When it comes to apps that help you track your diet and exercise, MyFitnessPal is a leading name. While MyFitnessPal remains one of the most popular health and fitness mobile apps, some users are looking for better, or more affordable, alternatives.
Some of the app's most popular features—such as its barcode scanner—are locked behind a subscription paywall. For people who want a free diet-tracking app, this makes accurately tracking food items that much harder.
Whether you're looking for a free alternative to MyFitnessPal or you simply want to know what other options are out there, we've got you covered. Here are some of the best mobile app alternatives to MyFitnessPal that you can try out for both Android and iOS devices.
1. Lifesum
One of the most popular diet and exercise tracking alternatives to MyFitnessPal is Lifesum. The app has tried to move away from labels such as “calorie counter” and “diet app,” and instead markets itself a “digital self-care app.”
Lifesum’s interface is colorful and quirky, making it a hit with fitness influencers and popular with a modern audience. In just a few clicks, you can create your custom profile, set dietary goals, choose dietary preferences, and get started on a hassle-free meal plan.
The app has a vast food database featuring millions of food items, plus a built-in barcode scanner to make updating your food diary a little bit easier. If you’re trying to use an app to drink more water or up your fruit and vegetable intake, then Lifesum’s habit trackers can help you build lasting, healthy habits.
The basic version of Lifesum—which includes a barcode scanning feature—is free to use, but you will need to pay a small monthly subscription to access all of its features.
Download: Lifesum for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
2. Lose It!
Lose It! is an app entirely dedicated to helping its users lose weight. It has one of the largest food tracking databases available—containing more than 34 million foods—which makes it incredibly easy to keep track of everything you eat.
While setting up your profile, you’ll be prompted to answer a variety of lifestyle questions, including if you’ve tried to lose weight in the past and what motivates you to reach your goals.
It’s completely free to set up an account and start tracking your diet, but you will need to upgrade if you’re looking to unlock extra features, such as custom goals and habit tracking.
Download: Lose It! for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
3. Calorie Counter by FatSecret
The Calorie Counter app by FatSecret can be used independently or in sync with FatSecret Professional to share your food and exercise data with a healthcare professional. Its easy-to-use food diary is designed to help you make food tracking a habit.
There's even an image recognition feature that will take a picture of your meal and analyze its nutritional content. If you want to keep a food photo diary, you can store these food images in your own food photo album.
Although Calorie Counter is primarily marketed as a weight loss app, it can also help people maintain their current weight or gain weight, if that's your goal. You can unlock all the app's features by paying for a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription.
Download: Calorie Counter by FatSecret for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
4. Cronometer
Cronometer is one of the most detailed food tracking apps available. It allows you to track up to 82 micronutrients, and even its free version provides more nutritional information than most of its competitors.
The interface is modern, colorful, and uncluttered, considering the amount of data the app displays. Dark mode fans will be happy to hear there is a dark theme available too. The app aims to support various diets, including intermittent fasting with its built-in fasting timer and keto with its keto calculator.
Cronometer has an extensive library of exercises, including regular household activities, and can even estimate how many calories you burn when driving your vehicle or as the pilot of a plane! To access premium features—such as timestamps, the fasting timer, and nutrient oracle—you will need to upgrade to a paid Cronometer Gold subscription.
Download: Cronometer for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
5. Open Food Facts
Open Food Facts is a non-profit app designed to help its users make informed food choices and decipher food labels. Users can either search or scan the label of a particular product to see its nutritional score, carbon footprint, ingredient list, and allergens. Food items can also be saved into lists to access later.
One unique feature in Open Food Facts is setting environmental food preferences. Users can rank foods based on their forest footprint and also their overall eco score. It's also possible to highlight allergens and set food processing preferences within your settings.
While Open Food Facts is great for the eco-conscious, it doesn't give you the ability to filter foods by diet. If you're looking for an app to help you find low FODMAP foods or keto-friendly foods, then this isn't the one for you.
Unlike other locked databases, users can update a product on Open Food Facts, ensuring that product information stays updated. If you’re trying to educate yourself on the environmental impact of certain foods or simplify your grocery shopping, then it can help you navigate confusing labels.
Download: Open Food Facts for Android | iOS (Free)
6. Calorie Counter +
The Calorie Counter + app by Nutracheck is part of the service's online food diary service. The app is intuitive and easy to use; few taps are needed to add an item to your food diary. To simplify tracking, each food item has an accompanying image or logo to help you recognize the right product. Or, you can scan barcodes to skip searching by name entirely.
Along with tracking calories, the app also allows you to record your exercise and can even be configured to track your walks with Strava. There’s an option to set daily targets for water, fruit, and veggies too.
Although there is a free Lite membership available, it comes with some daily limits. The app works best when upgraded to a premium subscription. If you want to try before you buy, Nutracheck offers a free trial of its full service.
Download: Calorie Counter + for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
7. MyNetDiary
MyNetDiary is a great alternative to MyFitnessPal if you're looking for a free barcode scanner to quickly add food to your daily log. By tapping the plus sign icon in the bottom right corner, you can scan barcodes and manually add food items for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks throughout the day. You can also log daily exercise, water intake, and your body weight.
This calorie counting app makes weight loss easy by providing you with personalized tips, diet advice, and feedback as you use the app. Though the free version offers a plethora of features, like customizing your calorie and macro values to specific diets, upgrading to a subscription gives you access to premium recipes crafted by dietitians, an automatic macro tracker, and the ability to link the app to your Fitbit, Garmin, or Withings devices.
Download: MyNetDiary for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
8. YAZIO Fasting & Food Tracker
If you love intermittent fasting methods, the YAZIO app is a fantastic option. With the app, you can find free intermittent fasting methods like 16:8 or 5:2. Not every body meshes well with intermittent fasting, but if you know your body thrives on this diet, the YAZIO app makes it easy to keep up with fasting on a daily basis.
In addition to following the app's 20 fasting plans, you can count your calories, track food and water intake, and record daily exercise. The app also offers challenges to shake up your weight loss, like a no chocolate or no coffee challenge. For full features, you can upgrade to a monthly, annual, or lifetime subscription.
Download: YAZIO Fasting & Food Tracker for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Finding the Best Alternative to MyFitnessPal
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, maintain your weight, or gain weight, food tracking apps can be a useful tool to have in your pocket when used correctly. Though MyFitnessPal is great for many people, it's reassuring to know that there are plenty of other health and wellness apps available for those who want a free option or additional features.