Best Calorie Counter Apps UK (2026), Compared

By Alex Lawrence, qualified nutritionist · Fact-checked against sources on 30 October 2026 · Updated 30 October 2026

The best calorie counter app is the one you’ll keep using: Cronometer has the most generous free tier for detail, MyFitnessPal is the most established, Nutracheck is built around UK foods, and MacroFactor suits people who want their targets adjusted for them.

We make Get Gains, one of the seven apps below. We’ve tried to be fair: every competitor fact on this page comes from that app’s own website or help centre, checked on 30 October 2026, and we say where each one beats us.

Quick picks: which app is best for whom

Pick by what matters most to you, not by a single score.

App	Best for	Free plan?	Barcode scan on free?
MyFitnessPal	A huge database and device links	Yes	No (Premium)
Nutracheck	UK foods and UK pricing	7-day trial only	Paid app
Cronometer	Vitamins and minerals on a free plan	Yes	Yes
Lose It!	Simple calorie budgets	Yes	Being moved to Premium
Yazio	Fasting and recipes	Yes	Not listed as Pro
MacroFactor	Targets that adapt to you	No (7-day trial)	Paid app
Get Gains	Food and gym training in one app	Yes	Yes

“Barcode scan on free” is based on each app’s own feature lists. Where an app didn’t say clearly, we’ve written what it does say rather than guess.

How we compared these apps

We compared features, prices and platforms using each app’s own website, help centre or App Store listing on 30 October 2026. We did not test the apps hands-on, so this page doesn’t score barcode accuracy on UK products or how fast logging feels. Prices change often and can differ by country and by offer, so check the app before you pay. Every page we used is listed under Sources at the bottom.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is one of the best-known calorie counters, with a huge database and apps on iOS, Android and the web.

What’s free: food and exercise logging, measurements, your own foods and recipes, macro goals set by percentage, diary sharing and links to partner apps (MyFitnessPal Help).
What’s paid: the barcode scanner, Meal Scan, ad-free logging, macros by meal, intermittent fasting and data export are Premium features.
Price: £15.99 a month or £64.99 a year, with a 7-day trial for first-time Premium users (MyFitnessPal Premium). There’s also a Premium+ tier with meal planning.
Platforms: iOS, Android and the website (export help page).
Strengths: a huge database (“over 18 million global foods”, says its homepage), years of maturity, a web diary and many device integrations.
Weaknesses: barcode scanning and exports need Premium, and the free version shows ads.
Best for: people who log lots of branded or restaurant foods and don’t mind paying for scanning.

Nutracheck

Nutracheck is a UK company built around UK foods, priced in pounds.

What’s free: a 7-day free trial. Its prices page shows paid memberships only, with no ongoing free plan (Nutracheck Prices).
Price: £6.99 a month, or £29.99 for 12 months.
Platforms: an app for iPhone and Android, an Apple Watch app and a website diary (Nutracheck Apps and devices).
Strengths: UK foods with product photos, barcode scanning, and links with Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Health and Health Connect. It tracks calories plus 7 key nutrients: carbs, sugar, fibre, protein, fat, saturated fat and salt. It has run since 2005.
Weaknesses: no free plan after the trial, and it tracks fewer nutrients than Cronometer.
Best for: UK users who want a UK-first food database at a low yearly price.

Cronometer

Cronometer is the pick if you care about micronutrients and want a capable free plan.

What’s free: the Basic account is free for as long as you like, with unlimited barcode scanning, the full food database (over 1 million entries) and tracking of over 80 nutrients and compounds (Cronometer free version).
What’s paid: Gold adds ad-free tracking, photo and voice logging, custom charts, a fasting timer, a macro scheduler and unlimited history views (Cronometer Gold).
Price: shown in US dollars: $10.99 a month, or $59.99 a year.
Platforms: web, iOS and Android.
Strengths: the most detailed free nutrient tracking in this list, plus a web app.
Weaknesses: the free plan limits insights to a 7-day view and two basic charts. The level of detail can feel like a lot if you only want calories.
Best for: people who want vitamins, minerals and macros on a free plan.

Lose It!

Lose It! keeps calorie counting simple, with a daily calorie budget at its core.

What’s free: Lose It! Basic includes a personalised daily calorie budget and its food database, which it puts at over 50 million items (Lose It! pricing).
What’s paid: Premium adds custom goals (water, sleep, nutrients), device sync, future meal logging, barcode scanning and photo and voice logging. Lose It! says it is moving the barcode scanner to Premium, and some free members still have it during the change.
Price: $79.99 a year (US dollars), with a 7-day free trial for new users (What is Lose It! Premium?). It also sells a one-off Lifetime option.
Platforms: iOS, Android and loseit.com.
Strengths: an easy calorie budget, a large database and a web version.
Weaknesses: scanning is becoming paid, and prices are quoted in US dollars.
Best for: beginners who want one number to stay under each day.

Yazio

Yazio combines calorie tracking with intermittent fasting and recipes.

What’s free: a free version with food tracking. Yazio’s homepage says you can track “manually or by barcode” (Yazio), and barcode scanning isn’t on its list of Pro features (Yazio Pro).
What’s paid: Pro adds AI photo tracking, all fasting plans, over 3,000 recipes, detailed nutrients, automatic activity sync and 2 years of statistics.
Price: Yazio doesn’t publish one fixed price. The UK App Store listing shows several Pro plans priced in pounds; the listing also notes the app contains ads.
Platforms: iOS and Android, with Pro also sold on its website (buying Yazio Pro).
Strengths: built-in fasting timers, a big recipe library and a clean design.
Weaknesses: most of the extras sit behind Pro, and pricing isn’t transparent on its site.
Best for: people who use intermittent fasting or want recipes alongside tracking.

MacroFactor

MacroFactor is a paid macro tracker that adjusts your targets as your weight changes.

What’s free: no free tier, according to its UK App Store listing. There’s a 7-day trial.
Price: $11.99 a month, $47.99 for 6 months or $71.99 a year in US dollars (MacroFactor Help). The UK App Store shows prices in pounds.
Platforms: iOS and Android.
Strengths: an expenditure estimate that adapts to your real intake and weight, a barcode scanner, and no ads.
Weaknesses: you have to pay to keep using it, and gym workouts are a separate app.
Best for: people who track carefully and want the app to set and adjust their macros.

Get Gains

Get Gains is our app: a calorie and macro tracker that also logs gym workouts and supplements.

What’s free: workout, nutrition and body-weight logging, the food database with barcode scan, progress charts, PBs and 1RM, supplement tracking with reminders, and up to 3 routines and 5 custom exercises. There are no ads.
What’s paid: Pro (£10.99 a month or £109.99 a year) adds AI tools such as Snap Meal photo logging, AI workouts and recipes. Titan (£17.99 a month or £144.99 a year, 7-day free trial) adds the Gains Coach, adaptive TDEE and wearable sync through Health Connect.
Platforms: Android. iOS is coming soon.
Strengths: food, training and supplements in one app, with barcode scanning and no ads on the free plan.
Weaknesses: Android only for now (the iPhone app is awaiting App Store approval), it can’t import your history from another app, and it’s much newer than the others here, so its database hasn’t had years of growth like MyFitnessPal’s. Adaptive TDEE needs the top tier.
Best for: lifters on Android who want food and gym logging in one place.

Free features side by side

Here’s what each app offers without paying, based on their own pages.

App	Ongoing free plan	Barcode scan	Web diary	Price in GBP shown
MyFitnessPal	Yes, with ads	Premium	Yes	Yes
Nutracheck	No	Paid	Yes	Yes
Cronometer	Yes	Free	Yes	No (USD)
Lose It!	Yes	Moving to Premium	Yes	No (USD)
Yazio	Yes	Not listed as Pro	Not confirmed	App Store only
MacroFactor	No	Paid	Not confirmed	App Store only
Get Gains	Yes	Free	Android app only	Yes

Who should pick which

Match the app to your goal and how much detail you’ll actually log.

You want it free and detailed: Cronometer.
You want it free with gym tracking: Get Gains, if you’re on Android.
You eat a lot of branded and restaurant food: MyFitnessPal, ideally with Premium for scanning.
You shop mostly in UK supermarkets and want UK pricing: Nutracheck.
You want one simple daily number: Lose It!.
You fast or want recipes built in: Yazio.
You want the app to adjust your targets for you: MacroFactor, or Get Gains Titan.

Whichever app you choose, it needs a sensible target. Work yours out with our calorie deficit calculator, then split it into protein, carbs and fat with the macro calculator. Our guide to how a calorie deficit works explains how big a deficit to aim for. If MyFitnessPal is your current app, see our MyFitnessPal alternatives page for moving your data.

A note on safe targets

Calorie apps are tools, not rules. Don’t go below about 1,200 kcal a day (women) or 1,500 kcal a day (men) without medical supervision. If tracking food is making you anxious, or you’re worried about your eating, Beat offers confidential support. This page is general information, not medical advice (see our terms).

How we wrote this: drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked against the sources below and edited by Alex Lawrence. Read our editorial policy. We make Get Gains, so weigh our view accordingly.