Mealime closes October 21, 2026
Mealime is being discontinued and its notice says personal data will be deleted at shutdown. Here is what to save, and how a family that planned dinners in Mealime can keep doing it — with the grocery list, the calendar and the kids' chores on one screen.
What Mealime said.Mealime was acquired by Albertsons Companies in 2021. Its closing notice says the app "will be discontinued as of October 21, 2026," that customers are being moved to Meals Hub inside Albertsons' store apps where Mealime's recipes will continue to be available, that Pro subscribers will not be charged again before the shutdown, and that "all personal data will be deleted when the Mealime application is shut down." It does not mention an export.
What FamilyDash is.A family dashboard, made for a tablet on the fridge, where the meal planner is one card next to the shared calendar, the grocery list, the kids' chores and their routines. The planner works from your own recipe box, the grocery list fills itself from the week and sorts by department, and Shop on Instacart sends the whole list to Instacart for households in the United States and Canada. All of that is free, with no ads. Pro ($4.99/mo or $34.99/yr) adds recipe scanning from photos and TikTok, auto-fill for the week, allowance and unlimited calendar connections.
The honest version: Mealime's best trick — a week of dinners generated from your preferences — is not something FamilyDash replaces. If that is what you want, Albertsons' Meals Hub is built to carry it on. FamilyDash is for families who want the plan made of their own recipes and living where the rest of the week already is.
Mealime's notice says all personal data will be deleted at shutdown and does not mention an export, so screenshot or write down the recipes your family comes back to. A dozen favourites is usually the whole list. Mealime's recipes themselves will continue on Albertsons' Meals Hub.
Type them in, or on Pro point the camera at the screenshot and let recipe scanning read it into your recipe box. Ingredients come along, so the grocery list works from day one.
Drop recipes onto the week and their ingredients land on the shared grocery list, sorted by department the way Mealime sorted by category. Press Shop on Instacart when the list is ready, in the United States or Canada.
Open FamilyDash on a tablet on the fridge. The meal plan sits next to the calendar, the kids' chores and their morning routines, so dinner stops being one more thing in one more app.
| Feature | Mealime | FamilyDash |
|---|---|---|
| Still operating after Oct 21, 2026 | ||
| Personalized weekly meal plans (200+ preferences) | auto-fill from your own recipes (Pro) | |
| Grocery list auto-sorted into categories | ||
| One-tap grocery checkout (Instacart) | — | |
| Recipe scanning from photos / TikTok | — | Pro |
| Your own recipes on the plan | — | |
| Shared family calendar | — | |
| Apple/Google/Outlook calendar sync | — | 1 free, ∞ Pro |
| Chores with rotation and streaks | — | |
| Routine charts (morning / after school / bedtime) | — | |
| Allowance / monetary rewards | — | Pro |
| Kid login without email or password | — | |
| Fridge-tablet kiosk layout | — | |
| Web app (no install) | no — iOS and Android | |
| Native iOS / Android apps | iOS app · Android (Play) · web | |
| Free tier price | $0 | $0 |
| Paid tier price | Pro — no longer billed | $4.99/mo · $34.99/yr (Pro) |
Mealime cells checked against mealime.com and its closing notice on 15 September 2026; a dash marks something Mealime's site does not describe as part of the product. Green check = included on the free plan; grey X = not available.
Yes. Mealime's closing notice says the app will be discontinued as of October 21, 2026. Mealime was acquired by Albertsons Companies in 2021, and Albertsons is moving customers to Meals Hub, its recipe and meal-planning platform inside its store apps. Pro subscribers are no longer being charged before the shutdown, and the notice says all personal data will be deleted when the application is shut down.
Mealime's notice does not describe an export. It says all personal data will be deleted at shutdown, that Mealime's recipes will continue to be available on Meals Hub, and that dietary preferences can be set again in a Meals Hub profile after signing in to an Albertsons store app. If you want your favourites somewhere else, save them before October 21 — screenshots are enough. FamilyDash Pro can scan a screenshot of a recipe straight into your recipe box.
Albertsons' own answer is Meals Hub, which lives inside its store apps and keeps Mealime's recipe library. If you would rather not plan meals inside one grocer's app, FamilyDash gives you a meal planner and an auto-sorted grocery list on the free plan, adds Shop on Instacart so the list reaches whichever store you use, and puts it on the same screen as the family calendar, chores and routines. What FamilyDash does not do is generate a personalized weekly plan from hundreds of preferences the way Mealime did — Pro can auto-fill a week from your own recipe history instead.
Not from a preference questionnaire. Mealime's strength was building a week from over 200 personalization options. FamilyDash's planner is filled from your own recipe box: pick recipes onto the week yourself, or on Pro let auto-fill build the week from what you have cooked before. Either way the ingredients land on the grocery list automatically.
The meal planner, the recipe box, the shared grocery list, Shop on Instacart, the family calendar with one connected calendar, chores with rotation, routine charts and kid PIN logins are all free, with no ads. Pro is $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year for recipe scanning from photos and TikTok, meal-plan auto-fill, allowance payouts, extra reminders and unlimited calendar connections, with a 14-day trial.
Yes, to Instacart. Press Shop on Instacart and the whole list opens as a shoppable Instacart page with the items matched; you check out on Instacart with whichever local store you choose. It works for households in the United States and Canada, from the fridge tablet, a browser or the phone apps, on the free plan.
Meal planner, recipe box, shared grocery list and Shop on Instacart are free. 14-day Pro trial if you want recipe scanning to bring your Mealime favourites across.