Arcal vs MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is the largest food database in the category, built up over more than a decade. Arcal takes a different starting point: instead of searching a database, you take a photo and the AI identifies the food and estimates the macros. Here is how the two actually compare.
| Arcal | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary logging method | AI photo scan of your plate | Manual search or barcode scan against a 20M+ food database |
| Best for | Home-cooked or unpackaged meals with no barcode | Packaged foods and restaurant chains already in the database |
| Pricing | $9.99/mo or $49.99/yr, one plan, everything included | Free tier, Premium $19.99/mo or $79.99/yr, Premium+ $24.99/mo or $99.99/yr |
| Ads | None, on any plan | Shown on the free tier, removed on Premium |
| Feature gating | None. Every feature is in the one plan. | Macro goals by gram, meal planning, and grocery lists are gated behind Premium+ |
| Apple Health sync | Two-way: weight and energy burned in, nutrition out | Supported |
| Platform | iPhone | iOS, Android, and web |
The honest take.
MyFitnessPal's advantage is scale: a decade-old database and a platform that runs everywhere. Arcal's advantage is speed on the meals that database search handles worst, a home-cooked plate with no barcode, and a single plan with no ads or gated charts at any tier. If most of what you eat has a barcode, MyFitnessPal's search will usually be faster. If most of what you eat does not, a photo is faster than searching for it.
Questions, answered.
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Arcal launches soon on iPhone. Waitlist members get access before everyone else.