Lose It! (by FitNow) and MyFitnessPal are two of the most-used calorie counters, and they look alike at first: a big food database, a free plan and a Premium subscription. The differences are in what the free plans include, how much Premium costs depending on where you buy it, and what you can take with you if you leave. We make Calorix, a third, competing app, and we don’t rank these two: every fact below comes from Lose It! and MyFitnessPal’s own help centres, websites and App Store listings, checked on October 23, 2026.
The short version
- Free plans: both let you log food and exercise. MyFitnessPal’s free plan shows your macros and lets you set goals by percentage; Lose It! lists macro tracking (“Advanced Tracking”) among its Premium features.
- Barcode scanning: Premium-only in MyFitnessPal since 2022; Lose It! is moving its scanner to Premium now.
- Price: MyFitnessPal Premium is cheapest on its website ($49.99 a year); Lose It! Premium is $79.99 a year, but Lose It! says most users get discounted offers in the app.
- Leaving later: Lose It! lets you download a full export from loseit.com; MyFitnessPal lists data export as a Premium feature.
Free versions compared
MyFitnessPal Free covers food and exercise logging, logging measurements, creating foods, meals and recipes, viewing macronutrients, setting calorie and macro goals by percentage, sharing your diary, linking partner apps and a printable report. The barcode scanner, Meal Scan, intermittent fasting, net carbs, data export and an ad-free app are Premium (MyFitnessPal help).
Lose It! Basic costs “$0 USD” and includes “essential tracking tools, including a personalized daily calorie budget and access to our 50M+ food database” (Lose It! help). Its App Store listing names calorie tracking, a weight loss plan and community support as free, and puts photo logging, voice logging, the barcode scanner, advanced tracking of macros and nutrients, intermittent fasting and device syncs under Premium.
Both free plans show ads; Lose It! sells a one-time ad removal without Premium.
The barcode scanner
This is the feature most people compare. MyFitnessPal: “As of October 1, 2022, Barcode Scan is available only with a Premium subscription” (MyFitnessPal help). Lose It!: “We are also in the process of moving the barcode scanner (Scan It) and nutrition label scanner to part of our Premium features. Some free members will still have access as we transition, while others will not”, and the scanner only works with your device language set to English (Lose It! help).
So if a free scanner is what you need, neither is a safe bet. Cronometer and MyNetDiary still include one free (see Cronometer price and MyNetDiary price).
What Premium costs, and where to buy it
MyFitnessPal sells Premium on its website at “$49.99 / year” or “$9.99 / month” (myfitnesspal.com). Inside the iPhone app, its App Store page lists Premium at $9.99 or $19.99 a month and $49.99 or $79.99 a year. Premium+, which adds a meal planner, 1,500+ recipes and grocery lists, is sold in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia; MyFitnessPal’s help centre shows its price only in the app. Details: MyFitnessPal Premium price.
Lose It! lists Premium at “$79.99 USD / Year”. It “adjusts prices based on various factors like seasonal promotions and how often you use the app”, and says “Most users will receive discounted offers” (Lose It! help), which is why its App Store page lists Premium rows from $9.99 to $79.99. Lifetime Premium is a one-time $299.99 ($229.99 for current members), and a new optional add-on, The Lab, costs $19.99 a month. Details: Lose It! Premium price.
Both offer a 7-day free trial to new Premium users.
Food databases and logging
Lose It! says its database has “50M+” foods; MyFitnessPal’s App Store listing says “20.5M+ foods, including restaurant dishes”. Both mix their own entries with foods added by users. MyFitnessPal’s database is “a combination of foods added by MyFitnessPal … as well as foods that are added by our users” (MyFitnessPal help). Lose It! draws on the USDA database, member uploads and its own team, marks foods it has checked with a green checkmark and lets you filter search results to verified foods only (Lose It! help). Either way, check the label on foods you log often. In both apps, photo logging (MyFitnessPal’s Meal Scan, Lose It!’s Photo Meal Logging) and voice logging are Premium features.
Your data, and switching
- Lose It! lets you download a full export of your data from loseit.com/export/data; it also says “Importing data is not possible” (Lose It! help).
- MyFitnessPal lists “Data Export” as a Premium and Premium+ feature. If you go back to Free, it says your logs, recipes and history stay in your account.
In practice, moving years of logs from one to the other isn’t possible. Apple Health can carry over things like weight if both apps are connected to it.
Platforms
Both run on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android and the web; MyFitnessPal also supports Wear OS watches. On the App Store, MyFitnessPal is available in 20 languages and Lose It! in 8. Lose It! notes a catch: Premium bought through the App Store works on iPhone and loseit.com but not on Android; buy it on loseit.com to use it on both.
When Lose It! is the better choice
- You want a simple daily calorie budget and a large food database, without much else on screen.
- You’re happy to wait for an in-app discount on Premium, or you’d rather pay once: Lose It! sells Lifetime Premium, and MyFitnessPal doesn’t list a one-time option.
- You want to be able to download a full export of your data from the website.
When MyFitnessPal is the better choice
- You want to see your macros, and set macro goals, on the free plan.
- You’ll buy Premium on the website, where it costs $49.99 a year, less than Lose It!’s standard price.
- You want the larger community, more app languages, Wear OS support or Premium+ meal planning.
Our app: Calorix
We make Calorix, so we left it out of the comparison above. If neither fits, Calorix is an iPhone-only calorie app with free barcode lookups, 3 free AI photo scans a day and a pet, Toasty; Pro costs $39.99 a year in the US after a 3-day free trial. It has no Android or web app. Head-to-heads: Calorix vs Lose It! and Calorix vs MyFitnessPal.
More options are in MyFitnessPal alternatives.
Change log
- October 23, 2026: page published. Free and Premium features, prices, trials, data export and platforms checked in Lose It!’s and MyFitnessPal’s help centres, on myfitnesspal.com and on both US App Store listings.
Updated October 23, 2026
