Review Insights · App Store
CookShelf: Search Cookbooks
CookShelf Inc · 213 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
213 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 11 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"cookbooks"
7 negative reviews mention this · 64% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Needs work, steep cost for what it is. I saw this advertised on social media and downloaded it immediately-what an awesome idea!! However, I was disappointed to realize you have a 5 book limit for the free version… why would I even pay monthly for the premium? For my own cookboo…" - chloegrace1222
2
"books"
5 negative reviews mention this · 45% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back…" - Edit Faris
3
"recipes"
5 negative reviews mention this · 45% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back…" - Edit Faris
4
"idea"
4 negative reviews mention this · 36% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back…" - Edit Faris
5
"ingredients"
3 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back…" - Edit Faris
6
"cookbook"
3 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed. I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back…" - Edit Faris
7
"free"
3 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Needs work, steep cost for what it is. I saw this advertised on social media and downloaded it immediately-what an awesome idea!! However, I was disappointed to realize you have a 5 book limit for the free version… why would I even pay monthly for the premium? For my own cookboo…" - chloegrace1222
8
"found"
3 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great idea, but…. Great idea and concept. I downloaded the app and tried scanning several of my cookbooks, you’re limited to 5 until you subscribe. Anyhow I tried 10 of my cookbooks and only 1 was found. Uninstalled…..maybe down the road I’ll try again……but…" - vegaschef
9
"subscription"
3 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Boo subscriptions. I’d buy it for a one time price - like a cookbook - but never on a subscription." - zantaz66
📋 All 11 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Very disappointed
I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back to the cookbook. With upgrades, this is a great idea but without the full recipes, it’s not practical at all.
no actual recipes in app?
I am so confused by this app. I scanned 3 cookbooks, and I don’t see any recipes, only an ingredients list. Makes it quite pointless, no? I’ll be canceling before my free trial is up.
Not as advertised
It scanned the ISBN’s of my cookbooks but most needed to be indexed into the app and those that were there, tapped on a recipe and it would show me the ingredients but no directions
Boo subscriptions
I’d buy it for a one time price - like a cookbook - but never on a subscription.
Just ok
The app does in fact log your books and tracks the recipes. It however does not allow you to take the recipe with you and give you the step by step or quantities. A little misleading. It will give you an ingredient list but that does not always guarantee they are correct. I’ve found a few in the short time I used the free trial that were incorrect. If you added the full recipes to the page it would be worth much more. But this stage is definitely not worth paying for.
Please consider one-time payment
I would absolutely love to pay for this app as if I were paying for an incredible cookbook: one time. I don’t want to spend the time uploading all my cookbooks and getting organized digitally if there’s a risk the cost of
a subscription would go up each year, or with the feeling that I’m paying $40 every year for the rest of my life (easily $1600+) just to browse my own books.
a subscription would go up each year, or with the feeling that I’m paying $40 every year for the rest of my life (easily $1600+) just to browse my own books.
Why a subscription?
I love the idea of this app and I’m sure if I subscribed and got to add more than five books I would genuinely love it. I’m so over subscriptions draining my bank account when they aren’t necessary. I would gladly pay a lump sum for this app even if it were a bit pricey. But having a subscription that’s a bit pricey is just not something I’m willing to do anymore.
Needs work, steep cost for what it is
I saw this advertised on social media and downloaded it immediately-what an awesome idea!! However, I was disappointed to realize you have a 5 book limit for the free version… why would I even pay monthly for the premium? For my own cookbooks? For indexing? The app doesn’t even include the recipes, the UI isn’t great, and the fact that there’s a monthly cost is enraging. I’d rather pay $10 or even $15 upfront if I had to as opposed to $40/year forever. Ended up deleting because I can’t add all my cookbooks and feels ridiculous to pay for it.
Great idea, but…
Great idea and concept. I downloaded the app and tried scanning several of my cookbooks, you’re limited to 5 until you subscribe. Anyhow I tried 10 of my cookbooks and only 1 was found. Uninstalled…..maybe down the road I’ll try again……but I doubt it.
Great in theory, not in Application
I’ve been waiting for an app like this for a very long time. And when I got done scanning more than 100 cookbooks, I found out that many of them aren’t indexed or only have one or two recipes indexed. So, a waste of an afternoon and a waste of money.
Barcode scanner not great
So far I’ve had the app 10 minutes and gone through 2 shelves of books. It’s not able to scan about half. Books like Tartine, and How to Cook Everything, not obscure cookbooks at all.
Sentiment summary
85%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
8%
Negative (1-2★)