[Report] Recommendation Report on the Purchase of a Meal Planning App

This is a recommendation report for an individual interested in purchasing a meal planning app. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, meal planning apps took center stage when going out to eat at restaurants regularly was no longer a possibility for many. According to a survey conducted by the meal planning app eMeals, consumers went from cooking dinner 3.8 times a week to as many as six times a week at home in the wake of the pandemic ¹. Beyond the pandemic, however, these apps still have a place in everyday life. Meal planning apps take the stress out of meal preparation for busy adults who want to spend less on takeout or eat better. Their algorithms pull from a database of recipes and present a nutritionally balanced meal plan each week for any household shape and size. However, one app may be better suited for one person than another due to the following:

• Price

• Dietary restrictions or specialty diet accommodation

• Menu customization

• Grocery pickup and delivery app integration

This report will compare two of the most popular meal planning apps: eMeals and PlateJoy. For this report, I tested the Android version of the apps.

App Descriptions

Both eMeals and PlateJoy are apps available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. eMeals started as a website-only service in 2003, transforming into a hybrid web service model with a focus on the mobile app side. PlateJoy launched in 2012 as a similar hybrid model.

eMeals. Dinner is the core of eMeals’ offerings, and the most basic plan reflects that fact as the most inexpensive plan gives access only to dinner plans. A customer can add breakfast and lunch plans at an additional cost. Several different meal plans are available for the dinner plan, ranging from dietary restrictions or specialty diets (such as vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean, or keto) to more broad categories (such as kid-friendly meals, budget-friendly meals, or 30-minute meals). A customer cannot mix and match recipes from different meal plans, however, and there’s only one set meal plan for breakfasts and lunches.

PlateJoy. PlateJoy offers a complete meal plan solution, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. As a result, it’s impossible to pay only for dinner recipes to save on money if you wanted only dinner recipes. PlateJoy’s appeal is its deep menu personalization based on a quiz that a customer can retake at any time for any member of the household. These questions include health goals, dietary restrictions or plans, types of food not wanted in recipes, and even specialty cooking equipment (such as if a customer has a slow cooker).

Comparisons

eMeals and PlateJoy will be compared according to (1) price, (2) dietary restrictions or specialty diet accommodations, (3) menu customization and flexibility, and (4) grocery pickup and delivery app integration.

Price. According to PlateJoy’s website, a 6-month subscription, which gives access to every feature within the app and a complete daily menu, is $69.99, and a 12-month subscription is $99.99 ². Buying a 12-month subscription is the best value if the customer is willing to make a longer-term commitment. eMeals’ pricing is more complicated, as eMeals’ most basic dinner plan is $29.99 for a 3-month subscription and $69.99 for a 12-month subscription. Still, if a customer wants to add on lunch and breakfast, eMeals offers a complete bundle that costs $39.99 for a 3-month subscription and $99.98 for a 12-month subscription ³. The annual bundle for eMeals the cheapest option over time of the app’s purchases, and eMeals’ complete bundle is one cent more affordable than PlateJoy’s 12-month subscription that offers the same number of meals.

Dietary restrictions or specialty diet accommodations. eMeals develops various weekly meal plans to accommodate different diets, such as vegan, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free, or Mediterranean diets. However, I found no way to adapt any of these plans for allergens, which can be problematic (for example, many vegan recipes use nut or soy-based alternatives for cheese and milk). The only solution for one or two bad recipes is to look at one of the other plans and switch to it for a week, which can be insufficient depending on the customer’s dietary restrictions. In contrast, PlateJoy’s personalized menu approach allows the customer to input all dietary restrictions and allergens without issue.

Menu customization and flexibility. A typical customer gripe with meal planning apps is that a particular recipe generated by the app isn’t something that someone in the household will eat. Or perhaps a customer wants a recipe from a previous week in their current menu—can that be accommodated? Just as eMeals doesn’t have recipe adaptation for dietary restrictions and allergens outside of what’s already in their meal plans, I found no way during testing to request a different recipe for the week other than to switch to another meal plan for the week’s meals. A customer can look up past recipes in the eMeals app, but that’s the extent of eMeals’ flexibility. On the other hand, PlateJoy allows a customer to look up recipes by ingredients, such as ingredients already on hand, add to the menu, and delete a recipe from the menu.

Grocery pickup and delivery app integration. Food planning apps often offer integration with grocery pickup and delivery apps, such as Instacart or Amazon Fresh, allowing customers to send their weekly meal plan to a local grocery store for a streamlined pickup or delivery process. PlateJoy’s app integrates with Instacart and Amazon Fresh, while Instacart can deliver from many grocery stores even if they are not listed explicitly as a partner with PlateJoy ⁴. eMeals’ app integration includes explicit partnerships with Albertson’s, Amazon Fresh, H-E-B, Instacart, Kroger, Safeway, Shipt, and Walmart Grocery ⁵. In my testing, I found that relying on Instacart to deliver from grocery stores can result in missing items, as Instacart is a third-party app whose contractors may not necessarily be familiar with a customer’s preferred store. Amazon Fresh is also not widely available everywhere, so eMeals has a better range of partnerships.

Summary

The following is a summary of the comparison of eMeals and PlateJoy.

1. Both apps are capable of meal planning.
2. eMeals is the most inexpensive option if used only for dinners.
3. eMeals and PlateJoy are almost tied (by one cent) for the lowest cost option if used for all meals.
4. PlateJoy can adjust menus for dietary restrictions and allergies.
5. PlateJoy can customize menus by recipe lookup and menu editing.
6. eMeals has the best integration for grocery and delivery apps.
7. PlateJoy is the best overall meal planning app.

Table 1. Testing results of eMeals and PlateJoy.

Note: 1 – Poor, 2 – Good, 3 – Very good, 4 – Excellent

Recommendation

Based on the requirements and the ratings in Table 1, I recommend PlateJoy as the ideal meal planning app to purchase between these two apps.

I would only recommend eMeals to someone who needed only meal planning for dinners and does not have any special needs in terms of diet and does not need any menu flexibility.

Material Referenced