Review Insights · App Store
Crouton: Recipe Manager
Crouton LLC · 2,651 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
2,651 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 15 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
"recipes"
10 negative reviews mention this · 67% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Missing features. to the best of my knowledge, still no way to bulk delete recipes. When importing from another app, categories / folders do not sync." - in2insight
2
"recipe"
7 negative reviews mention this · 47% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Missing features. to the best of my knowledge, still no way to bulk delete recipes. When importing from another app, categories / folders do not sync." - in2insight
3
"free"
5 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "You can only have 5 recipes for free. Had this been known up front I wouldn’t have even bothered downloading and wasting my time. 5 recipes is pointless" - Slayermeis
4
"each"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Crouton: Recipe Manager. I love most parts of crouton. Now that I have quite a few recipes saved it lags quite a bit. The grocery list adds things separately instead of combining ingredients for the grocery list. And each ingredient that’s on the grocery list shoul…" - Sscott8363
5
"subscription"
4 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Smart import. Should not be behind a subscription paywall. That should be the bread and butter for imports…on a recipe app…." - CorndogBandit
6
"crouton"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Crouton: Recipe Manager. I love most parts of crouton. Now that I have quite a few recipes saved it lags quite a bit. The grocery list adds things separately instead of combining ingredients for the grocery list. And each ingredient that’s on the grocery list shoul…" - Sscott8363
7
"list"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Crouton: Recipe Manager. I love most parts of crouton. Now that I have quite a few recipes saved it lags quite a bit. The grocery list adds things separately instead of combining ingredients for the grocery list. And each ingredient that’s on the grocery list shoul…" - Sscott8363
8
"instead"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Crouton: Recipe Manager. I love most parts of crouton. Now that I have quite a few recipes saved it lags quite a bit. The grocery list adds things separately instead of combining ingredients for the grocery list. And each ingredient that’s on the grocery list shoul…" - Sscott8363
9
"better"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Has potential but no bulk import. This app is better thought through than many, but I already have ~100recipes saved in other platforms. I can export them as PDFs, but Crouton can only import 1 recipe at a time, and each one takes a minute or two to process... and you have …" - Limeyliscous
10
"paying"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unable to do basic functions without paying.. ^" - ethanmaxey
11
"version"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Nice looks, pity about high pressure sales tactic.. I’m sure it’s a nice app, and they do a great job with staying current with Apple’s design ethos, but I hate, hate, HATE being pressured into decision-making such as Crouton’s offering a discount if I purchase the full version within the fi…" - Cosmic Jester
12
"been"
3 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Let me rate recipes!. Please just give me the ability to rate recipes, mark recipies as “cooked” easily and mark recipies as “want to cook” easily 😭 then this app would be perfect I wish it would have the simplicity of the New York Times cooking recipie box. W…" - gamerboysanchez
📋 All 15 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").
Missing features
to the best of my knowledge, still no way to bulk delete recipes. When importing from another app, categories / folders do not sync.
Crouton: Recipe Manager
I love most parts of crouton. Now that I have quite a few recipes saved it lags quite a bit. The grocery list adds things separately instead of combining ingredients for the grocery list. And each ingredient that’s on the grocery list should also tell What recipe it’s coming from, if that makes any sense. 01.18.26 Just updated my iPad and the app won’t even open. I pad has iPadOS 26.2 on it. Also I’m not able to she crouton with anybody that doesn’t have an Apple device.
Unable to do basic functions without paying.
^
Let me rate recipes!
Please just give me the ability to rate recipes, mark recipies as “cooked” easily and mark recipies as “want to cook” easily 😭 then this app would be perfect
I wish it would have the simplicity of the New York Times cooking recipie box. Where a recipe that’s been cooked, in your recipies list maybe has a green checkmark or something and you easily can select “cooked” from the top of your recipies. Automatically recipies are marked as cooked and maybe even log the times an dates when the recipies was cooked or cooked again so you can do stuff like see what you’ve cooked the most of when you’ve cooked something before and add ratings each time and maybe notes and tweaks
I wish it would have the simplicity of the New York Times cooking recipie box. Where a recipe that’s been cooked, in your recipies list maybe has a green checkmark or something and you easily can select “cooked” from the top of your recipies. Automatically recipies are marked as cooked and maybe even log the times an dates when the recipies was cooked or cooked again so you can do stuff like see what you’ve cooked the most of when you’ve cooked something before and add ratings each time and maybe notes and tweaks
You can only have 5 recipes for free
Had this been known up front I wouldn’t have even bothered downloading and wasting my time. 5 recipes is pointless
How to get support
I have a plus subscription for this app but cannot use the camera to scan a recipe. The link to the support website has no contact information but nothing happens when I click the link; so here I am.
not good
I signed up for the monthly payment and the app works as if it is the free version which limits the amount of recipes I can have. It no longer allows me to download recipes from the web.
Limited Recipes in Free
You can only store 5 recipes unless you pay for more.
A cobbled mess
The app fails more than it functions. The developer Devin focuses on new flashy features instead of polishing the existing rough edges that are laden with bugs. To name just a few, the settings back button vanishes at will, recipes rarely add via URL, the groceries creates a new list in Reminders each time it syncs, recipe images go missing, and scaling a recipe struggles to recognize fractional measurements.
Add to this the developer bleeds you with pricing separating critical functions into not one but TWO in-app purchases. I can't defend this app anymore.
Add to this the developer bleeds you with pricing separating critical functions into not one but TWO in-app purchases. I can't defend this app anymore.
Useless App
Totally most useless free version app.You only get 1 recipe for the free version and you need to get the subscription to see the other recipes. There isn’t even a trial to see if it works for you or not. This could have been a direct paid app instead of paying inside the app. The free version is just calendar with your meal plan which you can have it on your calendar.
Has potential but no bulk import
This app is better thought through than many, but I already have ~100recipes saved in other platforms. I can export them as PDFs, but Crouton can only import 1 recipe at a time, and each one takes a minute or two to process... and you have to sit there and wait for it to finish each one. It would take many hours of tedious work to transition to it.
Too bad, really. Many good ideas in the app.
Too bad, really. Many good ideas in the app.
Smart import
Should not be behind a subscription paywall. That should be the bread and butter for imports…on a recipe app….
Nice looks, pity about high pressure sales tactic.
I’m sure it’s a nice app, and they do a great job with staying current with Apple’s design ethos, but I hate, hate, HATE being pressured into decision-making such as Crouton’s offering a discount if I purchase the full version within the first 24 hours of downloading. Good apps can stand on their own merits.
Also, importing recipes turned out to be more of a pain than I expected due to Crouton reading my “2-1/4” that I do for readability as “a range from two to one-fourth” rather than “two and one fourth”. Paprika may be showing its age, but at least it understands what I mean when I scale recipes without having to manually convert to “2¼”.
Also, importing recipes turned out to be more of a pain than I expected due to Crouton reading my “2-1/4” that I do for readability as “a range from two to one-fourth” rather than “two and one fourth”. Paprika may be showing its age, but at least it understands what I mean when I scale recipes without having to manually convert to “2¼”.
Great app except….
This is one of the best apps I’ve purchased. I love it! However, it used to sync between all my family members and no longer does. It used to be much better for this reason.
Bring your visa card
I don’t mind paying for apps but i wish they had said this app is worthless unless you pay our subscription fee. I was looking for a simple app to put a few recipes in for easy keeping. They have great tools for transferring from print to app but on the pay tiers. The manual entry was free but, unbeknownst to me, after a few it won’t let you do that anymore. I’d do better for my purposes on the Notes app I guess.
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)