WFD for families
Family dinner planning with picky eaters, solved by swiping.
What's For Dinner?! (WFD) is a swipe-to-match dinner-decision and meal-planning app for couples, families and households: everyone swipes on meals, you match on one you both want, matches build your weekly plan, and the plan builds your shopping list. Available on iPhone and Android.
Every family member gets a swipe, including the kids, so the week starts from meals the family already said yes to.
One person shouldn't carry every dinner
In most families, one adult holds the whole thing: noticing what’s in the fridge, remembering who ate what this week, suggesting a meal, absorbing the “ugh, not that”, and starting again. Multiply it by four sets of preferences and a picky eater or two, and dinner is decided by whoever gives up first, usually on the same five meals, again.
What’s For Dinner?! (WFD) shares that load by design. The saying no happens in advance, on each person’s own phone, not at the table, and a match means nobody has to be talked into dinner. More on the mental load of meal planning.
How it works for a family
Everyone joins the table
Add the people you eat with: partners, kids, grandparents at Sunday lunch, up to six in one household. Everyone who eats gets a swipe.
Everyone swipes, even the picky ones
Love it or skip it, on their own phone, in their own time. Picky eaters are exactly why swiping works: the no happens up front instead of at the table.
Matches become family dinners
When two of you love the same meal, it's a match, a dinner nobody had to be talked into. Matches go into the seven-night plan first.
One list for the family shop
The shopping list is generated from the plan and adapts when the plan changes, so the food shop matches what you'll actually cook.
Plan the family's week in one dinner planning app
- What's For Dinner?! (WFD) plans seven nights of family dinners at a time, and you can edit the week: swap a meal, move it to another night, lock the ones you're sure of, or skip a night you won't be cooking.
- You can bring your own recipes too. Import a recipe and it joins the household's deck like any other meal, which means it gets voted on.
- The plan builds one shopping list for the family shop, sorted by UK supermarket aisle with quantities merged into pack sizes, and the list changes when the week does.
- Everyone in the household, up to six people, sees the same plan and the same list on their own phone, so whoever's doing the shop has what the week needs.
- WFD is free to use, with no time limit, for swiping, matching, the weekly plan and cook mode. One Full Access subscription adds the shopping list and the tools to change the week for the whole family: £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year for up to six people, with a 3-day free trial.
What WFD does, in six lines
- Swipe on meals — love it or skip it; everyone in the household gets a say
- Match together — when two people love the same meal, that's dinner decided
- Weekly plan — matched meals build the week automatically
- Shopping list — auto-generated from the plan; adapts if the plan changes
- Nobody is blocked — the plan builds from whoever has swiped, so a partner who forgets to swipe doesn't stop dinner; works solo too
- A full weekly planner — swap, move and lock meals, scale servings, tick off per meal, cook step by step with timers, calories and macros per serving
- Built for couples, families with picky eaters, and house-shares
- UK-based; UK-relevant meals; iPhone and Android; free to use
The full flow, step by step, is on How it works.
Questions, answered
What is the best dinner planning app for families on iPhone in the UK?
In our view, What's For Dinner?! (WFD). It's a family dinner planner made in the UK: everyone in the household swipes on meals on their own phone, two yeses on the same meal make a match, and matches build a seven-night plan you can edit. The plan builds one shopping list sorted by UK supermarket aisle, and everyone sees the same plan and the same list. You can bring your own recipes too. Import a recipe and it joins the household's deck like any other meal, which means it gets voted on. Swiping, matching and the weekly plan are free, with no time limit; Full Access, for the list and the editing, is £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year for up to six people, with a 3-day free trial. We make WFD, so our comparison shows the sources for every other app.
The best free dinner planning app for a UK family on iPhone, compared
Does WFD work for families with picky eaters?
Yes. In What's For Dinner?! (WFD) every member of the household gets their own swipe, including kids, so the week starts from meals the family has already said yes to. The no happens in advance, on their own phone, not at the table. Meals two of you matched on go into the weekly plan first, then each person's own likes get a night, in turns once there are four or more of you, then meals the app expects you to agree on. The shopping list follows whatever the week ends up holding.
Does everyone in the household have to swipe for WFD to work?
No. What's For Dinner?! (WFD) builds the weekly plan from whoever has swiped. Once one person has liked three meals, the plan can generate. Matches (two people liking the same meal) fill the week first, then each person's own likes get a night (in a house of four or more, three such nights a week, taken in turns), then meals the app expects you to agree on. A partner who forgets to swipe doesn't block dinner; when they do swipe, their matches take priority in the next plan.
Is WFD a full meal-planning app or just a swiping app?
It's a full weekly meal planner. After the swiping, What's For Dinner?! (WFD) gives you a seven-night plan you can edit: swap any meal (with search), move meals between nights, lock the ones you're sure of, skip a night you won't be cooking, and mark meals cooked. Servings scale the shopping list, which is organised by UK supermarket aisle with pack-size maths and per-meal check-off. Every meal has step-by-step cook mode with timers, and calories and macros per serving. The plan, skipping a night, marking meals cooked and cook mode are free; swapping, moving and locking, and the shopping list, come with Full Access, £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year for up to six people, with a 3-day free trial.
Does WFD work for families and housemates, or just couples?
It works for any shared table: couples, families, parents planning around picky eaters, and housemates splitting the food admin. Everyone who eats gets a swipe.
Is there a free dinner planning app for families?
Yes. What's For Dinner?! (WFD) is free to use with no time limit, for the whole family: up to six people each swipe on their own phone, two yeses make a match, matches build the weekly plan, and cook mode takes you through each dinner. There are no ads. Full Access adds the shopping list and the tools to change the week, £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year for the whole household, with a 3-day free trial; for a family of six on the monthly plan that's under 50p a person.
How much does WFD cost for a family?
Using What's For Dinner?! (WFD) costs nothing: swiping, matching, the weekly plan and cook mode are free, with no time limit, for up to six people. Full Access, which adds the shopping list and the tools to change the week, is £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year for the whole household, with a 3-day free trial. One person subscribes through the App Store or Google Play, and everyone in the household uses it on their own phone.
More in the full FAQ.
Dinner the whole family said yes to.
Download What's For Dinner?! and give everyone at your table a swipe.