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MyFitnessPal vs Cronometer vs Lose It! vs Get Gains (2026)

By Alex Lawrence, qualified nutritionist · Fact-checked against sources on 5 November 2026 · Updated

Only in Get Gains

What none of the others do

  • Gym workouts, PBs and estimated 1RM in the same app as your food diary
  • Supplement tracking with dose reminders
  • A muscle heatmap of what you've trained

£0 with Get Gains

Free here, paid elsewhere

  • Barcode scanningFreePremium on MyFitnessPal and Lose It!
  • No adsFreeMyFitnessPal, Cronometer and Lose It! free plans show ads
  • Data exportFreePremium or Premium+ only on MyFitnessPal

Why Get Gains exists

Progress needs fuel, training and recovery. Track them apart and you never see the link.

  1. Fuel. Log what you eat: calories, protein, carbs and fat.
  2. Train. Log every set, rep and PB in the same app, on the same days.
  3. Recover. Connect your watch or ring. On Titan, each morning's Daily Outlook reads your resting heart rate and tells you: rest, easy, as planned or push.
  4. Learn. Put your eating, lifting and recovery side by side and see what works for your body. On Pro and Titan, our AI reads them together and tells you.

A food-only app can't see your training, a gym-only app can't see your plate, and neither knows whether you've recovered. Get Gains sees all three.

If you train as well as count calories, Get Gains is the one to pick: it’s the only app of the four that logs your gym workouts, PBs and supplements alongside your food, and its free plan includes barcode scanning with no ads. If you only care about food, Cronometer gives you the most nutrient detail for free, MyFitnessPal has one of the biggest databases (with scanning on Premium), and Lose It! keeps things to one simple calorie budget. All four log calories and macros well, so the real differences are what’s free, what’s extra and what else the app can do. It’s like four supermarkets that all sell bread: the bread’s fine everywhere, so you pick the one that also stocks everything else on your list.

We make Get Gains, so weigh our view accordingly. Every MyFitnessPal, Cronometer and Lose It! fact below comes from their own websites, help centres or app store listings, checked on 31 October 2026. We compared the apps from those sources; we did not test them hands-on.

MyFitnessPal vs Cronometer vs Lose It! vs Get Gains: the short version

The short version is that Get Gains does the most in one free app, Cronometer goes deepest on nutrients, and MyFitnessPal and Lose It! have the biggest databases.

MyFitnessPalCronometerLose It!Get Gains
Gym workouts, PBs and 1RM❌ Exercise log only❌ Not described❌ Not described✅ Free
Supplement reminders❌ Not described❌ Not described❌ Not described✅ Free
Barcode scan❌ Premium✅ Free❌ Premium✅ Free
Ads on free plan❌ Yes❌ Yes❌ Yes✅ No ads
Data export❌ Premium onlyCSV exportNot confirmed✅ Free (JSON file)
Nutrients trackedCount not statedOver 80More on PremiumCalories and macros
Paid from (UK)£15.99/month£9.99/monthSeveral App Store prices£10.99/month
PlatformsiOS, Android, webiOS, Android, webiOS, AndroidAndroid, web, iPhone coming soon

Why Get Gains is the strongest all-rounder

Get Gains is the strongest all-rounder because it’s the only one of the four that covers your food, your gym sessions and your supplements in one place, and the free plan is genuinely usable. The other three are food diaries first. If you lift, that usually means a calorie counter plus a separate gym app, like carrying two wallets and never being sure which one has the bus fare.

On the free plan, with no card, no time limit and no ads, you get:

The free limits are up to 3 routines, 5 custom exercises, 10 saved recipes and 10 saved meals. Free has no AI features.

Why track training in a nutrition app?

Because food is fuel, and the point of fuel is what it lets you do. Protein helps your muscles repair and grow after a session, and carbs top up the energy your hardest sets run on. So if you lift, run or play sport, your diet shows up in your training: in the weights that move, the sessions that feel flat, and how quickly you recover. A calorie counter on its own sees only half of that. It’s like keeping every fuel receipt for your car but never looking at the mileage.

That’s why Get Gains was built. Your food diary and your training log sit in one app, on the same days, so you can put a week of protein next to a week of PBs and learn what actually works for your body instead of guessing.

Then AI reads the two together, which is where it gets genuinely useful:

Two separate apps can’t do this, because neither can see the other’s half of the story.

What about recovery?

Training is the stimulus, but recovery is when your body actually adapts. If you can’t recover, you can’t progress, however good your plan or your diet. Knowing when to take an easy day and when to go hard matters as much as being fuelled and following a good programme. Think of a phone: it can run the best apps in the world, but if it never charges overnight, it’s flat by lunchtime.

That’s where a watch or ring earns its place. With Get Gains on Titan:

Fuel, training and recovery, read together in one app: that’s the whole picture of your progress. More on what a tracker can and can’t tell you: do you need a fitness tracker?

How much do MyFitnessPal, Cronometer and Lose It! cost?

The three food apps charge for things Get Gains gives away, like scanning or going ad-free; our paid tiers are built around AI tools instead.

To be straight about it: per year, Cronometer Gold and MyFitnessPal Premium cost less than our Pro plan. The difference is what you’re paying for. With them, you pay to get the scanner or lose the ads; with us those are already free, and Pro buys AI tools on top. Paying for AI you won’t use is like buying the car with heated seats and only driving it in August, so if you just want calories and a scanner, our free plan is the place to start.

What do you get for free?

All four have a free plan you can keep using, but Get Gains puts the most in it, with Cronometer a close second for food detail.

Get Gains free:

MyFitnessPal free (from MyFitnessPal Premium):

Cronometer free (from Cronometer’s free version page):

Lose It! free (from its UK App Store listing):

A free plan is a bit like a free sample at the supermarket: some are a crumb on a cocktail stick, some are a proper slice. Get Gains and Cronometer are the slice.

Which apps have a free barcode scanner?

Get Gains and Cronometer scan barcodes for free; MyFitnessPal and Lose It! put scanning behind Premium.

You can still log without a scanner by searching. It just takes longer, the way typing a postcode is slower than tapping “use my location”. If you scan most of what you eat, this one feature may decide it for you.

Do they use AI?

All four have AI features, and in every case they sit on a paid plan. Get Gains is the only one whose AI coach sees your training as well as your food.

A coach that sees both sides is the difference between a mechanic who checks the engine and one who also asks how you drive. Still, treat any calorie estimate from a photo like a mate guessing the weight of a cake: often close, sometimes miles out. Check portions on anything you eat often.

Can you export your data?

Get Gains includes an export on the free plan; MyFitnessPal keeps its export for paying members.

Your food diary is like your phone’s photo roll: you won’t think about it until you switch, so check what comes with you first. Our MyFitnessPal alternatives page walks through getting your data out of MyFitnessPal.

Pick Get Gains if…

Pick Get Gains if you want food, gym training and supplements in one free app.

If you lift, see how we stack up against gym apps in Hevy vs Strong vs Get Gains. For the wider field, including Nutracheck, Yazio and MacroFactor, see our best calorie counter apps UK comparison.

Pick Cronometer if…

Pick Cronometer if you want the most nutrient detail on a free plan.

Pick MyFitnessPal if…

Pick MyFitnessPal if you want one of the biggest, longest-running databases and you’re happy to pay for scanning.

Pick Lose It! if…

Pick Lose It! if you want one daily calorie budget to stay under.

Where the others are stronger

The other three still win on nutrient detail, database size, devices and history, so here’s the fair version.

Set a sensible target first

Whichever app you choose, it’s only as good as the target you give it. Work yours out with our calorie deficit calculator, and read how a calorie deficit works before picking a number. Don’t go below about 1,200 kcal a day (women) or 1,500 kcal a day (men) without medical supervision. If tracking food starts to make 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. Prices and features were checked on each company’s own website and app store listings on 31 October 2026 and can change. We make Get Gains, so weigh our view accordingly. Read our editorial policy.

Sources

  1. MyFitnessPal: Premium plans and prices (checked 31 October 2026)
  2. MyFitnessPal: homepage, database size, AI features and integrations (checked 31 October 2026)
  3. MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter, UK App Store listing (checked 31 October 2026)
  4. MyFitnessPal Help: Export your nutrition, progress and exercise data (checked 31 October 2026)
  5. Cronometer: homepage, platforms and nutrients (checked 31 October 2026)
  6. Cronometer: Free version, what's included (checked 31 October 2026)
  7. Cronometer: Gold features and prices (checked 31 October 2026)
  8. Cronometer: Calorie Counter, UK App Store listing (checked 31 October 2026)
  9. Cronometer Support: Account Settings, exporting data (checked 31 October 2026)
  10. Lose It! Calorie Counter, UK App Store listing (checked 31 October 2026)
  11. Calorie Counter by Lose It!, Google Play listing (checked 31 October 2026)
  12. Get Gains: plans and pricing

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