AnyList Alternative: Beyond the Grocery List

AnyList is a grocery list app that also keeps recipes, not a recipe app that also makes lists. That is the whole reason people look for an alternative. The shared shopping list is the best in this category. The recipe side holds only about 5 recipes free, and the subscription is roughly $10 to $15 a year with no one-time option.

A disclosure: we make Gratly, one of the options below. Gratly does not beat AnyList at shared grocery lists and is not going to pretend otherwise.

Figures last verified 19 October 2026. Confirm current pricing on the App Store or Play listing.

Why people look for an alternative

The recipe tier is tiny. Around 5 recipes on free. That is not a cookbook, it is a demo. If you want to keep recipes, you are subscribing.

It is a list app first. Recipe import, clean reading views and cook mode are not where AnyList invests. If what you want is "save this recipe from a blog and read it without ads", that is somebody else's product.

Subscription only. Roughly $10 to $15 a year is cheap, genuinely. But there is no one-time purchase, and some people object to the model rather than the amount.

To be fair: as a shared list between two phones, with real-time sync, aisle sorting and a partner who actually uses it, AnyList is close to perfect and very cheap for what it does.

At a glance

	AnyList	Gratly	Samsung Food	Paprika
Shared grocery list	Best here	Good, merged week is paid	Free, good	Yes
Real-time sharing with a partner	Yes, excellent	Family plan, $9.99/mo	Yes, free	Via sync
Free recipes	~5	10 active	Generous	None on iOS
Recipe clipper	Basic	One click, strongest here	Yes	Yes
Clean recipe view	Basic	Yes, the main feature	Yes	Yes
Cook mode with timers	No	Free	Yes	Yes
Meal planner	Yes	This week free	Free	Yes
Paid model	~$10 to $15/yr	$5.99/mo or $99 once	Food+ $6.99/mo	One-time per platform
Platforms	iOS, Android, web	Chrome, Edge, Brave + web	iOS, Android, web	iOS, Mac, Windows
Export	Yes	Yes, JSON or CSV	Yes	Yes

Where AnyList genuinely wins

The shared list. Two people, two phones, instant sync, items sorted by aisle, and it remembers what you buy. Everything else here treats the shopping list as a feature hanging off the recipe box. AnyList treats it as the product, and it shows.

Price. Ten to fifteen dollars a year is the cheapest subscription in this comparison by a wide margin.

It is pleasant and reliable. No ads, no ecosystem strategy, no AI features nobody asked for. It does its job.

If the shared list is your actual problem, keep AnyList. Nothing on this page replaces it, and the honest move is to pair it with something else rather than switch away.

The honest alternatives

Samsung Food, if you want both halves free

The one option that is genuinely strong on both axes at no cost: free shared shopping lists, free meal plans, and a proper free recipe box, on native apps for both platforms. If you want to collapse AnyList plus a recipe app into one free tool, this is it.

The trade is a Samsung account, ads on the free tier, and Food+ upsell at $6.99 a month. See Samsung Food vs Gratly.

Gratly, if the recipe half is what is missing

Ours, and the honest framing is complement, not replacement. AnyList is the better list. Gratly is the better clipper: a Chrome, Edge and Brave extension that turns any recipe page into a clean, ad-free view in one click and keeps a searchable copy.

Free holds 10 active recipes, double AnyList's recipe tier, with cook mode and step timers, serving scaling, unit switching, printing, this week's meal plan, shopping lists with a recipe's ingredients added in one tap, and export to JSON or CSV. Lifetime is $99 once if you dislike subscriptions.

Where it loses to AnyList plainly: the shared real-time grocery list is not as good, one merged list for the whole week is paid, sharing with a partner means the Family plan at $9.99 a month, and there is no mobile app yet. For list-first households, AnyList wins.

Paprika, if you want one payment and both halves

A one-time purchase with no account, offline, with a competent recipe box, planner and list in one app. $4.99 iOS, $29.99 Mac, $29.99 Windows, charged per platform. No recurring cost ever, which is the opposite of AnyList's model. See Paprika alternatives.

RecipeSage, if free and unlimited is the goal

Unlimited recipes, free planner, free shopping list, open source, self-hostable. The list is not AnyList-grade, but nothing is free and unlimited like this. See RecipeSage vs Gratly.

The pairing most people actually want

Worth saying because it is usually the right answer and nobody selling an app will tell you: keep AnyList for the list, add a free recipe clipper for the cookbook.

AnyList at $10 to $15 a year is too cheap and too good at its job to replace. What it is missing is one-click saving from recipe sites and a clean reading view. A free tier on Gratly, RecipeSage or Samsung Food fills that gap at no cost. You end up with the best list and a real cookbook for the price you were already paying.

How to choose

The shared list is the point: keep AnyList. Pair it with a free clipper.
You want one free tool for both halves: Samsung Food.
Recipes come from blogs and you want them clean: Gratly, free.
You refuse subscriptions: Paprika, or Gratly Lifetime at $99 once.
Free and unlimited storage: RecipeSage.
You shop with a partner in real time: nothing here beats AnyList. Do not switch for the recipe features alone.

FAQ

How many recipes does AnyList hold for free? Around 5, which is why people look elsewhere for the recipe side. The free shopping list is far more useful than the free recipe allowance.

Does AnyList have a one-time purchase? No. It is subscription only, at roughly $10 to $15 a year. For a one-time purchase, Paprika charges per platform, and Gratly offers a $99 Lifetime plan.

What is the best AnyList alternative for recipes? Samsung Food if you want both halves free, or Gratly if your recipes come from websites and you want them in a clean ad-free view with free cook mode. Gratly free holds 10 recipes against AnyList's 5.

Is there a free alternative to AnyList for shopping lists? Samsung Food has free shared shopping lists and free meal plans, and is the closest free equivalent. Few tools match AnyList's real-time shared list quality, though.

Should I replace AnyList or add to it? Usually add. At $10 to $15 a year it is cheap and best in class at the shared list. Adding a free recipe clipper alongside it costs nothing and fixes the actual gap.

Does Gratly have a shared grocery list? Yes, with limits on free: adding a recipe's ingredients to a list is free, one merged list for the whole week is paid, and sharing with up to 6 people needs the Family plan at $9.99 a month. AnyList does shared lists better and cheaper.

Fill the gap for free

If AnyList already handles your shopping and the missing piece is a real cookbook, add Gratly to Chrome for free and clip a recipe. Keep the list where it works.