The best MyFitnessPal alternatives in 2026

MyFitnessPal built the biggest food database in the world, and for close to two decades it has been the default answer to "how do I count calories?" To be fair to it up front: if the free tier still covers what you need and the ads do not bother you, there is no law that says you have to switch. The database is enormous, the brand is trusted, and it syncs with almost everything.

The frustration set in when features people had used free for years started moving behind the paywall, most famously the barcode scanner in October 2022. Since then the pattern has continued: more upsell screens, more ads on the free tier, and Premium pricing that now costs more per year than many full training apps. A lot of long-time users are not angry so much as tired, and they are actively shopping for the exit. This guide is for them.

Why people leave MyFitnessPal

Across forums, app-store reviews, and our own conversations with people switching, the same handful of complaints come up again and again:

• The barcode scanner paywall. Scanning a package was the single fastest way to log food, it was free for a decade, and in October 2022 it moved into Premium. For many people this was the moment the relationship changed.
• Price creep. At the time of writing, Premium runs about $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, and the newer Premium+ tier about $24.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Prices change and vary by region, so check myfitnesspal.com/premium for current numbers, but the direction has been consistently up.
• Ads and upsells on free. The free tier shows ads throughout the app, and everyday actions regularly route past an upgrade screen. Logging dinner should not feel like closing pop-ups.
• Database noise. The database is huge because anyone can add to it. That same crowdsourcing means duplicate entries, wrong serving sizes, and macro numbers that do not add up. Verified entries exist, but you spend real time picking the right one from six near-identical results.
• Weak workout tracking. The exercise diary is a calorie-burn estimate bolted onto a food log. If you lift or run seriously, you end up running a second app anyway, which is exactly the two-silo problem people hoped one app would solve.
• Export behind the paywall. The file export that emails you your diary, weight, and exercise history as CSV files is a Premium feature. Free users have a harder time taking their own data with them.

Quick comparison

App	Free tier	Best for	Weak spot
JustGains	Everything free during open alpha, barcode scanning included	Nutrition plus complete training in one app	Food database is younger than MFP’s
Cronometer	Strong free tier with barcode scanning	Micronutrient detail and data accuracy	No real training side, drier interface
MacroFactor	Trial only, about $71.99/yr after	Adaptive macro coaching that adjusts to your results	Subscription only, no workout logging
Lose It!	Good free logging, scanner status varies by account	Simple weight-loss focus, cheap Premium	Training features are thin
Yazio	Free logging with upsells	Recipes and built-in fasting on a budget	Lighter database, nutrition only

What to look for in a replacement

• A free barcode scanner. This is the feature whose paywalling sent everyone looking. Any serious alternative should scan barcodes without a subscription.
• Fast repeat logging. Most people eat the same 20 foods. Recents, favorites, saved meals, and copy-yesterday matter more day to day than a database with ten million entries you will never touch.
• Data quality over data quantity. A smaller database of accurate entries beats a giant one where you second-guess every result. Look for curated or verified sources, not just a big number on the marketing page.
• One app or two? If you also lift or run, a nutrition-only app means juggling two subscriptions and two data silos. A combined app keeps calories, training, and body weight in one place, which is the context that makes the numbers useful.
• A way out. You are leaving partly because your data got harder to take with you. Check that the next app lets you export before you pour a year of logging into it.

JustGains: nutrition and training in one app

JustGains treats nutrition as half of the picture rather than the whole app. On the food side you get logging by barcode scan, AI photo scan (point the camera at the plate and it comes back with foods, portions, and macros you can adjust before saving), text and voice search, quick-add macros, and custom foods. Food search runs against two sources in parallel: the JustGains food catalog and the Open Food Facts database as a fallback for the long tail of packaged foods. There is a recipe catalog with honest per-serving macros and a serving calculator, a Plan tab that fills your day with real foods that add up to your macro targets, and a built-in fasting timer that rides the top of every nutrition screen when you set an eating window.

The other half is what MyFitnessPal never really had: a full set-by-set lifting logger, GPS runs and walks with segments and leaderboards, goals and streaks, a social feed with squads, and an AI chat that can build workouts or log your food from a plain-English sentence. It also connects to ChatGPT and Claude, so you can ask your own AI assistant about your training and nutrition data. Calories and macros show up alongside training volume and body weight instead of living in a separate silo.

The honest trade-off: JustGains is younger. The food catalog plus Open Food Facts covers most of what people actually eat, but MyFitnessPal’s database is bigger, especially for regional restaurant chains and obscure brands, and MFP has two decades of brand trust. JustGains is free during the open alpha on iOS, Android, and the web, with no ads, and the plan is for the core logger and your data to stay free when paid plans arrive.

Cronometer: the accuracy specialist

If your complaint with MyFitnessPal is data quality, Cronometer is the strongest answer. Its database is built on professionally curated sources rather than open crowdsourcing, and it tracks micronutrients in a depth nothing else matches: vitamins, minerals, amino acids, dozens of nutrients beyond the usual calorie and macro line. The barcode scanner is included in the free tier, which by itself fixes the thing that drove many people out of MFP.

The paid tier, Gold, runs about $49.99 a year at the time of writing and adds things like recipe imports, custom charts, and an ad-free experience. The weaknesses are the flip side of the strengths: the interface is functional rather than fun, the social side is minimal, and there is no meaningful training component. It logs exercise for calorie math, not for progressive overload.

Who it suits: people managing a medical or performance diet who genuinely need micronutrient detail, and anyone who wants maximum accuracy from a mostly free app and tracks training elsewhere (or not at all).

MacroFactor: the adaptive coach

MacroFactor, built by the Stronger By Science team, is the most technically sophisticated macro app on the market. Instead of handing you a static calorie target, it watches your logged intake and weight trend, estimates your actual energy expenditure, and adjusts your targets every week. It is the closest thing to having a coach recalculate your diet on a schedule, and its logging flow is genuinely fast, with a free barcode scanner included in the subscription.

The catch is that there is no free tier at all, only a trial. After that it costs roughly $11.99 a month or $71.99 a year. There are no ads and no upsells because everything is behind one honest price, which many ex-MFP users find refreshing. But it is nutrition only: no workout logging, no GPS, no social layer.

Who it suits: committed physique-focused dieters who want their targets managed for them and do not mind paying for a specialist tool alongside whatever they use for training.

Lose It!: the simple one

Lose It! is the closest like-for-like MyFitnessPal replacement: a big food database, a friendly weight-loss focus, and a free tier that still covers basic logging. Its Snap It feature logs food from a photo, and Premium is one of the cheaper upgrades in the space at about $39.99 a year, with a lifetime option around $299.99.

One caution: Lose It! has been following MyFitnessPal down the same road with its barcode scanner. Long-time free accounts often still have it, while newer free accounts increasingly find it behind Premium. Reports differ by account age and platform, so test the scanner during your first week before you commit. Beyond that, the app is squarely a weight-loss tracker: macro tools are thinner than MacroFactor’s, micronutrients are thinner than Cronometer’s, and the training side is a calorie-burn diary much like MFP’s.

Who it suits: people who mainly want to lose weight with a simple daily calorie budget, liked MyFitnessPal’s style, and want a cheaper Premium if they upgrade at all.

Yazio: the budget European option

Yazio pairs calorie and macro tracking with a large recipe library and built-in intermittent fasting tracking, and its PRO tier is one of the cheapest in the space, commonly in the $24 to $48 a year range depending on promotions. If MyFitnessPal’s pricing was your main objection, Yazio is the value pick among the established nutrition apps.

The trade-offs are familiar by now: the free tier leans on upsells, the food database is lighter than MFP’s (particularly for some US brands and restaurants), and there is no real training side. It is a nutrition app with fasting bells, not a fitness platform.

Who it suits: budget-conscious trackers who cook from recipes, want fasting support built in, and do not need deep macro coaching or workout logging.

MyFitnessPal vs JustGains

Since you are reading this on the JustGains site, here is the direct comparison, stated as plainly as we can.

	MyFitnessPal	JustGains
Food database	Enormous, crowdsourced, some noise	JustGains catalog + Open Food Facts, younger but curated
Barcode scanner	Premium only	Free
AI photo logging	Meal scan on paid tiers	Free AI photo scan
Ads	Yes on free tier	None
Workout tracking	Calorie-burn diary	Full lifting logger, GPS runs, segments, leaderboards
Meal planning	Premium+ meal planner	Plan tab fills your day to your macro targets
Fasting timer	Premium feature	Included
Price	Free with ads; Premium ~$79.99/yr, Premium+ ~$99.99/yr	Free during open alpha

Where MyFitnessPal genuinely wins: database breadth and brand recognition. If you eat at a lot of regional chains, scan a lot of obscure products, or rely on a specific integration MFP has and we do not, those are real advantages and you should weigh them honestly. It has also been around since 2005, and longevity counts for something when you are choosing where years of data will live.

Where JustGains wins: everything MFP charges for is free here, including the scanner, and the app actually covers your training. If you lift three days a week and track food, MyFitnessPal plus a workout app means two subscriptions, two logins, and a calorie balance that never sees your training load. In JustGains your food log, workout log, body weight, and goals share one profile, one graph, and one streak.

How to switch

Getting your data out of MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal’s file export lives on the website (not the app) and is a Premium feature: it emails you a ZIP of CSV files covering your food diary, weight history, and exercise logs. If you are on the free tier, check MyFitnessPal’s Data Export FAQ for your current options, since privacy laws in some regions entitle you to a copy of your data regardless of subscription. Either way, temper your expectations: no major nutrition app imports an MFP food diary cleanly, because custom foods and database entries do not map across apps. The export is best treated as a personal archive of your history, not a moving van.

Starting fresh in JustGains

The practical good news is that a food log rebuilds itself much faster than a training history does. Onboarding asks a few questions and suggests calorie and macro targets (or you set your own), and after the first week your recents and favorites cover most of what you eat. Scan a barcode or point the AI photo scan at your plate for anything new, save your regular home-cooked meals as custom foods or recipes, set a fasting window if you use one, and let the Plan tab turn your targets into an actual menu. Most people are back to full-speed logging within days, minus the ads.

What JustGains does not do yet

In the spirit of honesty: JustGains is in open alpha, and it shows in places. The food database, while it covers the staples and a long tail of packaged foods through Open Food Facts, is not as deep as MFP’s for restaurant chains and regional brands, so you will occasionally quick-add macros or create a custom food where an MFP user would find an existing entry. There is no direct MyFitnessPal diary import. The community is smaller, and some integrations MFP has accumulated over twenty years do not exist here yet. If any of those are dealbreakers for you today, one of the other apps above (or staying put) is the right call, and we would rather tell you that than have you switch and bounce.

The honest bottom line

If you live in micronutrient reports, Cronometer is excellent and mostly free. If you want an adaptive coach and do not mind paying, MacroFactor is the specialist. If you want a cheap, simple weight-loss tracker, Lose It! or Yazio will do the job. And if MyFitnessPal still covers everything you need, keep using it, a tracker you actually open beats a better one you abandon.

But if the reason you are leaving is that the free tier got squeezed while your training lived in a different app anyway, that is exactly the gap JustGains was built to fill: free barcode and AI photo logging, macros, recipes, meal planning, and a fasting timer, sitting next to a real workout logger, GPS activities, and goals, with no ads, on iOS, Android, and the web.