Mela

Overview

Mela is a recipe manager application designed to simplify the process of collecting, organizing, and preparing recipes from various sources. The app allows users to save recipes from websites, import them from URLs, scan physical recipe cards using OCR, or manually enter them. It is intended for home cooks and meal planners who want a centralized, well-designed platform to manage their personal recipe collection with features like meal planning, grocery list generation, and a dedicated cooking mode.

Key Features

• In-App Browser with Live Preview - Built-in browser that detects recipes on web pages and displays them in a native viewer for easy saving.
• Recipe Import from Multiple Sources - Import recipes directly from URLs, Safari extension, manual entry, or OCR scanning of physical recipe cards.
• iCloud Sync - Automatically syncs recipes, bookmarks, and feed subscriptions across all Apple devices, with options for private or shared libraries.
• Meal Planning and Calendar - Create meal plans and organize recipes with a calendar interface for meal scheduling.
• Grocery List Generation - Automatically extract ingredients from recipes and create grocery lists that integrate with Apple Reminders.
• Cooking Mode - Optimized interface with enlarged fonts, bold current steps, and grayed-out preceding/upcoming steps for hands-free cooking.
• Recipe Organization - Organize recipes with favorites, 'Want to Cook' lists, categories, and automatic 'Most Recent' tracking.
• Feed Subscriptions - Subscribe to cooking blogs and recipe feeds for recipe discovery and curation.
• Recipe Scaling - Adjust serving sizes with automatic ingredient quantity recalculation.

Pricing

Platforms & Requirements

Mela is available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The app requires iCloud for sync functionality, which is enabled by default. On iPad and Mac, the in-app browser and recipe preview are displayed side-by-side; on iPhone, the preview is accessed via a swipe-left gesture. The app supports multiple languages including English, German, Italian, and French.

Integrations & Ecosystem

• iCloud sync and sharing
• Safari extension for recipe saving
• Apple Reminders integration for grocery lists
• Recipe feed subscriptions from cooking blogs
• PDF export for individual recipes
• Mela file format (.melarecipes) for bulk export and import
• OCR scanning for physical recipe cards

Alternatives

Reputation

Mela is highly regarded for its elegant design and exceptional user experience, winning MacStories Selects 2021 for Best Design and receiving recognition as a runner-up for Best New App. Users and reviewers praise its intuitive recipe import process, clean interface, and thoughtful features like cooking mode and feed subscriptions. The app is developed by Silvio Rizzi, creator of the popular RSS app Reeder, lending credibility to its design philosophy. Some users note that the premium tier pricing and platform limitation to Apple devices may be drawbacks compared to cross-platform alternatives.