Head to head · verified September 2026
Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal
Which one is better, where they differ, what each costs, and whether a third app beats both. Every answer below comes from feature and pricing data we checked in September 2026.
Which is better, Cronometer or MyFitnessPal?
Cronometer covers more of what we track: three things MyFitnessPal either lacks or keeps behind its paywall, including barcode scanner and micronutrient tracking. MyFitnessPal is still the better pick for users who prefer manual entry.
Is Cronometer or MyFitnessPal cheaper?
Cronometer, at $59.99 a year against $79.99. Both offer a free tier, though what survives on it differs.
What is the difference between Cronometer and MyFitnessPal?
On the features we verified for both, barcode scanner (included with Cronometer, behind the paywall on MyFitnessPal); micronutrient tracking (Cronometer has it, MyFitnessPal does not); intermittent fasting (Cronometer has it, MyFitnessPal does not). Everything else on the list, they both do.
How do I get my food log out of Cronometer or MyFitnessPal?
Both let you export to CSV, though some gate it behind their paid tier. What moves to another app is narrower than people expect: weight and workouts carry over through Apple Health or Health Connect, but the food diary does not. No tracker in this category can import another's, Nutrify included. You can still read your own export: our export viewer parses it in your browser, with nothing uploaded, and shows your logging consistency, macro split and most-logged foods.
Open the export viewerIs there a better alternative to Cronometer and MyFitnessPal?
Depends what is missing for you. Nutrify logs six ways (photo, barcode, nutrition label, voice, text, or in the aisle) and keeps fasting, water, supplements and measurements on one timeline, for $34.99 a year on a single tier. It is also younger than both, with far fewer reviews behind it.
Try the third option free
The short version
Cronometer is the cheaper of the two at $59.99 a year against $79.99.
Where Cronometer wins
- Barcode scanner - included with Cronometer, behind the paywall on MyFitnessPal
- Micronutrient tracking - Cronometer has it, MyFitnessPal does not
- Intermittent fasting - Cronometer has it, MyFitnessPal does not
Where MyFitnessPal wins
Nothing on the tracked feature list that Cronometer does not also do. The difference between these two is price, data quality and how they feel to use rather than a feature gap.
Feature by feature
Nutrify is in the third column because this is our site and it would be odd to pretend otherwise. Judge it on the same rows.
| Feature | Cronometer | MyFitnessPal | Nutrify |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI photo logging | Gold only | Premium only | |
| Voice logging | Gold only | Premium only | |
| Barcode scanner | Premium since 2026 | ||
| Micronutrient tracking | 37, opt-in (BETA) | ||
| Intermittent fasting | |||
| Water tracking | |||
| Meal planning | |||
| Recipes | |||
| Exercise tracking | |||
| Progress analytics | |||
| Apple Health sync | |||
| No ads | |||
| Price per year | $59.99 | $79.99 | $34.99 |
A dash means we have not verified that cell for that app rather than that the feature is missing. Checked September 2026.
The pitch and the reports
What each one claims, and what people say after living with it.
Cronometer
What Cronometer says
- Research-grade data from USDA and NCC rather than crowd-sourced entries
- Up to 80-odd nutrients per entry, more than any mainstream tracker
- Built for people who want precision over speed
What users praise
- The database quality is the single most cited reason people stay
- Micronutrient depth nothing else in the category matches
- Barcode scanner is reliable and auto-fills label data
What users complain about
- Slow app startup and sync problems
- No offline mode
- Photo Log and Voice Log both require Gold
What independent research found
The same study that found poor validity in MyFitnessPal found good reliability and validity in Cronometer across every nutrient except fibre, vitamin A and vitamin D. Agreement between two people entering the same records reached 0.966 for energy and 0.977 for carbohydrates. It is one study on 43 Canadian endurance athletes, so it does not settle the question, but it is the closest thing to independent measurement this category has.
Morello et al., Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, October 2025Our read
Cronometer tracks far more nutrients than we do, against better-sourced data. If micronutrient precision is why you track at all, it is the right tool. Where it struggles is speed. It is built for someone weighing an ingredient at home, not someone photographing a plate in a restaurant.
Vendor claims from their own marketing; user themes from store reviews and community discussion, weighted to 2025–2026. Verified September 2026.
MyFitnessPal
What MyFitnessPal says
- The default calorie counter, on the strength of a 20M+ item food database
- Meal Scan AI photo logging, built with Passio
- Twenty years of history and the widest third-party integration list in the category
What users praise
- The database genuinely does have the obscure product you scanned
- Integrations with almost everything, including direct Garmin and Fitbit
- Long history means most people already have years of data in it
What users complain about
- Barcode scanning moved behind Premium in 2026, after fourteen years free. Users on MyFitnessPal's own community forum asked whether it was "serious locked behind a pay wall"
- Ads on the free tier
- Much of the 20M database is user-submitted, so entries for the same food disagree with each other
Where the pitch and the reports pull apart
MyFitnessPal is marketed as the accessible default, and in 2026 its free tier lost the single feature most people opened it for. The pitch and the product moved in opposite directions.
What independent research found
Researchers entered 43 three-day food records from Canadian endurance athletes into MyFitnessPal and compared the output against ESHA Food Processor using the Canadian Nutrient File as the reference. MyFitnessPal showed poor validity for total energy, carbohydrates, protein, cholesterol, sugar and fibre. Two raters entering the same records also produced different totals for energy and carbohydrates, though the gap was too small to matter clinically. One study, one population, one country’s food database, so read it as evidence rather than a verdict.
Morello et al., Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, October 2025Our read
The database is bigger than ours and will beat us on an obscure packaged product. The trade is that its free tier now asks you to search and type every meal, and its AI sits on an $79.99 tier with a $99.99 tier above that.
Vendor claims from their own marketing; user themes from store reviews and community discussion, weighted to 2025–2026. Verified September 2026.
What each is actually like
Cronometer
Track Your Nutrition with Scientific Precision
Strengths
- • Most comprehensive micronutrient tracking
- • Highly accurate, verified nutrition data
- • Excellent for specific diets (keto, paleo, vegan)
- • Detailed biometric tracking
Trade-offs
- • Photo Log and Voice Log require Gold
- • Steep learning curve
- • Interface feels technical/clinical
- • Manual entry required
MyFitnessPal
The Original Calorie Counter
Strengths
- • Massive food database with 20+ million items
- • Meal Scan AI photo logging, built with Passio.ai
- • Acquired Cal AI in March 2026, so the AI side is actively funded
- • Large user community for support
Trade-offs
- • AI photo logging, barcode scanning and voice logging all require Premium
- • Cluttered interface with ads in the free version
- • Free tier got materially thinner in 2026 as scanning moved behind the paywall
- • User-submitted data can be inaccurate
Leaving either one
How do you actually get your data out?
The question that keeps people on an app they have stopped liking is what happens to their history. Short version: your weight and workouts move with you through Apple Health or Health Connect, your food diary does not, and no tracker in this category can import another's. Nutrify included. You can still read your own export, though, and that is worth doing either way.
Leaving Cronometer
Use servings.csv. The richest export in the category: one row per food you logged, with the amount, the meal group, and up to eighty-odd nutrient columns per entry. Almost all of our 37-nutrient catalog maps straight across.
Leaving MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal gates export behind its paid tier. Use The nutrition summary CSV inside the zip. MyFitnessPal rolls its nutrition export up to the meal level, so you get "Breakfast: 520 kcal" rather than the eggs and the toast. The individual foods are not in the file, and no tool can recover them from it. You can still see your day shape, your macro split and your consistency. You just will not see which foods drove them.
The export viewer runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. It shows your logging consistency, macro split, weekday-versus-weekend pattern and most-logged foods, which is more than either app shows you about your own data.
A third option
If neither one is quite it
Nutrify logs a meal six ways (photo, barcode, nutrition label, voice, text, or Shop Mode in the aisle) and keeps fasting, water, supplements, a photo journal and body measurements on the same timeline. One subscription at $34.99 a year covers all of it, with nothing gated feature by feature. It is newer than both of these and has far fewer reviews, which is the honest trade.