Almost 1 year ago I gave YS! a 5 star rating. While I still think this is the best recipe manager out there I've run into several problems the developer has been unable to fix. The current version 2.3.5 has several bugs that I've discussed with HungrySeacow in over 160 emails that I have kept.

I love YS' interface with the visual browser to show nice sized photos of numerous recipes in the top and overall I like the web importer.

However:
I have it crash on a far to frequent basis
While using the Web Import it may crash as frequently as 5 times in 10 minutes while I attempt to bring in 10 new recipes.

At times I import a new recipe, notice something to change but when I click EDIT it crashes - thus forcing me to live with the errors that are contained in the recipe (or delete it and hope the next import is stable).

Some recipes I've had in my library for months will suddenly no longer be editable. I've shared a list of 20 such titles and my library with the developer - he can reproduce but not fix the problem.
Even exporting and reimporting these recipes do not fix them. This implies to me there are software coding issues that do not inspect the imported data closely.

On occasion the application crashes on launch.

Since version 2.2 there have been problems with auto-fill fields not auto-filling.

The Web Importer cannot handle multi-word measurements such as "rounded teaspoon", instead placing these in the Ingredient field.

The app often crashes when I scroll the visual browser.

Searching for a recipe by name does not ignore accented characters: "ragu" will not match "ragú". Minor but something programming would fix.

Recently the developer has cut me off his Facebook site: I had previously started a discussion to collect the bug reports from other users and we had 30 or 40 submissions. I could see in their reports that I was not the only one with problems and had hoped this would spur the developer into working harder on fixing the issues. Instead I get blocked and all my discussions and submissions censored and removed.

I have over 6250 recipes in YS so I depend on it to be stable. For a while the developer quit responding to my bug reports but last week he sent me the following and I quote directly for his email:
"I suggest you delete your library and start with a new one and keep it under 500 recipes."

That is not a solution - no where does he advertise this recipe manager as supporting only 500 recipes before it breaks. I would have looked elsewhere if that had been part of the product description.

Bottom line - nice looking and functional application that has serious stability and database/library issues.

Beware of buying YummySoup! unless you only need the functionality it currently has working in the version you buy today. The developer has a history of making grand promises about future feature releases and delivering years down the track, or in a paid upgrade. If you're waiting for the accompanying iPhone app, then believe it when you see it before parting with your money because YummySoup! has always been two-thirds real and one-third vapourware. Don't buy everything you want really exists (and a few other people have written reviews to say they're okay and have all the promised functionality).

I've been using YS for two-and-a-half years, since I think version 1.3 or 1.4. There have been constant problems with stability, features in the release version that didn't work properly or at all (export, email), bugs not fixed, and by 1.9 - a version still plagued with stability problems and with many reported bugs unfixed, such as the title selection in the web importer causing selected text to disappear not import, or the tabbing through ingredients in a shopping list causing rows to revert to blank, keyword searches only search on titles... The dev had obviously long moved on to 2.0, to start the whole cycle again with a new group of licensees. Thank Ken, but your idea of a .9 release is not the same as mine - a place to leave a half-finished app while you work on the next paid upgrade.

Although the dev was always responsive to emails (I've dealt with worse), actual development moved at a snail's pace - years - and I gave up asking about fixes, even to some of the advertised features that were the reason I bought YS in the first place. I expect that he will take this review rather personally, and so he should - the defensive posture and the replies saying that YS is a one man band really illuminate the problem - the dev's ambitions and publicly-stated promises for the product are wildly out of sync with his capacity to deliver. Screenshots of YS 2.0 look nice, but actual functionality has barely improved - only the weekly planner and export functionality is new; other changes are either cosmetic or promised in future updates. YS 1.x was supposed to have export functionality, but Ken decided to save that for 2.0.

The reason this app does well is because its core functionality and idea are good -a streamlined recipe manager and import manager that copes well with importing from most websites. That really is its killer feature. But for groceries, planning, exporting, organising and sharing its features are basic at best, and the app really lacks the polish and professionalism you get from larger developers. If the price matched the reality and the app's ambitions were more modest, this could be a more reasonable purchase. But if you really want to use the YS to its limits, you may be disappointed. I suggest you check out all the recipe managers out there - there's plenty of good ones - and thoroughly test YS in your real-use situation. Don't buy because it looks nice, or because you're looking forward to iPhone integration. MacGourmet has all those features today, maybe give that a look. I still use YS 1.9 because it does everything I need, barely, but it's often exasperating. No more money will be spent on it until the fairy dust turns into something I can touch.

Back in the summer of 2009 I downloaded 9 Mac recipe managers and spent 2 weeks making extensive test comparisons. Hands down YummySoup (then version 1.9) was my favorite. First I love the visual browser that shows several recipe images in a large format, not small thumbnails. Secondly the developer has made some of my favorite cooking sites so easy to import that they take 10 seconds to grab. Other cooking sites are imported in a more interactive fashion - something the current version 2.1.3 has made easier than 1.9

While there are some features held back from the version 2 release there is nothing missing for recipe management. I don't use weekly planners nor shopping lists so waiting for these to return is not of concern to me.

Lastly I have found the developer extremely responsive and with a good sense of humor. They have replied to dozens of my emails - heck, might even be 100 by now. As a developer myself I understand how in fixing one thing something else can and often will break and they have had a few such setbacks.

I truly believe that YummySoup! will continue to mature and be my recommendation to anyone who wants a recipe manager with a beautiful interface and simple operation.

If you are into cooking, Yummy Soup is a must have. It will keep your recipes fabulously organized. Best money I have ever spent. Tech support is awesome as well.

(1) Nice
Web Importer just works
Themes keep the interface fresh

(2) Needs Improvement
Weekly Planner is bare bones
Social features are not enabled?

(3) iPhone/iPad application - MIA?

2.4 has been more stable than 2.3.x and after many weeks of troubleshooting repeated crashing when editing/saving recipes I have a breakthrough. From my 35 years of programming I was say there is a recursion bug in YS. I can open a new database with only default recipes and in 2 changes in the preferences / Smart Measurements get the app to crash repeatedly. Finding this out lead to a solution to many of the crashes I've had.

2.4 still has problems with modified images not displaying, searches not yielding correct matches, images added to the Notes section coming out huge and the developer's temper.