MyFitnessPal alternative with AI photo logging and a free barcode scanner

Why are people looking for a MyFitnessPal alternative?

For many people it started with the barcode scanner. MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind its Premium paywall in 2022. It came out of the free tier on October 1, 2022, and new free accounts lost it from September 1, 2022, as Digital Trends reported. Four years on, it's still Premium: the MyFitnessPal Premium page lists "Barcode Scan & Meal Scan" among its paid features.

The second reason is AI. Photo logging apps made it possible to log a meal with a picture instead of searching and weighing each ingredient. MyFitnessPal has its own version, Meal Scan, but it's also Premium. If you'd rather not pay for barcode scanning just to log a yogurt, that's a real cost.

There's a third, newer wrinkle. MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI, the popular photo tracker, in a deal announced March 2, 2026 (terms not disclosed). Cal AI runs as a separate app, but if you're moving away from MyFitnessPal, it's now the same company. Our FitFoodie vs Cal AI page covers it in depth.

What does MyFitnessPal Premium cost, and what's in it?

As of October 2026 in the US, MyFitnessPal's App Store listing shows Premium at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year; its February 2026 Winter Release announcement lists Premium at $79.99/year and Premium+ at $99.99/year. The listing also shows discounted offers at $9.99 and $49.99. First-time Premium subscribers get a 7-day free trial.

The release puts it plainly: "Premium unlocks advanced tools like Meal Scan, Barcode Scan, and Voice Log." So all three fast ways to log are paid. Without Premium, you log by hand.

How do MyFitnessPal, Cal AI and FitFoodie compare?

We include Cal AI because it's now owned by MyFitnessPal and is the photo-first option many people compare it with. Every competitor cell comes from that company's own listing, site or announcement.

Last checked: October 2026. Sources: myfitnesspal.com/premium, MyFitnessPal on the App Store, calai.app. Weighing SnapCalorie vs MyFitnessPal? Our SnapCalorie page compares it with FitFoodie and Cal AI.

What does MyFitnessPal do better?

Quite a lot, and it's worth being clear about it before you switch.

• Search and manual logging on the free tier. You can look a food up by name and log it by hand without paying. FitFoodie has no food search and no way to start an entry from scratch.
• Recognizing what's on the plate. In a 2024 study in Nutrients of seven AI image apps, MyFitnessPal was the best at identifying the food components in a photo (97%). That's identification, not calorie accuracy, but it's a strong result.
• Voice logging. Premium includes Voice Log. FitFoodie has no voice input.
• A trial for first-time subscribers. MyFitnessPal offers 7 days of Premium free to first-time subscribers; FitFoodie's 7-day trial is on its yearly plan.

Where is FitFoodie different?

• Free barcode scanning. Scan a product and FitFoodie checks Open Food Facts, USDA FoodData Central and FatSecret in turn. No subscription needed. Details are on our free barcode scanner calorie counter page.
• Photo logging that reads barcodes too. If your meal photo shows a product barcode the databases know, FitFoodie uses the label data instead of an AI guess.
• A review step for every AI estimate. The AI gives one estimate for the whole dish. Before saving you can scale the portion from 0.5× to 2×, edit any of the eight nutrient values, rename the dish, edit ingredients and tag it as breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack or a treat.
• Free tracking around your meals. Water, weight with a 7-day trend and goal line, history with undo, one-tap re-add of a past meal, reminders and a weekly days-on-target view are all free.
• Automatic targets. Calorie and protein targets come from your age, sex, height, weight, activity level and goal using the Mifflin–St Jeor equation. They update when you log a new weigh-in.
• Your data out, free. Export your entries as CSV and your profile as JSON from Settings.

To see how photo logging fits alongside these, our guide to food photo nutrition tracking explains how the AI part works and where it struggles.

How does FitFoodie's free barcode scanner work?

Since the barcode scanner is the main reason many people leave MyFitnessPal, here's exactly what you get, including its limits.

1. You scan the code. Standard retail barcodes work. You need to be signed in, but you don't need Premium.
2. FitFoodie checks three free databases in turn. First Open Food Facts, then USDA FoodData Central, then FatSecret. If Open Food Facts lists the product without calorie or macro data, or a source has no match or fails, it moves on to the next.
3. You set the amount. Barcode items get a grams or millilitres field as well as the 0.5× to 2× portion slider, and you can edit any value before saving.
4. If nothing matches, you'll see "Product not found in database." There's no way to type the number in or enter the label by hand, so you'd log that item by photo or description instead (both Premium).

Product names from Open Food Facts come back in Spanish, German, French or Arabic when the app is set to one of those languages. Lookups need a connection; they don't work offline.

How accurate is MyFitnessPal's Meal Scan?

MyFitnessPal was one of four apps in a preliminary NIH study presented at NUTRITION 2026, along with Lose It!, Cal AI and Appediet. Using 102 weighed meal photos, the researchers found all four underestimated meals by roughly 250–345 calories and about 30 g of fat on average. They noted MyFitnessPal and Lose It! were more accurate for higher-calorie meals than lower-calorie ones. Per-app results weren't released, and the work hasn't been peer-reviewed yet.

The 2024 Nutrients study above found something similar across apps: good at naming foods, but "automatic energy estimations from AI-enabled food image recognition were inaccurate."

FitFoodie wasn't tested in either study, and we don't publish an accuracy figure for it. It uses Google Gemini. Whichever app you use, treat a photo estimate as a starting point. Check the portion and add the oil or sauce the camera can't see.

What would you give up by switching to FitFoodie?

• Food search by name and manual entry from scratch.
• Voice logging.
• Per-item nutrition. A plate gets one combined estimate.
• Apple Health, Google Fit or Health Connect sync, and watch apps.
• Saved or favorite meals and recipes. You can re-add a past meal in one tap.
• Typing in a barcode number. If a product isn't in the three databases, FitFoodie says it wasn't found and you'd log it by photo or description instead.
• A web or desktop app. FitFoodie is iPhone (iOS 15+) and Android only.
• Editable calorie and macro goals.

Who should pick MyFitnessPal, and who should pick FitFoodie?

Stay with MyFitnessPal if you:

• Log mostly by searching foods and entering them by hand, and the free tier covers you.
• Already pay for Premium and use voice logging.
• Want to try the paid features for a week before committing.
• Need Apple Health or Health Connect sync from your tracker. FitFoodie doesn't have it, so check MyFitnessPal's current listing for what it supports.

Try FitFoodie if you:

• Want barcode scanning without a subscription.
• Want photo and text AI with a review step where you correct every number.
• Care about fiber, sugar, sodium and saturated fat as much as macros.
• Want free weight and water tracking in the same app.

Weighing a third option? Our Lose It Snap It comparison looks at Lose It! and Cal AI side by side.

Frequently asked questions