Aldenté Is Free. Here's What That Actually Means.
A lot of apps say 'free.' Most of them are lying a little. Here's exactly what's free in Aldenté, what costs money, and why we built it this way.
"Free" Is Doing a Lot of Work
If you've spent any time downloading apps, you know "free" rarely means free.
Free with ads. Free for 7 days. Free if you give us your phone number and email and tolerate four push notifications a day. Free until you hit the recipe cap on day six. Free if you tap through three "are you sure you don't want Premium?" upsells every time you open the app.
We hate that. So when we say Aldenté is free, we want to be specific about what we mean.
This post is the answer.
What's Actually Free
When you download Aldenté, with no credit card, no email upsell, no trial countdown, you get:
- Saving recipes from anywhere. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, recipe websites, photos of handwritten cards. One tap from "saw a recipe" to "saved and ready to cook." No cap on how many you can save.
- Cookbook organization. Group your recipes into themed cookbooks — weeknight dinners, holiday tables, family heirlooms, whatever makes sense to you. Up to three cookbooks free, and most cooks never need more.
- The friends feed. Follow your roommate, your sister, your favorite home cook, and see what they're actually making. Steal their dinner ideas. Share yours.
- Cook Mode. Step-by-step instructions, screen stays on, hands-free. The thing you actually need when you're cooking.
- The Discover page. Browse recipes from the broader community. Find new things to cook without leaving the app.
- Sage. One of our six chef characters — a friendly home-cook personality — is included free. Ask her for help mid-recipe.
- Ordering a printed cookbook. When you're ready, you can order a real, printed cookbook from inside the app. The book costs money (it's a real book, made by real printers), but the feature itself isn't paywalled. Anyone can use it.
- No ads. Ever.
That's what free is. Not "free trial." Not "free with limits we hope you won't notice." Just free.
What Costs Money (Premium)
Premium is $47.99/year, which works out to about $4 a month — less than one takeout coffee a week. There's also a $7.99/month option for people who hate annual subscriptions.
What you get with Premium:
- Unlimited cookbook collections (instead of three)
- Pantry tracking — know what's in your kitchen so you don't buy duplicates
- Smart grocery lists by aisle — auto-built from your meal plan, organized the way you actually shop
- One-tap ingredient scaling — cooking for 2 instead of 6? Hit a button.
- All six pocket chef characters (instead of just Sage)
- Advanced meal planning
- Priority support
Premium is a real upgrade. But none of it is gating the core experience. You can save recipes, organize them, see what your friends are cooking, and order a printed book of your favorite recipes without ever paying.
What Costs Money (Printed Cookbooks)
Separate from Premium, the printed cookbook is a physical product. It costs money because it's a real book made of real paper that real humans print and ship. Pricing depends on size and finish — a small softcover is around the price of a nice dinner out, a hardcover keepsake costs more. You see exact pricing inside the app before you check out.
This is its own thing. Not part of Premium. Not paywalled. Anyone can buy it.
Why We Built It This Way
Most recipe apps work like this: free tier so limited it's basically a teaser, real product behind a paywall, ads in the middle, plus a "Premium" subscription that mostly removes the friction the app deliberately added.
We didn't want to do that. The reason is simple — the friends feed, the recipe-saving, the cookbook organization — those are the things that make Aldenté useful at all. Locking them up makes the app worse, makes our reviews worse, makes word-of-mouth worse, and makes us a worse business in the long run.
So we're betting on this: if the free version is genuinely useful, you'll actually use it. If you actually use it, you'll cook more. If you cook more, some fraction of you will eventually want pantry tracking and smart grocery lists and the full chef crew, and you'll pay $4/month for it because it'll be worth $4/month to you.
That's the model. It works only if the free tier is honest. So that's what we're trying to do.
What "No Ads" Means
This one is plain.
There are no ads in Aldenté. Not banner ads. Not sponsored recipes pretending to be regular recipes. Not pre-roll video ads when you open Cook Mode. Not "you might also like" cards that secretly link to advertiser content.
We don't sell ad space, and we won't. Free users and Premium users get the same ad-free experience. We make money two ways: Premium subscriptions, and printed cookbooks. That's it. Your attention isn't part of the deal.
What Happens If You Cancel Premium
If you try Premium and decide it's not for you, here's exactly what happens:
- All your recipes stay yours. Everything you've saved is still there.
- All your cookbooks stay (you just go back to a 3-cookbook limit going forward — existing ones aren't deleted).
- You lose access to Premium-only features (pantry, smart lists, scaling, the other five chefs).
- You don't lose your account, your data, or your library.
- We don't make you call anyone or fill out a form. You cancel in iPhone Settings → Subscriptions → Aldenté → Cancel.
The 7-day Premium trial works the same way. Cancel before day 7 and you're not charged. Forget? You can still cancel later — no hidden fees, no contracts.
So, Should You Pay?
Honestly, most cooks don't need to.
Try the free version. Save a few recipes from TikTok. Build a cookbook of your weeknight regulars. Follow a couple of friends. Cook from it for a few weeks.
If after that you want unlimited cookbooks, pantry tracking, and smart grocery lists — Premium is there. If you don't, keep using it free. Either way, the app is yours.
See the full pricing breakdown →
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