Both apps can log a meal from a photograph. The difference is what that costs: here it is in the free plan, in MyFitnessPal its Meal Scan sits in the paid tiers. MyFitnessPal is also stronger on packaged food, thanks to barcode scanning this app does not have at all.
So: MyFitnessPal if most of your food comes in packaging or you want a native app. This if you cook, eat out, and would rather not pay to point a camera at a plate.
Side by side
Capabilities only. Prices are deliberately absent: the higher tiers here are not sold — they are earned — and MyFitnessPal revises its own numbers often enough that a price table would be out of date before you read it.
| Feature | Nutriglance | MyFitnessPal |
|---|---|---|
| Log from a photo | Yes, free plan | Yes, paid tiers (Meal Scan) |
| Log from a written description | Yes | No |
| Food search | Yes | Yes |
| Barcode scanning | No | Yes |
| Native iPhone and Android apps | Web app only | Yes |
| Works with no install | Yes | Store install |
| Food diary with macros | Yes | Yes |
| Calorie and macro calculators, no account | Yes | Account needed |
| AI assistant for nutrition questions | Yes | Not in the same form |
| Water tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Wearable and fitness-tracker integrations | No | Yes |
| Recipe and community library | No | Yes |
| Plan for coaches with client diaries | Yes | No |
| Public nutrition data sources | USDA FoodData Central, Open Food Facts | Own database plus contributor entries |
What MyFitnessPal does better
A comparison that never loses is an advertisement. These are the reasons to stay where you are:
- Barcode scanning. Not implemented here at all. If most of what you eat comes in packaging, that alone is likely to settle it.
- Native apps. Real iPhone and Android applications, with everything that comes with them — offline behaviour, widgets, store updates. This is a web app added to your home screen.
- Integrations. MyFitnessPal connects to fitness trackers and wearables. Nothing here does.
- Community and recipes. Years of user-submitted recipes and saved meals. A new diary has none of that behind it.
- Longevity and scale. Well over a decade old, with a food database and a photo-recognition model trained at a scale nothing here approaches.
What is different here
- A photo without paying for it. Point the camera at the plate rather than typing it into a search box — and on the free plan rather than a paid tier. Best on cooked and restaurant food, weakest on anything mixed; we wrote up exactly how far to trust it.
- Plain-English entry. "Two eggs and a slice of rye toast" works, which covers the meals a photo handles badly.
- Public data sources. Nutrition figures on the search path come from USDA FoodData Central and Open Food Facts, both of which you can check independently. Photo and typed estimates come from the model, with no database behind them.
- Calculators without an account. The calorie, TDEE and macro calculators need no sign-up at all.
- An AI assistant. Ask nutrition questions and get an answer in seconds. It is a language model, not a person, and it does not replace a dietitian.
Who should switch, and who should not
Worth trying if you cook most of your food, eat out often, gave up on logging because searching for every ingredient was too slow, or want the calculators without an account.
Stay put if most of your food is packaged and you rely on barcode scanning, you need a native app or wearable integration, or you have years of MyFitnessPal history you do not want to leave behind.
Other apps in the same category
For completeness, without ranking them — each is stronger than us at something:
- Cronometer — the deepest micronutrient tracking of the mainstream options, if vitamins and minerals matter to you as much as calories.
- Lose It! — a simpler, lighter diary than MyFitnessPal, aimed squarely at weight loss.
- MyNetDiary — strong on tracking alongside diabetes and other conditions.
- Lifesum — built around structured diet plans rather than a blank diary.
You can earn the full version instead of paying for it
Switching costs a fresh diary, so it is fair to want to test it before committing. The free plan is permanent and needs no card, which means you can run both for a fortnight and keep whichever you actually opened.
- Create an account and log a few meals. New accounts open with a two-day Plus trial — three days if somebody invited you — and then settle onto the free plan: no card, no end date, one meal scan a day.
- Publish an honest post, story, write-up or short video about what you found — or invite three people who go on to actually use it.
- Send us the link. A published piece unlocks the higher tier; three qualified invites unlock 90 days of the full version.
Your post has to say you got free access in exchange — that is an FTC requirement in the United States. Access is granted whether what you write is positive or critical. Full terms: promotional access.