The app looks very nice. Small suggestions: Show the price of the premium plan when not logged in. Many users may not entertain an app depending on the price, and logging in shouldn't be needed to see it.
Also the ability to halve recipes would be great, sometimes you just want to make less.
Very minor point, in the grand scheme of things: when converting measurements from imperial to metric, I would be astonished if many recipes need more than two significant figures. When the recipe says "391.32 gram strained greek yogurt" I would not expect disaster to befall me if I only supplied 391.31g.
A more major point is that I don't seem to be able to select text to copy and paste. I had to type out "391.32 gram strained greek yogurt" like some sort of caveman. And that makes me wonder what a screen reader would make of it...
I'm not convinced that the units conversion is right. The example of 2 Cups of greek yoghurt being 391.32 g. 1 US cup is 240 ml (or 236.5 ml depending on which type of cup you are using). The density of greek yoghurt is somewhere between 0.96 g/ml and 1.04 g/ml (depending on which website you trust the most). This leads me to calculate that 2 cups greek yoghurt weighs between 454 g and 499 g). The 391 g value is way off.
This is amazing, and at first glance it is going to solve many of my problems. I see offers to start a free trial but nothing about pricing. The sign up page doesn't work well with my password manager, I imagine you need to add auto fill hints to the textboxes, looks like your using flutter, so add these to each textbox you want to autofill: https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/material/TextField/autofillH..., it should also work with mobile
I assume that (like most recipe apps out there) he's just trying to parse the json Recipe schema when it is attached. Most blogs attach them because it helps Google get them indexed.
1. The most unexpected thing that I learned was the absolute nightmare it is to set up subscriptions.
I initially thought it would be a simple task. I started off with writing APIs and webhooks for Play store and App store.
But then as I got into the specifics things got complicated very quickly.
The combinations of subscriptions (monthly/yearly, AI and non-AI), cancellations, cross device subscription sync, how to handle trials, how to manage subscription states of users, and then when users upgrade, that's another few cases to handle.
There were just too many cases to handle.
I then just used a third-party provider (RevenueCat). They have handled all the complexities beautifully.
2. Supabase self-host is another nightmare in itself. Just the sheer amount of configs needs (through the .env file) is insane. They have intentionally made it so difficult to configure.
3. Setting up SMTP and sending emails is actually a very tiring and cumbersome process. AWS SES is just too much work. Mainly the domain reputation (emails always landing in spam) and also there are not many providers that give a generous trial.
I posted the first version of OnlyRecipe here about four years ago [1], and the response was incredible. The feedback in that thread shaped a lot of what I wanted to build next. That initial momentum proved that the core problem (ads, life stories, and clutter on recipe blogs) needed a solution.
Progress since then has been slower than I hoped — I had some health issues and was building on and off — but I kept coming back to this project because I genuinely love working on it. I’ve been working on the project on and off, fitting development in whenever I could. This post represents a huge personal milestone.
Here’s what’s new after all this time:
Import from Videos: Import directly from TikTok, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook videos
Import from Handwritten recipes: Import from handwritten notes and screenshots
Unit Conversion: A highly-requested feature. Instantly convert US Customary (cups/oz) to Metric (grams/ml) for any extracted recipe.
Grocery Lists: Consolidate ingredients from multiple saved recipes into a single, clean shopping list.
Meal Plan: Plan your weekly meals in advance
Controls: Full recipe editing, PDF export, printing, and cross-device sync
Mobile-First Design: While the web view (linked above) is great for quickly seeing the result, the mobile apps have dedicated native controls for cooking mode (e.g., screen stay-awake, timers, and offline access).
In-App Browser: Directly import from any site within the app and many more...
To see these features in action quickly (small gif/videos), check it out on the landing page [2]
The link above is a deep link to a live demo on the web app.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new utility features and the performance of the parser! Try it out here [5]
- many recipe sites let you check/uncheck things you want to print. I'd love to print just [ name, ingredients, instructions ] without [ photo, metadata/servings/nutrition/etc. ]. I much prefer one page recipes to two pages.
- on desktop, some text-break like "6 servings" breaks to 2 lines
The app looks very nice. Small suggestions: Show the price of the premium plan when not logged in. Many users may not entertain an app depending on the price, and logging in shouldn't be needed to see it.
Also the ability to halve recipes would be great, sometimes you just want to make less.
Thanks. Yes, makes total sense.
Will make these changes and release soon.
Very minor point, in the grand scheme of things: when converting measurements from imperial to metric, I would be astonished if many recipes need more than two significant figures. When the recipe says "391.32 gram strained greek yogurt" I would not expect disaster to befall me if I only supplied 391.31g.
A more major point is that I don't seem to be able to select text to copy and paste. I had to type out "391.32 gram strained greek yogurt" like some sort of caveman. And that makes me wonder what a screen reader would make of it...
My kitchen scale only shows grams to the nearest integer anyway.
Thank you for the feedback. Will definitely release an update by tomorrow for this.
Regarding selection of text, that has been a problem with flutter. I will find a way to make it selectable.
There is an alternative. You can share the recipe or click print. There you would be able to select it.
Or, you could share the recipe and it would be copied to your clipboard.
I know that is not exactly what you want, but it will solve the purpose for now.
I'll fix it soon. Apologies.
I'm not convinced that the units conversion is right. The example of 2 Cups of greek yoghurt being 391.32 g. 1 US cup is 240 ml (or 236.5 ml depending on which type of cup you are using). The density of greek yoghurt is somewhere between 0.96 g/ml and 1.04 g/ml (depending on which website you trust the most). This leads me to calculate that 2 cups greek yoghurt weighs between 454 g and 499 g). The 391 g value is way off.
Thanks for pointing it out. I'll look into it and fix it by tomorrow.
This is amazing, and at first glance it is going to solve many of my problems. I see offers to start a free trial but nothing about pricing. The sign up page doesn't work well with my password manager, I imagine you need to add auto fill hints to the textboxes, looks like your using flutter, so add these to each textbox you want to autofill: https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/material/TextField/autofillH..., it should also work with mobile
When I sign up, I get an error when confirming my email: This site can’t be reached The webpage at https://api.onlyrecipeapp.com/?code=XXX
Good work, looks very promising.
Oh shoot!
That's a reverse proxy configuration error. I just fixed it.
Please try registering again.
Doesn't seem to work for this blog: https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2016/03/tartiflette-french-p...
I assume that (like most recipe apps out there) he's just trying to parse the json Recipe schema when it is attached. Most blogs attach them because it helps Google get them indexed.
Chef John doesn't
Noted.
This page probably does not have the standard recipe attributes that are needed for parsing the recipe.
I am adding a fallback mechanism for such cases. The text will be parsed using LLM like ChatGPT.
Should be released by tomorrow. Cheers!
The animations are laggy and the transitions make the website slow.
Can you also tell me which browser and/or version you are using? I'll check it.
I have actually added same transition as mobile apps. But there shouldn't be lags ideally. I'll have a look.
Congrats on releasing and steadily improving. What was the most unexpected thing you learnt lately?
Thank you.
There are many learnings:
1. The most unexpected thing that I learned was the absolute nightmare it is to set up subscriptions.
I initially thought it would be a simple task. I started off with writing APIs and webhooks for Play store and App store.
But then as I got into the specifics things got complicated very quickly.
The combinations of subscriptions (monthly/yearly, AI and non-AI), cancellations, cross device subscription sync, how to handle trials, how to manage subscription states of users, and then when users upgrade, that's another few cases to handle.
There were just too many cases to handle.
I then just used a third-party provider (RevenueCat). They have handled all the complexities beautifully.
2. Supabase self-host is another nightmare in itself. Just the sheer amount of configs needs (through the .env file) is insane. They have intentionally made it so difficult to configure.
3. Setting up SMTP and sending emails is actually a very tiring and cumbersome process. AWS SES is just too much work. Mainly the domain reputation (emails always landing in spam) and also there are not many providers that give a generous trial.
Hijacks the back button :/
Sorry for that. I am still handling cases in web app. This is built in Flutter and released as a mobile-first or tablet-first app.
I am fixing many such issues right now. Should be at par with the mobile apps soon.
Clicking on back button of my mouse starts an infinite loop.
Hi HN,
I posted the first version of OnlyRecipe here about four years ago [1], and the response was incredible. The feedback in that thread shaped a lot of what I wanted to build next. That initial momentum proved that the core problem (ads, life stories, and clutter on recipe blogs) needed a solution.
Progress since then has been slower than I hoped — I had some health issues and was building on and off — but I kept coming back to this project because I genuinely love working on it. I’ve been working on the project on and off, fitting development in whenever I could. This post represents a huge personal milestone.
Here’s what’s new after all this time:
Import from Videos: Import directly from TikTok, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook videos
Import from Handwritten recipes: Import from handwritten notes and screenshots
Unit Conversion: A highly-requested feature. Instantly convert US Customary (cups/oz) to Metric (grams/ml) for any extracted recipe.
Grocery Lists: Consolidate ingredients from multiple saved recipes into a single, clean shopping list.
Meal Plan: Plan your weekly meals in advance
Controls: Full recipe editing, PDF export, printing, and cross-device sync
Mobile-First Design: While the web view (linked above) is great for quickly seeing the result, the mobile apps have dedicated native controls for cooking mode (e.g., screen stay-awake, timers, and offline access).
In-App Browser: Directly import from any site within the app and many more...
To see these features in action quickly (small gif/videos), check it out on the landing page [2]
The link above is a deep link to a live demo on the web app.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new utility features and the performance of the parser! Try it out here [5]
[1] Original post from Jan 2022: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29795482
[2] Landing Page: https://get.onlyrecipeapp.com
[3] iOS App: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/only-recipe/id1602130759
[4] Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nsqr.onlyr...
[5] Web app: https://onlyrecipeapp.com
Constructive feedback on current state:
- many recipe sites let you check/uncheck things you want to print. I'd love to print just [ name, ingredients, instructions ] without [ photo, metadata/servings/nutrition/etc. ]. I much prefer one page recipes to two pages.
- on desktop, some text-break like "6 servings" breaks to 2 lines
Thank you for the feedback. Appreciate it. I have made a note of this. I will fix it in next release.