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Which cooking app is best depends on where you get stuck: deciding what to make, or the cooking itself. Almost every cooking app helps you decide what to make. Far fewer stay with you once the pan is on the heat — and that is where most meals go wrong. This guide compares the apps on that one question, and is honest about where ours falls short.
We make one of the apps in this list. That is a conflict of interest, and pretending otherwise would be silly. So we did not build a scoreboard we could tilt. Instead we compare the apps on a single question that can be checked: what does each one do once you have actually started cooking? Where another app is the better answer, we say so.
Details come from the App Store, Google Play and the makers’ own websites, plus opening the apps ourselves, checked in . We name pricing models — free, subscription, one-time purchase — but not amounts, because those change fastest. We have not used every app for months on end; where we judge, it is about what an app demonstrably does and does not do. Something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
The second column is the decisive one. Guidance during cooking is a different thing from a recipe page you scroll yourself, and on it the list runs from full guidance to none.
| App | Guides you while cooking | Choose this if… | Recipe library | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SousChef® | Yes — one timeline for the whole dish, a clip per step, steps read aloud, timers start themselves | …the cooking itself is where it goes wrong for you | Curated and tested in-house, plus recipes you save yourself | Free, no account |
| SideChef | Steps with an image or video, built-in timers | …you want the largest step-by-step collection | 18,000 claimed | Free + premium |
| Kitchen Stories | Steps with a photo, a timer per step | …you learn best by watching | Large, editorial | Free + premium |
| HelloFresh | Steps with photos | …you want the shopping done for you | Weekly menu | Subscription per box |
| Crouton | Step-by-step mode, tap-to-start timers | …you want an elegant recipe archive inside Apple | Your own imports | Free + one-time purchase or subscription |
| Paprika | Limited: tap-to-start timers, screen stays on | …you want your own collection on every platform | Your own imports | One-time purchase per platform |
| Cookpad | No | …you want recipes from other home cooks | Community-submitted | Free + premium |
Several apps in that table offer some form of step-by-step cooking — SideChef, Kitchen Stories, Crouton and the HelloFresh app among them — and on a feature list they look alike: a cook mode, timers and imagery. The difference is not what is on the list — it is how finely a dish is broken down and how much of the coordination the app takes off your hands.
Look at how these apps sell themselves and they all lead with a number: 18,000 recipes, 10,000+ recipes. Library size is the industry’s headline metric. Nobody advertises the thing you actually care about at half past six — whether this recipe works when you cook it.
So we optimised for the other number. Every SousChef® recipe is developed and tested in-house for exactly this format: cut into micro-steps, filmed, timed and checked until it turns out. You get a smaller collection and no scrolling past ten thousand dishes you will never make. You pick something, and it works.
A conventional cook mode shows you the recipe’s own steps, one card at a time: “Dice the onion, soften in butter for 5 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another minute.” That is one step containing four actions and two timings, and you are the one keeping track of where in that sentence you are.
SousChef® splits that into separate micro-steps, each holding a single action. Less text on the screen, nothing to re-read, and no hunting for your place after you look away. It is the same recipe, cut differently.
Timers are not the differentiator — SideChef, Kitchen Stories, Crouton and Paprika all have them in some form. Mostly you start them yourself, for the step you happen to be standing on.
SousChef® runs the whole dish on one timeline. It knows the pasta has to go in while the sauce reduces, starts the right timers itself, and works backwards from the finish to tell you what time you will actually be eating. That is the part nobody hands you a checklist for, and it is the reason three pans stop being stressful. None of the other apps in this comparison offers it.
SideChef’s own wording promises “an image or video at every cooking step”, and that or is doing a lot of work: in the recipes we opened, what you get is a still photo. A photo shows a result — a bowl of neatly diced onion — not the movement that produced it. That is fine if you already know how to get there.
SousChef® puts a short clip on every step and loops it for as long as you are standing on that step. Glance up halfway through chopping, see the motion again, carry on. Nothing to tap, nothing to rewind.
Hands-free features elsewhere are mostly about moving through the steps without touching the screen: Crouton, for instance, now lets you go to the next step with a thumb gesture. Useful, but you are still the one doing the reading. SousChef® reads the steps out loud as soon as they appear on screen, so you spend less time reading and more time watching the pan.
The guidance, the voice, the timers and the timeline are the whole product, not the paid tier of it. There is no subscription and no sign-up. Kitchen Stories and SideChef are both free to download with a paid premium plan on top.
To be fair to the alternatives: if sheer choice is what you are after, SideChef’s claimed 18,000 is a scale we are not trying to match, and Kitchen Stories has built a genuinely good editorial library. Different jobs.
We are deliberately not the app for everyone. Four situations where you are better off elsewhere — better to know now than after downloading.
Checked in against the App Store, Google Play and the makers’ websites. When reading other round-ups, check the date: many still recommend apps that no longer exist — Yummly, a fixture of these lists for years, shut down on 20 December 2024. We revise this guide quarterly.
Also read: the story behind SousChef® or frequently asked questions. Deze gids is er ook in het Nederlands.
Free, no account needed. We keep SousChef® free by working with advertisers and partners that fit our platform — they sponsor recipes, ingredients or kitchen equipment.