Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal (and a Third Option)

Cronometer and MyFitnessPal are the two names that come up most when people get serious about tracking food. They look similar at first — search a food, log it, watch the totals — but they're built on different ideas about what tracking is for. Here's how they compare on the things that matter day to day, and who each one suits. We'll finish with a third option for people who find both too number-heavy.

A note before we start: we make Calories Not Count, the third option in this article. For Cronometer and MyFitnessPal we describe their general approach, which is widely documented; we don't quote prices or feature lists that change often. Check the current details in your app store before you decide.

Accuracy

This is the biggest philosophical difference between the two.

MyFitnessPal has an enormous food database, and a large part of it is contributed by users. The upside is coverage: almost any restaurant dish, regional brand or homemade recipe has an entry. The downside is consistency. Search for a common food and you may see many entries with different calories and macros, some entered from labels, some from memory, some with typos. Verified entries exist, but it's on you to pick well.

Cronometer leans the other way. Its core foods come from curated nutrition databases, such as USDA data, and user-submitted foods are reviewed separately. The database is smaller, but entries for whole foods tend to be complete and consistent — which matters most when you care about more than calories.

Practical takeaway:

• If you eat a lot of branded and restaurant food and want to find everything, MyFitnessPal's breadth helps.
• If you mostly cook and want numbers you can trust without second-guessing, Cronometer's curated approach is easier.

Either way, remember the limits of any database. Nutrition values are averages; a medium apple, a "serving" of pasta or a restaurant portion can vary by 20% or more. Precision on screen doesn't mean precision on the plate.

Micronutrients

Cronometer's signature feature is depth. It tracks a long list of vitamins and minerals — iron, magnesium, potassium, B12, vitamin D and many more — and shows how close you are to daily targets. That's why it's popular with people on plant-based diets, athletes and anyone working with a dietitian on a specific nutrient.

MyFitnessPal is built around calories and the big three macros (protein, carbs, fat), with a handful of other nutrients shown. For most weight-management goals that's enough, and it keeps the interface simpler.

A fair question to ask yourself: will you actually use micronutrient data? If you'll check your magnesium once and then ignore it, the extra detail is noise. If you have a concrete reason — you're vegan and watching B12 and iron, or a doctor asked you to monitor potassium — it's invaluable. With a medical condition, though, targets should come from your doctor, not an app default.

Free tier

Both apps are freemium: a free version with ads, and a paid tier that unlocks extra tools. What's in each tier has shifted over time — MyFitnessPal in particular moved some popular features, barcode scanning most famously, into its paid Premium plan.

When you compare, don't look only at the price. List the three or four things you'd use every day — search, barcode scanning, recipes, history, reports — and check which tier each one lives in today. That's the real cost of the app for you.

UX and everyday use

MyFitnessPal feels like a large platform: a big community, integrations with fitness apps and wearables, recipes and content. Logging is quick once you've built up your recent and frequent foods. The trade-off is clutter, especially in the free version with ads.

Cronometer feels more like an instrument panel: dense, data-rich, precise. It rewards people who like to look at charts and targets. Some find it overwhelming at first; others find it the only app that answers their questions.

Both assume you'll log in grams or standard units, and both work best with a kitchen scale.

Who each fits

A third option: Calories Not Count

Some people try both and realize the problem isn't the database — it's the counting itself. That's who we built Calories Not Count for.

Instead of pushing you toward more precise numbers, it answers three simpler questions for every food:

• How good is it? A Nutri-Score grade (A–E) and a traffic light for sugar, salt, saturated fat and fiber.
• What could you swap it for? A same-category swap at the same calories (±25%) that's clearly better, with the gain spelled out — "−6 g saturated fat" or "+4 g fiber". Examples are in Healthy Food Swaps.
• How much movement is it? Minutes of the activities you actually do, for your weight.

You log in plain portions — "a bowl", "a slice", "a handful" — or by barcode, nutrition label or a photo of your plate. The diary is free; dish photos have a free monthly allowance of 15. It doesn't try to be Cronometer: we don't track dozens of micronutrients. It tracks the handful that most diets get wrong — sugar, salt, saturated fat, fiber, protein, and omega-3 if you choose that goal.

If you're leaving MyFitnessPal specifically, our MyFitnessPal alternative guide goes through the reasons people switch and what to look for. And if you've never kept a food log long enough to see patterns, start with how to pick a food diary app you'll actually stick with.

Bottom line: MyFitnessPal for breadth and ecosystem, Cronometer for accurate data and micronutrients. If both feel like homework, try a tracker built around food quality instead of decimals.