How to create a recipe web app

A recipe web app is a great way to organize and access all your favorite dishes in one place. Whether you’re a home cook experimenting in the kitchen or a parent who wants to streamline meal planning, a well-designed recipe app can make cooking easier and more enjoyable.

Instead of paying for third-party apps with features I didn’t need, I decided to build my own custom recipe web app. Normally, this would require coding, UI design, and database setup – but with Hostinger Horizons, I created a fully functional app without writing a single line of code.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how I built my recipe web app, from planning and design to deployment and testing. After reading these steps, you’ll know how to create your own.

Recipe web app planning and design

Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, but keeping track of recipes was always a mess. I’d save them in different places – notes apps, bookmarked websites, you name it – and would struggle to find specific recipes when I needed them.

I wanted a simple way to organize my favorite recipes and generate a shopping list based on what I was going to be cooking.

Before jumping into the build, I defined what my app needed:

✅ A recipe library where users can save and categorize their favorite recipes.
✅ An ingredient tracker to keep a list of items needed for each recipe.
✅ A shopping list generator to quickly create lists based on selected recipes.
✅ A clean, intuitive interface for easy navigation and quick access to saved recipes.

I didn’t want to spend weeks coding or worrying about setting up a server, so I used Hostinger Horizons. Here’s why:

• No coding required. Just describe the app you want, and AI will generate it.
• Instant updates. Easily refine features, improve UI, and fix bugs in real time.
• One-click deployment. Once the app is ready, it can go live immediately.

Getting started is simple, too: Hostinger Horizons includes a free plan (5 messages/day) for existing Hostinger web hosting customers.

To unlock more message credits, you can purchase a plan starting at RM86.99/month.

Check out our full guide on getting started with Hostinger Horizons to explore all setup options.

How I created a recipe web app with Hostinger Horizons

With my plan purchased, I was ready to bring my recipe web app to life.

Step 1: Setting up the project

To start, I went to hPanel → Websites → Websites List → Add Website → Hostinger Horizons. This opened the project’s start screen, where I described my app idea:

Prompt example:

Create a recipe web app where users can save and categorize recipes, track ingredients, and generate a shopping list. The app should have a clean and simple interface.

The tool instantly generated a basic interface with a recipe manager and shopping list functionality:

Since a lot of my recipes are saved as bookmarks across various sites, I wanted to add a URL import so that I could collect all my favorites in one place.

I simply told the AI what I wanted to do, and it talked me through an API setup, something I had never done before:

Step 2: Refining the app logic

The first version worked, but I wanted to make sure I avoided the common mistakes first-time web app builders make.

Luckily, refining the app logic was easy in Hostinger Horizons. It’s like having a conversation with a web developer since all you need to do is describe the changes you need, and the tool does all the heavy lifting for you.

Key improvements I made included:

✅ Added recipe categories. Users could now group recipes by meal type (for example, main dishes, salads, desserts).
✅ Improved UI layout. Adjusted button placements, animations, and colors for a cleaner experience.
✅ Ingredient tracker. Allowed users to store ingredient lists with each recipe.
✅ Shopping list generator. Users could now select multiple recipes and automatically generate a shopping list.

Prompt example:

Can you add an uploading animation to the URL import button so it's clearer when the app is working on importing content?

The AI quickly made adjustments, adding a loading wheel animation to the recipe import button. This made it easier to see when the app was working on importing a recipe from an external URL.

I also experimented with different navigation styles, testing a tab-based system:

Step 3: Testing and debugging

Once my app was functional, I tested how it worked in a few different scenarios:

• Adding and deleting recipes to make sure all entries updated correctly.
• Generating a shopping list based on multiple selected recipes.
• Checking for UI bugs and ensuring smooth navigation.

When I noticed that the shopping list wasn’t formatted correctly, I asked Horizons to fix it.

Troubleshooting prompt example:

The shopping list formatting is incorrect – all the items are written in lower case. I would like it to be in sentence case. Can you fix it?

The AI analyzed the issue and provided a quick fix:

Once, I also ran into a runtime error:

Luckily, it’s easy to ask Hostinger Horizons to troubleshoot itself – I just clicked the Ask to fix button, and the tool restarted the task. For more troubleshooting tips, check out our guide on the most common mistakes to avoid.

Recipe web app deployment

After refining my app, I deployed it with one click from the editor. It was then live and ready to use:

You can connect a custom domain to your app by clicking on the Get domain button. You can also do this by going to hPanel → Websites List – just click on Change domain under the temporary domain you want to link a custom domain to.

Since Horizons allows me to edit my app even after deployment, I can tweak features anytime. For example, after a few days, I realized I wanted a meal-planning calendar. Instead of rebuilding my app, I simply asked:

Prompt example:

Add a calendar feature where users can plan meals for the week.

Within seconds, Horizons updated my app with a fully functional meal planner based on the recipes in my app, with a day and a week view:

My app has helped me plan all my meals, and now all my recipes are in one place. Feel free to test it out!

Conclusion

Building a recipe web app from scratch would normally take weeks of coding – but with Hostinger Horizons, I had a working version in minutes.

Now, I use this app daily to save new recipes, plan my grocery shopping, and decide what to cook well in advance.

Thinking of building your own recipe app? Try Hostinger Horizons risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and see if you can build one that’s better than mine!