Saffron Alternative: Past the 25-Recipe Free Limit
Saffron is free up to 25 recipes, then $5 a month. That is a reasonable free tier and a steep jump, because the upgrade mostly buys storage rather than features. If 25 is the only thing stopping you, RecipeSage holds unlimited recipes for nothing and Samsung Food is free with real mobile apps.
A disclosure before anything else: we make Gratly, one of the options below. Gratly's own free tier holds fewer recipes than Saffron's, and that is said plainly rather than buried.
Figures checked 30 October 2026 from secondary sources, not vendor pages. Confirm the current limit on the Play Store listing or mysaffronapp.com before deciding.
Why people look for an alternative
Saffron is a well-liked, cleanly designed digital cookbook with strong web import. The reasons people search for something else are narrow and specific.
The 25-recipe ceiling. It is generous enough to get properly attached to the app and small enough that a regular cook hits it inside a year. That combination is what generates the search.
The upgrade is storage, not capability. Premium raises the cap to around 1,000 recipes. If you are paying $5 a month, roughly $60 a year, you are paying for shelf space. Several alternatives give unlimited shelf space at no cost.
Platform reach. Saffron is clearly established on Android, with upgrades handled through its website. iOS availability is not something we could confirm, so we are not going to claim it either way. If you need an iPhone app, check the App Store yourself first.
At a glance
| Saffron | RecipeSage | Samsung Food | Gratly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free recipes | 25 | Unlimited | Generous | 10 active |
| Paid | $5/mo for ~1,000 | Optional donations | Food+ $6.99/mo | $5.99/mo, or $99 once |
| What paid buys | Storage | Nothing, it is free | AI plans, ad-free | Unlimited recipes, AI credits |
| Save from websites | Yes, strong | Yes, capped daily | Yes | One click on the page |
| Meal planner | Yes | Free | Free | This week free |
| Grocery list | Yes | Free | Free | Add a recipe free |
| Cook mode | Yes | Available | Yes | Free, with step timers |
| Mobile app | Yes, Android | Home screen install | Yes, both | Not yet |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No | No |
| Export | Available | Yes | Yes | Yes, JSON or CSV |
Where Saffron genuinely wins
It is a real phone app and it is pleasant to use. The interface is one of the better ones in this category. If you cook from an Android phone, Saffron beats a browser extension on the thing that matters at the counter.
25 free recipes is more than most. It is more than Gratly's 10, more than AnyList's handful, and more than Paprika gives on iOS, which is nothing. Credit where it is due.
Web import works well. Saving from recipe sites is not where this app falls down.
The honest alternatives
RecipeSage, if the cap is the whole problem
Unlimited recipes, free, open source, with the meal planner and shopping list included at no cost. If your objection to Saffron is purely "25 is not enough", this ends the problem permanently, and self-hosting removes every limit including the import throttle.
The trade: the hosted version caps imports at 2 import jobs and 7 URL autofills per day for non-contributors, so migrating a big collection takes patience. And it is a web app rather than a native phone app, though it installs to a home screen. See RecipeSage vs Gratly.
Samsung Food, if you want a free phone app
Free recipe saving, free meal plans and free shopping lists, on native apps for both platforms. For an Android user leaving Saffron over the cap, this is the most direct swap that does not cost anything. Formerly called Whisk.
The trade is ecosystem and upsell: Food+ at $6.99 a month exists, and you are inside a large company's product. See Samsung Food vs Gratly.
Gratly, if your recipes come from websites and you want one payment
Ours, and honest about the trade. Free holds 10 active recipes, which is fewer than Saffron's 25. So the free tier is not the reason to switch.
The reason would be the paid shape. Gratly Plus is $5.99 a month, comparable to Saffron Premium, but it also offers $99 once for Lifetime, which beats paying $60 a year forever if you intend to keep the tool. Free includes cook mode with step timers, serving scaling, unit switching, printing, this week's meal plan, shopping lists, and export to JSON or CSV. The extension saves from any recipe page in one click on Chrome, Edge and Brave.
Where it loses to Saffron: no mobile app yet, and a smaller free tier. If you cook from a phone, Saffron is the better tool today.
Copy Me That, if you want cheap rather than free
40 free recipes, more than Saffron, and the membership is unusually cheap at $0.99 a month, $12 a year, or $65 for lifetime access covering every device. If the goal is the lowest possible long-run cost for a large library, this is the strongest value in the category. See Copy Me That alternatives.
How to choose
- The 25-recipe cap is the only issue: RecipeSage, free and unlimited.
- You want a free phone app: Samsung Food.
- You want the cheapest long-run paid option: Copy Me That at $65 once, or Gratly Lifetime at $99 once.
- Most recipes come from websites and you cook from a laptop: Gratly.
- You want to never be capped or paywalled again: self-hosted RecipeSage.
- You are happy with Saffron and only resent the price: compare $60 a year against a one-time purchase before switching. Migration has a cost too.
FAQ
How many recipes does Saffron hold for free? 25 on the free tier. Premium raises it to around 1,000 for about $5 a month. Check the current Play Store listing, since app limits change.
Is there a free alternative to Saffron with no recipe limit? Yes. RecipeSage is free and open source with unlimited recipe storage, and its meal planner and shopping lists are free too. The hosted version limits daily imports rather than total recipes.
Is Saffron available on iPhone? We could not confirm iOS availability from reliable sources, so we are not claiming it either way. Check the App Store directly. Saffron is clearly established on Android.
What does Saffron Premium actually add? Primarily storage, raising the recipe cap to roughly 1,000. It is a shelf-space upgrade rather than a feature upgrade, which is why the free alternatives with unlimited storage are a real substitute.
Does Gratly hold more free recipes than Saffron? No. Gratly free holds 10 active recipes against Saffron's 25, so Saffron wins on free storage. Gratly's case is the one-click web extension, free cook mode and planning, and a $99 one-time Lifetime plan instead of a recurring subscription.
Can I export my recipes out of Saffron? An export is available, and you should run it before you cancel anything. Keep the file outside the app, then migrate from that copy at your own pace.
Try the free side first
If most of your recipes come from recipe websites rather than your own typing, add Gratly to Chrome for free and clip one to see how clean the result is. Export from Saffron first regardless of where you land.
Related: the best free recipe organizer apps, Samsung Food vs Gratly, Copy Me That alternatives, and RecipeSage vs Gratly.