# Fork & Spoon as an AnyList alternative

AnyList is a shopping list app that grew recipes. Fork & Spoon is a recipe app that grew a shopping list. Which way round matters more than the feature table.

> https://forkandspoon.app/comparisons/anylist-alternative/  ·  bijgewerkt 2026-08-30

AnyList and Fork & Spoon look similar in a feature list and are built from opposite ends. AnyList started as a shopping list and added recipes and meal planning on top. Fork & Spoon started as a place to keep recipes and grew a shopping list out of the week menu.

That origin decides which one fits you, more than any individual feature does.

> Prices and features below were checked on 30 August 2026. Both apps change, so check their own pages before deciding on cost.

## The honest summary

**Stay with AnyList** if the shopping list is the main event, you want the cheapest good option, and your recipes come from websites. It's a well-made app at a genuinely low price.

**Look at Fork & Spoon** if the recipes are the main event, if they arrive as videos and social posts as often as links, or if you want to keep a large collection without paying for the privilege of storing more than five.

## Where they actually differ

| | Fork & Spoon | AnyList |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier, Premium EUR 4.99/month or EUR 49.99/year | Free tier, Complete $9.99/year individual, $14.99/year household |
| Recipes on the free tier | No limit on your own recipes | Five recipes |
| Import from a web page | Yes | Yes, with browser extensions |
| Import from a YouTube video | Yes, reads the transcript and description | No |
| Import from an Instagram or TikTok post | Yes, reads the caption | No |
| Import from a photo of a page | Yes, up to four pages in one recipe | No |
| Shared list with a partner | Yes, live | Yes, live, and a long-standing strength |
| iPhone and Android sharing together | Yes | Yes |
| Browser version | Yes, included | Yes, included |
| Meal planning calendar | Yes, including AI-planned weeks | Yes, with Google Calendar sync |
| Offline shopping list | Yes, offline first | Yes |
| Price tracking while shopping | No | Yes, with a running total |
| Share a recipe with a non-user | A link that opens in any browser | Within the app |

## The five-recipe question

AnyList's free tier caps you at five recipes. That's a reasonable business decision for an app whose free product is the shopping list, and it's also the thing most likely to push someone to look for alternatives.

Fork & Spoon draws its free line somewhere else. Keep as many of your own recipes as you like, organise them, cook from them, share them, and use the shopping list, all for nothing. What you pay for is import, turning a video or a page into a structured recipe, because that runs on a server and costs money each time.

Two different bets about what people will pay for. AnyList bets on storage and planning, Fork & Spoon bets on the work of getting the recipe in.

## Where AnyList is better

- **Price.** Ten dollars a year is very hard to argue with, and fifteen for a whole household is remarkable.
- **The shopping list itself.** It's had a decade of refinement. Price tracking with a running total as you shop is genuinely useful and Fork & Spoon hasn't got it.
- **Voice assistants and widgets.** Deeper integration with Siri and friends than Fork & Spoon has.
- **Google Calendar sync** for the meal plan, if your household runs on a shared calendar.
- **Browser extensions**, which make importing from a desktop browser a single click.

## Where Fork & Spoon is better

- **Where recipes come from now.** AnyList imports from web pages, which covers where recipes were ten years ago. Fork & Spoon reads YouTube transcripts, Instagram and TikTok captions, and photographs of cookbook pages, because that's where a large share of recipes are today.
- **No recipe limit on the free tier.** If you just want somewhere to keep your recipes, you never have to pay.
- **Sharing outward.** A recipe link that opens in any browser as an ordinary web page, so the person cooking needs neither the app nor an account. AnyList's sharing works between AnyList users.
- **Cooking mode.** Step-by-step with the screen kept awake, and servings you can scale with the amounts following.
- **Recipes in your own language.** Imports come back in the language you've set, across more than twenty-five languages.

## Which to pick

If you already use AnyList and your only complaint is the five-recipe cap, paying ten dollars a year is the cheapest fix available and you should probably just do that.

Come to Fork & Spoon when the complaint is different: that the recipe you want is inside a video, or on a page you photographed, and no amount of shopping-list polish gets it out of there.

## Questions

**Is AnyList cheaper?**

Yes. AnyList Complete is $9.99 a year for one person or $14.99 for a household, against €49.99 a year for Fork & Spoon Premium. If cost is the deciding factor, AnyList wins clearly.

**Does AnyList import recipes?**

Yes, from websites, and it has browser extensions for that. It does not import from a YouTube video, a social post or a photograph of a cookbook page.

**Can both apps share a list with a partner?**

Yes, both do this well, and both work between an iPhone and an Android phone. It is one of the things AnyList has been good at for years, and it is not a reason to switch either way.

**Do both have a browser version?**

Yes. Fork & Spoon runs at app.forkandspoon.app and AnyList has a web app of its own, both without an extra purchase. Where they differ is what you can send outward: Fork & Spoon turns any recipe into a link that opens for someone with no app and no account.

**How many recipes can I keep for free?**

AnyList's free tier limits you to five recipes. Fork & Spoon does not limit how many of your own recipes you keep on the free tier; import is what Premium unlocks.