TapasPaprika vs Tapas: prices, platforms and what each does well
The Tapas team · · 4 min read
Paprika is a recipe manager you buy for each platform you use it on, $4.99 on iPhone and iPad and $29.99 on Mac or Windows, and there's an Android app too. Tapas is free, runs on iPhone and in a web browser, and is built around saving recipes from TikTok and Instagram and sharing one meal plan and grocery list with your household.
We make Tapas, so read this knowing that. We've tried to be fair: every Paprika fact below comes from Paprika's own website, help pages or App Store listing, checked on 4 November 2026, and each one is linked so you can check it too.
The short version
If you want an app on iPad, Android, Windows or Mac, or you want a meal planner with a monthly view and a pantry that tracks expiration dates, Paprika is the safer choice. If most of the recipes you save come from TikTok and Instagram, or two or more of you plan and shop together, Tapas is worth trying.
Side by side
| Paprika | Tapas | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 on iPhone and iPad and $29.99 each on Mac and Windows, with each version sold separately. The App Store listings also offer an in-app purchase, Paprika 4 Premium, for $14.99 | Free, with no paid tier |
| Apps | iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac, Windows | iPhone only, plus a web version at tapas.cooking that works in any browser |
| Saving from websites | Built-in browser, Safari share extension and a bookmarklet | Share from any app or paste a link |
| Saving from TikTok and Instagram | Not mentioned in Paprika's help pages | Reads the caption and listens to the video |
| Meal planning | Daily, weekly and monthly calendars | Weekly plan, with templates for weeks you repeat |
| Grocery list | Combines ingredients and sorts by aisle | Combines ingredients and sorts by aisle, and leaves off the staples you keep at home |
| Sharing with a household | Everyone signs in to the same Cloud Sync account | Each person has their own account and the household shares one cookbook, plan and list |
| Pantry | Tracks what you have, with purchase and expiration dates | Keeps a list of what's in your kitchen so it stays off your grocery list, without dates |
| Ratings | 4.9 stars from about 54,000 ratings on the App Store | New, launched September 2026 |
Paprika sources: paprikaapp.com, Paprika for Windows, Paprika's iOS help, the iPhone and iPad App Store listing and the Mac App Store listing. Checked 4 November 2026.
Where Paprika is ahead
Paprika runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows, and Paprika Cloud Sync keeps your recipes, grocery lists and meal plans the same on all of them. Paprika's Windows page says sync is included with the purchase with no extra fees. Tapas is an iPhone app, with no iPad, Android or Mac version, so on any of those you'd use Tapas in a browser at tapas.cooking.
Paprika's website says each version is sold separately, so a phone and a Mac means two purchases. The App Store listings also offer an in-app purchase called Paprika 4 Premium for $14.99. We couldn't find a description of what it adds on Paprika's site, so check the listing before you buy.
If you keep a close eye on your cupboards, Paprika's pantry records when you bought each thing and when it expires. Tapas keeps a list of what you have at home, without dates.
The iPhone app has 4.9 stars from about 54,000 ratings, and Paprika 3 came out in 2017, while Tapas only launched in September 2026.
Where Tapas is different
The biggest difference is saving from social video. Share a TikTok or an Instagram reel to Tapas and it reads the caption, listens to the video on your iPhone and writes out the recipe with amounts and steps. Paprika's help pages describe saving from web pages, so when a video's caption links to a recipe on a website, you can follow the link and save that page in Paprika. When the recipe is only in the video, Tapas can still write it out. We've written up how to save a TikTok recipe and how to save recipes from Instagram in full, including how to do it without any app.
In Paprika, one Cloud Sync account holds one recipe collection, so to share it everyone signs in to that same account. In Tapas each person keeps their own account and joins the household, and you all share one cookbook, meal plan and grocery list. Either way everyone sees the same list, and the difference is whether you all share one login.
Both apps add up the same ingredient from different recipes into one line, and Paprika's help says you can tap a combined line to see the items that went into it. Tapas shows each recipe's share of a combined line too, and it also leaves off the spices, sauces and staples you've said you keep at home. There's more on that in how to turn your recipes into a grocery list.
Moving your recipes from Paprika to Tapas
If you want to try Tapas with the recipes you already have, you don't need to give up Paprika to do it.
- In Paprika on your iPhone, open Settings and go to Export Recipes. Leave All Recipes selected, choose Paprika Recipe Format and tap Export. (Paprika's export steps)
- In Tapas, open Settings and choose Bring your recipes, then Choose export file and pick the file you just made.
Each recipe's title, photo, ingredients, steps, servings, times, notes and source link come across, and a recipe gets any of your Tapas tags that match its Paprika categories. Ratings, meal plans, grocery lists and your pantry stay in Paprika. If you run the import again later, Tapas only adds the recipes that are new.
If you'd like to try it with one recipe before moving anything, paste a link from any recipe site into Tapas and see what you get.