Short answer. Cronometer's free tier includes the barcode scanner and up to 84 nutrients and compounds. MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind Premium in October 2022, and its App Store listing still files barcode scan under Premium today. If you want micronutrients or a free scanner, take Cronometer. If you want the largest crowd-built food database and the widest set of third-party integrations, MyFitnessPal is still the bigger network. Cronometer Gold costs $59.99 a year; MyFitnessPal Premium costs $79.99 a year.
Who wrote this: the MacroLog team. MacroLog is a competing calorie tracker, so we are not neutral. We use neither app to run our business and we take no affiliate commission from either. Every rival figure below was read off the company's own page or its US App Store listing on 10 September 2026, and the URL is in the sources block. Where a fact could not be verified today, it is not on this page.
Price and free tier, side by side
| Cronometer | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price (US) | Gold $59.99/yr, shown as $4.99/mo | Premium $79.99/yr, shown as $6.67/mo |
| Monthly price (US) | Gold $10.99/mo | Premium+ $24.99/mo |
| Higher tier | None above Gold | Premium+ $99.99/yr, adds meal planner and 1,500+ recipes |
| Free tier exists | Yes | Yes |
| Barcode scanner free | Yes | No, listed under Premium |
| Nutrients tracked free | Up to 84 nutrients and compounds | Calories and macros; custom macro goals are Premium |
| Food database | 1M+ items, described as lab-analyzed | Crowd-submitted, the largest in the category |
| Photo logging | Gold (Photo Log) | Premium (meal scan) |
| Voice logging | Gold (Voice Log) | Premium |
| US App Store rating | Not read for this page | 4.7, 2.4M ratings |
Prices are US App Store and US web pricing, 10 September 2026. Both apps price differently by country.
The barcode question decides most of these searches
MyFitnessPal announced in August 2022 that from 1 October barcode scanning would need a Premium subscription, and emailed free users to say so. Premium cost $19.99 a month at the time. Four years later the change has stuck: the current US App Store description sells Premium on "Faster nutrition, calorie & macro tracking with barcode scan, meal scan & voice logging".
Cronometer never followed. Its Gold page lists "Barcode scanner" in the free column alongside custom macro and micronutrient targets, custom foods and recipes, and 7-day reports. For someone who eats mostly packaged food, that single row is worth more than every other difference on this page, because scanning is the fastest way most people log anything.
Micronutrient depth: not close
Cronometer tracks up to 84 nutrients and compounds on the free tier and sources its core database from lab analysis rather than user submissions. That matters when you are checking a real number: iron on a vegan diet, potassium on blood-pressure medication, vitamin D through a northern winter. MyFitnessPal's free tier reports calories and macros, and puts custom macro and nutrition goals behind Premium.
The cost of Cronometer's approach is entry friction. A lab-analyzed database contains fewer supermarket own-brand products than a crowd-submitted one, so you will more often build a custom food. MyFitnessPal's database is larger precisely because anyone can add to it, which is also why it contains duplicate and wrong entries.
Apple Health: both sync, in different directions
| Cronometer | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Writes to Apple Health | General activity, 13 nutrients, blood glucose, body fat, body temperature, blood pressure, dietary cholesterol, height | Meal summaries: calories and some nutrients; caffeine and vitamin A are not sent |
| Reads from Apple Health | General activity, exercise, height, sleep duration and stages, heart rate, body fat, blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, waist circumference | Exercise (same day only), weight, sleep |
| Weight two-way | Reads weight | Yes, both directions |
| Food read back from Health | Not listed | No |
Cronometer reads a far wider set of biometrics, which fits how its users work: log the food, then correlate it against glucose, body fat and sleep. MyFitnessPal's exercise import only picks up workouts logged the same day, so a session you record late does not backfill.
What each one is genuinely better at
MyFitnessPal's real strengths. The database is the biggest in consumer nutrition, and for restaurant chains and regional supermarket products that gap is obvious the first time you search. Its 2.4M App Store ratings mean almost every recipe blog, gym program and coach already assumes you use it. Premium+ at $99.99 a year bundles a meal planner and 1,500+ recipes, which no competitor here matches.
Cronometer's real strengths. The free tier is the most complete in the category. Gold at $59.99 a year is $20 cheaper than MyFitnessPal Premium and adds a fasting timer, macro scheduling by day of week, custom charts and unlimited history. If you have ever wanted to ask which foods in your week supplied your magnesium, Cronometer answers it and MyFitnessPal does not.
Verdict by use case
| You are | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking a deficiency or a clinical marker | Cronometer | 84 nutrients free, lab-analyzed database, biometrics read from Apple Health |
| Unwilling to pay anything | Cronometer | Free barcode scanner and free micronutrients |
| Eating out constantly | MyFitnessPal | Largest restaurant and branded coverage |
| Following a coach or program that assumes an app | MyFitnessPal | It is the default everyone else already integrates with |
| Wanting a meal planner in the same app | MyFitnessPal Premium+ | 1,500+ recipes and grocery syncing, $99.99/yr |
| Optimising annual cost with photo and voice logging | Cronometer Gold | $59.99/yr including Photo Log and Voice Log |
Where MacroLog fits, honestly
MacroLog is our app, and it is a third option rather than a winner of this comparison. Its free tier keeps manual search, unlimited barcode scanning, basic stats and local storage. Pro is $5.99 a month or $49 a year in the US, with a first week that costs $2 rather than being free, and it adds AI photo logging, voice logging, 12 micronutrients and CSV/JSON export. Barcode data comes from OpenFoodFacts and USDA FoodData Central with FatSecret as a fallback.
Read the columns against each other rather than the marketing. Cronometer tracks up to 84 nutrients; MacroLog tracks 12. Cronometer's database is lab-analyzed; OpenFoodFacts is user-submitted, so MacroLog rejects entries with zero calories and still cannot promise every entry is right. MyFitnessPal has more integrations than we do. What MacroLog gives you that neither gives you is a free barcode scanner plus AI photo and voice logging in one paid tier under $50 a year, and logging that works offline because everything is stored locally in SQLite first — photo and voice logging are the exception, because they need internet.
Common questions
Is Cronometer free?
Yes, there is a $0 tier. It includes food, exercise and biometric logging, the barcode scanner, up to 84 nutrients, custom foods and recipes, and 7-day reports. Gold removes ads, unlocks unlimited history and adds Photo Log, Voice Log and the fasting timer.
Can you still scan barcodes on MyFitnessPal for free?
No. Barcode scan is listed under Premium in the current US App Store description, following the change announced in August 2022 and applied from 1 October 2022.
Which is more accurate?
Neither publishes a measured accuracy figure, so nobody can answer that with a number. What differs is provenance: Cronometer states its database is lab-analyzed, MyFitnessPal's is crowd-submitted. Provenance is not the same as accuracy, but it tells you which errors to expect.
Can I export my data?
Cronometer lists downloadable reports and extended reporting under Gold; MyFitnessPal lists "Download progress reports" under Premium. On both, exporting is a paid feature.
What this is based on
- cronometer.com/gold, read 10 September 2026. Source for Gold pricing, the free-tier feature list, the 84-nutrient figure and the 1M+ food database claim.
- cronometer.com/blog/apple-health, read 10 September 2026. Both Apple Health lists above come from here.
- myfitnesspal.com/premium, read 10 September 2026. Source for $79.99 Premium, $99.99 Premium+, $24.99/mo and the Premium feature list.
- MyFitnessPal on the US App Store, read 10 September 2026. The 4.7 / 2.4M rating figures and the quoted Premium description, barcode scan included, are from this listing.
- MyFitnessPal help centre: Apple Health, read 10 September 2026 through Google's index, because the help centre refuses automated requests. It is what the sync-direction rows rest on.
- Droid Life, 24 August 2022, read 10 September 2026, non-vendor report of the barcode paywall announcement, the 1 October 2022 date and the $19.99/mo price at the time.
- MacroLog's own product documentation for the MacroLog column. We publish that column knowing readers will discount it; the rival columns are the ones you can check.
What this comparison does not solve
It does not tell you which app logs your food correctly, because none of the three publishes a measured accuracy test against a known corpus, and neither do we. It does not cover pricing outside the US, and both rivals charge different amounts in other stores. Cronometer's Apple Health export covers 13 nutrients rather than all 84, so the deep micronutrient data stays inside Cronometer. MacroLog has no web app and no working multi-device sync today: sync is planned, not shipped, so if you log on a phone and want the same diary on a tablet tonight, MacroLog is the wrong choice and MyFitnessPal is the right one.