How we compare
Each app gets a grade from A to C on five criteria. The criteria are chosen around one idea: the calorie counter that helps you is the one you keep using, so speed and data quality come first.
The five criteria
| Criterion | What earns an A |
|---|---|
| Logging speed | How quickly you can count a real meal: barcode for packages, photo for plates, voice for drinks, search for everything else. More fast methods in one diary scores higher. |
| Food data | Whether entries are verified or crowd-sourced, and how much branded, barcode and restaurant data there is. Duplicate and user-typed entries score lower. |
| Free plan | What you can do forever without paying. A trial scores as no free plan. |
| Nutrient detail | How many nutrients each entry shows beyond calories and macros. |
| Value | What the paid plan costs per year in the US and what it unlocks, compared with the rest of the field. |
How grades are given
A means best in the field or level with the best. B means good, with a clear gap to the leader. C means usable but behind. Grades are editorial judgments, not lab measurements, and they are the same for every report on the site.
Sources
Features, plans and prices come from each company's own website, help center and app-store listings. US prices are printed with the date they were checked. If a company does not describe a feature in a way we can confirm, we write a dash instead of guessing.
Payments and changes
No app pays for a grade or a position. Links go to each company's own site or app-store page. Changes after publication are listed in the changelog.