Options to Store Recipes Electronically

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Electronic tools to store recipes; two main phone application options; comparison of similar options; going over their features

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Many of us search for recipes online either on Google, Pinterest, etc. We don’t necessarily store our recipes or print them to keep track of the ones we’ve tried and liked but we do usually save them somewhere. Depending on where the recipe was found is what will determine where it will be saved. The variety of locations will make it hard to keep your recipes organized. Sharing recipes with others either from blog posts or cooking websites has also become common among people which makes it sometimes hard to print or save a recipe sent via text.

I’ve decided to look into the options available to store recipes electronically and see what their benefits and differences are. Let’s get started and see if there is an option that suits your lifestyle.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog post on achieving an organized recipe binder which got me thinking… There must be an electronic way to keep recipes in order to have them readily available and easy to share. I did a little bit of digging and discovered a few things that you may find helpful.

Electronic versions

You could easily create an electronic cookbook with a photo album creator website. This may be a long and tedious process if you were to do it with ALL your stored recipes (especially if you have many of them) but could be useful to do as a gift.

For example, you could create an album/cookbook online of all of your grand mother’s recipes. Once completed, you can have it printed and give it out to members of the family. You could also create a cookbook for your child going that is going away to college for the first time so that he or she has the basic homemade recipes even when away from home.

Here are some websites I found that may be useful to you if this option is one that appeals to you:

• Create My Cookbook
• Cookbook Create

Phone applications

Here is the “piece of resistance”. If you are the kind of person that like to share recipes and send via text or take screenshots of recipes you find online or on social media, this may be the option for you.

I did some research on applications to store recipes and found many options. To narrow down my results, I found the two most popular ones and then compared them to one another. Here are the ones I ended up comparing:

• OrganizEat
• RecipeKeeper

What they have in common

Both applications do have similarities which is what actually makes it hard to determine which one is my favorite. They both:

-are compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android
-have a free version to their applications
-have the option to save up to 20 recipes on the free trial version -have a shopping list feature
-have a meal planner feature
-can import recipes from websites
-have the option of taking pictures (scan) of recipes to add them
-have the option of sharing recipes with others
-have the option that recipes can be synced
-have great support for their users of the application

Most of the features they have in common are ones that I personally am looking for in an application that would eventually replace my recipe binder.

General differences between the two applications

Of course, there has to be differences between the two so here are the ones I’ve noticed.

OrganizEat (4.6 star rating on the App Store)
-has a customization feature for skin of the app (which appeals to be personally).
-once the application is open, the screen stays on so there is no need to touch your screen to illuminate it while cooking.
-size: 21.2 MB
-6 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

RecipeKeeper (4.6 star rating on the App Store)
-has a customization feature for the colour scheme of the app.
-if you have unexpected guests and need to resize your recipe you can do so on this application with a recipe that you have.
-size: 73.7 MB
-15+ languages: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Bokmal, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese.

Price difference between the two applications

If you do choose to invest in the “Full Version” of one of these applications, here is what you’ll get:

OrganizEat (Full version)

-unlimited recipes stored on your device
-cloud backup for up to 4 000 recipes
-sync account across all devices (iOS + iPad)
-expand your recipe book by linking your account with family and friends
-valid on all your mobile devices
-priority customer support

1 month = $2.49/month
1 year = $15.99 ($1.33/monthly)
Lifetime licence = $54.99

RecipeKeeper (Pro)

-add unlimited recipes
-backup your recipes to the cloud
-share recipes to your favorite social networks
-sync your recipes, shopping lists and meal planner across all your phones, tablets and computers (apps for MAC and other platforms sold separately)

$8.49 which is a one time charge per platform/account.

For example, a single iOS purchase of the RecipeKeeper application can be used across all of your iPhones and iPads that are signed in to the same app store account.

Which application I like the best

I personally like the OrganizEat application the best for the way it’s organized and because of its visual features with the main recipe menu BUT the price is certainly the best with the RecipeKeeper application. So really, it’s a matter of knowing what works best for you.

I’ve downloaded both applications and have played with the free versions of them both to see which one suited my needs the best. I suggest you do the same as well, especially if after reading this blog post you are still unsure as to which one would be the best for you.

If you do end up liking and/or purchasing one of the two, let me know which one and why. I’d love to know.