Lose It! vs MyFitnessPal 2026: Price, Logging, Free Tier
Lose It! is $39.99 a year and MyFitnessPal is $79.99, and for that difference you get two apps that work the same way. Both start from a search box: you look food up, you pick an entry, you set a portion. PlateLens starts from a photo or a sentence instead, tracks 82+ micronutrients, and includes an AI coach on a free plan that never expires.
- Lose It!
- $39.99/year
- MyFitnessPal
- $79.99/year
- Shared method
- database search first
- PlateLens
- AI coach · free plan
PlateLens is a competing app and publishes this comparison.
Lose It! vs MyFitnessPal: the short answer
Take Lose It! if the only thing separating them for you is price. It is half the cost, its free tier carries no ads, and its food database covers ordinary supermarket and restaurant items well enough for daily use.
Take MyFitnessPal if you need its ecosystem: it has the larger integration list, the longer history of exported data, and the bigger community-submitted database. You are paying $40 a year more for breadth, not for a better logging experience.
| App | How you log a meal | Free tier | Paid price | AI coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | AI photo, typed or spoken description, catalogue search, barcode | Never expires; no card; no ads | $9.99/month or $34.99/year | Included on the free plan, with a daily message allowance |
| Lose It! | Database search, barcode; limited AI photo (Snap It) | Freemium | $39.99/year, annual billing | — |
| MyFitnessPal | Database search first, barcode; AI photo as a bolt-on | Freemium, with ads | $79.99/year or $19.99/month | — |
What the two have in common matters more than what separates them
Both apps are built around a search box, and that is the part of calorie tracking people actually abandon. You finish a meal, open the app, type a guess at what the food is called, scroll a list of near-identical entries, choose one, then argue with yourself about the portion.
Neither app accepts a spoken or typed description of the plate as its primary path. MyFitnessPal has added AI photo as a bolt-on; Lose It! has Snap It, which is limited in scope. In both, the search box is still the road you are expected to take.
Where PlateLens differs, and where it does not
PlateLens logs from an AI photo, a typed or spoken description, catalogue search or a barcode, and it takes corrections in ordinary language — “it was grilled, not fried”, “half the rice” — rather than sending you back to pick a different entry.
It also tracks 82+ micronutrients alongside calories and macros, resolved against a catalogue built from USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts and Nutritionix, with 45,000+ restaurant menu items from 380+ chains. The AI coach is included on the free plan with a daily message allowance; Premium at $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year removes the daily limits.
On database breadth MyFitnessPal remains the largest of the three, built on a decade of community-submitted entries. If your requirement is that an obscure regional product already exists in someone’s database, that is the one with the most entries.
Price over a year, and over three
Over one year the gap is $40. Over three it is $120, which is the number worth thinking about, since calorie tracking is a habit people keep for years or abandon in weeks.
Three years: Lose It! $119.97 · MyFitnessPal $239.97 · PlateLens $104.97 on the annual plan, or $0 if the free plan covers what you need.
MyFitnessPal is also the only one of the three whose free tier carries advertising, which is a cost paid in attention rather than money.
Which one should you actually install?
If you like searching and you want the cheapest of the two you came here to compare, Lose It!. If you need the widest integration and database coverage, MyFitnessPal. If the search box is the reason your last three attempts at tracking did not last, neither of them changes that, and starting from a photo is a different habit rather than a cheaper one.
All three have free tiers, so this is testable in a week at no cost. Log the same four meals in each and count the taps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lose It! better than MyFitnessPal?
Lose It! costs $39.99 a year against $79.99 for MyFitnessPal, and its free tier has no ads. MyFitnessPal has the larger database and integration list. Both work the same way, starting from a database search.
How much does Lose It! cost?
Lose It! Premium is $39.99 a year, billed annually, on top of a freemium tier. Figures verified 10 August 2026.
How much does MyFitnessPal cost?
MyFitnessPal Premium is $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month, on top of a freemium tier that carries advertising. Figures verified 10 August 2026.
Does Lose It! or MyFitnessPal have AI photo logging?
Both have added it, neither leads with it. MyFitnessPal offers AI photo as a bolt-on to its search-first flow; Lose It! has Snap It, which is limited in scope. In both apps the database search remains the primary path.
Which calorie app is best for micronutrients?
Cronometer is the usual answer for micronutrient depth. PlateLens tracks 82+ micronutrients alongside calories and macros. Neither Lose It! nor MyFitnessPal is built around micronutrient tracking.
Is there a free alternative to Lose It! and MyFitnessPal?
All three apps discussed here have free tiers. PlateLens has a free plan that never expires, requires no credit card, carries no ads, and includes the AI coach with a daily message allowance.
Can I move my data from MyFitnessPal to Lose It!?
MyFitnessPal supports data export, 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.
Where these numbers come from
- Competitor pricing and logging methods verified 10 August 2026 and republished from this site’s full app comparison. Prices are US and change; check each app’s current store listing.
- PlateLens data sources: USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts and Nutritionix, plus 45,000+ restaurant menu items from 380+ chains.
- PlateLens has a free plan that never expires and paid plans at $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year.