Samsung Food (formerly Whisk) is genuinely feature-rich: meal planning, nutrition, AI tools, a big community, and it's free to start. On paper it does a lot.
The cost is paid in a different currency. The free tier is ad-supported, an account is required, and your cooking data lives in Samsung's cloud, feeding a company whose business is not really recipes. Gratin is the opposite trade: fewer bells, but no ads, no account, and nothing leaving your device.
Gratin vs Samsung Food, side by side
Based on how each product generally works today. Product names belong to their owners. Visit Samsung Food ↗
Gratin is far cheaper here: Samsung Food's Food+ is about $60 a year, versus Gratin's free app and $12-a-year (or one-time $39) hosted sync, with no ads either way. You pay a small, honest fee for sync instead of paying with ads and a cooking profile that feeds someone else's ecosystem.
See how Gratin is priced, and why →What Samsung Food gets right, and where it grates
Where Samsung Food shines
- Free to start with a big feature set
- AI meal planning, nutrition tracking, and recipe tools
- Cross-platform with a good web clipper and community feed
Where it can frustrate
- Ad-supported free tier, with aggressive upsell to Food+
- Owned by Samsung, your cooking data feeds their ecosystem
- An account is required; your data lives in their cloud
Why people move to Gratin
Private by design
Gratin has no ads, no tracking, and no account. Your recipes stay on your device instead of feeding a megacorp's ecosystem.
You own the data, not Samsung
Everything in Gratin is stored locally on your device, and you can export it to open standards whenever you like. There's no cloud profile of your cooking, and nothing to delete from someone's servers.
Calm, not cluttered
No feed, no upsell, no diet-plan ads between you and your recipe. Just the recipe.
The verdict
Samsung Food is a capable free network if you accept ads and cloud data collection. Gratin is for people who'd rather keep their recipes, and their privacy, to themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gratin free like Samsung Food?
Yes, and without the ads. The app is free; optional hosted sync is $12/year or a one-time $39, or self-host the relay yourself if you're technical.
Does Gratin collect my data or show ads?
No. No analytics, no trackers, no ads. Your data lives on your device, and sync (if you turn it on) is end-to-end encrypted, so we can't read it.
Will I lose the AI and social features?
Yes. Gratin doesn't have a social feed or the same AI suite. It's a focused, private recipe book. If those features are the point for you, Samsung Food may fit better.