Mealie
Material design inspired recipe manager with category and tag management, shopping-lists, meal-planner, and site customizations. Mealie is focused on simple user interactions to keep the whole family using the app.
Best self-hosted Recipe Management software in 2026
Software and tools for managing recipes.
We track 11 open-source, self-hosted Recipe Management apps. 9 of them had commits in the last 90 days, 8 can run with Docker, and the most common licenses are MIT (4), GPL-3.0 (4), AGPL-3.0 (2). The most-used languages are Python, Nodejs, Rust. Below are the top picks by GitHub stars, followed by every app ranked by stars weighted by maintenance health.
Top 5 by GitHub stars
| # | App | Stars | Health | Last activity | License | Language | Docker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mealie | 13.9k | Active | 2026-11-10 | MIT | Python | – |
| 2 | Tandoor Recipes | 8.7k | Active | 2026-10-27 | MIT, Commons-Clause | Python, Docker | ✓ |
| 3 | CookCLI | 1.4k | Active | 2026-11-09 | MIT | Rust | – |
| 4 | Bar Assistant | 1.1k | Active | 2026-11-08 | MIT | PHP, Docker | ✓ |
| 5 | RecipeSage | 996 | Active | 2026-11-09 | AGPL-3.0 | Nodejs | – |
- Mealie — Material design inspired recipe manager with category and tag management, shopping-lists, meal-planner, and site customizations. Mealie is focused on simple user interactions to keep the whole family using the app.
- Tandoor Recipes — Django application to manage, tag and search recipes using either built-in models or external storage providers hosting PDFs, Images or other files.
- CookCLI — Command-line tool for automating meal planning and shopping with Cooklang recipes, scriptable for UNIX workflows, includes web server.
- Bar Assistant — Manage your home bar while adding your ingredients, searching for cocktails and creating custom cocktail recipes.
- RecipeSage — Recipe keeper, meal plan organizer, and shopping list manager that can import recipes directly from any URL.
Head-to-head comparisons
Mealie vs Tandoor RecipesCookCLI vs MealieBar Assistant vs MealieCookCLI vs Tandoor RecipesBar Assistant vs Tandoor RecipesBar Assistant vs CookCLI
All 11 self-hosted Recipe Management apps
Ranked by GitHub stars weighted by maintenance health.
Tandoor Recipes
Django application to manage, tag and search recipes using either built-in models or external storage providers hosting PDFs, Images or other files.
CookCLI
Command-line tool for automating meal planning and shopping with Cooklang recipes, scriptable for UNIX workflows, includes web server.
Bar Assistant
Manage your home bar while adding your ingredients, searching for cocktails and creating custom cocktail recipes.
RecipeSage
Recipe keeper, meal plan organizer, and shopping list manager that can import recipes directly from any URL.
Recipya
Clean, simple and powerful recipe manager your whole family will enjoy.
Vanilla Cookbook
Recipe manager designed with complexity under the hood, keeping the user experience as uncluttered, simply vanilla as possible.
Tamari
Recipe manager web app with a built-in collection of recipes. Organize by favorites and categories, create shopping lists, and plan meals.
ManageMeals
Manage recipes, import recipes by URL and organize them without any ads or unnecessary text.
What To Cook?
Get a recipe to cook today, based on the ingredients you have at home.
Fork Recipes
Manage your food recipes with simplicity.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best self-hosted Recipe Management software in 2026?
By GitHub stars, the most popular self-hosted Recipe Management apps are Mealie (13,864 stars), Tandoor Recipes (8,728 stars), CookCLI (1,435 stars). Popularity is only one signal: also check maintenance health, license and whether it fits your setup.
How many self-hosted Recipe Management apps are actively maintained?
9 of the 11 apps listed had commits in the last 90 days and 2 more in the last 12 months.
Which self-hosted Recipe Management apps can I run with Docker?
8 of the 11 apps can run with Docker; 1 publish an image on Docker Hub, including Tamari.
Which licenses do self-hosted Recipe Management apps use?
The most common licenses in this category are MIT (4 apps), GPL-3.0 (4 apps), AGPL-3.0 (2 apps).
How much does it cost to self-host Recipe Management software?
The software itself is free to download. Based on our rough hardware estimates, the cheapest suitable VPS plan starts at about $3.5/month (median $5/month across apps in this category). Several light apps can share one server.
Figures from GitHub and Docker Hub as of 2026-11-15; hosting costs are rough estimates.