Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal: Free Plans, Prices and Accuracy

Cronometer is the better pick if you want the most from a free plan or care about vitamins and minerals, because its free Basic account includes the barcode scanner and tracks up to 95 nutrients. MyFitnessPal is the better pick if you want the biggest food database and a long list of connected apps and devices, but its barcode scanner, Meal Scan and fasting tracker are Premium features.

Disclosure: this page is written by the Calo AI Team. Calo AI is our own app, and we have no link to Cronometer or MyFitnessPal. Every Cronometer and MyFitnessPal fact below comes from their own websites, help centres and App Store listings, checked on 5 October 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a snapshot.

Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal at a glance

Which free plan gives you more: Cronometer or MyFitnessPal?

Cronometer’s free plan does. Its Basic account includes food, exercise and biometric logging, up to 95 nutrients and compounds, custom macro and micronutrient targets, device syncing, custom foods and recipes and, most usefully, the barcode scanner. Cronometer’s free version page says “we’ll never force you to upgrade”.

MyFitnessPal’s free plan covers the core of calorie counting: food and exercise logging, measurements and progress, custom foods, meals and recipes, viewing macros, setting calorie and macro goals by percentage, sharing your diary, linking partner apps and a printable report on the website. In its own words: “Free gets you logging. Premium adds the insights.”

The big gap is packaged food. On MyFitnessPal’s current comparison table the barcode scanner sits in the Premium column, so free users search for each product by name. On Cronometer you scan it for free.

Neither app gives you photo or voice logging for free. Cronometer’s Photo Log and Voice Log are Gold features, and MyFitnessPal’s Meal Scan and Voice Log are Premium features.

How much do Cronometer Gold and MyFitnessPal Premium cost?

In the US, Cronometer Gold costs less. In Canada and Australia it depends on which MyFitnessPal price you are offered. Here are the prices from each company’s own website (US) and App Store listings (Canada and Australia) on 5 October 2026:

MyFitnessPal’s App Store listings in Canada and Australia show more than one Premium price for the same plan length, and its help centre says pricing varies by country and plan length. The lower prices may be offers, so check the price on the upgrade screen before you pay.

On the US prices, a year of Cronometer Gold costs $20 less than a year of MyFitnessPal Premium. Paying monthly for a full year would cost $131.88 for Gold and $239.88 for Premium, so the annual plan is much better value on both if you know you will stick with it.

MyFitnessPal also offers Premium+, which adds the Meal Plan Builder, meal prep mode, diet preferences and grocery lists. Its premium page offers a 7-day free Premium trial to people who have never upgraded or started a trial before, and the trial turns into a paid subscription unless you cancel.

Which is more accurate, Cronometer or MyFitnessPal?

The two apps build their databases in different ways, and that matters for accuracy. Cronometer describes its database as “a curated database of more than 1.1 million verified foods, including analyzed entries”. It is smaller, but every entry is meant to come from a checked source.

MyFitnessPal says its database is “a combination of foods added by MyFitnessPal” and “foods that are added by our users”. It marks entries it has reviewed or added with a check mark, and its help centre is honest that items without a check mark are not always wrong, and that even check-marked foods can occasionally be inaccurate. The upside of this approach is size: its App Store listing says you can log over 20.5 million foods, including restaurant dishes.

So in practice: on MyFitnessPal, pick check-marked entries where you can. On Cronometer you will hit fewer duplicate or odd entries, but you may not find every restaurant meal or regional brand. Whichever you choose, the biggest source of error is usually your portion size, not the database. Our guide on how to read a nutrition label for calories helps you check a packaged food entry against the label.

Which is better for macros and micronutrients?

Cronometer, clearly. Its free plan lets you set custom macro and micronutrient targets and tracks up to 95 nutrients and compounds, which is why people who follow a specific diet or want to check vitamins and minerals tend to choose it. Gold adds Nutrition Scores, custom charts, the Oracle Nutrient Search (which suggests foods high in a nutrient you are short on) and a Macro Scheduler for different targets on different days.

MyFitnessPal shows macros for free and lets you set goals by percentage. Setting macros in grams, different goals by day, goals by meal, Food Analysis and Net Carbs are Premium features. If you mainly care about calories and protein, that free setup is enough for many people. Our macro calculator and protein calculator give you numbers to plug into either app.

When is MyFitnessPal the better choice?

MyFitnessPal does several things better than Cronometer:

• Food database size. Over 20.5 million foods, including restaurant dishes, makes it easier to find a chain meal or a niche brand.
• Device and app connections. Its premium page says more than 35 apps and fitness devices connect, including Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, Samsung Health and Health Connect.
• Meal planning. Premium+ adds a Meal Plan Builder and grocery lists, which we did not see on Cronometer’s Gold page.
• A large, long-running community. It has more than 100 million downloads on Google Play.

When is Cronometer the better choice?

Cronometer is likely the better fit if:

• You want a free barcode scanner.
• You track vitamins and minerals, or follow a diet with specific nutrient targets.
• You prefer a curated database to a crowd-sourced one.
• You want a cheaper paid plan in the US, where Gold costs $20 a year less than Premium.

Is there a free option with photo logging?

Both Cronometer and MyFitnessPal charge for photo and voice logging. If logging by photo is what makes you stick with tracking, Calo AI is a free option on Android, with a web app at caloai.fit/app that runs in the browser on iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC.

Be clear on what Calo AI does not do. It has no barcode scanner and no native iPhone app, and it does not track 95 nutrients the way Cronometer does. Photo results are estimates, and portion size is the hardest part for any photo tracker, so adding a description or correcting a result by voice or text gives a closer number. Our guide on how accurate AI calorie trackers are explains why. If you are moving away from MyFitnessPal for other reasons, our MyFitnessPal alternative page goes into more detail.

You can try the web app free or get Calo AI on Google Play.

A note on safety: if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, or have diabetes, PCOS, kidney disease or a history of eating disorders, speak to a doctor or registered dietitian before following a calorie target from any app. Real results vary from person to person.