23 May 2025
Cooking

meal planning app that generates meal recipes from ingredients, ...

...provide detailed nutritional information, ang gives ideas on what to cook

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.


Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your meal planning app idea. Our analysis shows a high number of similar products (n_matches = 24), putting you squarely in a competitive 'Swamp' category. The general idea of generating meal recipes from ingredients with nutritional information is common, and, unfortunately, most similar products don't get a lot of traction (low engagement with an average of just 2 comments). The similar products also had no net use or buy signals, which means people are fairly neutral about these products, and are not likely to rave about them. This doesn't mean your idea is doomed, but it does mean you'll need a significant differentiator and a strong execution strategy to break through the noise. You need to avoid building yet another mediocre solution that nobody loves.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market, start by thoroughly researching why existing meal planning apps haven’t achieved widespread success. Identify their shortcomings in terms of user experience, personalization, recipe quality, or nutritional accuracy. Don't just assume you know; dig into user reviews and comments to understand where they fall short. The provided criticisms of similar products, like issues with sign-up processes, harmful ingredients being accepted, and slow performance, can be a good starting point.
  2. Instead of targeting everyone, focus on a specific niche within the meal planning space. Are you catering to people with specific dietary restrictions (e.g., gluten-free, vegan, keto)? Or people with allergies? Or parents of picky eaters? Or athletes who need strict macronutrient management? Defining a narrow target audience will make your app more valuable to them and easier to market. A great idea would be to consider health conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
  3. Consider partnering with existing meal planning services or nutritionists to offer your app as a complementary tool. Instead of competing directly, you could provide features that enhance their offerings, such as advanced recipe analysis, personalized meal recommendations based on client data, or automated grocery list generation. This can allow you to tap into an established user base and gain credibility quickly.
  4. The AI recipe generation space is nascent but full of possibilities. If you still want to build your app directly, consider focusing on high-quality and unique recipes. For example, you can improve your AI's recipe by focusing on dishes that solve very specific problems like 'quick weeknight meals for busy parents' or 'low-sodium recipes for people with hypertension'. Make sure your recipes don't accept non-food harmful items.
  5. Since your initial idea includes detailed nutritional information, ensure that this data is accurate and easily accessible. Partner with a registered dietitian or nutritionist to validate your nutritional data and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Display the information clearly within the app and provide users with the ability to customize their nutrient preferences.
  6. Develop a solid go-to-market strategy that leverages content marketing and social media. Create blog posts, videos, and infographics that highlight the benefits of your app and showcase its unique features. Share user success stories and testimonials to build trust and credibility. Consider running targeted ad campaigns on social media platforms to reach your ideal customer. Make sure you create a signup process that is easy to use on all devices (desktop and mobile). Do not include scammy text!
  7. Focus on rapid iteration based on user feedback. Launch a minimum viable product (MVP) with your core features and gather feedback from your target audience. Use this feedback to improve the app's functionality, user experience, and overall value proposition. Be prepared to pivot your strategy based on what you learn from your users.

Questions

  1. Given the number of competitors already in the market, what is your unique value proposition, and how will you clearly communicate it to your target audience?
  2. How will you ensure the accuracy and reliability of the nutritional information provided by your app, and what steps will you take to address potential liability concerns?
  3. What are your plans for long-term sustainability and monetization, considering that many similar apps offer free or low-cost services?

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your meal planning app idea. Our analysis shows a high number of similar products (n_matches = 24), putting you squarely in a competitive 'Swamp' category. The general idea of generating meal recipes from ingredients with nutritional information is common, and, unfortunately, most similar products don't get a lot of traction (low engagement with an average of just 2 comments). The similar products also had no net use or buy signals, which means people are fairly neutral about these products, and are not likely to rave about them. This doesn't mean your idea is doomed, but it does mean you'll need a significant differentiator and a strong execution strategy to break through the noise. You need to avoid building yet another mediocre solution that nobody loves.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market, start by thoroughly researching why existing meal planning apps haven’t achieved widespread success. Identify their shortcomings in terms of user experience, personalization, recipe quality, or nutritional accuracy. Don't just assume you know; dig into user reviews and comments to understand where they fall short. The provided criticisms of similar products, like issues with sign-up processes, harmful ingredients being accepted, and slow performance, can be a good starting point.
  2. Instead of targeting everyone, focus on a specific niche within the meal planning space. Are you catering to people with specific dietary restrictions (e.g., gluten-free, vegan, keto)? Or people with allergies? Or parents of picky eaters? Or athletes who need strict macronutrient management? Defining a narrow target audience will make your app more valuable to them and easier to market. A great idea would be to consider health conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
  3. Consider partnering with existing meal planning services or nutritionists to offer your app as a complementary tool. Instead of competing directly, you could provide features that enhance their offerings, such as advanced recipe analysis, personalized meal recommendations based on client data, or automated grocery list generation. This can allow you to tap into an established user base and gain credibility quickly.
  4. The AI recipe generation space is nascent but full of possibilities. If you still want to build your app directly, consider focusing on high-quality and unique recipes. For example, you can improve your AI's recipe by focusing on dishes that solve very specific problems like 'quick weeknight meals for busy parents' or 'low-sodium recipes for people with hypertension'. Make sure your recipes don't accept non-food harmful items.
  5. Since your initial idea includes detailed nutritional information, ensure that this data is accurate and easily accessible. Partner with a registered dietitian or nutritionist to validate your nutritional data and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Display the information clearly within the app and provide users with the ability to customize their nutrient preferences.
  6. Develop a solid go-to-market strategy that leverages content marketing and social media. Create blog posts, videos, and infographics that highlight the benefits of your app and showcase its unique features. Share user success stories and testimonials to build trust and credibility. Consider running targeted ad campaigns on social media platforms to reach your ideal customer. Make sure you create a signup process that is easy to use on all devices (desktop and mobile). Do not include scammy text!
  7. Focus on rapid iteration based on user feedback. Launch a minimum viable product (MVP) with your core features and gather feedback from your target audience. Use this feedback to improve the app's functionality, user experience, and overall value proposition. Be prepared to pivot your strategy based on what you learn from your users.

Questions

  1. Given the number of competitors already in the market, what is your unique value proposition, and how will you clearly communicate it to your target audience?
  2. How will you ensure the accuracy and reliability of the nutritional information provided by your app, and what steps will you take to address potential liability concerns?
  3. What are your plans for long-term sustainability and monetization, considering that many similar apps offer free or low-cost services?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 24
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: 13.6%
    • Positive use signal: 19.6%
    • Negative use signal: 6.0%
  • Net buy signal: -2.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 2.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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