MyFitnessPal

myfitnesspal.com

KEEP IT

The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.

A food and exercise diary: log what you eat against a very large food database, track calories and macros against a goal, and see the trend over time.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is
Build me a food diary over an open food database. The database is the whole problem — treat it as such.

STACK
- Astro with a Node adapter, SQLite via better-sqlite3, installable as a progressive web app
- Open Food Facts as the product source, imported locally rather than queried live

THE DATABASE
- Import the Open Food Facts dump for your countries, keeping barcode, name, brand, serving size and nutrients per 100g
- Rebuild the import monthly; keep the version so a changed product does not silently rewrite old entries
- A local foods table for things with no barcode, owned by you and never overwritten by an import

LOGGING
- Barcode scan in the browser with the device camera, falling back to search
- Search ranked by: exact barcode, then brand plus name prefix, then fuzzy, and only within your country's set
- Recent and frequent foods first, because that is what makes logging take five seconds instead of a minute

PORTIONS
- Serving sizes per food with a gram equivalent; store grams, display the serving
- Never store a portion as a label alone

GOALS
- Daily energy and macro targets, with a weekly average shown more prominently than the daily number
- Trend weight using an exponentially weighted average, not raw daily readings

PRIVACY
- Everything local; no account, no upload, and the README says so

Include a README on the import job, the ranking rules and the storage size of the food table.

What you lose

  • A food database of millions of items with barcodes, which is the only reason logging is fast
  • Restaurant and supermarket entries kept current across countries
  • Barcode scanning that recognises the product in front of you
  • Recipe import and portion estimation
  • Years of your own logs, already searchable and already comparable

If you would rather not build

  • Cronometer — paid, stronger micronutrient data

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Waistline

$0

Open-source calorie and nutrition diary using Open Food Facts.

davidhealey/waistlinefree · open source

Open Food Facts

$0

The collaborative food product database, free to download in full.

openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-serverfree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

25/100

Verdict no at 25: the app is easy and Open Food Facts is real, but coverage is the product. A scan that fails to find the item three times a week is the reason people go back to the app with the bigger database.

History

tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about MyFitnessPal

answered from the record above

Is MyFitnessPal free?

No — the plan we track is $19.99 a month. Premium at $19.99/month or $79.99/year; basic logging remains free with advertising.

Can you replace MyFitnessPal by building your own?

KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 25 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does MyFitnessPal cost?

$19.99 a month on Premium — $239.88 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing MyFitnessPal?

A food database of millions of items with barcodes, which is the only reason logging is fast; Restaurant and supermarket entries kept current across countries; Barcode scanning that recognises the product in front of you; Recipe import and portion estimation; Years of your own logs, already searchable and already comparable. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to MyFitnessPal?

Yes: Waistline, Open Food Facts. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

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