Pantry inventory apps compared

Last checked: October 27, 2026

KitchenPal and Cooklist are the apps for shopping lists, meal plans and recipes. Pantry Check adds prices and restock lists to the inventory. NoWaste has no ads and a one-time price. Smart Pantry, which we make, is a free pantry app for expiration dates: it reads the date from a photo of the label and sends a summary of what expires soon. It has no shopping list.

We make Smart Pantry, one of the five apps on this page. To keep the comparison fair, every fact about the other four apps comes from their own website or app store listing. Every fact about Smart Pantry comes from its store listings and from the app. Where another pantry app does more than ours, the table says so.

The five apps share the same core. You scan a barcode, the item goes into a list for the pantry, fridge or freezer, and the app shows what is close to its date. They differ in what comes with that core: shopping lists, meal plans, recipes, item limits, ads and price.

Five apps for pantry inventory, as listed on October 27, 2026
	Smart Pantry	KitchenPal	Pantry Check	NoWaste	Cooklist
Platforms	Android, iPhone, iPad	Android, iOS, web app	iPhone, iPad, Android	iPhone, Android, web	iOS, Android
Free version	Free with ads	Free download, some features need Premium	Up to 200 items	One location, no ads	Free download with in-app purchases
Paid plan (US prices)	Smart Pantry Plus: $3.99 and $22.99 on the App Store	Premium: $3.99 a month, $14.99 a year, or $29.99 once	Premium (2,000 items) and Pro (10,000 items): $1.99 to $29.99 on the App Store	Pro: $6.99 a year or $29.99 once	Pro: $5.99 to $9.99 a month or $49.99 to $59.99 a year on the App Store
Barcode scanner	Yes	Yes, unlimited scans with Premium	Yes, crowd-sourced database	Yes, bigger database with Pro	Yes
Expiry date from a label photo	Yes, AI reads the date	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Expiry alerts	Summary every Sunday, every day with Plus	Alerts before the expiry date	Expiration reminders	Pro only	Expiration notifications
Shopping list	No	Yes, shared	Yes, built from usage	Yes	Yes, sorted by aisle
Meal planner	No	Yes, with Premium	Not listed	Yes, with Pro	Yes
Recipes	AI recipe ideas for food that expires soon	Recipes matched to your pantry	Not listed	Recipes based on what you have	Over 1 million recipes matched to your pantry
Household sharing	Invite code	Yes, family members get Premium free	Yes, real-time sync	Yes, invite members	Yes
Ads	Yes, none with Plus	No ads label on Google Play	No ads label on Google Play	No ads	No ads label on Google Play

Which pantry app fits which kitchen

If you plan meals and shop from a list, start with KitchenPal or Cooklist. Both put a pantry inventory, a shopping list and a meal planner in one app. KitchenPal also runs in a web browser.

Cooklist suits people who shop at Walmart, Kroger, Safeway or Wegmans and do not want to scan every item: it connects to store loyalty cards and imports what you buy.

Pantry Check is the one to try when you want to know what your groceries cost. It shows prices, a running tally and an estimated total for each list.

NoWaste has no ads in any version, and its Pro plan can be a one-time purchase. Its reminders before food expires are a Pro feature.

Smart Pantry fits a household that throws away food it forgot, like the yogurt at the back of the fridge. It is a free pantry tracker built around expiration dates, with no shopping list and no meal planner.

Smart Pantry: a free food inventory app built around dates

Smart Pantry keeps one list of the food you have at home and sorts it by expiration date or by name. You can make more than one pantry, give each a name, and move an item from one to another. You add an item by scanning its barcode or by typing it. When a barcode is not in the product database, the app keeps the name and category you give it, and the next scan in your household fills them in.

The expiry date gets the most help. You can pick it from a calendar, tap 3, 5 or 7 days, or point the camera at the label and let AI read the date from the photo. Every Sunday the app sends a summary of what expires soon. With Smart Pantry Plus the summary comes every day. For food close to its date, the app suggests recipe ideas.

You share a pantry with family or housemates through an invite code. You can mark each item as opened, consumed, discarded or expired, and filter the list by status.

The free version shows ads, and AI date reading and recipe ideas start after a short video. Smart Pantry Plus is an optional subscription that removes the ads and gives you more AI requests each day. Smart Pantry has no shopping list, no meal planner, no quantities and no web app.

KitchenPal: pantry, grocery list and meal planner in one app

KitchenPal, from iCuisto Pte. Ltd., is a pantry, shopping and recipe app in one. Its pantry manager splits the kitchen into sections such as pantry, fridge, freezer, cleaning supplies or a bar. It tracks quantities and expiry dates, sends alerts before an item expires, and estimates expiry for produce. Its website says the barcode library has more than 5 million products.

Around the pantry it adds shared grocery lists, a meal planner that sends ingredients to the shopping list and skips what you already have, recipe search by ingredient with diet filters such as Keto and Low FODMAP, and a nutrition score comparison between products. It runs on Android, iOS and the web, in eight languages.

Unlimited scans, the meal planner, custom storage sections, recipe uploads and pantry export are Premium features. On its website, Premium costs $3.99 a month, $14.99 a year or $29.99 once. A Family Lifetime pack costs $39.99.

Pantry Check: inventory with prices and restock lists

Pantry Check, from Sunroom Labs, started on iOS and is now on Android too. Its barcode scanner uses a crowd-sourced database. When a product is unknown, you take a photo and add the details later. You organize items by category and by your own locations, and you see a timeline of what you use.

Pantry Check puts more weight on shopping than on dates. It builds shopping lists from your usage and inventory, suggests what to restock, and shows prices, a running tally and an estimated total. For dates, it estimates best by dates, keeps a list of expiring items and sends reminders.

The free version tracks up to 200 items. Premium raises the limit to 2,000 items and Pro to 10,000. The US App Store lists these purchases at prices from $1.99 to $29.99, without the billing period next to each price.

NoWaste: no ads, and Pro can be paid once

NoWaste, from KH Creations ApS, works on iPhone, Android and the web. The free plan has pantry, fridge and freezer lists for one location, shopping lists, recipe books, an expiry date calendar and a barcode scanner with more than 600,000 local products. It has no ads, and you can invite the members of your household.

Pro costs $6.99 a year or $29.99 once on its website. It adds unlimited items, up to 20 locations, a barcode database of 4 million products, meal plans and expiry reminders. On NoWaste, the reminder before food expires is a Pro feature.

Cooklist: a pantry filled from your store purchases

Cooklist builds the pantry inventory a different way. You connect the loyalty cards of stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Safeway and Wegmans, and it imports past and future purchases into a digital pantry. Its listing names 75 more stores. You can also add items with a barcode scanner.

From that pantry it matches over a million recipes to what you have and builds a shopping list with only the missing ingredients, sorted by aisle. It sends expiration notifications, and the household shares the list, the pantry and the recipes.

On the US App Store, Cooklist Pro is listed at $5.99 to $9.99 a month or $49.99 to $59.99 a year.

Why Fridgely is not in the table

We also looked for Fridgely, a fridge inventory app. On October 27, 2026 we could not find a current US App Store or Google Play listing for the Fridgely fridge and pantry tracker. Two newer apps that use the name are AI recipe makers. With no listing to check, we left it out.

Try Smart Pantry

Smart Pantry is free on Android and iOS. Scan your groceries, save the dates, and every Sunday get a summary of what expires soon.

Questions

What is the best pantry inventory app?

It depends on what you want next to the inventory. For shopping lists and meal plans in the same app, look at KitchenPal. For a pantry that fills itself from store loyalty cards, try Cooklist. For prices and restock lists, Pantry Check. For no ads and a one-time price, NoWaste. For a free app that keeps expiration dates in front of you and reads them from a photo, Smart Pantry, which is ours.

Is there a free pantry tracker app?

All five apps are free to download, and each free version has a different limit. Pantry Check stops at 200 items. NoWaste covers one location and keeps expiry reminders for Pro. KitchenPal keeps unlimited scans and the meal planner for Premium. Smart Pantry shows ads, and asks you to watch a short video before an AI date scan or a set of recipe ideas.

Sources

Each page below was checked on October 27, 2026. Prices and features change, so check the store listing before you buy.