When comparing Mastercook vs Paprika, the Slant community recommends Paprika for most people. In the question“What are the best personal recipe databases for PC? ” Paprika is ranked 2nd while Mastercook is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Paprika is:
Covers [most of the major websites](http://www.paprikaapp.com/sites), including Food & Wine, Food Network and The Girl Who Ate Everything and even a good amount of "unsupported" websites will work.
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Pros
Pro Helpful menu planning capabilities
This software can help you in planning meals. You can plan your breakfast, lunch and dinner for a day, the week or even an entire month.
Pro Makes shopping for groceries easier
When you already made your meal plan, it can make a shopping list and group the food per area in the grocery. This makes it easier for you to shop and saves you time. It can also estimate your food bill, though you have to input the price when you use it the first time.
Pro Huge number of preprogrammed recipes
Mastercook contains more than 8,000 recipes in its database.
Pro Helpful food tracking capability
This can track what's still available in your pantry. When you don't want to go out and shop, it will give you a number of recipe suggestions with the ingredients you have in your house.
Pro Can import recipes from a wide variety of online sources
Covers most of the major websites, including Food & Wine, Food Network and The Girl Who Ate Everything and even a good amount of "unsupported" websites will work.
Pro Simple, clean interface
A lot of time has been spent on making the interface feel as intuitive as possible. Navigation is easy, it's possible to highlight items with taps to track what steps have been taken or tap to cross-out ingredients that have been added as well as adjust the recipe easily without overwriting the original and make notes of changes and preferences.
Pro Syncs across devices
Paprika can be used across any of the supported devices - iOS, Android, OSX, web. If a recipe is imported in one device it will show up on all other devices as well.
Pro Can generate a grocery list
Depending on meal plans, Paprika can create a grocery list with all required ingredients. In the grocery list it's possible to view ingredients grouped based on recipes or all together. It can even keep a list of items already available and skip those when creating a grocery list.
Pro Manually importing recipes doesn't require typing
To manually transfer a recipe from a website, highlight a part of the recipe and then click the appropriate button - name, ingredient, direction, etc.
Pro Has tools that help in the cooking process
Paprika includes timers, converters and a tool for scaling ingredients. It makes the process of cooking easier to manage.
Pro Notes section allows you to add your own personal comments
Pro Can switch back and forth between recipes
Using the Pin tool allows you to quickly switch between recipes in progress without losing your place. Crossed-out ingredients stay crossed out, the step you're on remains highlighted.
Pro Customizable categories and sub-categories
It comes stocked with a handful of basic categories, but you can add your own, including sub-categories and order them any way you want.
Pro Easy import from previous recipe manager
Paprika readily accepts importing from the older application and syncing from Mac to iPad is amazing. 200+ recipes in seconds!
Pro Has tools for planning out meals weeks in advance
Paprika has a simple to use meal planner that allows adding recipes along with notes to a calendar. This information can later be used to automatically create a grocery list. Meal plans last forever. Want to know what you served for Christmas 3 years ago? It's there.
Cons
Con Update for Paprika 3 requires payment
The update to Paprika 3 requires a $5 payment even when you've bought the app a long time ago.
Con No OCR support
No way to scan in or take a photo of a written or printed recipe.
Con No way to create a shared collection of recipes
There's no way for you to collaborate on family recipes with your wife, parents, or sisters. Right now it seems only Umami supports this functionality.
Con Has to be bought separately for each device
Each device requires a separate purchase of the app. (IOS is now a universal app, Windows is a separate purchase)
Con Doesn't allow adding pictures for each cooking steps
Only a title picture is allowed.
Con Not worth what you pay for
Paprika is an extortionist recipe organizer that charges for apps separately, doesn't let you bookmark from your browser, and doesn't let you search by ingredient.
Con Lacks own recipe database
Paprika can only import recipes from third-party sources. There's no built-in recipe database to browse or search through.