The 8 Best Calorie Counter Apps (2025): The Best Options According to Certified Experts

Cronometer is one of the most popular calorie-counting apps, and for good reason. While many apps simply track calories and macronutrients, Cronometer can provide an extremely detailed look at your micronutrient intake as well, providing a detailed look at the essential vitamins and minerals we should be consuming. 

Former GGR Senior Editor Erin Chancer, CPT, CNC, tested Cronometer, and found this to be a little overwhelming, as there’s so much information to monitor, and gave Cronometer a 4-out-of-5-star rating for ease of use. 

“The app is easy to use, but it’s also very dense,” says Erin. “There’s so much that you can track that it can be a lot at times, even if they break it down visually on a home dashboard.” In addition to a detailed food log that boasts tracking up to 84 essential nutrients, you can also use Cronometer to track your body measurements, blood pressure, mood, sleep, and more.

However, Erin also pointed out that tracking some of these additional metrics can be a little confusing. She said, “Anything you choose to track can then be added to your daily diary. The tracking is very generic, so you may have to assign your own scale, 1 to 5, to certain items. For example, I tried to track mood and could only enter numeric values.” Just for the sheer volume of metrics that can be tracked, she rates the stat-tracking a 4.5 out of 5.

Registered dietitian Perry Nix appreciates the advanced nutrient tracking. “Cronometer tracks significantly more nutrients than most other tracking apps,” she says. “This can be incredibly helpful for those with medical conditions that can lead to nutrient deficiencies.” She notes it can also be great for athletes who want to optimize their electrolytes or B vitamins for muscle recovery.

RELATED: Best Electrolyte Powder

As a nutrition coach, one feature I particularly love about Cronometer is the verified food database. With other apps that have a public database, it’s not uncommon to type in a food and find 50+ entries with a wide range of nutritional information, while Cronometer carefully checks and approves every public food database entry (you can still create your own custom foods).

Finally, there’s a limited free version you can use to track your food, but the paid plan is relatively affordable at $8.99 per month or $49.99 per year and unlocks advanced features, like tracking intermittent fasting. With an affordable premium option and a free version, Cronometer earns a 4.5 out of 5 for its price.

If you’re looking for a highly accurate food database and robust data tracking, Cronometer is our pick for the best calorie-counting app for most folks. You can read more in our in-depth Cronometer review.

If you’re looking for a calorie counter app with a fantastic user experience, clean interface, and best of all, a free plan that includes nearly all of the important features, Lose It! is a great choice. 

Lose It! is more than just a food logger, as it aims to educate users about food choices and provide education to improve your health and wellness. When you sign up, you’ll begin by taking a thorough quiz that helps the app establish appropriate food goals. The quiz asks about your body stats, goals, and exercise levels, and even allows you to customize the plan by selecting higher calorie days in the week if you want to enjoy more food on specific days. 

GGR Performance Editor Anthony O’Reilly, CPT, CNC, was very impressed with this onboarding feature, saying, “I’ll once again stress just how thorough the opening quiz was—I almost got annoyed at how many questions they were asking. It’s great to see this level of commitment in a fitness app.” He rates the functionality and metric tracking a 5 out of 5.

While users can receive free calorie targets and track their food, the ability to see custom macro targets as well is part of the premium version, so this truly is a free calorie counter app, not a free macro tracking app.

Perry Nix, MS, RD, LD, suggests a different app if you have nutrient deficiencies, too: “Lose It! doesn’t track vitamins and minerals, so it’s not an ideal tracker for anyone at risk of micronutrient deficiencies.”

The barcode scanner, Snap It feature (which logs your food from an image you take), and flexible high-calorie days are also part of the premium plan, unfortunately, but if you don’t need these features, the free version is still very simple and easy to use with a pleasant interface. 

Anthony rated the ease of use a 5 out of 5, saying, “It’s a very easy-to-use nutrition app; it sort of reminds me of MyFitnessPal before it started charging for every feature on the app.” It also connects to most health apps and fitness trackers, earning it a 5 out of 5 for its compatibility.

If you’re looking for premium features or the ability to track your macros, you’ll need to pay the premium fee, which costs $39.99 per year, though discounts may be available. However, if you simply need a free app that’s enjoyable to use and allows you to record your daily calories, Lose It! is worth a try.

I’ve been using MacroFactor for just over a year. As a nutrition coach, it’s one of the better calorie-tracking apps I’ve ever seen or used, and easily earns a 5 out of 5 for its features and resources. 

It has two unique features I really love. The first is the barcode scanner, which is extremely fast and easy to use. If you scan a barcode and it’s not in the food database, you can also scan the nutrition label and MacroFactor quickly imports all of the nutrition facts, allowing you to easily create a new food without having to manually enter the information. Because of this, MacroFactor earns a 5 out of 5 for its ease of use, too.

MacroFactor also has a great algorithm for tracking your energy expenditure with its AI Coaching. As long as you record your daily body weight and food intake, honestly, the app will calculate your exact energy expenditure after a few weeks based on what you’ve been eating and any change in body weight. 

This is a great way to figure out how many calories you burn, as it’s calculated based on what’s happening in your body in real-time, rather than estimating your energy expenditure using your height, weight, and activity level.

Having this information allows the app to tell you exactly how much you need to eat to reach your fitness goals, based on your current energy expenditure. You can also use a coached, collaborative, or custom program, where you set your health goals (weight loss, weight gain, or maintenance), and the app will monitor your progress and suggest changes to your macros to keep you on track.

It’s not the cheapest food tracker at $11.99 per month, so it gets only a 2-out-of-5 score here. However, the interface, fast barcode scanning, and energy expenditure tracking with built-in coaching are well worth the cost. 

FatSecret, as the name implies, is a good app for managing calorie intake for anyone currently focusing on weight loss goals—although registered dietitian Perry Nix isn’t a fan of the name. “It’s a weight loss app, so the name implies that being overweight is shameful, which I simply don’t stand for,” says Perry. 

That said, keeping a food fairy on an app like FatSecret can help people become aware of their daily eating habits, which will aid in determining areas of improvement. The interface is similar to many of the other apps on our list. You can access food journals, easily log your food, and track your calories and macros over time as you work toward your goal.

Our tester, Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, rated the ease of use a 4 out of 5. “It’s pretty easy to use, intuitive, and simple to find your food,” she said. “Most people will pick up on this easily—especially if you’ve used a tracking app before.

Other notable features in this free app include a barcode scanner, image recognition that allows you to track your food by taking a photo of it, an exercise diary, fitness tracker integration, and more. 

Kate was very impressed by the meal plans provided in the premium version. These plans are perfect for those who wish to lose weight but are unsure of what to eat each day. 

“I really like that this app offers customized meal plans like vegetarian, keto, Mediterranean, etc., all from a registered dietitian, and for a really low cost that starts at under $7 each month,” Kate said, rating the price a 4.5 out of 5. 

“If you subscribe to Premium, you can get a week of pre-planned meals and a shopping list. Not only that but the food is automatically entered into your diary, so all you have to do is make tweaks instead of entering everything.” Kate rates the features here a 4 out of 5, with the meal planning and shopping impressing her the most.

If you’re looking for an app to help you lose weight that tracks your food and can provide pre-made meal plans for you to follow, FatSecret is a great option. 

RELATED: Macros for Weight Loss

MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular calorie counter apps on the market, if not the single most popular app. It has a clean interface, it’s extremely easy to use and beginner-friendly, and can track exercise, steps, and more. “You can input and track just about any metric and goal in a progress tab,” adds Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, who rates the tracking a 4 out of 5.

The paid version also has all the features we’d expect to see in an app, including the ability to set your own custom macros, use the barcode scanner, track your body weight and progress over time, and more, but it does have two things we need to call out. 

The first is the public food database. Anyone can add their own food entries, and there’s no way to tell if the one you’re choosing is correct. Some food entries will have a green checkmark to show it’s been verified with a food database, but it’s still confusing.

Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, tested this app and quickly noticed this as well. She said, “The one issue is that users can add foods, and those will show up when you search, and you might have to dig to really figure out which one is the right one.” For that reason, she rates the accuracy a 4 out of 5.

The second thing is the premium plan, which isn’t cheap at $19.99 per month or $79.99 per year. While there is a free version, it’s quite limited and doesn’t allow you to use the barcode scanner or set your own macros. 

If you’re willing to pay the membership fee, this app is still very easy to use with a clean interface and one of the most user-friendly calorie-counting apps we’ve tested. It easily gets a 5 out of 5 for its ease of use (see what I did there?) Perry Nix, MS, RD, LD, adds, “I appreciate the visual pie graph breaking down macros that I consumed each day. It’s a helpful tool for increasing your protein or reducing fat intake.”

Even though the database can be hard to verify, we felt this was a bigger issue when looking to lose weight as calories need to be more precise, so we still recommend MyFitnessPal for those currently working on intentional weight gain.

One of the biggest challenges people tend to face when attempting to improve their nutrition is figuring out what to eat. If you’re changing your normal eating habits, you’ll probably be eating different food, and constantly tracking down new recipes to avoid food boredom isn’t always easy. 

Thankfully, the WeightWatchers app has features to support those on a weight loss journey, including thousands of recipes ready to log, earning a 5 out of 5 for its many features and recipes.

RELATED: Noom vs WeightWatchers

Now, this isn’t technically a calorie-counting app, but rather an app that uses WeightWatchers’ point-tracking system. Rather than tracking the number of calories in a given food, users are assigned a daily points goal, and each food, meal, or recipe is worth a certain number of points. 

All you need to do is avoid going over your daily point goal, which may be easier for some than tracking macros or calories. However, because of this shift away from tracking macros, it earns only a 3 out of 5 for stat tracking. That said, you can also measure and track activity, sleep, weight, and blood sugar for diabetics.

This won’t be the best calorie counter app for muscle gain, according to Perry Nix, MS, RD, LD. “Although WeightWatchers rebranded to have more of a wellness-centered focus, the program still promotes weight loss,” she says. “They do use an all-foods-fit approach, allowing any foods into the diet, so long as it fits within your points for the day.”

Our tester, Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, was very impressed by the large recipe database, along with several other key features, including a robust community which she rated 5 out of 5. 

“There are more than 11,000 recipes, and you can track all kinds of activities. It syncs with Apple Health and other platforms as well, so you don’t have to manually input exercise,” Kate said. “There’s also a huge community on social media, in the app, and just with the millions of people who have used it.”

If you like the idea of tracking points instead of calories or macros, and want to try an app that includes over 11,000 recipes for you to try, WeightWatchers is a great app to consider. It even has a large food database; Kate says, “I only had to manually enter an item once.”

For more, check out our complete WeightWatchers review.

Intermittent fasting, the practice of intentionally going without food for long periods of time, is a popular dieting approach that many embrace in their efforts to maintain a healthy body weight. 

While you can technically use any app to track your food while fasting, Lifesum makes this an easy process. You can choose different fasting styles, and the app will automatically adjust your macros to account for the fast. It also includes a fasting timer to keep track of how long you’ve gone without food and show when you’ve entered ketosis, which is when your body starts burning fat for energy. 

I tested Lifesum myself, and along with the fasting features, I like the app’s emphasis on food education and food quality, leading me to rate the features a solid 5 out of 5. 

You can take a life test, which asks a variety of questions about how often you ate specific foods in the past week, such as various fruits and vegetables, and assigns a score based on how balanced your diet is. There are also plenty of meal plans and recipes to help you with easy food ideas, and you can track your exercise and water intake.

The community presence is small, earning just a 2 out of 5. In my research, I could only find a small Reddit group, but not much else for those looking for a community to help motivate them in their fitness goals.

My biggest issue is that the app’s free version is cluttered with annoying pop-up ads. It’s great to have a free version for users, but when key areas of the screen are covered, or you can’t view the screen without viewing an ad first, I want to close the app immediately. 

The paid version is a beautiful, simple app, and I’d love to give it top marks for ease of use and functionality, but with how messy the free plan is, I have to bring this down to a 3 out of 5. 

If you’re willing to pay for an app, I think Lifesum is a great option for tracking calories and macros, especially if you practice intermittent fasting. However, if you plan on using the free version, I would try any other app on this list that doesn’t rely on so many ads. 

Carb Manager is a great calorie-counter app to try if you’re following the keto diet or simply want to reduce your carbohydrate intake. 

While it tracks all of your macros, the emphasis is on tracking carbohydrates, which is the most important thing to watch for anyone on the keto diet. The app uses net carbs, which subtracts fiber from the total carb intake, a strategy often followed by those on carb-restricted plans. 

GGR Senior Staff Writer Caine Wilkes, OLY, CNC, USAW-1, tried this app, and while he was impressed with the features, he noted that several weren’t obvious right away. 

“The app is pretty easy to use, although there is a lot to navigate,” said Caine. “Premium features are clearly marked, and you’re prompted to purchase premium if you try a feature. It’d probably take a bit of fiddling to learn about all the features, like tracking workouts to estimate calories burned.” He rates the ease of use a 4 out of 5.

Carb Manager can suggest a meal plan, track various types of intermittent fasting, and include an easy-to-use barcode scanner. It also offers thousands of low-carb, keto-friendly recipes to try, and educational content for those new to the keto diet. 

Caine rates the features a 4 out of 5 and adds, “It integrates with fitness trackers to track finer things, although most of these, like a diabetes tracker, are actually premium features.”

The free version is somewhat limited, so most users will want the paid plan. The monthly plan costs as much as $8.49 per month, though you can purchase a quarterly or annual plan to bring down the cost. The cost is relatively inexpensive, leading Caine to rate the price and options a 4.5 out of 5.

If you love the keto diet or want to learn more about it and try it out, Carb Manager is the app to try.