FlourPower vs BigOven
BigOven has been around since 2003 and built up a massive recipe database with millions of users. But its aggressive feature-gating, ad-heavy free tier, and complete lack of data portability make it feel more like a walled garden than a tool you own. FlourPower takes a different approach: your recipes are yours, and your family cooks together.
Feature Comparison
How the two apps stack up across the features that matter most.
| Feature | FlourPower | BigOven |
|---|---|---|
| Family sharing with roles & permissions | ||
| Collaborative recipe editing | ||
| Shared family cookbooks | ||
| Import from URLs | Bookmarklet | |
| AI nutrition estimation | Premium | Pro only |
| AI cooking timers & difficulty scoring | Premium | |
| Ingredient substitutions | Premium | |
| Shopping lists | Premium | |
| Meal planning | Pro only | |
| Cooking sessions with step tracking | ||
| Recipe photo/PDF import | 1 free scan | |
| Ingredient scaling | ||
| Ad-free experience | Pro only | |
| Data export | ||
| Recipe database / discovery | 1M+ recipes | |
| Use-up-leftovers search | ||
| Dark mode |
Pricing Comparison
FlourPower
Your recipes, your family, no ads
- Free tier: 25 recipes, all features, no ads
- Premium: unlimited recipes + AI features
- Up to 5 family members included
- 14-day free trial of Premium
BigOven
Ad-supported recipe database
- Free tier: 200 recipes, ads, no meal planning
- Pro: $2.99/month or $24.99/year
- No family plan
- No data export for users
Why FlourPower Over BigOven?
Your Recipes Shouldn't Be Held Hostage
BigOven has no user-facing export. Your recipes go in, but they don't come out — at least not in any standard format. There's a developer API, but that's not exactly helpful when you just want to take your recipes to a different app. FlourPower supports export in Schema.org-compliant JSON, PDF, and other standard formats. We believe recipe lock-in is a deal-breaker.
No Ads, Ever
BigOven's free tier is ad-supported, and the ads appear alongside your own recipes. FlourPower is completely ad-free on every tier. Your recipe collection should feel like yours, not like a billboard.
Real Family Features
BigOven is a single-user product with some social features bolted on. There's no shared recipe box, no family accounts, and no collaborative meal planning between household members. FlourPower was designed around the family unit — shared cookbooks, shopping lists, and clear roles for every member.
No Feature Gatekeeping
BigOven puts meal planning, custom collections, nutrition tools, and even personal notes behind the Pro paywall. FlourPower's free tier includes all features with a 25-recipe limit — nothing is hidden behind an upgrade wall except the recipe cap and AI features.
Modern Import Tools
BigOven's recipe clipper is a bookmarklet — a technology from the early 2000s. Its OCR "RecipeScan" gives you one free scan, then 25 on Pro with no way to get more. FlourPower imports from URLs using modern Schema.org detection, supports multiple file formats, and offers unlimited AI-powered OCR on Premium for scanning photos of handwritten recipes, cookbook pages, and PDFs.
How to Switch with MoveMyRecipes
Free tool, no account needed, your data stays private.
Export from BigOven
BigOven does not offer a user-facing recipe export. Your best options are: (1) If your recipes were originally imported from URLs, you can re-import them into FlourPower using those same links. (2) For recipes you entered manually, you'll need to re-create them in FlourPower or photograph them from the BigOven app and use FlourPower's AI photo import to extract the recipe data.
Convert with MoveMyRecipes
Head to MoveMyRecipes.com, upload your export file, and choose JSON as the output format. The conversion happens instantly, and your files are automatically deleted after 7 days.
Import into FlourPower
In FlourPower, go to your recipe collection and use the import tool. Upload the JSON file from MoveMyRecipes. Your recipes, ingredients, and instructions will be imported with full structure intact. FlourPower's AI will then automatically enrich them with nutrition data, cooking timers, and more.
Own Your Recipe Collection
No ads, no lock-in, no gatekeeping. FlourPower gives you and your family full control of your recipes.