Best MyFitnessPal Alternative for Meal Planning in 2026

MyFitnessPal has been around since 2005. Over 200 million users have created accounts. The food database has 14 million entries. If you want to log a meal, there's a good chance you'll find exactly what you ate.

The best MyFitnessPal alternative for meal planning depends on what you actually need. If you want better calorie tracking accuracy, Cronometer is the upgrade. If you want a free MFP replacement, Lose It! is the closest match. If you want an app that plans your meals for you based on what's in your kitchen, MealThinker handles that with AI.

The barcode scanner (when it was free) was genuinely great. Point your phone at a package, get the nutrition info instantly. The calorie tracking is detailed, the macro breakdowns are clear, and the integration with fitness apps like Garmin and Apple Health works well. For people who want to track what they eat and see the numbers, MFP built a solid tool.

But there's a reason you're searching for a MyFitnessPal alternative. And it probably has less to do with calorie tracking and more to do with what MFP can't do: plan your meals.

MFP has a 1.5-star rating on Trustpilot. That's not a typo. The complaints aren't vague either. They repeat across app store reviews, Reddit, and fitness forums, and they've been building since 2020.

The paywall that broke trust

In October 2022, MyFitnessPal moved its barcode scanner behind a premium paywall. The feature had been free for over a decade. Users had spent years scanning products and contributing to the database. Then one day, that database they helped build required a subscription to access.

The backlash was immediate. The Verge called it an egregious disservice to users. Reddit threads exploded. The timing made sense in hindsight: Under Armour bought MFP for $475 million in 2015, then sold it to venture capital firm Francisco Partners for $345 million in 2020. That $130 million loss needed to be recouped somehow. Users paid the price.

Today, MFP Premium costs $79.99/year. Premium+ costs $99.99/year. The free version is stripped down enough that one reviewer described it as "basically bloatware with annoying subscription pop-ups."

Calorie tracking isn't meal planning

This is the big one. MyFitnessPal tracks what you already ate. It doesn't tell you what to eat next.

That sounds obvious, but it's the core disconnect for anyone searching "MyFitnessPal alternative for meal planning." MFP's meal planner only exists in the Premium+ tier ($99.99/year), and even then it's limited. No drag-and-drop weekly planners. No automated grocery lists generated from your plan. No suggestions based on what's in your fridge.

If you're standing in front of an open refrigerator at 5pm wondering what to cook, MFP has nothing for you. It's built to record what happened, not to help you decide what should happen.

The accuracy problem

MFP's 14 million food entries are crowdsourced. Anyone can add items, and the verification is minimal. Nutritionists have documented frequent errors: incorrect calorie counts, missing micronutrients, duplicate entries with conflicting data. The free version only tracks 6 micronutrients. Cronometer, by comparison, tracks 84+ using verified USDA data.

When you're making health decisions based on nutrition data, accuracy matters. A crowdsourced database with 14 million unverified entries creates a false sense of precision.

An interface stuck in 2013

The app feels cluttered. Ads fill the free experience. Subscription prompts appear constantly. Users report that recent updates broke features like saving meals and logging previous entries. The social features that once made MFP feel like a community (friend feeds, workout sharing) have been gutted.

The pattern is familiar: a product that got big by being free and useful, then got acquired, then got monetized until the people who made it popular started leaving.

Not every alternative solves the same problem. Some are better calorie trackers. Some are actual meal planners. Here's what each one does best.

Cronometer: best for nutrition accuracy

Cronometer uses verified USDA and NCCDB data instead of crowdsourced entries. It tracks 84+ micronutrients in the free version. The barcode scanner is free. If your main frustration with MFP is data accuracy, Cronometer is the most direct upgrade.

The limitation: Cronometer is still a tracker. It tells you what you ate with better accuracy, but it doesn't plan your meals or know what's in your kitchen.

Price: Free tier available. Gold: $8.99/month.

Lose It!: best free MFP replacement

Lose It! has 40 million downloads and does most of what MFP Premium does at half the price. Free barcode scanner. Clean interface without the ad overload. Photo-based food logging.

If you want MFP without the paywall frustration, Lose It! is the closest match. But like MFP and Cronometer, it's a tracker, not a planner. You still decide what to eat.

Price: Free tier available. Premium: $39.99/year.

Eat This Much: best for automated meal plans

CNN named Eat This Much the best meal-planning app in 2026. It generates daily and weekly meal plans based on your calorie targets, dietary preferences, and budget. It integrates with Instacart and AmazonFresh for grocery delivery.

The trade-off: plans come from a fixed recipe database. The app doesn't know what's in your kitchen, can't handle "I have leftover rice and some tofu going bad," and doesn't learn your cooking habits over time.

Price: Free version available. Premium unlocks full automation.

Lifesum: best for specific diet programs

Lifesum offers 12 built-in diet programs (keto, Mediterranean, intermittent fasting, and more) with a Life Score that tracks health across eating, hydration, and activity. The design is clean. The free tier includes macro tracking and barcode scanning.

Good for following a structured diet. Less useful if you need help figuring out what to actually cook on a Tuesday night.

Price: Free tier available. Premium: $25/year.

The gap none of these fill

Cronometer and Lose It! track better than MFP. Eat This Much and Lifesum plan better than MFP. But none of them remember your kitchen, learn from your cooking patterns, or handle the messy reality of having random ingredients and no idea what to make.

That's a different kind of problem. It's not a tracking problem or a recipe database problem. It's a decision problem.

MyFitnessPal logs what you ate. MealThinker plans what you should eat. That's the fundamental difference.

	MyFitnessPal (Free)	MyFitnessPal Premium+ ($100/yr)	MealThinker
Primary function	Calorie and macro tracking	Tracking + basic meal planning	AI meal planning with nutrition tracking
How you use it	Search database, log each food	Same + meal planner feature	Talk to it: "What should I make tonight?"
Food database	14M crowdsourced entries	Same	AI generates meals for your specific situation
Barcode scanner	Paid only	Included	No (not a packaged food tracker)
Knows your kitchen	No	No	Tracks your fridge and pantry through conversation
Remembers you	Calorie goal and recent foods	Same	Remembers preferences, past meals, cooking skill, everything
Handles leftovers	No	No	"I have leftover chickpeas and some spinach" works
Meal planning	None	Manual, limited regions	AI builds plans around your kitchen and schedule
Grocery lists	No	No	Built around what you already have
Nutrition tracking	Detailed macros (6 micros free)	Detailed (all micros)	Tracks nutrition and fills gaps automatically
Conversational AI	No	No	Yes, like texting a friend
Price	Free (limited)	$99.99/yr	$15/mo or $150/yr
Free trial	Limited free tier	30 days	7-day full access, no credit card

When to stick with MyFitnessPal

If your goal is detailed calorie and macro logging for packaged foods, MFP still works. The barcode scanner is fast when it works, and the database covers basically everything on a grocery store shelf. If you're a competitive bodybuilder or athlete tracking every gram, a dedicated tracker makes sense.

When to switch to MealThinker

If you're tired of logging food after you eat it and want help deciding what to eat in the first place. MealThinker is built for the person who opens the fridge, sees ingredients, and doesn't know what to make. It knows your kitchen, remembers what you like, and plans meals around what you actually have. See the full feature list or watch it plan a week of dinners.

MyFitnessPal launched in 2005 with a simple premise: if you track what you eat, you'll eat better. For a lot of people, that worked. At least for a while.

But tracking creates its own burden. You eat lunch, then spend two minutes logging it. You cook dinner, then pause before eating to scan and search ingredients. The app knows everything about what you already consumed and nothing about what you should consume next. It's a rearview mirror.

The search query "MyFitnessPal alternative for meal planning" tells you exactly where the gap is. People don't just want to know their calorie count. They want someone to solve the 5pm dinner question. They want to stop wasting food. They want to eat better without spending 30 minutes scrolling recipes every night.

Yummly had 20 million users and shut down because recipe databases alone weren't enough. PlateJoy tried the subscription meal plan model and couldn't sustain it. Eat This Much automates plans but from a fixed database that doesn't know your kitchen.

The pattern is shifting from "record what happened" to "help me decide what to do." Calorie tracking apps record. Meal planning apps decide. The best solution does both, and starts with the part that's actually hard: figuring out what to cook tonight with what you already have.

If that's what you need, try MealThinker free for 7 days. No credit card required.

Is there a better app than MyFitnessPal for meal planning?

For calorie tracking specifically, Cronometer offers better accuracy with verified data and 84+ micronutrients. For meal planning, MyFitnessPal isn't really a meal planning app. It's a food diary. Dedicated meal planners like Eat This Much or MealThinker handle the "what should I eat" question that MFP doesn't address.

Why did MyFitnessPal start charging for everything?

Under Armour bought MyFitnessPal for $475 million in 2015, then sold it to venture capital firm Francisco Partners for $345 million in 2020. To recoup the investment, Francisco Partners moved previously free features behind paywalls. The barcode scanner, custom macro goals, and detailed nutrient tracking all became premium-only. The meal planner requires the most expensive Premium+ tier at $99.99/year.

Does MyFitnessPal have a meal planning feature?

Yes, but only on the Premium+ plan ($99.99/year) and only in select regions (US, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia). Even then, it's limited. No automated weekly plans, no grocery list generation, and no integration with what's in your kitchen. If meal planning is your main need, a dedicated tool like MealThinker gives you AI-powered planning with pantry awareness for $15/month with a free trial.

Which is more accurate: MyFitnessPal or Cronometer?

Cronometer is significantly more accurate. MFP uses a crowdsourced database of 14 million entries with minimal verification, meaning nutrition data can be wrong. Cronometer uses verified USDA and NCCDB data and tracks 84+ micronutrients compared to MFP's 6 in the free version. For nutrition tracking accuracy, Cronometer is the better choice.

Is MyFitnessPal Premium worth it in 2026?

For most people, no. Premium ($79.99/year) mainly adds the barcode scanner, which competitors like Lose It! and Cronometer include for free. Premium+ ($99.99/year) adds a basic meal planner that doesn't match what dedicated planning apps offer. Lose It! Premium costs $39.99/year. Cronometer Gold costs $8.99/month. Both give you better value for pure tracking. For meal planning, MealThinker offers AI-powered planning with a 7-day free trial.