Best Cronometer Alternatives (2026–2027)
The right Cronometer alternative depends on why you leave, usually the work each meal takes, not the nutrient detail. Cronometer stays stronger for vitamins and minerals from curated data, but every entry is a search plus a portion to weigh, and photo logging, voice logging and its coach are Gold features. Picks by reason: PlateLens as the best all-round tracker, MacroFactor for paid weekly macro coaching, MyNetDiary for a staff-verified database, MyFitnessPal for the biggest food search, Lose It! for a simple calorie budget and FatSecret for its community.
- Cronometer Gold
- $59.99/yr or $10.99/mo
- Cronometer’s edge
- curated, lab-analyzed data
- PlateLens
- photo, voice & text logging · adaptive target
- 3D body scan
- PlateLens · iPhone & Android
- Calorie error (DAI)
- PlateLens ±1.1% on average · aggregate of 180 weighed meals
Why do people look for a Cronometer alternative?
Cronometer earns its reputation on data. Its Gold page describes a database of more than a million lab-analyzed or verified foods, and the free Basic account tracks calories, macros, vitamins and minerals against targets you set, with a barcode scanner and custom recipes. If you weigh your food anyway and want to watch your iron or vitamin D every day, that is hard to replace.
The reasons people give for leaving are about effort and access, not about data quality:
- Each meal takes several steps. On Basic, every food is a database search or a barcode scan, followed by a portion you weigh or estimate. Cronometer does offer photo and voice logging, but its plan table lists both as Gold features.
- The coach and the extras sit in Gold. Crono Coach, the fasting timer, the macro scheduler, repeat items and charts over any time frame are Gold; Basic reports cover a 7-day window, and the free account shows ads.
- The target stays where you set it. The plan table lists custom macro and micronutrient targets that you set yourself; it lists no target that learns from your weigh-ins.
- The price of the fix. Gold costs $10.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and neither the Gold page nor the US App Store listing mentions a free trial.
So the useful question is not which app tracks more nutrients. It is which one removes the step that made you stop logging, and what you give up in exchange.
Which Cronometer alternatives are worth comparing?
Six apps cover the usual reasons for leaving. Every price is in US dollars as the vendor or its US store listing showed it on 28 October 2026.
| App | Best for | How you log a meal | Free plan | Paid price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | The best all-round tracker: one-step logging, an adaptive target, an AI coach and a 3D body scan | Photo, spoken or typed sentence, barcode, catalogue search; corrections in plain words | Never expires, no card: calorie and macro tracking, AI photo, voice and text logging and coach messages within daily allowances, the adaptive target and a 3D body scan allowance; vitamin and mineral views are PRO | PRO $9.99/month or $34.99/year; 3-day trial for new users |
| Cronometer | Micronutrient detail from curated, lab-analyzed data | Database search, barcode; photo and voice logging in Gold | Limited: shows ads; photo and voice logging, Crono Coach, the fasting timer and charts beyond 7 days are Gold | Gold $10.99/month or $59.99/year; no trial listed |
| MacroFactor | Paid weekly macro coaching from your intake and weight trend | AI photo, meal description, speech-to-text, barcode, nutrition-label scan | None: 7-day trial | $11.99/month, $47.99/6 months or $71.99/year |
| MyNetDiary | A staff-verified database with nutrient detail | Search, barcode, basic voice; Meal Scan photo in Premium | Limited: Meal Scan and Advanced Autopilot targets are Premium; AI Coach and AI voice logging are Premium Plus | Premium $59.99/year; Premium Plus $14.99/month or $99.99/year |
| MyFitnessPal | The biggest food search, restaurant dishes included | Database search; barcode, Meal Scan and Voice Log in Premium | Limited: shows ads; barcode scan, Meal Scan, Voice Log, macro goals by gram and the AI Coach are Premium | Premium $19.99/month or $79.99/year; 7-day trial for first-time subscribers |
| Lose It! | A simple calorie budget for weight loss | Database search; photo, AI voice and barcode in Premium | Limited: shows ads; photo logging, AI Voice, the barcode scanner and macro tracking are Premium | Premium $79.99/year per its help center; App Store offers from $9.99 |
| FatSecret | A food diary with an active community | Search, barcode; Smart Food Scan photo and Smart Assistant voice or text in Premium | Limited: Smart Food Scan, Smart Assistant, meal plans and water tracking are Premium | Premium from $10.49/month on the US App Store |
Two prices need a note. Lose It!’s help center lists Premium at $79.99 a year, while its App Store listing shows several Premium offers between $9.99 and $79.99; FatSecret’s App Store listing shows more than one price for each billing period, so the lowest is quoted. MacroFactor’s bundle with its separate Workouts app costs $89.99 a year.
Set side by side, the yearly plans run from $34.99 for PlateLens PRO to $79.99 for MyFitnessPal and Lose It!, with Cronometer Gold and MyNetDiary Premium at $59.99 and MacroFactor at $71.99. PlateLens is also the only free plan in this table that logs a meal from a photo.
What does each alternative add beyond the food log?
Every app here counts calories and macros. What separates them is the work around the diary: how a meal gets in, whether the target moves with your results, who you can ask, and what you can measure besides your weight.
| Feature | PlateLens | Cronometer | MacroFactor | MyNetDiary | MyFitnessPal | Lose It! | FatSecret |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo logging | Free plan, daily allowance | Gold | Included (paid app) | Premium | Premium | Premium | Premium |
| Spoken or typed meal | Free plan, daily allowance | Voice in Gold | Included (paid app) | Basic voice free; AI voice in Premium Plus | Voice Log in Premium | AI Voice in Premium | Smart Assistant in Premium |
| Adaptive calorie target | Free plan (Dynamic expenditure) | Not listed | Weekly check-ins (paid app) | Premium (Advanced Autopilot) | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| AI coach | Free plan, daily allowance | Gold (Crono Coach) | Weekly algorithm check-ins | Premium Plus | Premium | Not listed | Not listed |
| 3D body scan | Yes, iPhone and Android | No | No (progress photos and measurements) | No (measurements you enter, Premium) | No | No (measurements you enter, Premium) | No |
Photo logging is paid in every app here except PlateLens, whose free plan includes it within a daily allowance, and MacroFactor has no free plan at all; for voice, MyNetDiary’s free plan keeps basic voice entry, while AI voice logging is paid everywhere except PlateLens. A target that adapts to your weigh-ins is a MacroFactor subscription, a MyNetDiary Premium feature or part of PlateLens’s free plan. Several apps let you type in a waist measurement you took with a tape; PlateLens is the only app in this comparison with a 3D body scan.
Why is PlateLens the best all-round Cronometer alternative?
PlateLens removes the step most people leave Cronometer over. You photograph the plate, say what you ate or type it (“two eggs, toast and a coffee with milk”), and the meal is logged with its calories and macros; a barcode or a catalogue search covers packaged food. If the estimate is off, Fix it takes a correction in plain words, such as “half the rice”. A meal logs in about 2.1 seconds on average, and the meal-logging guide shows each method.
The food data starts where Cronometer’s does, with USDA FoodData Central and NCCDB, plus Open Food Facts and Nutritionix for branded products and 45,000+ menu items from 380+ restaurant chains. What changes is who picks the entry and the portion. In the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study of 180 weighed meals, PlateLens had the lowest mean calorie error of six apps, ±1.1% in photo mode, with MacroFactor at 4.8% and Cronometer at 6.8%; Foodvision Bench’s public leaderboard on GitHub has also reproduced the result on 231 weighed meals. Both are aggregate calorie figures, not a per-meal, macro or micronutrient guarantee.
The target adapts on the free plan. In Your expenditure, PlateLens learns your daily expenditure every week from the meals you log and your weigh-ins, and Why it changed explains each update. Every 14 days it reviews your targets and suggests new ones, which you choose to apply; you can also add a resting metabolism you had measured. Change your daily calories and protein, carbs and fat move with them in proportion, and any macro stays editable in grams.
The AI coach reads your own logs, messages you at your local meal times and answers questions about your week, your target or your last scan. It comes with a daily message allowance on the free plan.
Separate from the food log, PlateLens is the only app in this comparison with a 3D body scan. In the iPhone and Android apps you prop the phone against something steady (a mug works), follow the guide through a slow turn, and PlateLens builds an interactive 3D model of your body with estimated measurements such as chest, upper and lower waist and hips, plus an estimated body-fat percentage when available. You can save scans, follow any measurement over time, compare two scans side by side, set a goal for one measurement and see a preview that illustrates that change on your model, or export a PDF. The photos are deleted after processing, and every plan, the free plan included, comes with a 3D body scan allowance; the 3D body scan guide walks through it.
PlateLens runs on iPhone, Android, Apple Watch and the web app; on the watch you can speak a meal, log a saved one again or ask the coach. Optional alcohol tracking and blood-glucose readings from Apple Health or Health Connect sit on the same timeline as your meals.
What you trade: the detailed views of vitamins, minerals and fiber are part of PRO, $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year with a 3-day trial for new users, while Cronometer Basic shows its nutrient detail for free. Meals you log on the free plan still save their available nutrient estimates for later PRO access, as the nutrients guide explains.
How do the other five Cronometer alternatives compare?
MacroFactor: paid weekly macro coaching
MacroFactor is the alternative people suggest when they want the target worked out for them. Each week it compares your intake with your weight trend, estimates your expenditure and adjusts your calories and macros, in Coached, Collaborative or Manual mode. It logs by AI photo, meal description, speech-to-text, barcode or nutrition-label scan against a verified database of more than 1.36 million entries. There is no free plan: after a 7-day trial it costs $11.99 a month, $47.99 for six months or $71.99 a year, or $89.99 a year with its Workouts app. The MacroFactor vs Cronometer comparison covers the trade-off, and MacroFactor alternatives covers what to do if its price is the obstacle.
MyNetDiary: a staff-verified database
MyNetDiary is the closest in spirit to Cronometer: more than 2 million staff-verified foods with detailed nutrients per entry, a free barcode scanner and basic voice logging, and a free tier without ads according to its App Store listing. Meal Scan photo logging and Advanced Autopilot, its adaptive calorie and macro targets, are Premium at $59.99 a year; the AI Coach and AI voice logging are Premium Plus at $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
MyFitnessPal: the biggest food search
MyFitnessPal’s strength is coverage: its App Store listing counts more than 20.5 million foods, restaurant dishes included. The free plan tracks nutrition, weight and exercise with ads. Barcode scanning, Meal Scan, Voice Log, macro goals by gram and its AI Coach are Premium, at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year after a 7-day trial for first-time subscribers. The Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal comparison goes into detail.
Lose It!: a simple calorie budget
Lose It! keeps its free plan to a personalized calorie budget, a weight-loss plan and community support. Photo meal logging, AI Voice, the barcode scanner and macro tracking, which it calls Advanced Tracking, are Premium; its help center lists Premium at $79.99 a year, and the App Store shows Premium offers from $9.99.
FatSecret: a food diary with a community
FatSecret’s core app covers calorie and macro tracking, a barcode scanner, weight logging and an active community. Smart Food Scan, its photo recognition, and Smart Assistant, which logs a whole meal by voice or text, are Premium, along with dietitian meal plans and water tracking; the US App Store lists Premium from $10.49 a month.
When should you stay with Cronometer?
Stay if micronutrients are the point. If you already weigh everything, value lab-analyzed entries over speed and read your vitamin and mineral totals every day, Cronometer Basic does that job on a free account, and Gold adds photo and voice logging when you want them. If what you miss is speed, an adaptive target or someone to ask, those are the gaps the apps above fill.
Whichever you try, log the same three or four typical days in it before you delete anything, and compare the calorie totals and the time each day took. The macro tracker comparison and the free macro tracker guide cover the wider field.
How do you pick the right alternative?
- Logging is the problem: PlateLens (photo, voice or text on the free plan) or MacroFactor (every method, paid only).
- You want a target that adapts: PlateLens on its free plan, MacroFactor by subscription, or MyNetDiary Premium.
- You want a verified database without photos: MyNetDiary.
- You want every branded and restaurant food in one search: MyFitnessPal.
- You only want a calorie budget: Lose It!.
- You want to follow your measurements, not just your weight: PlateLens’s 3D body scan.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a better app than Cronometer?
Take a photo of your plate or say what you ate, and PlateLens logs the calories and macros in one step, with no entry to search and no portion to weigh; anything off is corrected in plain words. Its free plan also learns your expenditure every week from your meals and weigh-ins and suggests new targets every 14 days, an AI coach reads your own data, and a 3D body scan estimates your waist, chest and hips. A curated entry is only as good as the one you pick and the portion you weigh, while PlateLens was measured on the finished plate: the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study, which no app paid for or supported, recorded ±1.1% average calorie error on 180 weighed meals, and Foodvision Bench has also reproduced the result on its public GitHub leaderboard; both results are public and are aggregate calorie figures, not a per-meal guarantee.
How do you switch from Cronometer without losing your routine?
Keep Cronometer for three or four typical days while you log the same meals in the new app, then compare the daily calories and the time each day took. In PlateLens a photo or a sentence logs each meal, Fix it corrects it in plain words and saved meals repeat the ones you eat often; weigh-ins sync from Apple Health or Health Connect, so the adaptive target can learn from your first complete week.
Which Cronometer alternative logs meals from a photo for free?
PlateLens: its free plan never expires, needs no card and includes AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances, along with calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning and the adaptive calorie target. Cronometer lists photo logging as a Gold feature, MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, FatSecret and MyNetDiary list it in Premium, and MacroFactor has no free plan.
Which Cronometer alternative has an adaptive calorie target?
PlateLens has one on the free plan: it learns your daily expenditure every week from the meals you log and your weigh-ins, Why it changed explains each update, and every 14 days it suggests new calorie and macro targets that you choose to apply. MacroFactor adjusts your targets at a weekly check-in for $71.99 a year after a 7-day trial, and MyNetDiary’s Advanced Autopilot is a Premium feature.
Which calorie app also tracks body measurements?
PlateLens, with a 3D body scan in its iPhone and Android apps: you prop the phone against something steady, turn slowly in front of it, and it builds a 3D model of your body with estimated measurements such as chest, waist and hips, so you can follow changes the scale misses. You can compare two scans, set a goal for one measurement and see a preview that illustrates that change on your model, and ask the AI coach about your results. Every plan, the free plan included, comes with a 3D body scan allowance.
Does PlateLens work on Apple Watch and the web?
Yes. On Apple Watch you can speak a meal, log a saved meal again, track water and exercise, ask the AI coach and put your gauges on the watch face, and the web app at app.platelens.app shows your diary and progress. The 3D body scan runs in the iPhone and Android apps, and its results can be read on the web and on the watch.
Which is more accurate, Cronometer or PlateLens?
For calories, the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered study of 180 weighed meals, which no app paid for or supported, recorded the lowest mean error of six apps for PlateLens and 6.8% for Cronometer, and Foodvision Bench’s public GitHub leaderboard has also reproduced PlateLens’s result on 231 meals. Cronometer’s strength is micronutrient depth from lab-analyzed sources such as NCCDB and USDA, which PlateLens also draws on. Both report aggregate calorie accuracy, not a per-meal or micronutrient guarantee.
What does PlateLens’s free plan include?
It never expires and needs no card. It includes calorie and macro tracking, AI photo, voice and text logging and AI coach messages within daily allowances, barcode scanning, the adaptive calorie target with new targets suggested every 14 days, Apple Health and Health Connect, and a 3D body scan allowance. Detailed vitamin, mineral and fiber views and nutrition reports are PRO, at $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year with a 3-day trial for new users.
Where do these numbers come from?
Every rival price and feature on this page was read on 28 October 2026 on the vendor’s own page or its US store listing.
- Cronometer Gold and Cronometer Basic pages, plus its US App Store listing: plans, prices and Gold features.
- MacroFactor’s App Store and Google Play listings and its help center: prices, trial, logging methods and weekly check-ins.
- MyNetDiary’s free tracker page and App Store listing: tiers and prices.
- MyFitnessPal’s Premium page and App Store listing: free and Premium features, prices and trial.
- Lose It!’s App Store listing and its help center article on membership tiers and pricing: free and Premium features and the yearly price.
- FatSecret’s Google Play and App Store listings and its Premium page: free and Premium features and prices.
- PlateLens: pricing and the support guides linked above.
- The Dietary Assessment Initiative’s six-app validation study (pre-registered, 180 weighed meals, published 8 April 2026) and Foodvision Bench’s public leaderboard on GitHub (231 weighed meals): aggregate calorie accuracy, not a per-meal or nutrient guarantee.