MyFitnessPal Review: A Huge Database, With Caveats

MyFitnessPal’s main strength is easy to see: it has the biggest raw database of any app we reviewed. Our testing found the trade-off that comes with it. Its entries are crowd-sourced rather than verified, and in manual entry, where the entry you choose is part of the result, it measured ±11.2% error. That’s the highest of the manual apps we tested.

Here’s how that plays out, and who might still want it.

What MyFitnessPal does well

Breadth. No app we reviewed has a bigger raw database. If you eat a wide variety of packaged foods and want the best odds of finding a match by search, that’s a real advantage.

A free tier. You can log manually without paying. That’s more than MacroFactor offers: it has no free tier at all.

You know where it stands. MyFitnessPal went through our full 180-meal protocol, so its result is a measured figure, not an estimate based on reputation.

Where it falls short

Accuracy. In manual entry, MyFitnessPal measured ±11.2%. For comparison, in manual entry PlateLens measured ±3.5%, MacroFactor ±4.8%, Cronometer ±6.8% and Lose It! ±9.4%.

Crowd-sourced entries. Its entries aren’t verified. A big, unverified database cuts both ways: more choice, and more chances to pick an entry that’s off. Apps with verified databases, such as PlateLens, take that variable out of your hands.

Barcode scanning is paywalled. As of November 2026, you need the $79.99-a-year plan to scan barcodes. That’s the highest price of any paid plan we checked, and PlateLens, Cronometer and Lose It! all scan barcodes for free.

Accuracy: what we measured

We measured MyFitnessPal in manual-entry mode. In that mode, the error reflects the full loop of logging: your portion estimate plus the database entry you choose. Across our 180-meal weighed-food validation, MyFitnessPal came in at ±11.2% against the weighed reference values.

The figure is single-study. Only PlateLens’s figure has been re-run on a second meal set. The results were published as a pre-print by the Dietary Assessment Initiative; a pre-print hasn’t been through peer review.

If you stay with MyFitnessPal, you can narrow the gap yourself. Weigh portions when you can, and choose entries you can check against a nutrition label.

Free vs paid

As of November 2026:

• Free: manual logging from the database.
• Paid, $79.99 a year: adds barcode scanning.

For context, PlateLens’s premium is about $35 a year, Lose It!’s paid tier is about $40 and Cronometer Gold is $59.99, and all three include barcode scanning in their free versions.

Who it’s for

• You want the biggest database and you’re happy to check entries before logging them.
• You log manually and don’t need barcode scanning.
• You’ve used it for years and already know which entries you trust.

Who should skip it

• Accuracy is your priority. PlateLens and MacroFactor measured far lower error.
• You want free barcode scanning. PlateLens, Cronometer and Lose It! include it.
• You’d rather not sort through crowd-sourced entries.

The bottom line

MyFitnessPal’s database is the biggest we reviewed, but bigger isn’t the same as more accurate. It measured ±11.2% in manual entry, the highest of the manual apps we tested, and it charges $79.99 a year for barcode scanning that several other apps include free. Most people will be better served by PlateLens or Cronometer.