If you run a wellness business, recipes can be one of the highest-value parts of your mobile app. They keep members coming back, support nutrition goals, and give you content you can reuse in emails and challenges.

But creating a recipe library from scratch is a lot: testing, writing, nutrition labels, and—most time-consuming—photos.

The good news: you can license recipes and images from established providers, or use recipe “feeds” that keep your library growing without you taking a single new photo. Below are the top five options for non-technical wellness business owners, with a simple $ to $$$$ budget guide and real-world pros and cons.

Before you choose: the 3 decisions that matter most

1. Do you need the full recipe inside your app, or is linking out okay?
   Some services let you show ingredients + instructions + photos directly in your app. Others only let you show a preview and send people to another website.

2. Do you want to “own” a stable library, or stream recipes on demand?
   Some options feel like buying a cookbook collection (license + store it). Others are more like Spotify (you display content as long as you keep your subscription/API active).

3. How important are nutrition labels and diet filters?
   If your customers need allergy tags, macros, or condition-based filters, choose a provider built around nutrition metadata.

Budget

• $ = inexpensive monthly tools (often under ~$100/month)

• $$ = a few hundred per month or limited content packs

• $$$ = meaningful licensing investment (often custom quotes)

• $$$$ = enterprise publisher licensing (largest libraries + broad rights)

(Exact pricing depends on the size of your audience, where you’ll publish the content, and how many recipes you want.)

People Inc. Content Licensing

Budget: $$$$

What it is: A “big brand” recipe library (think household-name food and lifestyle publishers) with a Recipe API that can deliver complete recipes and images directly into your app—no linking out required. People Inc describes providing “complete data, including method and images” so users can get the whole recipe on your platform.

Best for: Wellness apps that want instant credibility, professional photography, and a large library that feels premium.

Pros

• High trust + high polish: test-kitchen quality and professional visuals.

• Designed for brands that need recipes to live inside their product (not a redirect).

• Strong tagging/filtering support (helpful for “high-protein,” “gluten-free,” etc.).

Cons

• Pricing is usually quote-based (you’ll talk to sales).

• You’ll need to confirm what’s allowed for app + marketing (push notifications, emails, social posts, etc.).

Ask them this

• “Can we store recipes in our database, or do they have to be fetched live?”

• “What attribution is required inside the app?”

• “Do images come in multiple sizes (thumbnail + full)?”

Baldwin Publishing / Health eCooks

Budget: $$$

What it is: A licensed library of recipes and professional food photos designed to be white-label—meaning the content can appear under your brand rather than the publisher’s. Baldwin positions Health eCooks as a Private Label Rights (PLR) library with high-resolution photos.

Best for: Wellness brands that want a big, consistent recipe library that feels “owned,” without building an in-house test kitchen.

Pros

• Built for reuse across digital channels (app, blog, campaigns).

• Claims a library of 1,000+ syndicated recipes with “big, beautiful food images.”

• Health-forward positioning can fit wellness audiences.

Cons

• Also typically quote-based, and packages can vary.

• The content tone may be more “health org / campaign-friendly” than influencer-style (which can be good or bad depending on your brand).

Ask them this

• “Are videos included, and are they licensed for in-app playback?”

• “Can we edit recipe copy (voice, swaps, tips), and what counts as a ‘derivative’?”

Edamam Recipe Database

Budget: $$$$

What it is: A licensed recipe dataset built with nutrition and dietary filtering in mind. Edamam advertises 40,000+ licensed recipes from publishers, and says each recipe comes with an image, ingredients, cooking instructions, and detailed nutrition and diet/allergy labels. (Edamam)

Best for: Apps where nutrition guidance is central—macro goals, allergy filters, condition-friendly labels, and robust search.

Pros

• Strong nutrition + label metadata (great for personalization).

• Publisher content without forcing users to leave the app. (Edamam)

Cons

• Typically a sales conversation and custom pricing.

• Make sure you’re buying licensed content, not just “web recipe search.”

Important note: Edamam also offers a Recipe Search API that includes many third-party web recipes. In their documentation, they say they don’t provide cooking instructions for web recipes and instead provide a URL to the source. (Edamam) If your goal is full recipes inside your app, confirm you’re choosing the right product tier.

Ask them this

• “Are we licensing the full recipe database content (with instructions), or web recipe search?”

• “What’s the policy on caching/storing recipes for offline access?”

Spoonacular

Budget: $ to $$

What it is: A subscription API that can quickly expand your recipe catalog and nutrition tooling. Spoonacular publicly lists plans from Free to paid tiers (e.g., Cook $29/month, Culinarian $79/month, Chef $149/month).

Best for: Getting a recipe feature live quickly, testing what your users actually engage with, and keeping costs predictable.

Pros

• Low barrier to entry with clear monthly pricing.

• Good for MVPs and early-stage apps that want to validate demand before investing in enterprise licensing.

Cons

• Many APIs have restrictions around how long you can store/copy their data. Treat this like a “streaming” model unless your contract says otherwise. (Your developer should confirm terms before you build your product around it.)

Ask them this

• “Are we allowed to store recipes long-term in our database, or only cache temporarily?”

• “Can we use the images in marketing, or only inside the app?”

Chomp Recipe Data Licensing

Budget: $$ to $$$

What it is: A recipe data licensing option that emphasizes structured fields (ingredients, nutrients, times, yield) and includes recipe photos as part of the dataset description.

Best for: Teams that want licensed data but don’t necessarily need a giant “famous publisher” brand behind every recipe.

Pros

• Structured recipe records (helpful for search, meal plans, and nutrition displays).

• Describes including “Photo(s) of Recipe” alongside core recipe fields.

Cons

• Usually quote-based, so you’ll still scope needs and negotiate rights.

• Brand recognition is lower than major consumer publishers, if that matters to your audience.

Ask them this

• “What image resolutions are included, and do you provide thumbnails?”

• “Can we publish recipes in the app and also in emails/social?”

How to pick the right option

• If you want premium + credible + turnkey: go with major publisher licensing (People Inc).

• If you want your app to feel like the recipes are truly yours: choose a white-label/PLR library (Baldwin Publishing).

• If nutrition filtering is your superpower: choose a nutrition-first licensed dataset (Edamam).

• If you want to test fast on a tight budget: start with a budget recipe API (Spoonacular).

• If you want licensed data without big-brand pricing: explore a boutique licensing provider (Chomp).

Next steps

1. Write down your must-haves: “Full instructions in app?” “Photos included?” “Macros required?”

2. Decide your budget band ($–$$$$).

3. Email your top two vendors with the same 8–10 questions (rights, attribution, storage, channels, term).

4. Ask your developer (or app team) one key question: “Can we legally store this content, or do we have to display it live?”