Pestle: Recipe Manager 17+

Update: 5 stars and wish I could give 10! The developer (this is a one-man show!) reached out and found the issue. The fix took less than a minute, everything is restored and I’m back to cooking my favorite rrcipes! This is a fantastic app and I look forward to using it for years to come. Thanks Will!

Original review: I was one of the original users when the app first became available and as such the cost was for a lifetime of use. I recommended it to many people, all of whom loved it. While it’s been awhile since I used it, but when I opened it today to find all but 1 of my nearly 100 recipes gone and the message that the “free” version only allows me to save 15 recipes! I loved this app but now find it not only useless but need to figure out where I got those missing recipes and print them as I can’t rely on this app to save them! What happened?!

Hey, really sorry about this, this is not normal. If you bought lifetime when Pestle launched, you’ve still got it! I think maybe you got logged out for some reason?

Please email me through the app and I will make sure this gets sorted. Pestle is made by just one person, so every review means a lot and I promise I’ll make it right :)

Two years ago I downloaded this app and it seemed to be really great! I developed a bunch of recipes within it and found it super convenient to make changes and use the app as I was cooking. A few months ago I accidentally dropped my phone into some boiling chicken stock (ironically I was cooking from the app) but I was able to back up all my data to the cloud before going to Verizon to purchase my new phone. I assumed that was all I needed to do to save everything that was on my phone. A few days later I opened Pestle and everything was gone. I tried a few things to see if I could recover them and the last thing on my list was to email support. I didn’t get around to it until yesterday when I needed one of my recipes for Thanksgiving with my family. I ended up trying to make the recipe from memory, but I also finally emailed Pestle’s support thinking this must be a quick fix. Unfortunately, the developer, Will, let me know that no, the recipes really are gone forever. He tried to tell me I must have deleted my account when I was literally using it up to the moment my phone became unusable. So I’m upset I lost my recipes, and I’m also frustrated at this person’s failure to take responsibility for the issues within his app.

All this to say, if you want to be able to store your recipes long term, through multiple phones, maybe don’t use this app.

Stephanie I’m disappointed you didn’t update this review after I went to extensive efforts to recover your recipes, and successfully did so.

I reached out to you multiple times in the last couple weeks but you’ve opted not to reply, and to instead leave this review up.

So to anyone else reading this: Stephanie’s recipes were recovered in the end.

I’ve used a number of recipe management apps over the years, and Pestle is, hands-down, the best. Recipe import is smooth and flawless. I’ve rarely encountered a recipe it can’t import (usually those annoying ones that include the author’s life story and their insights on Legos vs. Tinker Toys). Serving conversions are simple, the walk through of steps easy and intuitive, and many other things are well thought out. Even the inclusion of timers within the app - sure, your phone or iPad has timers, but it’s easier just to use ones within Pestle. I use this app often, and it quickly ascended to my go-to app for cooking. I find the Discover feature often won’t load the URL of a presented recipe or article but that feature isn’t, in my mind, integral to the app or why I use it. I wish more apps performed their intended mission with this degree of elegance, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Thank you so much for such a kind review :) I’m so glad you love Pestle and appreciate all the hard work I put in! If you ever have any issues at all, please don’t hesitate to contact support :)