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Heilsa

Heilsa and shopping list apps

Shared list apps solved the shop. They left both ends of it alone.

The Shopping tab grouped by recipe: basil, gnocchi and mascarpone for Creamy Tomato Gnocchi, salmon for the Lemon Salmon Traybake, curry powder for the prawn curry, and two items added by hand.
Salmon4 fillet
On the wall, bought today
Salmon4 fillet

What shopping list apps do well

  • Fast, shared, and reliable in the aisle.
  • Almost no learning curve, and the whole household will actually use one.
  • Good at the mechanical part: add, check off, done.

Where they stop

  • The list does not know what is already in the cupboard, so duplicates still happen.
  • An item carries no reason, which makes it hard to judge in the shop.
  • What you bought does not go anywhere. The kitchen state stays in everyone’s head.

What Heilsa does instead

  • What planned dinners need goes on the list minus what the shared pantry already holds.
  • Items a planned dinner needs keep that dinner attached.
  • Marking something bought moves it into the pantry, so the next dinner decision starts current.

The list is the middle of a loop

Buying is one step of three. What preceded it was a dinner decision that found a gap; what follows is a kitchen that now contains something new. A list app holds the middle step well and drops the context on either side.

Where a plain list still wins

For a household that wants nothing more than a shared list of words, a dedicated list app is lighter and simpler. Heilsa asks for pantry upkeep in exchange for connecting the list to dinner.

In the app

Where to look in Heilsa.

  • The Pantry wall: 49 foods at home, each a drawing with its name. A Use soon shelf at the top holds banana and chicken thigh, both today, and the leftover curry is under Made at home.

    Pantry wall

    A pantry that tells you what to use first

    Every food at home on one wall, each with its own drawing, and a Use soon shelf on top for whatever has the least time left.

    Pantry wall in detail
  • The sheet for adding a dinner to Monday: leftovers from Sunday first, then Potato and Cheddar Frittata (you have everything for it) and two curries each missing one spice.

    Meal planning

    Dinner plans that start from the fridge

    Plan up to a fortnight of dinners. Heilsa ranks the choices by what needs using and what you already have, and leaves the deciding to you.

    Meal planning in detail
  • A recipe page for Sticky Gochujang Chicken: its picture, 35 minutes, serves 4, dairy-free and gluten-free, about 685 kcal a serving with protein, carbs and fat, an Add to plan button and its allergens.

    Recipes

    Recipes, checked against your kitchen

    A hundred curated recipes and every one you add, each marked Can make now, Almost there or Missing key from what is at home.

    Recipes in detail

Questions

Plain answers.

Can I use Heilsa only for the shopping list?
You can, but the list gets most of its value from the pantry it reads and writes back to. Used alone it is a competent shared list and not much more.

Other comparisons

Try it with your own kitchen

Heilsa comes to the App Store in November. Join now, through TestFlight, and your household keeps it free through 2027.

Install with TestFlight

iPhone with iOS 15.1 or later, in the UK and Switzerland. Somewhere else?