general low-carb recipes. So, there’s something for everyone here, as long as you like to eat healthy.
Recipes are being added to this app on a daily basis. The developer says that you’ll get three new recipes on a daily basis. The app also contains step-by-step photo tutorials, so that you really can’t make a mistake while you cook. A very powerful recipe filter is also included in the mix, so you can find exactly what you’re looking for, without a problem. Sharing is also extremely simple, as the sharing function is built straight into the application.
In case you’re travelling and need to find a grocery store nearby for your quick meal prep… that’s not a problem either. KptnCook comes with an integrated map which will help you find the nearest grocery store. On top of everything, a portion calculator is part of the offering, along with nutritional information. If you’re into healthy meal prep, this is the app for you.
Kitchen Stories
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: $4.99-$24.99
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Kitchen Stories is yet another great cooking app. This app especially shines when it comes to inflow of new recipes. The community is constantly adding new recipes to the application, so you’ll always have something to browse through. The same meal can always be done in a ton of ways, which keeps things fresh, of course. This app doesn’t provide only recipes, various tips and cooking-related articles are also available.
Kitchen Stories also allows you to upload your own recipes, of course. It will guide you along the way, and tell you what to do next, the whole process is extremely simple. The design of this app also helps a lot. The app is extremely simple, and it’s easy to notice that the focus is on the content and the images that are attached to every piece of the content. The menus are also really easy to navigate, even for non-tech-savvy users.
If you register with the app, you’ll be able to save various recipes that you find. You will also be able to submit your own, and even plan your grocery lists. This app can even automatically generate shopping lists for you, based on the meals you’re planning to prep. That is a very underrated feature, as it’s great to have. Simply plan your meals, and that’s it, the app will tell you what groceries you need to get, and how much. This app also comes with a really powerful comments section, where you can exchange experiences with other home cooks.