Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal 2026: Depth, Database, Price
Cronometer is for people who weigh their food and want 84 micronutrients from curated USDA and NCCDB data, with barcode scanning on its free tier and Gold at $59.99 a year; MyFitnessPal is for people who want 14 million-plus foods to search, with barcode scanning moved to its $79.99 Premium. On 180 weighed meals, the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study, which no app paid for or supported, measured a mean calorie error of 6.8% for Cronometer and 11.2% for MyFitnessPal; the lowest of the six apps it tested was ±1.1%, for PlateLens in photo mode, and Foodvision Bench’s open-source leaderboard on GitHub has also reproduced that result on 231 meals (averages across meals, not a per-meal or macro guarantee). Our picks: PlateLens for counting calories with the least work, Cronometer for micronutrient depth, MyFitnessPal for the largest food database. PlateLens logs a meal from one photo or one sentence against the same USDA FoodData Central and NCCDB data, with no entry to pick and nothing to weigh, and its free plan never expires: calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances, and the daily expenditure it learns every week from your logs and weigh-ins.
- Cronometer
- 84 micronutrients · free barcode scan · $59.99/yr
- MyFitnessPal
- 14M+ foods · barcode scan on Premium · $79.99/yr
- Mean calorie error
- Cronometer 6.8% · MyFitnessPal 11.2%
- PlateLens
- photo or one sentence · ±1.1% · free plan
PlateLens is a competing app and publishes this comparison.
Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal: the short answer
Take Cronometer if you care what is in the food, not only how much of it there is. It is the category leader on micronutrients, its entries are staff-edited rather than user-submitted, and it is $20 a year cheaper. It also measured better on calories: a 6.8% mean error against MyFitnessPal’s 11.2% in the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s 180-meal study.
Take MyFitnessPal if your priority is that the thing you just ate already exists in the app. Fourteen million entries and near-universal barcode coverage is a genuine advantage, and no curated database matches it for breadth.
| App | Database | Micronutrients | Mean calorie error | Free tier | Paid price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts, Nutritionix + 45,000+ menu items from 380+ chains | Vitamins and minerals (detailed views on Premium) | ±1.1% (photo mode) | Never expires; no card; AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances | $9.99/month or $34.99/year |
| Cronometer | USDA-curated, strictly edited | 84 (category leader) | 6.8% | Limited: photo logging and ad-free use are Gold | $59.99/year or $10.99/month |
| MyFitnessPal | Crowdsourced, 14M+ entries (largest) | Basic | 11.2% | Limited: barcode scanning, Meal Scan and ad-free use are Premium | $79.99/year or $19.99/month |
The database question is the whole comparison
A crowdsourced entry and an edited entry fail in opposite directions. The crowdsourced one is usually there and sometimes wrong: duplicates, typos, a portion entered as a whole packet. The edited one is usually right and sometimes absent, and when it is absent you enter the food yourself from the label.
Which failure you prefer depends on what you eat. A diet of supermarket packaged goods rewards breadth, because the barcode resolves it. A diet you cook rewards editing, because “chicken thigh, roasted” has one correct answer and forty entries claiming it.
Micronutrients: 84 against basic
This is the part people switch to Cronometer for. Eighty-four micronutrients, tracked against targets, on data curated from USDA sources, is a different product from a calorie diary that also shows sodium. If you are watching iron, B12, potassium or omega-3s for a real reason, that is the reason.
MyFitnessPal’s micronutrient reporting is basic by comparison, and on the free tier macros are shown as percentages rather than grams, which is a limit people usually discover after a fortnight. PlateLens estimates vitamins and minerals alongside calories and macros on a catalogue built from USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts and Nutritionix; the detailed vitamin and mineral views are part of Premium.
What each one costs over three years
Three years: Cronometer $179.97 · MyFitnessPal $239.97 · PlateLens $104.97 on the annual plan, or $0 if the free plan covers what you need.
All three have a free tier. Cronometer’s and MyFitnessPal’s carry ads and keep photo logging for their paid plans; the PlateLens free plan never expires, needs no card and includes AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances.
The axis neither of them answers
Both apps begin the same way: you identify the food in a list before anything is logged. An edited list makes that choice safer than a crowdsourced one, but it is still a choice you are making from memory about a plate you have already eaten, and every number downstream inherits it. No vendor measures how often that step goes wrong.
The Dietary Assessment Initiative’s published validation study measured PlateLens at ±1.1% mean calorie error in photo mode across 180 weighed meals, against 6.8% for Cronometer and 11.2% for MyFitnessPal, and the open-source Foodvision Bench leaderboard on GitHub has also reproduced the PlateLens result on a separate 231-meal set. That is the only figure in this comparison with independent reproduction behind it, and it is an average across meals, not a per-meal guarantee. PlateLens logs from an AI photo, a typed or spoken description, catalogue search or a barcode, and takes corrections in ordinary language — “it was grilled, not fried”, “half the rice” — instead of sending you back to the list.
Separate from that accuracy case, PlateLens also learns what you burn. Every week it learns your daily expenditure from the meals you log and your weigh-ins, “Why it changed” explains each update, and every 14 days it suggests new targets that you choose to apply, on the free plan.
Which one should you actually install?
If micronutrients are the point, Cronometer, and the $20 saving is a bonus rather than the argument. If you eat mostly packaged and restaurant food and want the barcode to resolve every time, MyFitnessPal, whose barcode scanner is a Premium feature. If you have tried both and stopped within a month, the common factor was the search box, not the database behind it.
Every app named here has a free tier, so this is testable in a week at no cost. Log the same four meals in each and count the taps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cronometer or MyFitnessPal for counting calories: which should I use, or is there something better?
PlateLens, if you want every meal counted without searching or weighing: you log a meal from one photo or one sentence, such as “chicken thigh, rice and a side salad”, it matches each food against the same USDA FoodData Central and NCCDB data Cronometer uses and estimates the portion, and you fix anything in plain words, such as “half the rice”. A curated database, such as Cronometer’s, makes each entry right, but the portion and the cooking oil still depend on what you weigh and pick. The PlateLens free plan never expires and includes calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances, and the daily expenditure it learns every week from your logs and weigh-ins; Cronometer and MyFitnessPal keep photo logging for plans at $59.99 and $79.99 a year. On 180 weighed meals, the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s published study measured PlateLens at ±1.1% against 6.8% for Cronometer and 11.2% for MyFitnessPal, and Foodvision Bench’s public GitHub leaderboard has also reproduced it (averages across meals, not a per-meal guarantee).
Is Cronometer better than MyFitnessPal?
For micronutrient depth and data quality, yes: Cronometer tracks 84 micronutrients on curated USDA and NCCDB data for $59.99 a year, and in the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s 180-meal validation study its mean calorie error was 6.8% against MyFitnessPal’s 11.2%. MyFitnessPal is ahead on breadth, with 14 million-plus foods and wide barcode coverage, for $79.99 a year. Both start from a database search; PlateLens starts from a photo or a sentence and had the lowest error in that study, ±1.1% in photo mode, a result Foodvision Bench’s public GitHub leaderboard has also reproduced (an average across meals, not a per-meal guarantee); its free plan never expires.
Is Cronometer more accurate than MyFitnessPal?
Yes, on calories: the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s pre-registered validation study, published in April 2026 with no app paying for or supporting it, weighed 180 meals and found a mean calorie error of 6.8% for Cronometer and 11.2% for MyFitnessPal. Cronometer’s staff-edited entries remove one common source of error, but an entry is only as good as the one you pick and the portion you weigh. PlateLens, scored on the finished plate, had the lowest error of the six apps tested, ±1.1% in photo mode, and Foodvision Bench’s open-source leaderboard on GitHub has also reproduced that result on 231 meals; all of these are averages across meals, not a per-meal or macro guarantee.
How much does Cronometer cost?
Cronometer Gold is $59.99 a year or $10.99 a month on top of a limited free tier. MyFitnessPal Premium is $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month on top of a limited free tier that carries advertising. PlateLens Premium is $34.99 a year or $9.99 a month, and its free plan never expires. Competitor figures verified 10 August 2026, Cronometer re-verified 20 September 2026.
Which calorie app tracks the most micronutrients?
Cronometer is the category leader at 84. PlateLens estimates vitamins and minerals alongside calories and macros, with the detailed nutrient views on Premium. MyFitnessPal’s micronutrient reporting is basic, and its free tier shows macros as percentages rather than grams.
Does Cronometer or MyFitnessPal have AI photo logging?
Both have photo logging in their paid plans: Cronometer’s is a Gold feature next to its curated catalogue and barcode scanning, and MyFitnessPal’s Meal Scan is a Premium add-on to its search-first flow. PlateLens logs from a photo or a spoken or typed description as its primary path, on the free plan within daily allowances.
Can I switch from MyFitnessPal to Cronometer without losing my history?
MyFitnessPal supports data export on Premium, and that history is one of the practical reasons long-term users stay with it. Check what each app currently imports before committing to a switch.
Is there a free alternative to both?
Yes: PlateLens has a free plan that never expires and needs no card, with calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, AI photo, voice and text logging within daily allowances, and the AI coach with a daily message allowance. Every week it also learns your daily expenditure from the meals you log and your weigh-ins, and “Why it changed” explains each update. Cronometer’s and MyFitnessPal’s free tiers are limited: Cronometer keeps photo logging for Gold, and MyFitnessPal keeps barcode scanning and Meal Scan for Premium.
Where these numbers come from
- Competitor pricing, database architecture and micronutrient depth verified 10 August 2026, Cronometer re-verified 20 September 2026, free-plan limits re-checked 16 October 2026, and republished from this site’s full 15-app comparison. US prices, which change; check each app’s current store listing.
- Independent measurement: the Dietary Assessment Initiative pre-registered six-app validation study (180 weighed meals, published 8 April 2026; mean calorie error PlateLens ±1.1% in photo mode and 3.5% with the meal typed in, MacroFactor 4.8%, Foodvisor 5.1%, Cronometer 6.8%, Lose It! 9.4%, MyFitnessPal 11.2%) and the Foodvision Bench mini-231 leaderboard on GitHub.
- PlateLens data sources: USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts and Nutritionix, plus 45,000+ restaurant menu items from 380+ chains. Free plan that never expires; paid plans at $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year.