NoAdsCooking vs Simply Recipes: What Changed, and Where to Go Instead
If you’ve been cooking from the internet for more than a few years, you probably remember liking Simply Recipes. It had a reputation for being reliable, well-written, and relatively free of the chaos that defined most recipe sites. Then it got acquired. Here’s what happened.
Simply Recipes was a genuinely good site before Dotdash Meredith bought it in 2021. Today it carries the ad load you’d expect from a large media company. NoAdsCooking is built around the same values that made Simply Recipes worth bookmarking in the first place: clean pages, reliable recipes, no nonsense.
What Simply Recipes was
Before the acquisition, Simply Recipes stood apart from most recipe sites. It was a family recipe site at its core, personal, approachable, and written by someone who actually cooked the food. The recipes were tested. The site wasn’t overloaded with ads. You could hand your phone to someone mid-recipe and they wouldn’t need to navigate past anything.
That reputation built a loyal audience. A lot of home cooks still have Simply Recipes in their mental shortlist of trusted sources, even if the experience that earned that trust is no longer quite what it was.
What Simply Recipes is now
After being absorbed into Dotdash Meredith’s portfolio, which also includes Allrecipes, Food and Wine, EatingWell, and others, Simply Recipes operates under a different set of priorities.
On mobile, the ad load makes the experience genuinely difficult. Ads between steps, sticky banners, and video units that follow you down the page are now standard. That’s the Dotdash Meredith model, and Simply Recipes is part of it.
The jump-to-recipe problem is also real. Like most ad-supported recipe sites, there’s content above the recipe you need to scroll past to get to the actual ingredients and steps. The jump link is a workaround for a problem that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
The voice has changed too. Original Simply Recipes content was personal and specific. Post-acquisition content is more SEO-optimized and standardized. That’s not a criticism of the writers, it’s just what happens when a site becomes a content property rather than someone’s recipe collection.
What NoAdsCooking offers instead
NoAdsCooking is what Simply Recipes used to feel like: a site where the recipe is the point, and nothing on the page is competing with it for your attention.
There are no ads anywhere, no display units, no video ads, no sticky banners. No popups or email captures either. You open a recipe and you’re reading the recipe.
On mobile, pages are fast and readable because there’s no ad infrastructure to load. That matters when your hands are covered in flour and you need to glance at the next step.
Most NoAdsCooking recipes come in three versions: Classic, Enhanced, and Chef’s Selection. Classic is simple and weeknight-friendly. Enhanced adds a layer of technique. Chef’s Selection is the full version. You pick what fits your skill level and your evening. Simply Recipes never did this.
Side by side
| Feature | Simply Recipes (today) | NoAdsCooking |
|---|---|---|
| Ads on recipe pages | Yes, significant post-acquisition | None |
| Autoplay video | Common | No |
| Popups / overlays | Yes | None |
| Mobile experience | Ad-heavy | Clean |
| Recipe skill tiers | No | Yes, 3 levels |
| Original voice | Diluted | Focused |
| Technique guidance | Some | More in depth |
| Recipe library size | Large | Focused |
Who each site makes sense for
Simply Recipes still works if
- You’re looking for a specific recipe you remember from years ago
- You have an ad blocker installed
- You want a large library to browse across many categories
NoAdsCooking is the better choice if
- You’re cooking and need a clean, readable page on your phone
- You want to choose the difficulty level that fits your skill
- You miss what Simply Recipes used to be
- You want recipes that teach you something, not just instruct you
The bottom line
Simply Recipes was a great site. For a lot of home cooks, it represented what recipe sites should be: personal, trustworthy, clean. The acquisition didn’t erase that history, but it did change what the site is today.
NoAdsCooking is built around the same values that made Simply Recipes worth bookmarking in the first place. If you’re a former Simply Recipes reader who’s been looking for somewhere new, this is worth a look.
Recipes without the media layer
NoAdsCooking publishes straightforward recipes with no ads, no popups, and no scroll walls. The recipe is at the top of the page. That’s the whole point.
Browse recipes, no ads