A MyFitnessPal alternative where you just say what you ate

MyFitnessPal vs MyFoodBuddy, feature by feature

Both apps count calories, protein, carbs and fat. The difference is how a meal gets into the app. MyFitnessPal is a search-and-pick food diary with a free tier and two paid plans. MyFoodBuddy is a paid iPhone app where you text or say what you ate and an AI coach named Fiona logs it.

Two rows matter most. Barcode scanning is free to use in MyFoodBuddy once you subscribe, while MyFitnessPal moved it to Premium in 2022. And logging by sentence is how MyFoodBuddy works for every meal, while MyFitnessPal starts from a search box and keeps its voice and photo logging on Premium.

How MyFitnessPal works day to day

MyFitnessPal has been around for about 20 years and says over 280 million people have joined. Here is the daily flow as its own pages and App Store listing describe it.

1. Set a goal. Weight loss, gain, maintenance or performance, with calorie and nutrition targets. Custom macro goals by gram or by day of the week are Premium.
2. Search for each food. Free members search from the home screen. The database has 20.5 million foods, including restaurant dishes.
3. Pick an entry and a serving size, then add it to breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks. Saved meals and recipes make repeat meals quicker.
4. Use the faster tools on Premium. Barcode Scan for packaged food, Meal Scan to log from a photo, Voice Log to describe a meal out loud, and multi-day logging for up to 7 days at once.
5. Track exercise and steps. It connects to 40+ apps and devices, including Garmin, Fitbit, Strava and Withings.
6. Ask the AI Coach (Premium). It gives nutrition insights based on your diary and goals, and can suggest meals from a photo of your fridge.
7. Plan meals on Premium+. A weekly meal planner with 1,500+ recipes, 10 diet styles and grocery lists that sync to Instacart, Walmart, Kroger and others in the US.

MyFitnessPal also added GLP-1 support in the US and Canada, where you log doses and side effects next to your food and set dose reminders.

How MyFoodBuddy works day to day

MyFoodBuddy was built by a founder who got tired of MyFitnessPal. Every meal meant a database search, picking the right entry out of a long list, then fixing grams and cups by hand. The about page has the full story. The daily flow is short.

1. Say what you ate. Type or speak a normal sentence, like “two eggs, toast with butter and a coffee with oat milk.” Several foods in one message is the normal case.
2. Fiona logs it. She splits the sentence into foods and amounts, looks each one up, and shows a card with calories, protein, carbs and fat. Tap Log it.
3. Scan packaged food. The barcode scanner is part of the plan.
4. Fix anything by chatting. Had a bigger portion or forgot the dressing? Tell Fiona and she updates the entry.
5. Ask questions. Fiona answers questions about your food, goals and progress, such as what is left for today or how your week went.
6. Keep going. Streaks, friends and leaderboards, plus Apple Health sync for weight, sleep, steps and workouts.

How much does MyFitnessPal cost compared to MyFoodBuddy

MyFitnessPal has three levels. Free, Premium at $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month, and Premium+ at $99.99 a year or $24.99 a month. MyFoodBuddy has one plan at $39.99 a year or $7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial. Both trials renew into a paid plan unless you cancel.

What you would actually pay

Read honestly, the table splits two ways. If you would pay for MyFitnessPal Premium anyway, MyFoodBuddy costs half as much per year and less than half per month. If you are happy searching for every food and never want to pay, MyFitnessPal’s free version is the cheaper choice, because MyFoodBuddy has no free tier.

One small note. The US App Store also lists MyFitnessPal Premium items at $9.99 and $49.99, which MyFitnessPal does not explain on its public pages. The prices above are the standard ones on myfitnesspal.com/premium.

Is the MyFitnessPal barcode scanner free

No. MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning to Premium on October 1, 2022, as Droid Life reported at the time. Its Premium page today lists “Barcode Scan and Meal Scan” in the Premium column and not in Free. Free members can still log packaged food by searching for it by name.

That change is why “myfitnesspal alternative with barcode scanner” and “myfitnesspal barcode scanner free” are common searches. If a free scanner is the only thing you want, MyFoodBuddy is not the answer, since it has no free tier. If you are ready to pay for a tracker, MyFoodBuddy includes the scanner in its $39.99 a year plan, and its barcode lookups use Open Food Facts with USDA branded data as a backup.

MyFitnessPal free vs Premium, what you actually get

MyFitnessPal’s free version is real and still useful. Here is how the three options line up, based on MyFitnessPal’s own comparison tables.

So is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it? If you want photo logging, a fasting timer or per-day macro targets, those are things MyFoodBuddy does not have, and Premium is the way to get them in MyFitnessPal. If what you want from Premium is faster logging and no ads, MyFoodBuddy covers that for half the yearly price.

Can you log a whole meal at once in MyFitnessPal

Yes, on Premium. MyFitnessPal’s Voice Log lets you “describe your meal out loud” and then tap once to log it, and Meal Scan logs a plate from a photo. On the free version, each food is its own search and its own serving size choice. Saved meals help for meals you repeat.

In MyFoodBuddy, a whole meal in one message is the only way it works, and you can type it or say it. A few details that differ from search-based logging.

• You can type it. A sentence in the chat works the same as speaking, which helps in a meeting or on a train.
• Your numbers win. Say “300 calories of chicken nuggets” and MyFoodBuddy uses 300.
• You see it first. Every food gets a card with its calories and macros before anything is saved.
• Fixes are a message. “The rice was a bigger bowl” updates the entry, no hunting for the serving size field.

Where do MyFitnessPal and MyFoodBuddy get their calorie numbers

MyFitnessPal has 20.5 million foods, including restaurant menu items, and a large share of entries were added by users. A registered dietitian reviewing the app for Garage Gym Reviews in June 2026 listed inconsistent user-uploaded entries as a con. An older review by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (2019) found that only some MyFitnessPal entries were verified. In practice you often choose between several versions of the same food.

MyFoodBuddy does not have a user-submitted database. Everyday foods are matched in USDA FoodData Central, branded foods in the Edamam food database, and barcode scans in Open Food Facts. AI reads your sentence and works out portion weights. When nothing matches, the AI estimates and the card shows the result before it is saved, so you can check it.

We have not tested either app for accuracy, so we will not claim one is more accurate. The honest difference is where the numbers come from, and how much picking you do.

Is MyFitnessPal worth it, and what do reviews say

MyFitnessPal is one of the most reviewed apps in its category. When we checked on October 18, 2026, the US App Store showed about 2.4 million ratings averaging 4.7. Garage Gym Reviews scored it 4.42 out of 5, calling it “a versatile nutrition-tracking app that can fit into many goals and lifestyles.”

The praise is consistent. Reviewers like the size of the food database, device syncing with Apple Watch, Fitbit and Garmin, and the community forums. App Store reviewers who use Premium+ like the meal planner and grocery lists.

The complaints are consistent too. The same Garage Gym Reviews piece lists the free version’s missing barcode scanner, the Premium prices, inconsistent user-uploaded entries and ads as cons. The 2022 barcode change drew a wave of coverage and is still a common reason people search for alternatives.

When MyFitnessPal is the better pick

• You want a free calorie counter and do not mind ads or searching for each food.
• You use Android or a web browser. MyFoodBuddy is iPhone only.
• You want photo logging, a fasting timer or meal plans with grocery delivery. MyFoodBuddy has none of these.
• You eat at chain restaurants a lot and want to pick the exact menu item from a large database.
• You are on a GLP-1 medication and want dose and side effect logging in the same app.
• You already have years of history in MyFitnessPal and want to keep it in one place.

When MyFoodBuddy is the better pick

• You stopped using MyFitnessPal because logging took too long, and you would rather describe a meal than search for it.
• You want the barcode scanner, voice logging and no ads without paying $79.99 a year.
• You want to fix entries by chatting and ask an AI coach about your day.
• You care about 20+ vitamins and minerals next to your calories and macros.
• You like streaks, friends and leaderboards to keep you logging.

Still comparing? See MyFoodBuddy vs Lose It, MyFoodBuddy vs Cronometer and MyFoodBuddy vs MyNetDiary, or browse every comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and how we checked