Ranked on pricing transparency, feature completeness at the price you actually pay, and privacy: is the price shown before you download, is everything included with no gated tiers, are there ads, is your data sold. Arcal leads on all four.
1. Arcal
AI photo scanning as the primary logging method, one plan at $9.99/mo or $49.99/yr with everything included, no ads, no feature gating, two-way Apple Health sync. Launching on iPhone, waitlist open now.
2. MyFitnessPal
The largest food database in the category, 20 million entries built up over more than a decade. Free tier with ads, Premium at $19.99/mo or $79.99/yr, Premium+ at $24.99/mo or $99.99/yr for meal planning and grocery lists. The default choice if you eat mostly packaged and restaurant food with barcodes.
3. Cal AI
AI photo-scanning app built by two teenagers, past $40 million in annual sales before MyFitnessPal acquired it in March 2026. Price is not shown until after an onboarding quiz. Temporarily removed from the App Store in April 2026 over deceptive billing design, later reinstated. See our full comparison.
4. Cronometer
The nutrient-tracking specialist: 84+ tracked nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, not just calories and macros. Free tier is genuinely usable. Gold membership is $8.99/mo or $49.99/yr and adds custom biometrics and a fasting timer. Built for people who care about micronutrients, not just calories.
5. Lose It!
Widely regarded as having the best free tier in the category, including barcode scanning at $0. Premium is $39.99/yr. Its "Snap It" photo logging feature has been independently tested at roughly 64 percent correct dish identification, a useful, honestly reported baseline for what photo logging looked like before more recent AI models.
6. YAZIO
Strong on European grocery brand and international food coverage compared to the mostly US-centric competition. YAZIO PRO runs about $4.17/mo on the annual plan, one of the cheaper premium tiers in the category, and includes fasting tools and recipes.
7. FatSecret
A long-running, ad-supported free tier that unlocks most core features at $0. Premium Plus runs $19.99/yr. Not AI photo-first, built around database search and a long-standing food database instead.
8. MyNetDiary
Premium is $8.99/mo or $24.99/yr, one of the more affordable tiers here. Does not have AI photo logging, which keeps it simple but means it depends on manual search like the older generation of trackers.
9. Foodvisor
AI photo logging plus optional access to a human dietitian, at $39.99/yr. A hybrid of the AI-scan and human-coaching approaches rather than purely one or the other.
10. Noom
Not a calorie tracker first, a behavior-change program that happens to include tracking. $59.99/mo, by far the most expensive app on this list, for a psychology-based curriculum some users find worth it and others find is a lot to pay for what is functionally a food log with lessons attached.
11. PlateLens
AI photo scanning with a free tier (3 scans and 5 coach messages a day) and Premium at $9.99/mo or $59.99/yr. Pairs photo logging with AI coaching.
12. Amy Food Journal
An indie, iOS-only app built by a solo developer, no free tier, $9.99/mo. Known for fast logging and a clean, focused interface over a large feature set.
13. Fitia
Built in Chile and the clear leader on Latin American food coverage, with a database of over 2,100 categories weighted toward Mexican, Argentine, Peruvian, Chilean, Brazilian, and Colombian dishes and brands most US-built apps do not cover well.
14. Welling
An AI photo-scanning app that positions itself on portion-accuracy testing against competitors. As with any app's self-reported accuracy claims, including ours, treat specific numbers as marketing until an independent source verifies them.
15. Nutrola
AI photo recognition paired with a nutritionist-verified database, voice logging, AI coaching, and Apple Watch integration.
16. NutriScan
Free to use, with broader language coverage than most competitors, including Indian languages, and a built-in AI chat nutritionist.
17. CalFix
An AI calorie tracker positioning itself on a free tier, most notably referenced elsewhere as a source comparing other free AI calorie trackers.
18. Bento Bunny
A newer entrant in the AI photo-scanning category, most visible so far as a publisher of its own comparison content against other apps on this list.
19. Calory AI
A simple, no-login calorie counter and tracker aimed at minimal setup friction over a large feature set.
20. 0xCal
A minimal logging app: type or capture a meal to log calories, with Apple Health sync, built for people who want the smallest possible app between them and a logged meal.
Sources: MyFitnessPal Premium features, MyFitnessPal Acquires Cal AI — TechCrunch, Apple's Cal AI crackdown — TechCrunch