Cucinovo

Overview

Cucinovo is a recipe-management platform that connects recipes with food costing, shopping lists, and meal or catering plans. It suits households that want more than a recipe collection and restaurant teams managing ingredients and costs across service or events. The free household tier is a low-commitment starting point; professional features require paid plans.

Key features

Recipe costs can be calculated by portion and batch, with nested sub-recipes included in the roll-up. That is useful when dishes depend on prepared components, since their costs do not have to be treated as separate, disconnected entries. Yield and portion scaling, ingredient price updates, and menu-profitability tools extend the cost-planning case, though the plan breakdown does not specify which tiers include each capability.

Shopping lists combine ingredients and quantities across recipes, which helps when planning several meals without duplicate entries. Weekly meal planning and catering-event planning adjust quantities and costs to the intended servings. Bulk CSV import and export can help kitchens move recipe and ingredient data, and users can export a machine-readable JSON copy of their supplied data.

Restaurant plans support unlimited team members and role-based access for Owners, Admins, Managers, Chefs, and Viewers. That is a practical fit for teams that need different levels of access, rather than a single shared login. Cucinovo also offers an optional Gmail connection for sending email through a user's own inbox. It says OAuth tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and describes TLS in transit, encryption at rest, bcrypt password hashing, HTTP-only JWT cookies, CSRF protection, CSP nonces, and role-based access controls. Cucinovo says it complies with GDPR and hosts production workloads in Frankfurt and Helsinki, with database clusters in the EU. Users can delete accounts, although records may be retained where legally required.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing, forever. It supports one household and one user, with unlimited recipes, ingredients, and categories, plus shopping lists, sub-recipes, grocery lists, and import/export. It is a credible fit for an individual household organizing recipes and shopping, but lacks the five-user sharing and cost-per-portion tools included with Plus.

Plus costs €7/month (billed annually) or €9/mo. It raises the limit to five users and adds meal planning, cost per portion, a loss calculator, and family sharing. This is the household choice for users who need shared planning or food-cost tools, but it is not a restaurant team plan.

Starter costs €24/month (billed annually) or €29/mo. It covers one location, unlimited team members, and unlimited recipes, ingredients, and categories. It suits a restaurant that needs a shared recipe base, but its stated inclusions omit Pro's event planning, purchase orders, supplier information, labor cost and time, and import/export.

Pro costs €66/month (billed annually) or €79/mo. One location is included, with up to five additional locations at €29/mo each. Alongside unlimited team members, it adds purchase orders, event planning, supplier information, loss calculation, labor cost and time, and import/export. This is the stronger fit for restaurants coordinating events or tracking more operational costs, though adding locations increases the monthly bill.

Enterprise has custom pricing and offers unlimited locations by contract, unlimited team members, cooking mode, and recipe approvals. It is aimed at larger groups that need those capabilities; buyers should request a quote rather than assume a published rate. Restaurant plans include a 14-day trial with full Pro access and no credit card required. After the trial, customers choose Starter or Pro to continue.

Platforms

Cucinovo is available on the web. That works for users whose kitchen workflow can run in a browser, but it is not the right pick for someone who requires a native mobile or desktop app.

Who it's for

Home cooks can start with the free single-user plan and move to Plus for shared household planning and portion costing. Restaurants get team access, costing, and operational tools in paid tiers, with Pro adding event planning and labor tracking. Multi-location restaurant groups can consider Pro's paid extra locations or Enterprise's contract-based unlimited locations. The maker also invites questions about product use, spreadsheet migration, and kitchen operations.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Costing handles nested sub-recipes. Portion and batch totals can include the costs of prepared components, which better reflects dishes built from them.
• Plans separate household and restaurant needs. The free tier supports a single household, while paid restaurant plans allow unlimited team members.
• Planning tools connect quantities and costs. Shopping lists combine ingredients across recipes, and meal or event planning adjusts quantities and costs.
• Data portability and account controls are provided. CSV import/export and JSON export support moving data, while users can delete their accounts.

Cons

• Restaurant use requires a paid plan. The free tier is limited to one household and one user, so it does not replace a shared restaurant workspace.
• Several operational features are reserved for Pro. Event planning, purchase orders, supplier information, and labor cost and time are not among Starter's stated inclusions.
• Extra locations add cost. Pro includes one location, then charges €29/mo for each additional location, up to five.
• Platform choice is narrow. Cucinovo is web-only, which rules it out for users who need a native app.

Alternatives

Choose Chefy if you want a free web-based restaurant option whose Core plan includes a first venue, costing and recipes, bulk product import, wastage recording, real-time costing updates, and a team.

Freecost is another alternative.

Choose RistoBrain if its €19/month Base plan suits your needs: it covers one location, unlimited recipes and ingredients, food-cost analytics, invoice upload, and a basic AI advisor.

Cilurzo Foodcost is another alternative.

DishCost is another alternative.

Enplace is another alternative.

Galley is another alternative.

Ratatool is another alternative.

For more options, browse Restaurant Recipe Costing Software or Restaurant Recipe Management Software.

Verdict

Cucinovo is a strong fit for households that want recipe organization tied to shopping and food-cost planning, and for restaurant teams that need shared recipes with role-based access. Its main advantage is connecting costs and quantities across recipes, shopping lists, and planned meals or events. Look elsewhere if you need a non-web platform, or if your restaurant needs Pro-level tools but cannot justify its price or the extra-location charges.