A food diary logs what you already ate. MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, MyNetDiary, Lose It! and FatSecret do that. Carby does not. Use a diary to count. Use Carby to plan the shop.
| App | Starter price | If you stay a year | Trial | Refunds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MyFitnessPal | Free food diary. Premium $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month. Premium+ $99.99 a year or $24.99 a month, on MyFitnessPal’s Premium+ page. | $79.99 on Premium yearly. $99.99 on Premium+ yearly. $0 if you stay on the free diary. Grocery is extra. | 7-day Premium or Premium+ trial if you have never upgraded or redeemed a trial. First charge is after the trial unless you cancel. Auto-renews. | Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal to avoid the next charge. Premium features stay until the paid period ends. App Store or Google Play purchases follow those stores. |
| Cronometer | Free Basic. Gold $4.99 a month billed annually at $59.99, or $10.99 a month billed monthly, on cronometer.com/gold. | $59.99 on Gold yearly. $131.88 if you stay on Gold monthly at $10.99. $0 on Basic. Grocery is extra. | Basic is free with no time limit. Gold checkout is on the Gold page and in the apps. | Web Gold: set Do Not Auto-Renew in Account Settings and access continues to the end of the term. App Store or Google Play Gold follows those stores. |
| MyNetDiary | Free. Premium $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Premium Plus $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, on MyNetDiary’s about and AI scanner pages. | $0 on Free. $59.99 on Premium yearly. $99.99 on Premium Plus yearly. A $179.99 lifetime option is listed on the free-tracker page. | Free tier needs no trial. Premium trial on iOS is documented in MyNetDiary’s FAQ index; length is shown in the store checkout. | Premium can be bought on MyNetDiary.com (Paddle) or as an in-app purchase. App Store and Google Play refunds follow those stores. |
| Lose It! | Free to download, with an optional Premium subscription. Lose It! does not publish a dollar price on the public Premium page; read the in-app checkout. | Free if you stay on Basic. Premium yearly cost is shown in the app, not on loseit.com/premium. Grocery is extra. | Free Basic needs no trial. Premium trial, if offered, is shown in the App Store or Google Play checkout you see. | App Store or Google Play purchases follow those stores. Deleting the app does not cancel a store subscription. |
| FatSecret | Free core app. Premium is a paid in-app upgrade; fatsecret.com says pricing varies by region and is viewed in the app. | $0 if you stay on the free tracker. Premium yearly cost is the in-app price in your region. Grocery is extra. | Free core needs no trial. Premium trial, if any, is shown in the store checkout. | App Store or Google Play purchases follow those stores. This page does not invent a web refund window, because the public FAQ does not state one. |
| Carby | $39.99/year after a 3-day trial on web yearly checkout | $39.99 if you stay on the web yearly plan after the 3-day trial | 3-day trial on the web yearly offer visitors actually see. Monthly ($9.99) and weekly ($4.99) plans also exist. Read the checkout. | Web Stripe charges: email within 30 days of the charge for a refund. App Store charges go through Apple. Cancel during the trial and you are not charged. |
Grocery purchases are extra. Tracker prices are from public vendor pages and US iTunes Lookup, checked October 20, 2026. Carby is a dinner planner, not a food diary.
Huge database, paid scans. 4.7 from 2.38 million ratings.
MyFitnessPal is for Logging calories and macros in a huge food database, including restaurant items. Skip it if you need dinners and a shopping list built around a grocery budget, not a diary of what you already ate.
Lab-analyzed positioning, free barcode.
Cronometer is for A verified food diary when you care about vitamins and minerals, not only calories. Skip it if you want the app to pick this week’s family dinners under a store budget.
No ads, free barcode, staff-verified foods.
MyNetDiary is for A free, ad-free calorie diary with a staff-verified database and a free barcode scanner. Skip it if you want the app to generate five family dinners under a grocery cap at Walmart or Aldi.
Weight-loss plan on Basic. Advanced tracking on Premium.
Lose It! is for A simple daily calorie budget with barcode or photo logging on Premium. Skip it if you want next week’s dinners picked under a grocery spending cap.
Free core including barcode. Premium in-app.
FatSecret is for A free calorie diary with barcode scan and no requirement to pay for core logging. Skip it if you need dinners planned around a named US grocery store and a spending limit.
Upcoming dinners, not a log of yesterday.
Carby is for A household that shops a named US store and wants the week of dinners to start from a spending limit. Skip it if you need the planner to drop ingredients into a retailer pickup or delivery cart.
MyFitnessPal for coverage. Cronometer or MyNetDiary for verified detail. Lose It! for a calorie-budget wrapper. FatSecret for a simple free log. Not Carby.
A diary records the past. A planner decides the next shop. See meal planner vs calorie tracker. You can use both.
No.
Sources checked October 20, 2026: MyFitnessPal homepage · MyFitnessPal Premium · MyFitnessPal Premium+ · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 341232718 · Cronometer homepage · Cronometer Gold · Cronometer subscription types · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 1145935738 · MyNetDiary homepage · MyNetDiary about · MyNetDiary free tracker page · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 287529757 · Lose It! homepage · Lose It! Premium · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 297368629 · FatSecret homepage · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 347184248 · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 6779585429 · Carby billing policy · Carby refund help. Competitor facts come from those public pages and US iTunes Lookup. Missing cells were omitted, not guessed.