mangia and BBC Good Food — what's different?
BBC Good Food is a huge recipe platform whose app moved to a subscription. mangia is your own ad-free collection — usable on the free plan, with weekly plan, list and export.
Feature by feature.
BBC Good Food has a huge, editorially tested recipe base. The catch: the app moved to a subscription, and many users felt that as a break. mangia takes a different approach — your own collection from any source, ad-free even for free, with plan, list and export.
| mangia | BBC Good Food | |
|---|---|---|
Guided weekly plan Enter your time per day — mangia automatically composes a varied week from your recipes. Swap and lock included. | Ja | Nein |
Weekly plan + list from ALL your recipes mangia plans with every recipe you've collected and combines the shopping list automatically. | Ja | Nein |
Huge editorially tested database BBC Good Food has thousands of tested recipes. With mangia you build your own collection — from web, photo, PDF. | Nein | Ja |
Your own recipes from any source (URL, photo, PDF) mangia automatically reads recipes from web pages, photos and PDFs. BBC Good Food is built around its own catalogue. | Ja | Nein |
Imported recipes auto-categorised mangia detects dish type, cooking time and dietary style on import — no field to fill in | Ja | Nein |
Recommended sorting (seasonal + variety) What fits the season and adds variety floats to the top | Ja | Nein |
Export recipes (Markdown / CSV) With mangia you download your whole collection as a ZIP and take it with you. No lock-in behind a paywall. | Ja | Nein |
Ad-free reading & cooking mangia never shows ads — not even while cooking. On ad-funded platforms, banners and pop-ups often interrupt the cooking flow. | Ja | Nein |
Fully usable without a subscription mangia is usable ad-free on the free plan. The BBC Good Food app moved to a subscription; many recipes are still free on the website. | Ja | Nein |
Nutrition balance / plant diversity mangia shows you over the week how plant-rich and seasonal you eat — as a gentle nudge. | Ja | Nein |
Pricing mangia is ad-free on the free plan; Pro unlocks more — pricing shown in-app. The BBC Good Food app bills through a subscription. | Free + Pro | Subscription (app) |
Last reviewed: June 2026
When BBC Good Food fits
When you want fresh ideas daily from a huge, editorially tested base and can live with the app's subscription model. The database is first-class — if you're mainly after inspiration, you'll always find something.
When mangia fits
When you want to keep your BBC finds without needing a subscription to collect them. mangia reads a link, photo or PDF itself, files every recipe and floats what's in season to the top — ad-free, with weekly plan, list and export.
Bringing BBC Good Food recipes into mangia
Copy the recipe link from bbcgoodfood.com, paste it under "Import recipe" → URL in mangia. mangia pulls the recipe out cleanly — without ads, without a paywall. Once it's in mangia, it belongs to your collection and can be exported any time.
Comparison FAQ
Isn't BBC Good Food free?
The website is mostly freely accessible, but the app moved to a subscription — many long-time users felt that as a break. mangia is usable ad-free on the free plan, with no forced subscription.
Can I take my favourite BBC Good Food recipes with me?
Yes. You import them into mangia by URL from bbcgoodfood.com. After that they belong to your collection, can be edited and exported any time.
Does mangia have such a big database too?
No, that's not the goal. You build your own collection — the recipes you actually cook. Get inspiration elsewhere, do your cooking in mangia.
Ads while cooking annoy me — how is that in mangia?
mangia never shows ads, not even in step-by-step cooking mode. No banners, no pop-ups, no autoplay videos.
Can I get my recipes back out of mangia?
Any time. One click exports your whole collection as a ZIP — recipes as Markdown, plans and lists as CSV. No lock-in.