Most years a calorie tracker list could be copied from the year before with new screenshots. Not this one. In 2026 the camera became a normal way to log food, paywalls moved, and the feature serious dieters used to pay a premium for, a calorie target that learns from your own data, started showing up in mainstream apps.
So we started again: seven apps, ranked for the kind of eating most of us actually do, which is breakfast at home, lunch from somewhere, a snack we would rather not count and dinner that is either cooked from scratch or delivered.
Our ranking
- PlateLens: the one we would install for most people
- Cronometer: for vitamins, minerals and detail
- Lose It!: the gentlest way to start
- MacroFactor: a paid coach for lifters
- MyFitnessPal: the widest restaurant catalogue
- YAZIO: counting and fasting, with European groceries
- Lifesum: for people who want a plan to follow
What changed this year
Photo logging went mainstream, and mostly behind a paywall. Several big trackers now let you photograph a meal, but most charge for it. MyFitnessPal lists Meal Scan with barcode scanning and voice logging among its Premium benefits, and Cronometer’s Photo Log is a Gold feature. PlateLens is the exception among the leaders: free accounts get three AI photo scans a day.
Prices crept up. Cronometer Gold rose to $59.99 a year from about $55 (checked September 20, 2026). MyFitnessPal Premium is $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month. PlateLens Premium sits at $34.99 a year (checked August 10, 2026), below Lose It! at $39.99.
Targets started learning. For years, MacroFactor was the app to choose if you wanted your calorie target recalculated from your real intake and weight trend. In October 2026 PlateLens added adaptive TDEE, which does the same kind of learning inside a general tracker.
The cost of a year
| App | Free version | Year of the paid tier | What the paid tier adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | Yes, never expires | $34.99 | Unlimited photo scans and AI-coach messages |
| Lose It! | Yes | $39.99 | More insights and planning tools |
| Cronometer | Yes, with ads | $59.99 | Photo Log, Voice Log, Crono Coach, no ads |
| MacroFactor | No (trial) | $71.99 | The whole app |
| MyFitnessPal | Yes | $79.99 | Meal Scan, voice logging, barcode scanning |
| YAZIO | Yes | Varies by country | Plans, recipes, analysis (PRO) |
| Lifesum | Yes | Varies by country | Diet plans and recipes |
1. PlateLens
The reason PlateLens tops this list is that it refuses a trade-off the rest of the field still makes. Classic trackers are excellent databases you type into; photo-first apps are quick cameras with thin data behind them. PlateLens is both. Its database is verified, with more than 1.2 million foods, and photo, barcode, typed and spoken entries all go into the same diary.
In daily use that means you never have to think about which app to open. Breakfast you eat every day is a saved meal. The packaged yogurt is a barcode. The café salad is a photo you check before saving. The dinner you cook every Sunday is a recipe you built once.
The rest of the app has filled in around the diary. Calorie and macro goals are set from your profile. Each food reports 82+ nutrients, with net carbs worked out for you. You will also find a clock for time-restricted eating, a log for glucose readings, a place to count drinks, a meal planner that writes your shopping list, and a body scan that reads waist, hip and chest from a dozen phone photos. Phones, the watch and a browser all share one account, and your history can be downloaded as JSON at any point.
Nothing about the free tier runs out, and it never asks for a card. Searching and scanning are uncapped, and each day brings three photo scans and five chats with the coach. Paying ($34.99 for a year, $9.99 for a month) lifts those caps.
2. Cronometer
Cronometer is the tracker for people who want to know what is in their food, not just how much. Its makers count as many as 95 nutrients and compounds per food and call their data lab-analysed, which has made it a favourite with vegans keeping an eye on iron and B12 and with anyone following a clinician’s instructions. You can scan for free, with adverts. Gold costs $59.99 annually or $10.99 monthly and brings photo and voice entry plus Crono Coach, which turns your log into short pieces of advice.
It is a more exacting app than PlateLens, and logging takes longer. For a nutrient audit that is the point; for everyday calorie tracking it is a cost.
3. Lose It!
This is the app we would hand to someone who has never counted a calorie and is a little nervous about starting. Tell it the weight you are aiming for and it gives you one daily calorie number, on bright, tidy screens, with challenges and meal plans to keep you going. Snap It reads food from photos and a scanner handles packets. Its App Store page prices Premium at $39.99 for the year.
4. MacroFactor
MacroFactor rests on one strong idea: work out what you really burn from your food log and the scale, and move your calorie and macro goals each week to match. Data entry is quick and compact, written for people who have kept a food diary before. You pay from the start ($71.99 yearly, $47.99 half-yearly, $11.99 monthly), and it lives on phones only.
5. MyFitnessPal
No catalogue is bigger than MyFitnessPal’s, which its users built, and if chain restaurants feature in your week it finds your order more often than any rival. Member-made entries do repeat, so expect to choose between versions of one food. At $79.99 a year, its Premium plan costs the most of the seven.
6. YAZIO
Founded in Germany, YAZIO is strongest for people who shop at European supermarkets. It joins counting and scanning to fasting tools and a cookbook of recipes, and saves many of its plans and reports for PRO subscribers.
7. Lifesum
Lifesum is for people who would rather follow a plan than invent one. It offers ready-made eating plans, from high-protein to Mediterranean and keto, on top of a food diary and barcode scanner, wrapped in one of the most attractive designs in the category. Most plans are part of Premium.
How to choose in two minutes
- You want a single app for every kind of meal: PlateLens.
- You need detailed nutrient reports for a health reason: Cronometer.
- You are nervous about starting: Lose It!
- You lift seriously and want an algorithm to steer your targets: MacroFactor.
- You eat out at chains most days: MyFitnessPal.
How we put this together
Every feature and price here reflects the companies’ current plans and store pages, dated where it matters. Our ranking weighs how quickly an ordinary day can be logged, how consistent the food data is, how much the free version does and what a year of the paid version costs. The list is reviewed every month.