Your iPhone or Apple Watch are both powerful tools for your health and well-being.
And if you happen to be vegetarian or vegan, there are a plethora of vegan apps that can make your plant-based health and wellness journey even smoother.
The vegan app market is actually relatively small compared to other health and wellness categories, but there are certainly some cornerstone apps that can be incredibly helpful to those seeking a plant-based lifestyle.
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Reasons to go vegan or vegetarian
There are a lot of reasons to eat less meat and consume fewer animal products, ranging from health-related impacts to benefits for the environment at large.
Research shows that a plant-based, vegan, or vegetarian diet can be linked to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as a decreased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
You’ll likely be cooking and analyzing ingredient lists more, so it’s also a good opportunity to learn about nutrition. Vegan diets are generally rich in healthy nutrients and lower in calories and saturated fats, so weight loss is another potential benefit.
A vegan or vegetarian diet is also a lot better for the environment and lowers your carbon footprint.
In particular, recent research indicates that if high-income countries adopt a plant-based diet, it could help to alleviate climate change and lead to a substantial double climate dividend! Plant-based diets accomplish that by reducing annual agricultural production emissions and increasing sequestering carbon via the increases in plant agriculture.
Raising animals for food requires a lot of land, resources, and water. Because of that, people who follow a vegan diet have greenhouse gas emissions that are 37% lower than those who eat meat.
Of course, there are strong ethical reasons to cut meat out of your diet. If you don’t eat animal products, you won’t be directly causing animal cruelty or animal deaths.
Best iPhone and Apple Watch apps for vegans and vegetarians
If you’re currently plant-based, or you’re considering going vegan or vegetarian, here are the nine best vegan apps for iPhone and Apple Watch.
1. No Meat Today
Many of the apps on this list assume an all-or-nothing approach to eating vegan or vegetarian. No Meat Today is different because its designers specifically created it to help you eat less meat instead of no meat.
That makes it a great companion for a “flexitarian” or those that want to go vegan gradually.
Using a gamified approach involving cute cows, No Meat Today lets you track your meatless meals over time and rewards you for doing so.
It’s an overall fun and low-stakes way to encourage yourself to eat less meat over time — and possibly decide to cut animal products out altogether.
No Meat Today is a free download on the App Store.
2. Happy Cow
Historically, one of the hardest parts of going vegan or vegetarian was finding a restaurant to accommodate your meat-free diet. Luckily, that has changed a lot in the past few years — but you still need an app to know where to go.
Happy Cow is one of the best apps for searching for vegan-friendly restaurants in your area. Think of it a bit like Yelp, except totally geared toward restaurants, boutiques, and other animal product-free businesses.
The app doesn’t require a subscription but costs $3.99 to download. Get it here.
3. Food Monster
Speaking from personal experience, going vegetarian or vegan often makes you a better cook. After all, you generally have fewer options to work with and fewer choices when eating out.
If you need some help kickstarting your meat-free cooking journey, an app like Food Monster can be invaluable. This app has over 20,000 plant-based, vegan, dairy-free, and meatless recipes. It’s free, but a premium subscription allows you to access category filters, create meal plans, and more.
Food Monster is a free download on the App Store.
4. Vegan Pocket
One of the more overlooked parts of going plant-based is avoiding products with animal-derived components. This is harder than just avoiding meat! For example, you might not know that marshmallows or Jello contain gelatin, which is derived from animal body parts.
That’s why an app like Vegan Pocket can be useful. Simply scan the barcode of a specific product, and this app will let you know whether it’s vegan or not. It saves you from having to look through each ingredient yourself.
Vegan Pocket is free to download but has a subscription required for use. Get it here.
5. Abillion
Abillion initially started out as a restaurant app like Happy Cow but has evolved to become more of a social media platform for those that live a meat-free lifestyle. It’s a feature-rich app with plenty of stuff to aid you in your vegetarian or vegan journey.
For example, Abillion has a social sharing feature akin to Facebook, but it also has the first peer-to-peer vegan marketplace. You can also search for vegan-friendly restaurants, products, businesses, and more.
Abillion is free to download from the App Store.
6. Forks Plant-Based Recipes
If you’ve considered going plant-based, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about Forks Over Knives. Originally a critically acclaimed documentary, Forks Over Knives has become a plant-based brand, with recipe books, periodical publications, and online resources.
You need to eat, so you can never have too many recipe apps. One of those online resources is the Forks Plant-Based Recipes app, which has hundreds of delicious meals crafted by expert chefs. We recommend pairing this one with Food Monster on your device.
Forks Plant-Based Recipes is a free download from the App Store.
7. Feel Better
Many people choose to be plant-based to be healthier. If you fall into that category, an app like Feel Better can be an excellent resource. This is technically a vegan-friendly recipe app, but it also takes a holistic approach to health.
For example, there are more than 300 yoga, fitness, meditation, mindfulness, and sleep classes on the app. There are also sleep soundtracks, a built-in Apple Health wellness tracker, and a section to read expert health insights. It’s truly a great companion for anyone that wants to be healthier.
Feel Better is a free download from the App Store.
8. Buycott
Even if a specific product is vegan, you can inadvertently support the factory farming industry by giving money to a larger food corporation. If you want to “vote with your dollars,” try Buycott.
You can join campaigns to support causes that you’re passionate about. From there, scan the barcode of any product, and Buycott will give you information about a product’s history, as well as where your money is going if you buy it.
Buycott is a free download from the App Store.
9. Cowculator
This app is a simple one. It won’t track your meals, give you recipes, or let you search for local vegan restaurants. However, it does something somehow even more profound: it lets you track the impact of your choice to be vegan or vegetarian.
Cowculator is not a flashy app, and it doesn’t have many features. Basically, just let the app know when you became vegan, and it’ll tell you how much water, grain, forested land, CO2, and animal lives you’ve saved. If you’re not plant-based yet, it can give you information about the impact you can make.
Cowculator is a free download from the App Store.
The best vegetarian and vegan apps are useful and simple 
Being vegetarian or vegan isn’t difficult, but it does take some planning, research, and knowledge to stick with.
The best vegan apps are those that are useful and simple to use so that you can focus on your health and nutrition instead of figuring out how to use a fancy tech platform.
There are a lot of reasons to eat a more plant-based diet, even if you aren’t planning on doing it full-time. And whether you’re an ardent vegan or a “meatless Monday” flexitarian, the aforementioned apps are sure to help you along your journey.
