I am really unsure how to review this product as it started out as fantastic and now is a dud.

When I first got it I loved it. I purchased the software then downloaded the app. I was able to sync with my home computer all my recipes. While I was grocery shopping I could look up recipes that I intended to make throughout the week and figure out what I needed to buy. Or while I was away from home and someone asked me for the delicious recipe of a dish I just made I could whip out my phone and quickly send it to them. I could edit recipes on the fly. The only bad part was sometimes the sync didn't go through or the recipe I just entered from home computer and synched would turn out all wonky on my phone, missing ingredients etc. I never used anything other than my own library of cookbooks. I disliked the part where you could link it with your pinterest page or something like that and I didn't bother with the scrolled daily attachments of recommended recipes. I just wanted my cookbooks available to me wherever I went.

Now, present day, I hate it. I am very irked at the company DVO for what they are doing and attempting to do and I find it extremely unethical. They threw out upgrade after upgrade until it completely transformed what Cook'n was all about. When you first PURCHASED the software at a pretty decent price, mind you, you were able to sync your data from mobile devices (phone, kindle, computer, etc). Now, quite awhile later after using my program and transferring ALL my recipes from one software program (I came from Mastercook) to another, I am told that the last update made it so that syncing among all devices was impossible unless you paid for an upgrade and then paid a monthly fee to continue membership. It was a ridiculous price of $15-$20/month I can't recall. Either way to me that was ridiculous after I already paid for the program. That's $180-240 a year!!!!! Yikes. I like the program but not for that price. Give me a break. I have never heard of a company that charges a fee for something then says unless you are willing to pay us more we are taking away options that were already included in the original price of the software. That is wrong. Just wrong.
I went online and read so many reviews of angry people upset at this movement and I got even angrier at Daniel Oaks for his replies trying to justify the fees. I agree on all levels with these people that are upset. You can't place new fees on a product that people have already bought and have been using for a long time. This is called Grandfathering in and to take that away is unethical. You can charge new customers for these upgrades but you can't go back and make people who have been using this pay for things that "came with" the original software/app. BUYER BEWARE - FREE IS NOT FREE when it comes to this app. It just supplements the original software and is completely unusable without the monthly membership.

What I find amusing is since I have refused to buy into this membership shenanigans, the monthly membership has slowly decreased to $4.95/mo which is STILL almost $60/year....I STILL refuse to pay this. I will continue to use my software program and just suck it up that I can't sync. My app on my phone is useless now except to review old recipes. If this stupidity continues Mr. Oaks I will be switching to a new company's program pronto. There are other great recipe apps out there this one just happened to work well for me at the time. I am not against moving along when the customer is no longer valued.

I am seriously curious as to who these paying customers (real vs DVO??) are on the reviews that can justify spending a monthly fee for this.

Brand	N/A
Rating	3.6 (231 ratings)
Price	$N/A
Category	Cooking

Recipes - Cook'n Recipe Keeper