When comparing SideChef vs The CookBook App, the Slant community recommends The CookBook App for most people. In the question“What are the best recipe manager apps for Android? ” The CookBook App is ranked 6th while SideChef is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose The CookBook App is:
Free built in OCR support to take images of paper recipes and turn them into digital recipes
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Pros
Pro Available for Android, iPhone and iPad
Pro Voice output and voice commands available
So you don't have to get your washed every time you want to look up something about the recipe.
Pro Step by step description of the recipes
Perfectly feasible for novices
Pro Features a lot of recipes by renowned chefs and allows to upload, rate and share recipes oneself
More than 1000 recipes and continues to grow
Pro OCR Support
Free built in OCR support to take images of paper recipes and turn them into digital recipes
Pro Allows importing recipes
CookBook can import recipes and has a long list of supported websites. The import feature isn't wonderful though, and even when using the supported sites there is no guarantee that the full recipe is imported.
Pro Free Cloud Storage
Automatically stores your recipe information within the cloud to enable access from the mobile applications and website
Pro Syncs across devices
Syncs seamlessly between devices and platforms (iOS, Android and web!)
Pro Active support team
Usually respond within a matter of a day and keen to fix bugs and improve the app
Pro Automatic Measure Conversion
Convert ingredients from the original measure type to your preferred US, Imperial and Metric measures.
Pro Upload and show images per step
They have made the app really personable by being able to add descriptions and upload an image to each step for your recipe.
Pro No subscription costs
Unlike a lot of other apps you only pay for the app once, there is no recurring subscription.
Pro Cooking Mode
Built in Cooking mode that reads your recipe to you while you cook. It also lets you mark ingredients and steps as completed so you know where you are in the recipe.
Pro Has a website that everything syncs to
The app links to their website where you can log in to see, edit and import recipes. Personally I found importing through this site works better than using the app.
Pro Scaling
Will recalculate the amount of each ingredient needed based on the number of servings you choose.
Pro Can be used with a partner
Partners, roommates and so on can share an account and access the same recipes, shopping list and other functions of the app. The only exception is the "extra items" on shopping lists, which are items that are not a part of a recipe, like bread or milk.
Pro Timer detection
Create recipe timers automatically from detected instructions or enter a timer manually to alert you when you are needed in the kitchen
Pro Generate a grocery list and meal plan
Create a meal plan, print the planner or generate an interactive shopping list for your recipes. The grocery list also notes what recipe the ingredient is used in.
Pro Sleek and easy to use design
The user interface of the app is great and easy to use.
Pro Searching and filtering
Recipes can be searched for by ingredients, the recipe name or other keywords. You can also filter recipes by ingredients (either included or excluded), time, favourite status and tags, and sort by name or last updated. This is handy if you have a lot of recipes.
Pro Surprise me
Has a surprise me feature which randomly selects a recipe for you. Note that this will show you any recipe, you can't sort it do only show dinners for example.
Cons
Con Inconsistent or fiddly importing
Importing recipes from websites is inconsistent, it will sometimes work perfectly and sometimes be missing almost all the major parts of the recipe. Even when using the sites listed as supported in the app there is no guarantee that it will work. You can also add recipes from OCR (which seems to work well), from a file (which is limited to certain filetypes), or by copy/pasting blocks of text. The latter gets good results but is fiddly and impractical, especially when adding a larger number of recipes.
Con No sharing "extra items"
You can share an account with others and the shopping list will sync so everyone sees the same, except for "extra items". These are the everyday items you buy that don't go into a recipe, for example bread, milk, cereal, that sort of thing. These won't be synced, so if your partner is out shopping they won't see these on the list, which in my opinion is rather silly as these are the items we buy most often.
Con No recipe database
The app works solely as a place for you to add and save your own recipes rather than finding inspiration and recipes from others. There are 7 demo recipes when you download the app, but apart from these you'll have to add everything yourself.