MealSaidMyFitnessPal alternatives in 2026, checked this month
What MyFitnessPal moved behind the paywall, what Premium costs now ($79.99 a year), and seven alternatives compared on price, logging, Apple Health and ads.
On this page
MyFitnessPal is still free, but since 2022 the parts people actually used to save time (barcode scanning, then photo and voice logging) sit behind Premium at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, and the free tier shows ads. If that is why you are leaving, the alternatives with those features free are Cronometer and MyNetDiary; the ones with no ads at all are MyNetDiary, MacroFactor (paid only) and MealSaid.
Every price and feature below was checked against the company's own page or its US App Store listing on 20 October 2026. I built MealSaid, so it is last in the table, with where it loses.
What did MyFitnessPal move behind the paywall?
Barcode scanning on 1 October 2022, Voice Log in December 2024, and Meal Scan (photo). The free tier keeps manual logging, the database and Apple Health sync, with ads.
The three moves, each from MyFitnessPal's own pages:
- Barcode scanning. MyFitnessPal's own help page is blunt about the barcode change: "As of October 1, 2022, Barcode Scan is available only with a Premium subscription" (MFP support). The change was announced on 24 August 2022 (Droid Life).
- Voice Log followed in December 2024, and the help page says "Voice Logging is currently available for Premium users on iOS and Android" (MFP support).
- Meal Scan is listed under Premium in the Free, Premium and Premium+ comparison (MFP support).
Ads: "The core of MyFitnessPal is free, and it stays that way because ads help pay for it" (MFP support).
Still free, and credit where due: the biggest food database in the category, search logging, recipes, and writing meals to Apple Health with no Premium gate (MFP support). If you log packaged food by barcode, Premium is still a reasonable buy. If you log by search anyway, free is fine apart from the ads.
What does MyFitnessPal Premium cost in 2026?
Premium is $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Premium+ (adds meal planning) is $24.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Both are from MFP's own pricing post (MFP blog) and match the in-app purchase list on the US App Store (App Store), which also shows $49.99 and $9.99 promotional or legacy SKUs.
Which alternatives are worth switching to?
Seven, for different reasons: Cronometer and MyNetDiary for free barcode scanning, MyNetDiary and MacroFactor for no ads, Lose It for a like-for-like swap, Cal AI for photos, FatSecret for a quiet free tier, MealSaid for voice.
| App | Free tier | Paid price, US App Store | Main logging method | Writes nutrition to Apple Health | Ads on free tier | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MyFitnessPal | Yes, search logging, database, Health sync | $19.99/mo, $79.99/yr; Premium+ $99.99/yr | Database search; barcode, photo, voice are Premium | Yes | Yes | Pricing |
| Lose It! | Yes, "core calorie logging, barcode scanning, weight tracking" | $79.99/yr list; monthly SKUs $9.99 to $11.99; prices vary with promotions | Search, barcode; photo (Snap It) and AI Voice are Premium | Yes, all iOS users | Yes; one-time ad-removal purchase | Tiers, About |
| Cronometer | Yes, unlimited, barcode included | Gold $10.99/mo, $59.99/yr | Search, barcode free; photo and voice are Gold | Yes, 13 nutrients plus cholesterol | Yes, Gold removes them | Gold, Free tier |
| MacroFactor | No. 7-day trial | $11.99/mo, $47.99 half year, $71.99/yr | Search, barcode and label scan, AI photo, Describe by typing or speaking | Yes, and reads it back | No ads, ever | Subscriptions, About |
| MyNetDiary | Yes, barcode, voice, 108 nutrients | Premium $8.99/mo, $59.99/yr; Premium Plus $14.99/mo, $99.99/yr | Search, barcode, voice free; photo Meal Scan is Premium | Yes, "51 data types" | No | Free tier |
| Cal AI | Photo scanning needs a subscription; 3-day trial | App Store SKUs $29.99 and $19.99 (Unlimited); no public price page | Photo first; barcode; describe by voice or text | Not confirmed by Cal AI's own pages | No evidence either way | App Store, calai.app |
| FatSecret | Yes, search, barcode, reports | App Store SKUs $14.99/mo, $59.99/yr; FatSecret says prices vary by region | Search, barcode free; photo and voice Smart Assistant are Premium | Yes | Not stated officially | Premium, App Store |
| MealSaid | Yes, everything; no in-app purchases | Free | Voice, Siri phrase, keyboard fallback; no barcode, no photo, no database to browse | Yes, energy, protein, carbs, fat, fiber | No | How it works |
Who is each one for?
Pick by what you log and how you feel about ads.
Cronometer is the pick if you want the most for free. Its basic account is "for an unlimited amount of time" (Cronometer support) and includes "Unlimited use of our Barcode Scanner" (Cronometer). Ads until you pay $59.99 a year for Gold. Smaller database than MFP, far better curated for whole foods, and it tracks micronutrients MFP does not.
MyNetDiary is the pick if ads drove you out. Its free tier promises "no ads, no account required to start, no expiration, and no scanner paywall" (MyNetDiary), and plain voice logging is free. Premium is $59.99 a year. The interface is dated; that is the trade.
Lose It is the closest like-for-like swap. Its About page lists barcode scanning in the free version (Lose It), though its tiers page puts "barcode scanning, smart photo and voice logging features" under Premium (Lose It); I could not resolve that from their docs, so check on a fresh install.
Premium lists at $79.99 a year but Lose It says it "adjusts prices based on various factors like seasonal promotions" (Lose It), so the $39.99 you see quoted elsewhere is a promo, not the list price. Ads on free, with a one-time purchase to remove them.
MacroFactor is the pick if you are willing to pay and hate ads. "There isn't (and will never be) a free version" and "We will never serve ads or use ad networks to track you" (MacroFactor). $71.99 a year. Its adaptive calorie targets and its two-way Apple Health sync are the best in the group. It is the app I would use if I logged by barcode and weighed food.
Cal AI is the pick if you want to point a camera at a plate and nothing else. The photo scan is subscription-only ("FOOD SCANNING ANALYSIS RESULTS REQUIRE A SUBSCRIPTION", App Store) after a 3-day trial.
Two cautions: Cal AI publishes no price page and no Apple Health write documentation that I could find, and an NIH study presented at NUTRITION 2026 found four photo apps, Cal AI among them, under-estimated meal energy by about 33% across 102 controlled meals (Healio).
FatSecret is the quiet option. Free search and barcode, an old community, and App Store SKUs of $59.99 a year for photo and voice. FatSecret's own premium page gives no US price (FatSecret) and I could not find an official statement on ads, so that column is blank rather than guessed.
Where does MealSaid fit, and where does it not?
MealSaid fits if your problem with MFP was the number of taps, and it does not fit if your problem was the barcode paywall, because we have no barcode scanner at all.
You say what you ate, by holding a mic or by "Hey Siri, log in MealSaid, two eggs and toast" with the app closed, and calories, protein, carbs, fat and fiber are written to Apple Health in about a second. If you forget, the app calls your phone at times you picked and waits while you list the day. Free, no ads, no in-app purchases.
What it does not do:
- no barcode, no photo
- no database you can browse
- no micronutrients beyond fiber
- no Android, English only
- it requires iOS 26
The estimates come from a language model checked against USDA values, so they are estimates; a weighed plate in Cronometer will be more precise. If you need any of those things, pick from the table above and use MealSaid for the meals you would otherwise skip, since everyone on this list writes to the same Apple Health ledger (who writes and who reads).
How I checked this
Checked 20 October 2026. For each app I opened the US App Store listing and read the in-app purchase list, then opened the company's own pricing or help page and the Apple Health page where one exists. Prices are US dollars as shown that day; several companies say they vary by region and promotion, and I have flagged those.
MyFitnessPal, Lose It, Cronometer and FatSecret help pages return 403 to scripts, so they were read in Safari. The MacroFactor App Store ID in my earlier notes was wrong and 404s; the live listing is id1553503471. I have not timed or measured accuracy for any of these apps in this post; that is the next two posts. If a price has changed by the time you read this, email ohmbrock42@gmail.com and I will update the table with a new dated row.
Questions
Is MyFitnessPal still free in 2026?
Yes, with ads. The free tier still has the food database, manual logging and Apple Health sync. Barcode scanning, Meal Scan and Voice Log need Premium at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
Which MyFitnessPal alternative has barcode scanning for free?
Cronometer and MyNetDiary both say unlimited barcode scanning is in their free tier. Lose It's About page lists barcode scanning as free too, though its tiers page puts it under Premium.
Which calorie counter has no ads and no subscription?
MyNetDiary's free tier states no ads. MealSaid has no ads and no in-app purchases at all. MacroFactor has no ads but also no free tier.
What is the cheapest paid tracker on this list?
Cronometer Gold and MyNetDiary Premium at $59.99 a year on the App Store. FatSecret shows $59.99 too. MacroFactor is $71.99, MyFitnessPal Premium $79.99.
Is MealSaid a full replacement for MyFitnessPal?
Only if you log by talking. It has no barcode scanner, no photo logging and no browsable database, needs iOS 26, is English only and has no Android version. It is free with no ads.