Logma
Most people who search for a MyFitnessPal alternative are not done with calorie counting. They are tired of something specific: the barcode scanner they used to get for free, the ads, the price, or the two minutes it takes to log a simple lunch.
That matters, because the right replacement depends on which one it is. Moving to another app with the same search bar fixes the price and nothing else. So this guide goes reason by reason.
Quick disclosure: I'm Batu, and I build Logma, a voice calorie tracker for iPhone. So yes, I'm biased. I'll tell you where other apps fit you better than mine, and every number below comes from a source you can check at the bottom.
Why people leave MyFitnessPal in 2026
These are the reasons that come up again and again, and what is actually true about each one right now.
- The barcode scanner is paid. MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning to Premium on October 1, 2022, as Digital Trends reported at the time. It is still listed as a Premium feature today.
- Premium costs real money. In the US it runs $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Premium+, which adds the meal planner, is $99.99 a year.
- Voice Log is Premium too. MyFitnessPal does have a voice feature, but it sits behind Premium and it only works in English.
- The free version has ads. An ad free log is one of the things Premium sells.
- Logging takes a while. Search, scroll, pick the closest match, fix the serving size, then do it again for every part of the meal. I wrote a whole post on why MyFitnessPal feels slow, so I'll keep it short here.
One more thing worth knowing: MyFitnessPal bought Cal AI, the popular photo calorie app. The deal was announced in March 2026, and Cal AI still runs as its own app. But if part of the reason you're leaving is the company itself, Cal AI now belongs to the same one.
Pick your alternative by the reason you're leaving
Match the app to the problem. Here is the short version.
| Why you're leaving | What to look for | Worth a look |
|---|---|---|
| The barcode scanner paywall | A free tier that still scans | Cronometer, whose free version includes a barcode scanner |
| The Premium price | A cheaper yearly plan, or a free app you can live on | Cronometer free, or Logma at $49.99 a year after a 3 day free trial |
| Searching and typing every item | A different way to log, not a different database | Logma for voice, Cal AI for photos |
| You want vitamins and minerals too | Deep micronutrient tracking | Cronometer |
| You want targets that follow your weight trend | Coaching that adjusts to your own data | MacroFactor |
If the barcode scanner is what you miss most and you eat a lot of packaged food, a search and scan app is still the right shape for you. Talking will not beat a barcode on a protein bar. Where voice wins is everything without a label: home cooking, restaurant plates, the leftovers, the thing someone brought to the office.
Photo apps are fast too, but a camera can't see the oil in the pan or the dressing mixed into a salad. I went into that in detail in this Cal AI post.
Why faster matters more than it sounds
It's easy to treat logging speed as a nice extra. The research suggests it's closer to the whole game.
In a 2019 study in the journal Obesity, people in a 24 week online weight loss program spent an average of 23.2 minutes a day logging food in the first month, and 14.6 minutes by month six. The people who lost the most weight were not the ones who spent more minutes. They were the ones who opened their food journal more often: about 2.7 times a day for those who lost at least 10 percent of their starting weight, compared with 1.7 times for those who lost less.
So the goal is frequent, quick logs. If each entry costs two minutes, you end up logging once at night from memory, and the small stuff falls out. If it costs a few seconds, you log right after you eat. That's the whole case for a faster app, and it's why I built Logma around talking instead of searching. There's more on this in why speed makes tracking stick.
Is the MyFitnessPal database the real problem?
Probably not, at least for calories. A 2020 validation study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research compared food logs built with MyFitnessPal against a national food composition database. For total calories the match was strong, a correlation of 0.96, and carbs, fat and protein lined up well too. Sodium and cholesterol were the weak spots.
So if your numbers felt off on MyFitnessPal, the database was likely fine. What usually goes wrong is everything around it: the wrong entry picked in a hurry, a serving size left on the default, the oil in the pan never logged at all.
A faster app helps most with that last one, because you're more likely to mention the oil when mentioning it costs you nothing. "Chicken and rice, cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil" is one sentence.
What logging with your voice looks like
Here is a normal lunch logged both ways.
In a search based app: search "turkey sandwich", scroll, pick one, change the serving. Search "chips", pick a brand. Search "iced tea". Three items, three searches, a minute or two if nothing goes wrong.
In Logma: tap the mic and say it.
"A turkey sandwich on wheat with mayo, a small bag of chips and an unsweetened iced tea."
Logma counts every item in that sentence and logs the calories and macros in about 3 seconds. If you'd rather not talk, type the same sentence and you get the same result. Say weights when you know them, like "150 grams of chicken", and skip them when you don't.
A few things people coming from MyFitnessPal usually ask about: there's no account to create, your meal history stays on your phone, and voice logging is part of the plan instead of a paid extra. The yearly plan starts with a 3 day free trial, then it's $49.99 a year. It works in English and Turkish.
My own switch, and a first week plan
I'm losing my last 8 kg, about 18 pounds, in public with Logma, so I log every meal the same way you would. What made it stick for me was not willpower. It was getting the log down to something I can do while standing at the kitchen counter.
If you're switching this week, here's what I'd do:
- Keep your old calorie target if you trust it. If you don't, get a fresh number from the free calorie calculator.
- Don't try to move your history over. Your old log already did its job. Start clean on a Monday.
- Log the five meals you eat most often first, and check the numbers look sane next to what you're used to seeing.
- Log right after you eat, not at night. That's where a fast app pays off.
- Mention the extras: oil, butter, dressing, the second handful. That's where most missing calories hide.
Where MyFitnessPal still wins
To be fair to it: MyFitnessPal has one of the biggest food databases around, it runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and if you eat a lot of packaged food and pay for Premium, scanning barcodes is quick. Logma is iPhone only for now. If you need Android or a desktop site, it's not for you yet.
If you want the whole field side by side, my comparison of calorie tracking apps in 2026 goes through MyFitnessPal, Lose It, Cronometer, Cal AI, MacroFactor and Logma by how you actually log food.
FAQ
What is the best free alternative to MyFitnessPal?
It depends on what you need from a free app. Cronometer's free version still includes a barcode scanner and detailed nutrients. Logma has no free version, but the yearly plan starts with a 3 day free trial with voice included, so you can see whether talking fits you before you pay anything.
Is there a MyFitnessPal alternative with voice logging?
Yes. Logma is built around voice: you say what you ate and it logs the calories and macros. MyFitnessPal's Voice Log and Lose It's Say It are Premium only and English only. Logma's voice logging is included in every plan, in English and Turkish.
Is the MyFitnessPal barcode scanner free?
No. Since October 1, 2022, barcode scanning has been part of MyFitnessPal Premium, which costs $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US.
Is Cal AI owned by MyFitnessPal?
Yes. MyFitnessPal announced in March 2026 that it had acquired Cal AI. Cal AI still runs as a separate app.
Do I need an account to use Logma?
No. There's no sign up and no email. Your meals are stored on your iPhone.
Is Logma available on Android?
Not yet. Logma is iPhone only and needs iOS 17 or later.
Sources: MyFitnessPal Premium features · RecurDash, MyFitnessPal US pricing (verified July 2026) · TechCrunch, MyFitnessPal acquires Cal AI (March 2026) · Harvey et al., Log Often, Lose More, Obesity (2019) · Evenepoel et al., Accuracy of nutrient calculations using MyFitnessPal, JMIR (2020). Numbers are approximate and can change; nothing here is medical advice.
