Deploy Mealie on Ubuntu with Docker — a self-hosted recipe manager with one-click URL import, weekly meal planning, auto-generated shopping lists, and a clean responsive interface.
Grab the automated bash script from GitHub to follow along with the video.
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhmdali94/Docker/main/tools/mealie/mealie-ubuntu.sh
chmod +x mealie-ubuntu.sh
sudo bash mealie-ubuntu.shThe script installs Docker and starts Mealie on port 9000. It uses a SQLite database by default, so no separate database server is needed. All recipe data is stored in a persistent Docker volume.
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhmdali94/Docker/main/tools/mealie/mealie-ubuntu.sh
chmod +x mealie-ubuntu.sh
sudo bash mealie-ubuntu.shOpen your browser and navigate to Mealie. Log in with the default admin credentials (change these immediately after first login):
http://<your-server-ip>:9000
# Default login:
# Email: changeme@example.com
# Password: MyPasswordClick the "+" button and select "Import Recipe from URL". Paste any recipe URL from popular cooking websites and Mealie automatically extracts the title, ingredients, steps, and images. You can also create recipes manually or import from a JSON file. Organize recipes into categories and cookbooks from the sidebar.
Go to the Meal Planner section to schedule recipes for each day of the week. Assign breakfast, lunch, and dinner from your recipe collection. Once your week is planned, navigate to Shopping Lists and click "Create from Plan" — Mealie consolidates all ingredients automatically into a categorized shopping list ready for your next grocery run.
| Port | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 9000 | Mealie Web UI |
Mealie is a self-hosted recipe manager and meal planning application. It allows you to collect, organize, and plan recipes from across the web and your own kitchen in one private, ad-free interface. Mealie can import recipes from hundreds of websites by URL, scraping all the relevant data automatically. It includes a weekly meal planner, shopping list generator, nutritional information display, and multi-user household support — all without cloud subscriptions or data tracking.
Recipe apps like Paprika, AnyList, and Whisk are subscription-based and store your data on their servers. Mealie runs entirely on your own server with no fees, no ads, and no data collection. The URL importer saves time compared to manual entry, and the meal planner to shopping list automation streamlines weekly grocery runs. It's the ideal tool for organized home cooks and families who want a shared digital recipe book.
Mealie runs on port 9000. For local home network use, no additional firewall configuration is needed. If you want to access Mealie remotely, proxy it through Caddy or Nginx Proxy Manager with HTTPS on a custom subdomain. Never expose port 9000 directly to the internet without authentication.
Grocy is a broader household management tool that includes recipes, inventory, and expiry tracking. Tandoor Recipes is another self-hosted recipe manager with a similar feature set but a different UI style. Nextcloud Cookbook is a recipe plugin for Nextcloud if you already run it. Paprika and Whisk are polished commercial apps with mobile apps and automatic sync but require subscriptions.
Don't use Mealie if you need a mobile-first native app experience — it's web-based only. If you already use Nextcloud, the Cookbook plugin may be simpler than running a separate Mealie container. Mealie is not designed for professional kitchen or restaurant recipe management — for those use cases, dedicated kitchen management software is more appropriate.
PrismaTechWork provides end-to-end infrastructure services — from initial deployment and security hardening to ongoing monitoring, automated backups, and dedicated support. Whether you need a single-server setup or a multi-site network, our team ensures your infrastructure is built right, secured properly, and maintained reliably.
Mealie is a self-hosted recipe manager and meal planner. It lets you import recipes from any website by URL, organize them into categories and cookbooks, plan your weekly meals on a calendar, and generate shopping lists automatically from your meal plan — with no subscription or data sharing.
Yes. Mealie's recipe scraper can import from hundreds of popular cooking websites by pasting the URL. It extracts the title, ingredients, steps, images, and nutrition information automatically. You can also manually enter recipes or import from Nextcloud Cookbook and Paprika.
Mealie's web interface is fully responsive and works well on mobile browsers. There is no dedicated native mobile app, but the web app can be added to your home screen as a Progressive Web App (PWA) on Android and iOS for an app-like experience.
Mealie includes a weekly meal planner calendar where you can schedule breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day. You can drag and drop recipes onto any day. Once your week is planned, Mealie automatically generates a consolidated shopping list with all required ingredients grouped by category.
Yes. Mealie supports multiple users and households. Administrators can create user accounts for family members or housemates. Each household can have its own recipe collection, meal plans, and shopping lists.
Yes. When importing recipes, Mealie extracts nutrition information if the source website provides it. You can manually add or edit nutritional data for any recipe. The meal planner can display total nutritional values for planned meals.
Yes. Mealie supports exporting recipes in JSON format for backup or migration. You can also export individual recipes as PDFs for printing. The API allows programmatic access to all your recipe data for custom integrations.
Mealie is lightweight and runs comfortably on a VPS with 1 CPU and 512 MB RAM for personal use. For larger households or frequent use, 1 GB RAM is recommended. It uses SQLite by default — no separate database server needed.