Mealime has announced it will shut down on October 21, 2026, and delete its users' data. Until then, it's the only comparison on this site where both services do the same job. Both are free, both let you buy wherever you want. What sets them apart comes down to two things: the language, and how the menu gets put together.
Prices and features change. Everything here comes from the services' official pages, checked on that date. Nothing is copied from a comparison site or a blog.
Mealime starts from a recipe catalog and helps you pick from it: the site announces more than 200 customization options to filter by diet and foods you skip, then produces a grocery list sorted by category. It's a well-tested service, claimed by more than 4.5 million users, and its basic version is free.
Popotam doesn't pick, it composes: the menu is written on demand from your constraints, either by Popotam's model or by your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini account. Two weeks you ask for never give the same result.
The other difference is less technical but often decisive: Mealime is a North American product. Its recipes, ingredients and units follow Anglo-Saxon habits, and the app's language isn't announced as available in French. Popotam speaks French, counts in euros and sorts the list by the aisles of a French supermarket.
A meal planner that puts together your week, or your month, plus the grocery list that goes with it, with no account and no subscription.
An English-language meal planner: you put your week together, and the app turns it into a grocery list sorted by category.
The 8 criteria that matter between Popotam and Mealime, taken from both profiles.
| Criterion | Popotam | MealimeCloses 10/21/2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Plan your mealsOrganize the week's meals ahead of time, day by day. | Yes14 meals a week, lunch and dinner, up to four weeks | Yesthe whole week in a few minutes |
| Fine-tuned customizationSet cooking time, equipment, favorite cuisines, spice level, nutrition goal… | Yestime, equipment, cuisines, spice, goal, pantry, time slots… | Yesmore than 200 options announced |
| AI generationMenus are put together by AI, not just picked from a catalog. | Yesinstant generation | Not verified |
| Use your own AIHave your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini account create the menu. | YesChatGPT, Claude or Gemini from your own account | No |
| Grocery listGet the list of ingredients to buy, grouped for the store. | Yessorted by aisle, with checkboxes | Yessorted by category |
| Shop wherever you wantBuy at any store, with no required retailer and no partnership. | Yesno partner store chain | Yes |
| Estimated budgetKnow what the week costs before you go shopping. | Yesestimated ingredient by ingredient | Not verified |
| Usable without a subscriptionUse the tool for its main purpose without paying for a subscription. | Yes | Yesuntil it shuts down, on October 21, 2026 |
How to read this table. “No” means “not offered according to the service's public info as of the check date”: you can't prove a feature doesn't exist, but you can say so honestly. “Not verified” means we couldn't find an official source, and we'd rather say so than guess.
Say what you like, get your week and its grocery list, and keep it all in one link. No account, no credit card.
The official site doesn't state the app's languages, so we can neither confirm nor deny it. What's certain is that the service is North American: recipes, ingredients and units of measurement follow Anglo-Saxon habits, which makes shopping at a French supermarket harder.
For grocery shopping done in France, a French-language tool spares you constant unit conversion and ingredients you can't find. Popotam builds menus in French, counts in euros and sorts the list by the aisles of a French supermarket, for free and with no account.
We haven't verified it on an official source, and we'd rather say so than assume. What the site announces is a recipe catalog and more than 200 customization options to filter it. Popotam, for its part, puts the menu together on demand, with its own model or with your own AI account.
Yes, for free and with no account. On a computer, a “Bring to Popotam” button, which you drag into your browser's bar, brings over in one click the meal plan recipes, favorites, personal recipes, diet and allergies, until the shutdown on October 21, 2026. On a phone, Popotam reads the PDFs the Mealime app saves, even after the shutdown. The recipes arrive translated into French and converted to grams.
On Android, yes: a free app on Google Play, with the same meal plan as on the site. On iPhone, no: Popotam runs in the browser, on a computer as well as on a phone, and can be added to your home screen. Mealime offers mobile apps, which is still an advantage on iPhone if you really want an installed app.