Review Insights · App Store
Pestle: Recipe Manager
Will Bishop · 1,702 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
1,702 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 17 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"
7 negative reviews mention this · 41% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Needs Pestle Pro. I purchased a new IPad and transferred all my apps and data from the old IPad to the new one. Now when I access my recipes it tells me I need Pestle Pro because I saved the recipe on a different device. I’m not spending money simply becaus…" - Mizsophia
2
"year"
5 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Lifetime purchase not applied. I purchased the lifetime subscription last year and I see now it’s about to review for a annual subscription. I reached out twice and no response." - Sexy_Shan
3
"lifetime"
4 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Lifetime purchase not applied. I purchased the lifetime subscription last year and I see now it’s about to review for a annual subscription. I reached out twice and no response." - Sexy_Shan
4
"recipe"
4 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible App. For the life of me - I can’t import a recipe from TikTok to this app. It will work if I open the app and drop the link to the video. But makes it inconvenient. Not worth $2.99 a month." - dan09510
5
"pestle"
4 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Needs Pestle Pro. I purchased a new IPad and transferred all my apps and data from the old IPad to the new one. Now when I access my recipes it tells me I need Pestle Pro because I saved the recipe on a different device. I’m not spending money simply becaus…" - Mizsophia
6
"account"
4 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Pro?. I have a pro account. I loaded the app on my wife’s phone and logged in with my login and my recipes are not appearing on her phone. It’s asking me to pay again." - CramW
7
"easy"
3 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not user friendly. No easy way to cancel" - Parra Family 1974
8
"every"
3 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So Cool! … if it would stop crashing.. I actually really like the concept and the UI. But it’s unusable. I was playing with this app on one of those Apple store demo iPads, and the app kept crashing every 30 seconds. I figured maybe it was a problem with the iPad, but when I tri…" - Sir Cody Pham
9
"deleted"
3 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be good. I have deleted my account and will never return. I joined on 3/2022 a lifetime account for $25. Clearly this was a lie. Now I’m supposed to buy in each year for the same service, no thanks." - F/up100
10
"does"
3 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn't always save. 1 out of 10 uploads not worth it" - Lizk2127
📋 All 17 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").
Not user friendly
No easy way to cancel
Doesn't always save
1 out of 10 uploads not worth it
Lifetime purchase not applied
I purchased the lifetime subscription last year and I see now it’s about to review for a annual subscription. I reached out twice and no response.
Terrible App
For the life of me - I can’t import a recipe from TikTok to this app. It will work if I open the app and drop the link to the video. But makes it inconvenient. Not worth $2.99 a month.
So Cool! … if it would stop crashing.
I actually really like the concept and the UI. But it’s unusable. I was playing with this app on one of those Apple store demo iPads, and the app kept crashing every 30 seconds. I figured maybe it was a problem with the iPad, but when I tried using the app on my phone, it still kept crashing every 30 seconds! What a shame.
Used to be good
I have deleted my account and will never return. I joined on 3/2022 a lifetime account for $25. Clearly this was a lie. Now I’m supposed to buy in each year for the same service, no thanks.
Disappointed
This app is such a scam. They gave me a two week trial and charged me for the year even before my trail ended. They didn’t even warn me that my trial was ending. I’m so upset.
Don’t waste your time
Does not auto-populate TikTok recipes as it claims to do. Every recipe I tried to imported stated “not in system, unable to load”
How to save recipes
How do I save recipes from Pinterest
Bug limiting usage. Stopped using the app. No dev support after 1 year
I had high expectations of pestle and was very excited when I first learned about it. I ended up buying lifetime of pestle pro! After setting up family account immediately with my spouse, I started noticing an issue where my recipes got duplicated, and can’t be deleted. Also my recipes aren’t listed in all recipes! Even after reaching out to developer and getting an acknowledgment of the bug, I never heard back, and even with latest iOS pestle 1.9, the issue wasn’t resolved. At this point, me and my spouse have almost stopped using it. Might not have been the best AppStore purchase I guess! You live and you learn!
Needs Pestle Pro
I purchased a new IPad and transferred all my apps and data from the old IPad to the new one. Now when I access my recipes it tells me I need Pestle Pro because I saved the recipe on a different device. I’m not spending money simply because I transferred IPads. This is crazy!
Pro?
I have a pro account. I loaded the app on my wife’s phone and logged in with my login and my recipes are not appearing on her phone. It’s asking me to pay again.
Buggy and punishes you if you miss a paymeny
I've used this for years and the bugs have been more consistent then anything. Will misread recipies, forget what day it is, and on several occasions: forget I paid my subscription and downgrade my account. Finally got tired of it and moved on
Conflicted
Relatively great app and easy to access the recipes for future reference. However I can’t use the recipes half the time because the app disconnects me from the household but when I try to “re join” it says you are already a part of this household. But none of the recipes show up when I open the app and neither does the household. So it becomes this cyclical maddening game
Deleted all my Recipes
A year or two ago I decided to by the a lifetime license for pestle pro, I’ve not used it too much since then since I usually just throw some food together, but every once in a while its nice to do things by the book, especially for baking. It has some pretty neat scanning features for turning website recipes into a readable format and the app is fairly easy to use. That being said, today it randomly decided to delete all of my recipes. I don’t know if it logged me out, or something, but now I need to add all of them again. Very frustrating to have that happen in an otherwise great app.
Improvements Needed
It’s alright. The importing tools are similar and better than others since you can import from social platforms. The phrasing and recipe/ingredient hierarchy need serious attention. Merging marinating, dry, and garnishing ingredients is not helpful. Other apps like ReciMe do this well.
In addition: The grocery shopping list. When shopping for items, the measurements are important but not as important as the actual ingredient name. Pestle does 1/2 ounces turkey thighs, whereas ReciMe does turkey thighs (1/2 ounces). At a glance, I know I need turkey legs. It’s frustratingly ugly and friction-rich. The recipe lists garlic three times. Transferring it over to the grocery list results in three separate shopping items instead of compiling the total amount and listing it once.
In addition: The grocery shopping list. When shopping for items, the measurements are important but not as important as the actual ingredient name. Pestle does 1/2 ounces turkey thighs, whereas ReciMe does turkey thighs (1/2 ounces). At a glance, I know I need turkey legs. It’s frustratingly ugly and friction-rich. The recipe lists garlic three times. Transferring it over to the grocery list results in three separate shopping items instead of compiling the total amount and listing it once.
Unusable
The app is basically unusable without premium membership.
Sentiment summary
94%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)