The company behind the best known points programme spent part of 2025 in a court supervised restructuring, and the apps that compete with it have been moving features behind subscriptions for years. WeightWatchers is still on Google Play and still charges. What changed underneath is the free tier: barcode scanning, the feature that turns logging a packet into one gesture, now sits behind Premium at MyFitnessPal and Lose It!, while three other calorie counters still give it away. Rapid weight loss, and any plan for someone with a medical condition, a history of an eating disorder or a pregnancy, belongs with a doctor rather than an app store.
FatSecret is our best overall pick because on 28 August 2026 its listing showed 4.5 from 545,387 ratings, free to install and no Contains ads label.
Open Food Facts is our best free pick because on 3 September 2026 its listing showed no in-app purchases at all and no Contains ads label.
Cronometer is our nutrient tracking pick because on 28 August 2026 it showed 4.6 from 57,562 ratings and purchases from $2.99 per item.
Data checked: 3 September 2026.
Weight Watchers Program is listed by WW INTERNATIONAL, INC at 4.3 stars from 603,579 ratings, updated 26 August 2026, with an In-app purchases label and no Contains ads label. The listing presents Points as a calorie counter alternative and names a barcode scanner and modes called Lose, Maintain, All-In and Vacation.
The news is narrower than the headlines were. The company's own member page states that "On June 24, 2025, WeightWatchers successfully emerged from the Chapter 11 process" and that "There is no change to our member offerings, including our programs, app access, and coaching sessions at this time." A restructuring is not the reason to switch.
The price might be. Its United States plans page lists CORE from 12 US dollars a month, CORE+ from 22 and a medication tier from 25 for a first month, each auto renewing. Prices differ by country, so read the purchase screen before you commit.
The paid incumbent
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $0.99 to $349.99 per item and no Contains ads label. Its Data safety card declares no data shared with third parties, read 2 September 2026. Listing updated 26 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonEvery app below logs a meal one of four ways: search, scan a barcode, photograph the plate or speak. The scanner is the one that moved, the same way at two of the best known names.
MyFitnessPal is blunt about it. Barcode scanning, meal scanning and voice logging sit in the Premium block, and Premium Plus opens with "All Premium features, including barcode scanning". Contains ads, 4.4 stars from 2,911,920 ratings, updated 14 August 2026.
Lose It! prints the split as two labelled lists. Its free basic features are calorie tracking, a weight loss plan and community support; its premium plan adds photo logging, AI voice logging and a Barcode Scanner. Contains ads, 4.6 stars from 182,366 ratings, updated 24 August 2026.
Three still scan for nothing. Cronometer offers "search, scan a barcode (for free) or upload a photo", the parenthesis its own. FatSecret lists "A barcode scanner and auto-complete functions" among its base features. Yazio puts "Barcode scanner for easy calorie tracking" in its free list. The same camera trick turns up as a side feature in shopping list apps, where real time sync is the headline instead.
The biggest claimed catalogue
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $0.99 to $99.99 per item and a Contains ads label. Installs 100,000,000 or more. Listing updated 14 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonThe other Premium scanner
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $2.49 to $299.99 per item and a Contains ads label. Listing updated 24 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonFree scanner, with advertising
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $6.99 to $299.99 per item and a Contains ads label. Listing updated 28 August 2026. The listing title now reads Yazio: AI Calorie Tracker, a name the prose above predates.
↑ Back to the comparison
Listings compete on size and the numbers are not comparable. MyFitnessPal advertises "20.5M+ foods, including restaurant dishes", Lose It! "56+ million items and recipes", Yazio "over 4 million searchable items" and also "95% of all food items", a marketing figure a reader cannot check.
Only one listing says what its number is made of. Cronometer describes "a curated database of more than 1.1 million verified foods, including analyzed entries" and a "trusted, staff-reviewed food database". Contains ads, 4.6 stars from 57,562 ratings, updated 26 August 2026.
Open Food Facts is not a food diary. It is a scanner over an open database its listing puts at 4 million products, run by a non-profit, showing a pack's Nutri-Score grade from A to E and NOVA group from 1 to 4. No ads label, no purchases label, 4.1 stars from 7,577 ratings, updated 15 August 2026. Its own caution: "Be careful that the information may not be 100% accurate, and detection may not be 100% accurate."
Nutrient depth, with advertising
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $2.99 to $89.99 per item and a Contains ads label. Listing updated 26 August 2026. The package id ends in gold, but the listing it opens is the free app that sells Gold as a purchase.
↑ Back to the comparisonA packet reader, not a diary
Free, with no in-app purchases listed and no Contains ads label. Its Data safety card declares no data shared with third parties, read 28 August 2026. Installs 1,000,000 or more. Listing updated 15 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonA points value is one number an app works out from several, including what the programme calls ZeroPoint foods, which it does not ask you to count. The free apps show calories and the macronutrient split instead.
FatSecret offers "Detailed reporting and goals for all your calories and macros", a food diary, an exercise diary and a weight tracker, with dietitian meal plans and water tracking for Premium. Cronometer reaches furthest, advertising "calories, macros, fasting, and 95+ nutrients and compounds", with its recipe importer, fasting tracker and AI photo logging for Gold. Lifesum sits between, with a macro tracker, food ratings and a weekly Life Score, and says it "is free to download and use with limited features": no ads label, 4.4 stars from 377,880 ratings, updated 5 August 2026.
Neither scale does the work. The entry does, every day, which is a habit problem rather than a software one, and habit tracker apps exist for that.
Free tier, no advertising label
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $14.99 to $59.99 per item and no Contains ads label. Installs 50,000,000 or more. Listing updated 26 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonThe one that names an export
Free to install, with in-app purchases listed at $3.99 to $99.99 per item and no Contains ads label. Listing updated 5 August 2026.
↑ Back to the comparisonRead the Data safety card before the review score. Four of the seven alternatives here carry a Contains ads label: Yazio, MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and Cronometer. FatSecret, Lifesum and Open Food Facts do not. What each says it may share with third parties, read on 4 August 2026, does not follow those labels.
The paid app declares the least: WeightWatchers reports nothing shared. The permission to watch is the camera, which every scanner needs and which you can grant only while an app is open. Checking what an app can access covers the Permission Manager and Privacy Dashboard.
A year of entries you cannot move is the quiet cost of a free tier. Only one calorie counter here names an export, and it is not a file. Lifesum: "Connect your Lifesum account to Samsung Health or Health Connect to automatically import exercise data and export nutrition data from Lifesum."
Health Connect is Android's own health store rather than any one developer's. Google's documentation gives it a Nutrition category carrying "optional fields such as calories, sugar, and magnesium", behind read and write permissions you grant per app. Cronometer says "Sync with Health Connect and Wear OS" and WeightWatchers names it for activity and sleep; MyFitnessPal's listing does not name it. Open Food Facts says "You can export your scan history".
The same pipe fills the rest: the sleep, activity and nutrition score WeightWatchers advertises needs other apps feeding it. Workouts come from the fitness app roundup, nightly figures from sleep tracker apps.
None of these is a training app, and none replaces a clinician. On logging food without paying, the labels answer most of it.
That leaves movement. Yazio and MyFitnessPal both advertise step tracking inside the food log, but if that is the half you care about, it is compared app by app in step counter apps for Android.
FatSecret, Cronometer and Yazio each keep a usable free tier. FatSecret's listing calls the app free and names a barcode scanner among base features, Cronometer marks scanning as free, and Yazio adds instant access with no signup. All three count calories, not points.
Checked on Google Play on 4 August 2026: Cronometer puts barcode scanning in the free column in so many words, and FatSecret and Yazio name a scanner among base features. MyFitnessPal and Lose It! both list barcode scanning under Premium.
Yes. WW International went through a Chapter 11 restructuring in 2025, and WeightWatchers' own member page says it emerged on 24 June 2025 with no change to member offerings, including app access and coaching. The app is on Google Play at 4.4 stars.
WeightWatchers is a paid membership with an In-app purchases label on Play. Its United States plans page lists CORE from 12 US dollars a month, CORE+ from 22 and a medication tier from 25 for a first month, each auto renewing. Prices move by country.
Several declare that they may. From the Play Data safety cards on 4 August 2026: FatSecret may share personal info, health and fitness data and four further types; Yazio and MyFitnessPal each list location, personal info and device IDs; Cronometer lists personal info only; Open Food Facts declares nothing shared.
Check before a year of entries builds up. Of FatSecret, Cronometer, Yazio, MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and Lifesum, only Lifesum's Play listing names an export, and it goes to Samsung Health or Health Connect rather than a file. Health Connect is Android's own health store and its Nutrition data type covers calories.