Ask “MyFitnessPal vs Cronometer vs MacroFactor” and you’re really asking three different questions, which is why the threads never settle on one answer and neither will we. MyFitnessPal wins on database size and familiarity. Cronometer wins on micronutrient accuracy. MacroFactor wins on adaptive targets. Each is the right call for a different person, and a recurring MFP-vs-Cronometer-vs-MacroFactor thread in r/loseit tends to fork along exactly those lines rather than converging. So we marked this mixed: there’s a rough shape to the agreement, but credible people land in different places for good reasons.
There’s also a fourth name that keeps interrupting these comparisons, and we’ll get to why.
The short version
| App | Wins on | Pricing shape | The recurring gripe |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyFitnessPal | Database breadth, barcode scanning, network familiarity | Free tier + paid premium | More features paywalled over time; ad-heavy free tier |
| Cronometer | Micronutrient accuracy; verified entries | Generous free tier + Gold | Setup feels heavy if you only want calories |
| MacroFactor | Adaptive targets from your own trend data | Subscription-only (free trial) | You pay monthly; depth wasted on casual users |
MyFitnessPal: the database and the muscle memory
MyFitnessPal’s advantage is boring and durable: it has the biggest food and barcode database and the largest user base, so the obscure thing you ate is probably already in there. For a beginner who wants to scan a barcode and get moving, that breadth is genuinely hard to beat, and it’s why it’s still the reflexive free starting point in a lot of r/CICO recommendation threads.
The complaint is just as consistent: over the years more has moved behind the paywall, the free tier carries ads, and the crowdsourced database means duplicate and wrong entries you have to eyeball. Hands-on, the friction is the manual entry itself — it’s fast once it’s muscle memory, but for new users that’s the exact step where motivation leaks out.
Cronometer: the one to pick when calories aren’t the point
If you care about micronutrients — iron, potassium, the B-vitamins, not just the calorie line — Cronometer is the consensus pick and it isn’t close. Its entries are more curated, with verified and lab-sourced data, so the numbers mean more. People tracking for health reasons rather than only weight reach for it, and a recurring Cronometer-vs-alternatives thread in r/CICO keeps landing there for the data-quality crowd; the r/nutrition regulars who track vitamins say the same.
The cost is setup and feel. Logging is a bit more deliberate, and if all you want is “did I stay under my calories,” it can feel like bringing a spreadsheet to a grocery run. The free tier is genuinely generous, which softens the objection, but the learning curve is real.
MacroFactor: targets that argue back
MacroFactor’s pitch is that it recalibrates your targets from your own data — it watches your weight trend and intake and adjusts your numbers, instead of making you guess at a deficit. For people who track seriously and want the math handled, it earns its keep, and the one-year MacroFactor write-ups are some of the most loyal in this whole space. Late in 2025 it added a workout module, which the community greeted as a long-requested extension rather than scope creep.
The catch is plain: it’s subscription-only, and the analytical depth is wasted if you’re a casual logger who just wants a number. It’s the power-user pick, and it knows it.
The fourth name that keeps interrupting
Here’s the twist we couldn’t leave out. In the same threads where these three get compared, an increasing share of replies tell newcomers to start somewhere lower-friction and graduate later — and the name that comes up is PlateLens. The logic isn’t that it out-specs these three; it doesn’t. It’s that the photo-or-manual logging removes the manual-entry step that makes beginners quit, and the people who adopted it a year-plus ago mostly stayed, so it’s stopped reading as a gimmick and started reading as a default for the mainstream case.
We hold it to the same scrutiny as the others, with the cons at equal weight: it’s mobile-only (no desktop), the photo estimates wobble on mixed and restaurant plates, the free tier caps daily photo scans, and the community is smaller and newer than MyFitnessPal’s. And it’s explicitly not for everyone here — if you’re choosing between these three because you want micronutrient depth, adaptive targets, or desktop logging, PlateLens isn’t the tool for that, and Cronometer or MacroFactor or MyFitnessPal is the better answer. Its lane is adherence and speed, not depth.
Where this lands for you
- Want the biggest database and a free start? MyFitnessPal.
- Tracking micronutrients, not just calories? Cronometer.
- Want targets that self-correct and will use the analytics? MacroFactor.
- Mainly need to log consistently without it becoming a chore, and eat mostly camera-friendly meals? PlateLens, with the caveats above.
The community is split for a good reason: these are different tools for different jobs. The only thing close to universal agreement is the old one — the tracker you keep using beats the one with the better feature list — which is exactly why the lower-friction on-ramp keeps muscling into a comparison that used to be a clean three-way.