These 7 Vegan Smartphone Apps Make Eating and Dining Easier

If you’re new to eating vegan, you may find yourself a little overwhelmed, wondering what you should buy at the grocery store, what kind of (tasty) meals you can cook at home, and what restaurants will have suitable options for you. For all of you who have been living a plant-based life for a while, you may have the knack of things down by now but could use a little inspiration or way to stay in-the-know when it comes to buying and eating vegan foods. Enter smartphone apps to the rescue!

From guiding you on what food products are vegan to sharing inspiration for your next meal to showing you vegan restaurants nearby, these phone apps are the way to work smarter, not harder when it comes to maintaining a vegan diet. 

Recommended for: Foodies hungry to try local vegan restaurants

HappyCow has long been a respected, popular source when it comes to finding vegan food around the world, and they have an app so you can easily take their recommendations on the go. With the information that spans 180+ countries and 108,000 establishments (including restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores), it’s a cinch to find something to eat whether you’re searching for a new place to try in your neighborhood or you’re abroad on a vacation. Their treasure trove of information is made even more useful with their various search filters, interactive map, and trusted reviews. Speaking of trips, you’re able to easily save places to Trips and Favorites lists for offline viewing so you’re still prepared with options even when you have your cell service turned off. 

Extra Tip: Check out the HappyCow integration on The Beet to find vegan restaurants if you’re browsing on your computer!

Recommended for: At-home cooks searching for fool-proof recipes from experts

Forks Over Knives is like a little empire when it comes to learning about and living a plant-based diet with the critically acclaimed documentary film that started it all and its successful book series, including the #1 New York Times bestselling accompaniment book to the movie. That empire also includes a recipe app with more than 400 plant-based dishes from over 50 leading, professional chefs. Plus, more recipes are added every week to keep you continually satisfied. For even more ease of use, the Forks Over Knives app offers shopping lists (organized by aisle or by recipe) that you can synchronize across devices.

Recommended for: Shoppers struggling to find food substitutions

Have you spent way too much time in the store, googling vegan alternatives for everyday food items or your favorite non-vegan snacks? The Veggie Alternatives app, which Ayush Sanghavi started when he was just 14-years-old, is here to make vegan food shopping a whole lot easier. In the app, there are over 300 alternatives for meat and dairy products like bacon, fish, butter, and cheese. It even has vegan-friendly options for treats like cake, candy, and chocolate. When viewing the alternatives, you’ll also find prices and links to the mentioned products. You can save all your favorites so they’re easy to refer to time and time again.

Recommended for: Discerning types who make it a habit to thoroughly check ingredients

You may think you have a handle on what things are vegan and what aren’t—and then you get hit by a whole lot of unfamiliar words when looking at a food package’s ingredient list. Instead of trying to research things like “Amaranth, FDC Red 2” and “Orange GGN” when you’re standing in front of the supermarket shelves, just whip out the Vegan Additives app to figure out if an additive is vegan friendly or not, searching by its E-number or its name. Since the app has an offline database, you won’t need an internet connection to look things up. It’s one more way to speed up your shopping trip while ensuring that what you’re buying really is vegan.

Recommended for: Food lovers in need of a large assortment of recipes 

A product of One Green Planet, the Food Monster app is one monster of a recipe resource with an archive of over 8,000 recipes and 10 new ones added five days a week. There are plenty of dishes to choose from and you can keep all your favorites well-organized by bookmarking them. If you’re having a hard time deciding what to make from their plethora of options, check out their Features section where their most popular recipes are showcased or head to the Collections section to find curated lists of recipes. The app has an additional meal plan feature where editors select 7 to 10 recipes, which you can add and remove from if you’d like to make your own custom meal plan. If you want unlimited access to everything Food Monster has to offer, sign up for their in-app monthly or yearly plan. 

Recommended for: Blogger fans looking for beautiful meal inspiration

You may recognize the name “Oh She Glows” as the award-winning vegan recipe blog by Angela Liddon or maybe you know it from Liddon’s New York Times bestselling vegan cookbook. Now you can have the most popular plant-based recipes from the Oh She Glows archives (over 140 in total) right in your pocket with this app. With advanced search options like dish type, season, and dietary info, you can conveniently sift through the various recipes to find just the right thing to whip up in the kitchen next. The app also has handy usability features like being able to strike out ingredients and directions as you go and make notes to the recipes. Better still, they continuously upload new recipes as new ones are added to the blog so it’s the app that keeps on giving.

Recommended for: Travelers who want to discover new vegan eats

While the app comes from Germany, Vanilla Bean offers much more than vegan restaurant recommendations just from its home country. There are over 33,000 restaurants across the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany for you to look through when deciding where to snag a plant-based meal. You can search by location with the map feature or filter through the options based on your preferences, and there is health and sustainability-related information about the restaurants. For example, you can narrow your search if you want something organic, local, or gluten-free.