How to Build a Cooking or Recipe app?

Cooking is an absolutely special process. Some see it as a highly artistic event, while for others it’s just a part of their daily routine. However, no matter on which side you are — cooking app development is something that can help lots of people.

Why?

Easy! People from almost any social group can be your Target Audience. Men and women, adolescents and adults, families and those who live alone — they all cook in one way or another and having a special recipe app on their smartphones can definitely help them.

It’s also possible and even reasonable to concentrate on a specific niche for your Target Audience. For example, build a cooking app especially for vegetarians.

But how can you get them? This is the most challenging thing for anyone who thinks about building such an app.

There are 3 ways to fill your mobile app with recipes:

1. Integrate already existing databases of recipes and/or ingredients by using free/paid APIs (look for some options in the “tech tips” section).
2. Create your own database.
3. Let your users upload their recipes and fill up the application in such a way.

Each approach has its strong and weak sides.

If you’re thinking about API integration, here are the main pros and cons:

Building your own database is a good solution if you want to stay independent. Yet, it has own disadvantages as well:

Finally, the so-called “social cooking apps” that rely predominantly on users themselves also have both benefits and drawbacks:

Also, nobody is telling you that you can’t combine different approaches while building a recipe app. In fact, that’s exactly what we at Stormotion recommend you to do! Here are the 4 best combinations to remember:

Which one to choose to build a cooking app? Depends on your goals, niche and business model.

However, if it seems challenging to you, you can always contact us using the button below the article and we’ll try to help you figure it out.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Your whole target audience (regardless of age, sex, etc.) can be divided into 2 big groups:

• People who are proficient cooks and are just looking for inspiration & new ideas.
• People who are in need of guidance with cooking.

During cooking app development you should keep the second group in mind. The best thing you can do for them is to implement step-by-step instructions in a clearly distinguishable way — whether it’s a separate screen or a dedicated table.

You can improve this feature by adding related photos to each stage of cooking. Having descriptive pictures can significantly improve the UX.

Looking for more ways to improve step-by-step instructions? Read on, we’ll share them in the next section!

Personalization Block: Let Users Add Recipes, Comments & Bookmarks

We all have different preferences and habits when preparing food, and your cooking or diet and nutrition app development should reflect these diverse needs. That’s why we believe some personalization features should be in your application in one way or another.

First of all, you can make it possible for the users to upload their own recipes. They can either be private or public. In the first case, each user will be able to only see his/her recipes and the ones that were shared publicly; therefore, no moderation will be needed. In the second case, anyone will be able to see each other’s recipes, so moderation from your side will be needed.

Secondly, you can deliver more personalization by letting users leave comments. And even more interesting — getting into discussions with the author. Thus, they will be able to share their own hints & tips regarding particular recipes or simply express their thoughts about the dish.

Thirdly, an absolute must-have is bookmarks. The possibility to save favorite recipes is essential for many users, so don’t neglect it during cooking app development.

Searching & Filtering

The searching and filtering function is extremely important for both advanced culinarians and cooking amateurs. That’s why it’s important to take care of these features when you create a recipe app.

The search usually goes by the name of a dish or an ingredient. In the second case, the user gets the list of dishes in which the mentioned ingredient is among the main ones.

Here are the components of a great searching feature:

• Visibility — users should be able to easily find it.
• Autosuggestion — to auto-complete users’ requests.
• Ability to search recipes by characteristics (like sweet, low-carb, gluten-free, and so on).

Also, it’s impossible to build a cooking app without a good filtering feature. It helps to narrow down the search results by setting additional requirements.

And that’s where you can get really creative. Some of the possible filtering options include:

💰 What Are the Development Costs to Make Own Recipe App?

So, according to the estimations made by the Stormotion team, development costs are the following:

# 2: Video Guides

To improve the UX, you can also build a cooking app with video guides. It’s been proven that people are more receptive to visual information so take advantage of it!

Moreover, this feature may be extremely helpful to people who aren’t proficient cooks. Actually, for some of them, the presence of video guides in the app may be one of the most important factors.

# 3: Shopping List

Oftentimes, users find a great recipe but can’t cook the dish due to the lack of ingredients. Let them have a shopping list right in your app!

This will encourage people to use the application even more frequently (not only when they’re preparing food but also while shopping).

Tip: don’t forget to develop a special button that allows adding all the ingredients from the current recipe to the shopping list.

# 4: Grocery Store Locator (+ Price Comparison)

This feature is definitely not among the high-priority ones but as you grow, it may be a nice addition to your application.

With its help users will be able to locate nearby supermarkets/grocery stores. You can either:

• Show all stores by simply taking this information from Google Maps and implementing it into your app.
• Alternatively, if you want to make the UX of your application even better, show which stores have groceries from the shopping list and where they’re going to cost the least. To get this info, you’ll have to use some external APIs (like Preisente API).

# 5: Voice Commands (Hands-Free Mode)

While preparing food and using a cooking app, people usually have only 2 options: either wipe their hands every time they need to touch the screen or smear the device with their “dirty” hands. However, with a hands-free mode, your users can relax.

By simply saying “next step” or “go back,” they can navigate through the recipe they’re following and concentrate on the process itself instead of risking dropping their iPhone in the boiling soup.

# 6: Additional Ingredient Info

SideChef application’s ingredient section is a true inspiration for cooks. If you’re wondering how to make a recipe app with an improved ingredient info screen — that’s gonna be one of the best examples for you.

So, here’s what you can place on this screen to make it more useful for your users:

• A general description of each ingredient.
• Select & store hints.
• Cooking tips.
• Seasonality — mostly for fresh produce.
• Health benefits.
• A list of recipes that include this ingredient.

And, of course, when making this screen, don’t forget about the main rule of cooking app design — everything should look absolutely delicious and literally mouth-watering! 🙂

# 7: Food Scanner

This feature allows scanning barcodes or ingredients via your device’s camera. After that, users can get a list of recipes which include the scanned ingredient.