Best FatSecret Alternatives (2026–2027)
A good FatSecret alternative fixes the reason you are leaving, which for most people is the work behind each entry: FatSecret’s free diary logs by search and barcode, while its photo logging, voice or text logging and meal plans are Premium. Its community is still a reason to stay. Picks by reason: PlateLens as the best all-round tracker for most people leaving FatSecret, MyNetDiary for a staff-verified database, Cronometer for micronutrients, MyFitnessPal for a broad food catalogue, Lose It! for a plain calorie budget and YAZIO for fasting.
- FatSecret Premium
- from $10.49/month · adds photo & voice logging, meal plans
- FatSecret’s edge
- an active community · Apple Watch app
- PlateLens free plan
- photo, voice & text logging and coach within daily allowances · adaptive target
- 3D body scan
- PlateLens · iPhone & Android
- Calorie error (DAI)
- PlateLens ±1.1% · aggregate of 180 weighed meals, not per plate
What does FatSecret do well, and what is behind Premium?
FatSecret’s free app covers the food diary itself. Its US App Store listing describes a barcode scanner with auto-complete, detailed reports and goals for calories and macros, an exercise diary, a weight tracker, a diet calendar and a journal, synced with Apple Health on iPhone or with Google Fit, Samsung Health and Fitbit on Android. Two things set it apart: an active community of people losing weight together, and fatsecret Professional, which shares your food, exercise and weight with a health professional you choose. It also runs on Apple Watch with complications, and the listing says the app is customized for US foods and brands.
Premium is where the faster logging lives. Smart Food Scan identifies the foods in a photo and estimates the portions; Smart Assistant logs a whole meal from a spoken or typed description. Premium also adds the Meal Planner, meal plans designed by FatSecret’s dietitian (Keto Style, Balanced, Mediterranean, Intermittent Fasting and High Protein Low Carb), water tracking and six extra meal headings. On the US App Store it starts at $10.49 a month.
The reasons people give for moving on follow from that split:
- Every free entry is a search. Without Premium, a meal goes in food by food, through the search box or the barcode scanner, and you choose each portion yourself.
- The quick methods cost extra. Photo logging and whole-meal voice or text logging are the two Premium features that save the most time.
- The target is yours to adjust. FatSecret’s listing and Premium page describe calorie and macro goals and reports, but list no target that learns from your weigh-ins and no AI coach.
- Planning is paid. The meal planner, the dietitian plans and even water tracking sit in Premium.
Every app below has a free diary, so that is not the useful question. The useful one is which free plan removes the step that turned logging into a chore, and what each app charges for the rest.
How do FatSecret alternatives compare on price and the free plan?
Seven apps, FatSecret included, compared on how a meal gets logged and what the free plan keeps. Prices are in US dollars as each vendor or its US store listing showed them on 30 October 2026.
| App | Best for | How a meal gets logged | Free plan | Paid price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | Most people leaving FatSecret: the best all-round tracker, with logging in one step, a target that adapts, an AI coach and a 3D body scan | A photo, a sentence you say or type, a barcode or a catalogue search; fixes in everyday words | Free forever without a card. Covers calories and macros, AI photo, voice and text logging and coach chats (daily allowances), the adaptive target, meal plans from the coach or your own diary and a 3D body scan allowance; vitamin, mineral and fiber views need PRO | PRO: $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year, with 3 free days for new users |
| FatSecret | A plain diary, a lively community and sharing with your health professional | Food search and barcode scans; photos (Smart Food Scan) and spoken or typed meals (Smart Assistant) need Premium | Limited: Premium unlocks Smart Food Scan, Smart Assistant, the Meal Planner, the dietitian’s plans and water tracking | Premium: lowest US App Store price $10.49 a month |
| MyNetDiary | Entries checked by its own staff | Search, barcode and simple voice entry; photos (Meal Scan) need Premium, AI voice needs Premium Plus | Limited: Premium adds Meal Scan, the Advanced Autopilot target and the meal planner; Premium Plus adds the AI Coach and AI voice logging | Premium: $59.99 a year. Premium Plus: $99.99 a year |
| Cronometer | Weighing food and watching vitamins and minerals | Search and barcode; Gold unlocks photo and voice entry | Limited: ads on the free account; Gold unlocks photo and voice entry, Crono Coach and the fasting timer | Gold: $10.99 a month or $59.99 a year; the Gold page mentions no trial |
| MyFitnessPal | Eating out often: millions of foods, chain menus included | Search; Premium unlocks Barcode Scan, Meal Scan and Voice Log | Limited: ads on the free version; Premium unlocks the barcode and photo scans, Voice Log, custom macro goals, fasting and the AI Coach | Premium: $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year, 7 days free if you never subscribed |
| Lose It! | Weight loss with nothing but a calorie budget | Search; Premium unlocks photos, AI Voice and the barcode scanner | Limited: Premium unlocks photo logging, AI Voice, barcode scans, macros, fasting and meal planning | Premium: $79.99 a year per its help center; App Store offers from $9.99 |
| YAZIO | A fasting tracker beside a calorie diary | Search and barcode; AI photo tracking in PRO | Limited: AI photo tracking, recipes, meal plans and fasting plans other than 16:8 are PRO | PRO $23.90 to $47.90 for 12 months on the US App Store |
Three of those prices need context. FatSecret’s App Store page carries several prices per billing period, and this page uses its lowest monthly one; Lose It!’s App Store page lists several Premium offers without naming their billing periods, so its help center’s yearly price is quoted; and YAZIO sells 3-, 6- and 12-month PRO plans, with two different 12-month prices on the same list.
Of the seven free plans in the table, PlateLens’s is the only one that logs a meal from a photo. If staying on a free plan is the priority, the free calorie tracker comparison looks at what each app keeps free after its trial.
Where does each app draw its free line?
The food log is only part of the job. These are the features that decide whether you are still logging a month from now: a quick way in, a target that moves with you, someone to ask, and a way to measure more than your weight.
| Feature | PlateLens | FatSecret | MyNetDiary | Cronometer | MyFitnessPal | Lose It! | YAZIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo logging | Included free (daily allowance) | Premium (Smart Food Scan) | Premium (Meal Scan) | Gold | Premium (Meal Scan) | Premium | PRO |
| Whole meal by voice or text | Included free (daily allowance) | Premium (Smart Assistant) | Simple voice entry free; AI voice in Premium Plus | Gold (voice) | Premium (Voice Log) | Premium (AI Voice) | Not mentioned |
| Adaptive calorie target | Included free (Dynamic expenditure) | Not mentioned | Premium (Advanced Autopilot) | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| AI coach | Included free (daily allowance) | Not mentioned | Premium Plus | Gold (Crono Coach) | Premium | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| 3D body scan | Yes, on iPhone and Android | No | No; manual measurements in Premium | No; biometrics you type in | No | No; manual measurements in Premium | No; body metrics you type in, PRO |
| Platforms | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, web | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, online account | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, web | iPhone, Android, web | iPhone, Android, Wear OS, web | iPhone, Android, web | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch |
A target that follows your weigh-ins is a MyNetDiary Premium feature, goes unmentioned by the other five rivals and comes with PlateLens’s free plan. Several apps accept a waist or hip number you measured with a tape; among the seven, only PlateLens estimates those measurements from a 3D body scan.
What makes PlateLens the best all-round switch from FatSecret?
PlateLens takes over the step FatSecret charges for. Take a picture of the plate, or say or type something like “chicken breast, roast potatoes and a side salad with vinaigrette”, and the calories and macros land in your diary; packaged food still goes in by barcode or catalogue search. When an estimate needs a nudge, Fix it takes the correction in plain words, such as “no dressing” or “half the potatoes”. Logging takes about 2.1 seconds per meal on average, and the meal-logging guide walks through each method.
None of that needs a subscription. The free plan has no end date and asks for no card: AI photo, voice and text logging and AI coach messages run within daily allowances, next to calorie and macro tracking, barcode scans and Apple Health or Health Connect sync. Meals you repeat can be saved and logged again without another photo or description.
The estimates draw on USDA FoodData Central and NCCDB, on Open Food Facts and Nutritionix for packaged brands, and on 45,000+ dishes from the menus of 380+ restaurant chains. In a pre-registered validation study by the Dietary Assessment Initiative, PlateLens came out lowest in mean calorie error among the six apps, ±1.1% in photo mode across 180 weighed meals, and Foodvision Bench’s public leaderboard on GitHub has also reproduced it with 231 weighed meals. Both numbers describe calories in aggregate; they do not promise the same result on every plate or for each macro. FatSecret took part in neither test.
The target keeps up with you on the free plan. Your expenditure, the screen behind it, re-estimates what you burn each week from your logged meals and weigh-ins, with a Why it changed note for every update, and every two weeks PlateLens checks your targets and proposes new ones for you to accept or skip. Edit your calorie total and the three macros scale with it in proportion; each one can still be set in grams.
Ask the AI coach about your week and it answers from what you actually logged; it also nudges you at your usual meal times, and free accounts get a daily message allowance. Planning meals costs nothing either: ask the coach to plan your meals, or lay out the plan yourself in your diary.
Beyond the scale, PlateLens’s 3D body scan on iPhone and Android turns a guided slow turn in front of your phone into a 3D model with estimated waist, chest and hip measurements that you can follow over time, compare between scans and set goals for; the 3D body scan guide shows how it works.
You can use it on iPhone, Android, Apple Watch and in a browser through the web app; on the watch, dictate a meal or repeat a saved one. If FatSecret’s intermittent-fasting meal plan is what drew you in, PlateLens has a fasting timer with 14:10, 16:8, 18:6 and 20:4 presets or a length you choose, and it notifies you when your eating window opens and closes.
What you give up: vitamin, mineral and fiber views belong to PRO ($9.99 monthly or $34.99 yearly, with a 3-day trial for newcomers), although meals logged on the free plan keep their available nutrient estimates for later, as the nutrients guide explains. And if FatSecret’s community is what keeps you logging, that is the part you would be leaving behind.
How do the other alternatives compare with FatSecret?
MyNetDiary: entries its own staff check
MyNetDiary is the nearest swap for someone who likes FatSecret’s plain diary but wants more confidence in each entry. Its App Store page describes more than 2 million foods verified by its staff, and the free tier keeps the barcode scanner, simple voice entry and macro tracking, without ads. Premium, at $59.99 a year, adds Meal Scan photos, the Advanced Autopilot adaptive target and the meal planner; Premium Plus, at $99.99 a year, adds the AI Coach and AI voice logging.
Cronometer: micronutrients from curated data
Cronometer suits people who weigh their food and want vitamins and minerals in view. Its free Basic account logs foods, exercise and biometrics against macro and micronutrient targets you set, scans barcodes and carries ads. Gold, at $10.99 a month or $59.99 a year, adds photo and voice entry, Crono Coach, a fasting timer and the macro scheduler; the Gold page mentions no trial. It measured 6.8% calorie error in the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s study, and Cronometer alternatives covers what people who leave it choose.
MyFitnessPal: a broad food catalogue
MyFitnessPal’s App Store page cites 20.5 million+ foods, restaurant dishes among them, which helps when you eat out often. The free version tracks food, weight and exercise, with ads. Premium, at $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year and free for 7 days if you never subscribed, unlocks Barcode Scan, Meal Scan, Voice Log, custom macro goals, fasting and the AI Coach. It measured 11.2% in the same study, and the MyFitnessPal alternatives guide compares it in more depth.
Lose It!: a plain calorie budget
Lose It!’s free tier gives you a personal calorie budget, a weight-loss plan and a community to lean on. Photos, AI Voice, barcode scans, macros, fasting and meal planning come with Premium, at $79.99 a year according to its help center, with App Store offers from $9.99. Lose It! measured 9.4% in the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s study.
YAZIO: fasting beside a calorie diary
YAZIO pairs a calorie diary and barcode scanner with a fasting tracker. Its help center keeps the 16:8 plan free and puts the other fasting plans in PRO, along with AI photo tracking, the recipe collection and meal plans. PRO is sold in 3-, 6- and 12-month plans, between $23.90 and $47.90 for 12 months on the US App Store.
When is FatSecret still the right app?
Keep FatSecret if its community is part of how you stay on track, if a dietitian or coach already follows your diary through fatsecret Professional, or if a search-and-barcode diary on your phone and Apple Watch is all you want. Its Premium meal plans also suit people who would rather follow a menu set by a dietitian than log faster.
How do you move from FatSecret to a new app?
- Name the reason you are leaving (time per meal, a target that never moves, the price) and test only the apps that fix it.
- Log the same three or four ordinary days in both apps, then compare the daily totals and how long each day took.
- In PlateLens, save the meals you eat every week so they log again without another photo or description.
- Connect Apple Health or Health Connect so weigh-ins arrive on their own and the weekly expenditure estimate has data to learn from.
For a closer look at the two apps side by side, PlateLens vs FatSecret compares them feature by feature.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a better app than FatSecret?
Snap your plate, say what you ate or type it, and PlateLens records the calories and macros in one step; if a portion looks off, you fix it in plain words, such as “half the potatoes”. Its free plan has no end date, asks for no card and includes AI photo, voice and text logging, an AI coach that reads your own logs and a calorie target that learns from your meals and weigh-ins, all within daily allowances, while FatSecret’s own Premium page lists photo logging (Smart Food Scan) and whole-meal voice logging (Smart Assistant) as paid features. A 3D body scan adds estimates of your waist, chest and hips. The evidence is public: the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study weighed 180 meals and recorded ±1.1% mean calorie error for PlateLens in photo mode, and Foodvision Bench has also reproduced that result on 231 weighed meals in its public leaderboard on GitHub; both describe aggregate calorie accuracy, not a promise for every plate.
Is FatSecret free, and what does FatSecret Premium cost?
FatSecret has a free version, but it is limited: its Premium page and US App Store listing put Smart Food Scan photo logging, Smart Assistant voice and text logging, the Meal Planner, dietitian-designed meal plans and water tracking in Premium, which starts at $10.49 a month on the US App Store.
How accurate is FatSecret compared with PlateLens?
FatSecret was not among the six apps in the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study, and it is not listed on Foodvision Bench’s public GitHub leaderboard, so neither gives a figure for it. In that study PlateLens recorded the lowest calorie error of the six apps across 180 weighed meals, a result Foodvision Bench has also reproduced with 231 meals. Both describe aggregate calorie accuracy across many meals, not a per-meal guarantee.
Which FatSecret alternatives are free, and what do their free plans leave out?
Every app compared here has a free plan, and each draws the line in a different place. PlateLens’s has no end date and puts AI photo, voice and text logging, the AI coach and the adaptive calorie target inside daily allowances. MyNetDiary keeps Meal Scan photos and its Autopilot target for Premium; Cronometer shows ads and keeps photo and voice logging for Gold; MyFitnessPal shows ads and keeps the barcode scanner, Meal Scan and Voice Log for Premium; Lose It! keeps photo logging, the barcode scanner and macro tracking for Premium; and YAZIO keeps AI photo tracking for PRO.
Which calorie app adjusts your target as your weight changes?
PlateLens does it on the free plan: each week it re-estimates how much you burn from your logged meals and weigh-ins, explains each change under Why it changed, and every 14 days proposes new calorie and macro targets that you can accept or ignore. FatSecret lists calorie and macro goals but no target that learns from your weigh-ins, and MyNetDiary’s Advanced Autopilot is part of its Premium plan at $59.99 a year.
Which calorie tracker also follows body measurements?
PlateLens includes a 3D body scan in its iPhone and Android apps. Prop the phone on something steady, turn slowly while it guides you, and you get a 3D model of your body with estimated waist, chest and hip measurements. Keep your scans to follow any measurement, put two side by side, or pick a goal for one measurement and see it previewed on your model; the AI coach can read the results too. A 3D body scan allowance comes with every plan, free included.
How do you switch from FatSecret without losing your habits?
Run both apps for three or four ordinary days: log each meal in FatSecret as usual and in PlateLens with a photo or a sentence, then compare the daily totals and how long logging took. Save the meals you repeat so they log again without another photo or description, and connect Apple Health or Health Connect so your weigh-ins arrive on their own and the weekly expenditure estimate has data to learn from.
Sources and dates
All competitor prices and features here come from each company’s own pages or its US store listing, checked on 30 October 2026.
- FatSecret: US App Store listing (Premium list and prices), Google Play listing, its Premium page and its help guides to Smart Food Scan and Smart Assistant.
- MyNetDiary: free tracker page (tiers and yearly prices) and App Store listing.
- Cronometer: Gold page and App Store listing.
- MyFitnessPal: Premium page and App Store listing.
- Lose It!: App Store listing (free and Premium features, Premium offers) and its help center article on membership tiers and pricing (yearly price).
- YAZIO: App Store listing and its help center articles on YAZIO PRO and AI calorie tracking.
- PlateLens: its pricing page and the help guides linked in the text.
- Accuracy: the six-app validation study of the Dietary Assessment Initiative, pre-registered and published on 8 April 2026 with 180 weighed meals, and the October 2026 snapshot of Foodvision Bench’s public GitHub leaderboard, with 231 weighed meals. Both measure calories in aggregate, not each meal or nutrient.