CookBook - Recipe Keeper

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1. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Lost All My Recipes. I had been using this app for awhile and decided to update it. They updated to some sort of subscription model and I lost all my recipes and instructions stored here. Terrible App.

2. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Big downgrade since version 3. I used to really love this app. It was the best way to organize recipes and shopping lists. Ever since the 3.0 update, it’s gotten much worse. I will give one example to illustrate, but please understand that it represents more issues. In the shopping list page I want to rename my list. There are two icons that have three dots in them. Bot of them bring up the same menu of options (which has its own issues) but the menu doesn’t contain an option to rename the shopping list. (Why are there two buttons for the same menu to begin with?) There is another button of three lines in the upper left, so I’ll try that. That brings up the master menu for the app, which is already somewhat duplicated in the bottom bar, and it doesn’t have the option to rename the menu. There is a pencil icon too - maybe that’s what I’m looking for? No that’s for selecting items in the list. Finally there is an icon in the upper right that has three lines. That one brings up the list of all my shopping lists. Each of which has another menu icon next to it. That’s the one I have to tap on to rename the menu. But Please note!! I don’t mean to say that you should fix this one thing and the app will be fine, what I mean to illustrate is a pervasive sense of lack of user experience. I’m very disappointed because I expected to use this app for a long time, and it was relatively expensive for the lifetime membership. Honestly if I could revert to version 2.2.295 I would.

3. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Absolute trash!. Couldn’t get past the set up phase. Stuck in authentication hell.

4. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   The new update is awful. September 2025 update: so I’m back, and have lowered my review from 2 stars down to 1 star. I can only imagine they had to appease investors or something, for the way they’ve absolutely wrecked their app. Adding a text recipe is very clunky, when it should be arguably the easiest thing to do: The very first thing that comes up is an ingredients window. Uh ok. So you type out the ingredients and then click a green check with the word “Confirm.” A green check mark with the word “confirm” implies completion. It tells the user “click here when you’re done,” however, on Cookbook, it means “proceed to the next section.” That’s confusing. So now onto the next section …which is a disorganized, visually noisy page, where you can finally add a recipe title, add tags, a has a big annoying purple button to add an AI IMAGE (what???) Now where do I add the instructions? Oh. There it is. A very small, out of the way section toward the bottom. Onto notes: on recipes, you can put little notes for yourself, that will appear on the main page of the recipe when you open it. Did you know you had to press and drag, and that there is an invisible bar on the side? Neither did it. They have compressed the notes section so only a very small section of your notes will show, and start to gray out/disappear toward the bottom. You’ll instinctively try to tap on it, thinking it will expand the text. Nothing. You will have to tap press hold and drag and a little side scroll will magically appear to let you scroll through your notes. Again, not intuitive. You guys I’m sorry and I know you’re going to double down on this but… this update is not meant for those of us who were there from the beginning. Those of us who paid for the app, and dedicated hours, who used this in our professional kitchens and offices with staff. This app was made to impress someone (who? Teens on TikTok?) with jazzy AI features and a completely disorganized and not UI friendly structure.

5. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Got hacked as soon as I downloaded. I downloaded the app, signed in with my apple account, started to customize the app, it locked up, and when I reopened it immediately got a security alert from Gmail! Opened the account info on the app and someone else’s email was in the account.

6. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Last update is bad. Last update changed everything. Not easy to use anymore, not simple. It even changed the measurements of the ingredients which now I have to go and individually correct because it automatically changed with the update. Deleting the app and finding a new one.

7. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Updates :(. The updates were not ready to go live. Too many bugs and now so much slower in scanning/importing recipes, not to mention the app will just….quit. Seriously considering quitting this app.

8. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Investigation of a Viable App for Capturing Recipes From Numerous Sources. As the title suggests, I sought a reliable application capable of capturing recipes from diverse sources. Initially, I was enthusiastic about this app upon discovering it. However, after reading reviews from satisfied lifetime subscribers, my excitement transformed into dismay. As an experienced software quality professional, I must express my profound disappointment with your response regarding lifetime subscribers’ need to contact you for subscription reactivation. A software update should have automatically restored all lifetime subscribers to active status without additional contact with your administrative staff. The fact that this did not occur indicates significant flaws in your software upgrade management process, particularly in the areas of requirement definition, user profile status, integration, and testing. Alternatively, it is possible that the company intentionally proceeded with this strategy to manipulate lifetime subscribers into purchasing memberships again through individuals who were unaware of the issue or simply apathetic and unwilling to navigate the administrative process you described in your responses to their complaints. Initially, I had no intention on addressing this issue by the overwhelming number of complaints received prompted me to address this matter as a senior member of the community. I understand that many seniors may not possess the necessary knowledge to question the update, prefer not to engage in the hassle, or simply choose to disregard the issue altogether.

9. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Horrible update. Gets worse and worse. I’ve had this app for yearrrss. I loved it and recommended it to everyone. I was annoyed when then moved to a paid model, but this new update is a deal breaker. It’s chaotic, messy, and ads extra steps to each task. And reading the latest reviews on here I’m not alone feeling this way. I’m definitely moving to a new app now.

10. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Redesign is horrible. The new layout is very clunky and difficult to navigate. Lots of extra clicks that are not necessary.

11. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Can’t log in anymore. The changed it now I can’t even get logged into my recipes

12. ★★★★★an update broke a familiar workflow

    TERRIBLE update. You ruined a perfectly good app, for what?? More money I’m assuming. My employees and I use this app every single day and you’ve made our jobs infinitely harder. This update is genuinely terrible and I can’t understand who ran through this and thought it was smooth and user friendly. Extremely disappointed and irritated. Awful update. Ruined a perfectly good app.

13. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    New update six. Upset with the new update, hard to view tags and create shopping list

14. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Why???. My favorite app had a massive platform change and now I hate it!!!! Why???????

15. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Perfect app - ruined. Capitalism does it again. Ai integrations! Ai socials imports! Instacart checkout! I’ve never wanted any of these features. I’m a seasoned user of this app with over 300 recipes imported. When selecting this app years ago I wanted an uncluttered and organized recipe manager. The app was perfect, besides a couple bugs that it sounds like they addressed. The interface used to be clean, have excellent visual hierarchy (which is very important when you’re following recipes off of your phone), and it was quick and easy to navigate. Now, so much is jammed in, the interface has become overstimulating and chaotic. The text and visual formatting of recipes are actually harder to follow at a glance. This app used to feel like having a cookbook, with all my favorite recipes organized and optimized in one place. I loved it. Now it’s a chaotic platform, where the layout of the recipes themselves feel like an afterthought. I’m honestly heartbroken.

16. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    New users, be careful! Very disappointed. I bought this app when it was a one-time lifetime payment. I put a lot of effort and time into adding recipes, and now it’s switched to a subscription plan. I thought that by going free, I could at least view the recipes I had saved in the app as PDFs, but instead, I only have the option to view 40 recipes or delete them. For those of us who were here from the beginning, this is very disappointing. I feel like this app stole my recipes and is now asking me to pay to get them back. For new users, be aware that even if you pay for a subscription, this could change again, and you could lose all the time and money you invested in this app.

17. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    So many issues. I’ve had so many issues with the app between it not being able to upload recipes, not adding items to my grocery list, and NOW I clicked to open it and everything I saved is now gone. It literally said “something really bad happened. Please contact support.” What??? Don’t waste your money on this app

18. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Think you have lifetime access? Think again.. I paid for lifetime access to this app several years ago…..now I have to pay AGAIN to access the same recipes I inputted years ago. Buyer beware. They can hold your recipes hostage and make you pay for “lifetime access” multiple times.

19. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Former original cookbook user. This used to be my mainstay, I have well over 300 recipes in this app including originals and was once a lifetime purchaser. Then cookbook updated and made it subscription based. Prior Lifetime buyers were given a grace period I guess one would call it, before having to hop on subscription base for the updated app or default into basic (free). Those who defaulted to basic now had 40 recipes to work with which I guess is more than what the non lifetime purchasers got, yay. Since I’m over the 40 I’m constantly told that I need to delete recipes or subscribe in order to look at the recipes I already have stored. I’m not even actively using the app to try to save recipes. Just view my stored ones. Even sorting it to most recent ads directed doesn’t allow me to view my “40” instead it is just a “subscribe or delete recipes pop up” I can’t help but feel cheated. Now there’s an option for “lifetime” purchase. The lifetime of the latest upgrade until they come out with a cookbook 3.0 or whichever one they are on and the cycle continues? I understand they have a business to run but I am weary of their practices now and have went with another app instead. Good news if people are interested in subscribing it’s cheap at least and I did like the UI. So if you’re on the fence maybe they can have your money. I have no intention on being a patron.

20. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Can’t recommend this app. Requires you to create an account. Then it gives you the cost information. Also entered a valid email address and it would not take my email address that I’ve had since email started 🙄and I kept getting a message that it wasn’t valid. Had to use a friend’s email address. Very disappointed right from the start.

21. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Lifetime buyers beware. Bought the “lifetime” then they change to the subscription model. When that happened they changed the “lifetime” accounts to a limited “free” account (funny that free costs $9.99, oh that’s for 1.0, but that’s not available anymore). Now I see they offer another “lifetime” purchase. So when 3.0 comes out I guess the 2.0 will then be “free”. Apple you need to stop this greed.

22. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    It used to be good. Purchased the original version of the app based on the features available. The developer had promised that the features would still be available as long as I had the original app. Just another example of going back on promises for the early supporters. Disappointed that I am now locked out of my recipes because i bought the lifetime subscription when the lifetime subscription was the app purchase. I wonder how long the new ‘lifetime’ purchase will last. I guess the old saying is true that if you want something done right, do it yourself.

23. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Bought before; now they want me to pay again. I bought the app in the past for lifetime. Apparently that means only a couple years to this company, as to use the pro features again, they switched to subscription model. They also offer another “lifetime” option. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. They offered half off a year subscription. I’m not doing the “lifetime” option for a a year or two until Cookbook 3.0 comes out.

24. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Theft!. I paid to own this app outright precisely to avoid getting sucked into a money pit: years of investments in a niche personal tool that does one little thing. Now I’m being told that I will be unable to continue using the app going forward, except in read-only mode after one year of “free” subscription. The problem is twofold: (1) I relied on the nature of an outright purchase and have not been in a hurry to digitize recipes, so I have very little content to date. So I will basically have gifted the developers my money for a loan rather than a purchase. SaaS is a loan. No thank you. (2) The app, if I do rush to fill it with content now, will be useless for the very reason I bought it in the first place: data consolidation. The last thing I want is recipes spread across different apps. Should I never add another app to my personal catalog again? Or should I waste my time and homescreen space switching between catalogs? Both are terrible options. This is, frankly, fraud and theft. I paid for X and you are taking it away and replacing it with Y. I do not consent. Why not just grandfather legacy users into lifetime plans?

25. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Key features don’t sync. Neither the meal planner nor the grocery list sync across devices. Both are key functions whose absence severely limit the utility of this app.

26. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Bad not true. This is very bad and hard to use ☹️

27. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    unethical business practices. I paid for this app two years ago when it was not a subscription service. If I had known it would be turned into a subscription I would have just used a free app, or even saved pdfs to a drive on my computer. Now I am being forced, after purchasing an item, to pay for that same item AGAIN? When Microsoft updates it’s operating system, does your old windows 7 stop working? In what universe is it reasonable to ask someone to pay forty dollars for a “lifetime subscription” to something they’ve already purchased? How do I know that in two more years, the app won’t decide that they need to add new features and charge me another forty dollars, why not a hundred this time? Giving old users a free lifetime subscription is the only thing that makes sense in this context. I used to recommend this app to people, now I’m just going to uninstall it. I can’t spend more of my money on a company with such unethical business practices. I would recommend everyone considering this purchase to reconsider based on this review as well.

28. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Was amazing until I was told I have to pay for a subscription for an app I purchased twice already.. I loved this product so much that I bought it twice. Once for my android devices and again for my iPhone. Now I am told that I have to pay for a subscription or a lifetime subscription to help the developer fund “epic new features”. I was going to wait to write this review until I saw if these “epic new features” were worth paying for, however it has been 5 months and nothing new or epic that I have seen. I guess once my “free” year is up I will move on from this product that I paid for twice, but won’t have access to.

29. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Now i have to subscribe?!?. I’ve been using this app since I “BOUGHT IT “ in June 2020. It’s worked fine for me since then, no issues. Now I find out that it’s going to be subscription based, and I’m expected to pay for it again?? What a joke! It’s not the $5 that I’ve spent that bothers me. It’s the fact that I’ve already paid for it. I’ve found another app that I will be transferring my recipes to, and will be saying bye-bye to this developer.

30. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Good app, lousy company. Was going to give the one star for the bait and switch move to a subscription model but it does work well so it gets two.