Healthy meal plans can now be made easier and quicker with phone apps.

On the surface, meal planning looks like a smart, painless way to stay ahead of the game and stick to your healthy eating goals throughout the hectic work week. But figuring out what to eat for the next seven days isn’t always an easy task.

Thankfully, there are plenty of free meal planning apps and premium options to help you navigate the kitchen and grocery store.

Shape Magazine recently came up with a list to suit some of the more common healthy meal plan preferences.

Healthy Meal Plan Apps by Preference

Best Overall Meal Planning App: Mealime

Available for: Android & iOS

Price: Free, with in-app purchases available

Try it: Mealime

  • Mealime features 30-minute recipes.
  • The app allows you to create personalized eating plans with three to six recipes based on your dietary preferences, allergies, and disliked ingredients.
  • It also creates a grocery list, complete with pictures of the supplies and ingredient substitutes.
  • Nutrition information for each recipe is also sent to your phone’s Health app.
  • For an extra $6 a month or $50 a year, you’ll have access to in-depth nutrition information and exclusive recipes released each week.

Best for Meal Planning App for Nutrition Tracking and Calorie Counting: Eat This Much

Available for: Android & iOS

Price: Free, with in-app purchases available

Try it: Eat This Much

  • Whether you’re a bodybuilder or vegetarian, Eat This Much will help you get the macronutrients you need to stay fit. The free meal planning app takes your dietary preferences and budget into consideration to craft daily meal plans and grocery lists, all done with calories, carbs, fat, and protein content in mind. Eat This Much takes it a step further than other apps, though, by allowing you to customize popular eating styles—like veganism or the paleo diet—to match your tastes and nutritional needs. (Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Bodybuilding Meal Prep and Nutrition)
  • By signing up for a $5-per-month subscription, you’ll be able to plan a week’s worth of meals at a time, as well as log onto the app’s website and export your grocery list to AmazonFresh or Instacart for delivery.

Best for Meal Planning App for Plant-Based Eaters: Forks Over Knives

Available for: Android & iOS

Price: $5

Try it: Forks Over Knives

  • While plant-based dishes seem like an afterthought on other healthy meal planning apps, Forks Over Knives makes them the star of the show.
  • The app features more than 400 veggie-centric recipes, many of which were contributed by 50 prominent chefs.
  • To help you navigate even the most complex maze of a supermarket, the app will automatically sort the ingredients on your shopping list by aisle.

Best for Meal Planning App for Recipes: Paprika

Available for: Android & iOS

Price: $5

Try it: Paprika

  • When you’re stocked up on groceries but have no clue what to make for dinner, turn to Paprika.
  • Through the recipe management and meal planning app, you can import your own recipes and ones from your go-to websites, building a virtual cookbook that can be accessed across devices with its Cloud Sync feature.
  • You won’t miss writing on print recipes, either, thanks to its interactive features that allow you to cross off ingredients and highlight directions.

Best for Meal Planning App for Meal Prep: MealPrepPro

Available for: iOS

Price: $6/month, or $48/year

Try it: MealPrepPro

  • If you’d rather spend your entire Sunday in your kitchen, baking a week’s worth of chicken while surrounded by Pyrex containers, MealPrepPro is for you.
  • The meal prepping app not only builds you a customizable weekly meal plan based on your diet and macro goals, but it also helps you cook in bulk.
  • The app even estimates your hands-on cooking time for the week so you can schedule your after-dinner plans accordingly.

Best Meal Planning App for New Cooks: Yummly

Available for: Android & iOS

Price: Free, with in-app purchases available

Try it: Yummly

  • With more than 2 million recipes, kitchen tips, and articles on trending foods, Yummly will help cooking newbies.
  • The healthy meal planning app’s sorting feature will narrow down dishes based on cooking time, cuisine, and occasion, as well as filter out recipes that don’t match your eating style.
  • And if you’re a procrastinator, Yummly will send you a notification when it’s time to get cooking based on your chosen recipe.
  • In need of a little more guidance? For $5 a month, you’ll get access to step-by-step demonstration videos from leading culinary professionals.

Best Meal Planning App for Take-Out Lovers: Suggestic

Available for: iOS

Price: Free, with in-app purchases available

Try it: Suggestic

  • Even kitchen masters crave take-out every once in a while.
  • But to make sure you stay on top of your healthy eating goals, download Suggestic—the free meal planning app can recommend dishes that stick to your eating style (keto, vegan, etc.) at more than 500,000 restaurants in the country.
  • Suggestic nails the at-home planning department, too, offering simple recipes to build a meal plan for your entire week.
  • To keep your spirits high over those seven days, the app will send you motivational emails and notifications.
  • For additional recipes, educational videos, and eating programs, pick up a premium membership for $13 a month.

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