Custom post type or custom plugin?

I’m about to start coding a custom recipe plugin based on an established XML standard and wanted to know if it would be better to use custom post types instead? I’m not a developer but I am willing to learn if that is the case.

Eventually I would like to have the ability for each recipe to be uploaded and downloaded in the standard XML format along with the ability for users to create their own recipe and decide if they want to share it or not.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.