The CookBook App vs Allrecipes' Dinner Spinner

Free built in OCR support to take images of paper recipes and turn them into digital 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.

Automatically stores your recipe information within the cloud to enable access from the mobile applications and website

Syncs seamlessly between devices and platforms (iOS, Android and web!)

Usually respond within a matter of a day and keen to fix bugs and improve the app

Convert ingredients from the original measure type to your preferred US, Imperial and Metric measures.

They have made the app really personable by being able to add descriptions and upload an image to each step for your recipe.

Unlike a lot of other apps you only pay for the app once, there is no recurring subscription.

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.

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.

Will recalculate the amount of each ingredient needed based on the number of servings you choose.

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.

Create recipe timers automatically from detected instructions or enter a timer manually to alert you when you are needed in the kitchen

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.

The user interface of the app is great and easy to use.

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.

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.

A few recipes have an accompanying video that explains how to prepare and cook the meal. Tapping on directions below the video skips it to the part that explains the step.

The app can display how many calories each serving has what percentage of daily recommended intake each nutrient has.

The recipe database search allows specifying if certain ingredients should be present or not, if there are any dietary needs and how long should cooking the meal take.

With Allrecipes Pro, users can access all 44,000 recipes in the database. Without paying for the pro version, users are only allowed to access a few thousand.

Each recipe has prep and cook time listed, so it's possible to take into account how long the process will take. All ingredients can be divided into required servings.

Items to the shopping list can be added from the recipe view by clicking on the ingredients or manually from the shopping list itself. Items are organized in categories such as produce or beverages and there's a reminder at the bottom for what meals are the ingredients for. Bought items can be ticked off by tapping on them or deleted from the list with a long-tap.

It's possible to rate and review recipes.