Grocy

What is Grocy?

Grocy is an open source, self-hosted web app for managing groceries and the household around them — its creator calls it “ERP beyond your fridge.” It tracks what’s in your pantry and fridge by stock and expiry, plans meals, generates shopping lists, and keeps tabs on chores, tasks, batteries, and equipment, all from a browser on your own server.

What is Grocy best for?

Detail-oriented households and self-hosting enthusiasts who want to cut food waste and run the home like a system. It suits people happy to log what they buy and consume in exchange for knowing exactly what they have, what’s about to expire, and what needs restocking — not those after a quick, low-effort shopping list.

What can Grocy do?

• Track stock with quantities, locations, and expiry (best-before) dates, warning you before food spoils
• Scan barcodes with a USB reader or your phone camera, and look products up via Open Food Facts
• Auto-build shopping lists from minimum stock thresholds, grouped by store section
• Store recipes with live “can I make this?” stock checks and one-click add-missing-to-list
• Plan meals on a calendar that feeds the shopping list
• Manage chores, one-off tasks, battery charge cycles, and equipment with manuals
• Expose everything through a documented REST API (Swagger UI), with companion Android, iOS, and Home Assistant integrations

Is Grocy free?

Yes — Grocy is fully free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid tier, cloud upsell, or feature gate. You self-host it and pay only for whatever hardware or hosting you run it on; the developer accepts optional donations but nothing is locked behind them.

Where does Grocy fall short?

• It demands constant manual data entry. You log items as you buy them and “consume” them as you use them, one by one — reviewers consistently find this upkeep the reason they drop it for everyday grocery tracking.
• It’s feature-dense rather than friendly. The interface is functional but dated, and much of the power is buried in settings, so casual family members often find it more than they want to learn.
• It’s PHP + SQLite by design, which is simple to run but single-file — great for one household, not built to scale into a multi-tenant service.

What does Grocy replace?

Grocy is a self-hosted alternative to consumer household apps like AnyList, Paprika, and Cozi. It covers their shared shopping lists, recipe storage, and meal planning, then goes further with true stock/expiry tracking and chore management — without a subscription or your data living in someone else’s cloud. For cataloging belongings rather than consumables, a dedicated home-inventory tool like HomeBox is a closer fit.

FAQ

Is Grocy open source? Yes. Grocy is released under the permissive MIT license, and the full source is on GitHub. You can self-host, modify, and use it freely.

Can I self-host Grocy for free? Yes — it’s free to run with no paid edition. You only cover your own server or hosting; a community Docker image and direct release downloads make setup straightforward.

Is Grocy a good AnyList or Cozi alternative? For tech-comfortable households, yes — it does shared lists, recipes, and meal planning plus far deeper stock and chore tracking, all self-hosted. If you want a polished, zero-setup app the whole family will adopt instantly, the paid consumer apps are easier.

What do I need to run Grocy? A server or PC with PHP 8.5 (extensions pdo_sqlite, gd, intl) and a modern browser, or simply the community Docker container. It stores data in a single SQLite file, so no separate database server is required.