Mealime Is Shutting Down October 21 — How to Move Your Family Dinners (Free)

If you open Mealime this week you will see the notice: the app shuts down on October 21, 2026. Albertsons, which bought Mealime, is folding it into "Meals Hub" inside its own grocery apps (Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, Jewel-Osco and the rest of the family). Mealime's own announcement is short; the r/mealplanning thread about it is not.

Here is what that means for a family that has leaned on Mealime for years, and what to do before Tuesday.

What you lose on October 21

• Your saved favorites and meal plans. There is no export. Mealime has said plans, favorites and lists will not transfer.
• A standalone app. Meals Hub keeps free recipes, plans and lists, but it lives inside Albertsons' store apps (Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco…) and is built around shopping at those stores.
• The two things people actually loved: pick a handful of dinners, get one combined grocery list organized by aisle, done.

If you are an Albertsons-family shopper, Meals Hub may be fine. If you shop anywhere else, you need a new home for the weekly routine.

Save your favorites first (two minutes)

Before the app goes dark, open your Mealime favorites and write down the names. That is all you need. The names are the part that matters — recipes themselves are easy to rebuild, and most families have a short list of dinners that everyone actually eats.

A note in your phone, a screenshot, an email to yourself. Just capture the names.

Rebuild the routine in DinnerDrop (free)

DinnerDrop was built around the same loop Mealime had — choose the week, get one list — with one addition: one tap opens the whole list in Instacart with every item matched — pick your store, add to cart, check out at Instacart's prices for that store. Planning and the cart are free, with no card.

To move over:

1. Go to dinnerdrop.app/mealime and paste the dinner names you saved, one per line.
2. Sign up with your email (no password, no card).
3. DinnerDrop rebuilds each dinner as a full recipe for your family size — ingredients, steps, cook time — and saves it to your favorites.
4. Generate your first week. Your favorites rotate in alongside new dinners that fit your budget, cook time and dietary needs.
5. Tap Shop ingredients. The combined list opens in Instacart with every item matched; pick your store and add it all to your cart.

How it compares

The honest difference: Mealime gave you a big catalog to browse. DinnerDrop's library is smaller; its job is to write the week for you from what it knows about your family, and anything specific you want goes in by name. Families who kept a rotation of 10–15 proven dinners in Mealime will find that rotation is exactly what DinnerDrop is built to run.

Other options worth knowing

• Plan to Eat ($5.95/month or $49/year) — the best choice if you want to import recipes from websites and drag them onto a calendar yourself. No cart handoff.
• Paprika ($4.99 one-time per platform) — a recipe manager with a weekly planner and grocery list. No AI, no cart handoff.
• Samsung Food (free; Food+ $6.99/month) — recipe saving with a planner. Delivery partners vary.

Do it before Tuesday

The only irreversible part is losing the names of the dinners your family eats. Save those today. The rest takes two minutes whenever you are ready.

Bring your Mealime favorites to DinnerDrop — free, no card →