Best calorie counter apps UK · 9 compared · prices checked 22 September 2026
Best calorie counter apps UK 2026: free tiers compared.
Nine calorie counters on the UK App Store. We re-read every price, free-tier limit and
rating off their UK listings on 22 September 2026. We also say which free tiers
still let you scan a barcode. One of the nine is ours, and we say where the
others do a job better.
The short answer. There isn't one best calorie counter. There is a best one for the thing you need most:
Free, no daily cap, no adsMyNetDiary. Its UK listing promises an unlimited free diary with barcode scanning and no ads.
Free, from the NHSNHS Weight Loss Plan. A 12-week plan with a daily calorie diary and no in-app purchases.
UK weight loss, UK foodsNutracheck. 600,000+ UK foods by its own count, and 264,827 UK ratings at 4.8.
The biggest databaseMyFitnessPal. Over 20.5 million foods, and in the UK the barcode scanner is on the free tier.
Vitamins and minerals in depthCronometer. 95+ vitamins and minerals, and barcode scanning on the free tier.
Targets that adjust to youMacroFactor. Recalculates your calories each week. No free tier, a 7-day trial.
Calories plus what's in the foodNutraSafe, ours. Free scans count the additives on each pack. Pro names them and tracks 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against UK NRVs.
Yazio and Lose It are in the tables and reviews below. Looking for Yuka? It scans and grades products but doesn't count calories, so it lives in our best food scanner apps UK roundup instead.
Which calorie counter apps are free in the UK?
All nine are free to download, and eight have a free tier you can keep using.
What differs is where the free tier stops. The column most people miss is the barcode
scanner: MyFitnessPal's is still free in the UK, though it went behind Premium in the US in 2022. If the free tier is all you
care about, our free calorie counter UK page goes deeper on just that.
App
What the free tier gives you
Barcode scanner free?
Ads on free
MyNetDiary
Unlimited food diary, macros, water, exercise, progress charts, custom foods and recipesPer its UK listing.
Yes
No
NHS Weight Loss Plan
The whole app: 12 weekly guides, a BMI calculator, a calorie target and a food diaryNo in-app purchases listed.
Not mentioned on its listing
Not stated on its listing
Cronometer
Food diary with calories, macros, vitamins and mineralsGold adds an ad-free experience and more tools.
Yes
Yes
Yazio
Calorie counter, food diary and barcode scannerPRO adds meal plans, recipes and more analysis.
Yes
Not stated on its listing
Nutracheck
7-day free trial of everything, then the free Lite tierNutracheck says Lite has "daily diary limits"; reviews report five foods a day.
Listed as a feature
Its prices page lists "no adverts" as a paid benefit
NutraSafe (ours)
Up to 25 food logs a day, calories and macros by meal, the food's score, a count of the additives on the pack, Big 14 allergens from the ingredients we holdReaction logging stays open while the app builds your baseline.
Yes
No, on either tier
MyFitnessPal
Calorie and macro logging against a database of 20.5 million foodsThe scanner went behind Premium in the US in 2022, not in the UK. Meal scan and voice logging are Premium.
Yes, in the UK
Yes
Lose It
Calorie budget, weight-loss plan and communityIts UK listing puts the barcode scanner, photo logging and AI voice under Premium; some users report scanning still works free.
Listed as Premium
Not stated on its listing
MacroFactor
No free tier. A 7-day trial, then a subscriptionIts listing: "does not offer a free subscription tier".
Trial only
No
If you log three meals a day
Three meals plus snacks sits inside every daily cap here except Nutracheck Lite's. The thing that will actually wear on you is scanning: if you shop packaged food, a free tier without a barcode scanner means typing every product in.
If you cook from scratch
Logging each ingredient eats entries fast. MyNetDiary's diary is uncapped, ours stops at 25 a day, and Nutracheck Lite is reported at five. Count the entries in one real day of your own cooking before you commit.
If you want it all free, for good
Only the NHS Weight Loss Plan has nothing to buy. It is built around 12 weeks, though, not years. For a diary you keep indefinitely, MyNetDiary and Cronometer have the widest free tiers here.
How much do calorie counter apps cost in the UK?
Every figure below is from the app's UK App Store listing on 22 September 2026. Most
listings carry several prices for the same plan, because offers and older plans stay
listed. We quote the ones labelled monthly or yearly, and give the full spread where
the listing doesn't label them. The rating is Apple's UK average and count on the same day.
App
Monthly
Yearly
Also on the listing
UK rating
NHS Weight Loss Plan
Free
Free
Nothing to buy
4.5 from 5,881
MyNetDiary
Plan lengths not labelled on the listing
Premium and Premium Plus (AI coach); check the price in the app
4.8 from 23,775
Nutracheck
£6.99
£29.99
Nutracheck's own prices; the listing also keeps older plans and past sale prices
4.8 from 264,827
NutraSafe (ours)
£3.99
£34.99
Those two plans only
4.5 from 36
Yazio
No monthly listed
£35.90
3 months £14.99 or £23.99, 6 months £24.99, other PRO items £9.99 to £47.90
4.7 from 12,217
Cronometer
£9.99
£59.99
A £39.99 Gold Annual
4.7 from 6,860
MacroFactor
£10.99
£62.99
6 months £41.99, monthly also £10.49 and £8.49, an £89.99 annual bundle
4.8 from 1,925
MyFitnessPal
£15.99
£64.99
Premium also at £7.99 and £39.99
4.7 from 470,766
Lose It
Premium items £9.99 to £75.99, periods not labelled
Lifetime Premium £59.99
4.7 from 41,356
Which calorie counter has the best UK food database?
The number on the tin is not the number that matters. A database of 20 million foods
still fails you if the Aldi own-brand yoghurt in your hand isn't in it, or is in it
with somebody's typo. Here is what each app claims about its own database, in its own words.
App
What its UK listing says
Who checks the entries
MyFitnessPal
Over 20.5 million foods, including restaurant dishes
A large share is user-submitted, so quality varies entry to entry
Yazio
Over 4 million searchable items
Not stated
MyNetDiary
Over 2 million foods "including UK brands", up to 108 nutrients per entry
Staff-verified; it says the team reviews 2,500 to 3,500 foods a day
Cronometer
More than 1.1 million verified foods
Curated, including analysed entries
Nutracheck
500,000+ UK items (its prices page says 600,000 foods with photos), naming Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, M&S, Waitrose, Greggs, Nando's, Costa and Pret
Verified in house, with product photos
NutraSafe (ours)
UK branded and supermarket own-brand food. We don't publish a total
If a barcode isn't in it, the app asks for three photos (front, ingredients, nutrition panel) and adds the food to your diary
The five-product test
Before you commit a month of logging, scan five things you buy every week in two apps, own-brand ones especially. Check each against the pack. The app that matches your packs is the accurate one for your shop, whatever its database size.
Why own-brand matters in the UK
Supermarket own-label is a big share of a British trolley and the first place US-rooted databases thin out. Cronometer and Lose It are US-built; expect to type in some own-label ready meals by hand.
The biggest calorie counter, with the biggest database.
Free tier
Logging, with ads
Premium
£15.99/month or £64.99/year
UK rating
4.7 from 470,766
Platform
iOS, Android, web
What it's for. Counting calories and macros against the largest
database here, over 20.5 million foods including restaurant dishes. Water tracking,
workouts, step sync and a fasting tracker sit alongside. It has more UK ratings than
the other eight apps put together.
StrengthAlmost anything is in there. If someone has eaten it and logged it, MyFitnessPal probably has an entry.
LimitationPremium is the dearest here. £15.99 a month is the highest monthly price in this comparison, and meal scan and voice logging sit behind it. User-submitted entries vary in quality.
Best forPeople who eat out a lot or cook from recipes, and are happy to pay for Premium.
Nutracheck
The long-running UK calorie counter, built on UK food.
Free tier
Lite, with daily limits
Paid
£6.99/month or £29.99/year
UK rating
4.8 from 264,827
Platform
iOS, Android, web
What it's for. UK weight loss. On the App Store it is listed as "Calorie Counter +". It tracks calories and
seven nutrients: carbs, protein, fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and fibre. It claims
600,000+ UK foods with photos and over 20 years of development. Goals cover loss, gain, maintenance
and 5:2 fasting, and Nutracheck now pitches itself as a support tool for people on GLP-1 medication.
StrengthUK database and UK support. Verified entries, product photos, high-street chains and a UK customer care team. A year is £29.99.
LimitationLite is tight. Nutracheck only says "daily diary limits"; reviews report five foods a day, so the free tier is really a taster. No vitamins and minerals beyond the seven, and no ingredient or additive reading.
Best forUK weight loss with a paid plan. Especially if you want the numbers off a British label and nothing else.
MyNetDiary
The most generous free tier on this list.
Free tier
Unlimited diary, scanner, no ads
Premium
Price shown in the app
UK rating
4.8 from 23,775
Platform
iOS, Android, web
What it's for. Everyday calorie counting without paying. Its UK listing
puts an unlimited diary, barcode scanning, voice logging, full macros, water, exercise
and progress charts in the free version, with no ads and no account needed. It claims
over 2 million staff-verified foods including UK brands, with up to 108 nutrients per entry.
StrengthFree really means free. No daily cap and no ads, which only the NHS app matches here.
LimitationUS roots. The database is built on USDA and NCC sources, so check your own-brand staples with the five-product test.
Best forAnyone who wants a full calorie diary and won't pay.
NHS Weight Loss Plan
The free NHS app: a 12-week plan with a calorie diary.
Price
Free, nothing to buy
Made by
Department of Health and Social Care
UK rating
4.5 from 5,881
Platform
iOS, Android
What it's for. Starting to lose weight with a structure. It works out a
healthy weight with a BMI calculator, sets a calorie target, and walks you through 12
weekly NHS guides with actions and tips. You log the food and calories at each meal and
record your weight once a week.
StrengthFree, with NHS guidance built in. The only app here with no subscription at all.
LimitationBuilt around 12 weeks. It is a plan, not a diary you keep for years, and its listing doesn't mention barcode scanning, macros or vitamins.
Best forA first go at calorie counting, with a clear start and finish.
Cronometer
The deepest nutrient tracking on this list.
Free tier
Full diary, with ads
Gold
£9.99/month or £59.99/year
UK rating
4.7 from 6,860
Platform
iOS, Android, web
What it's for. Going deep per food: 95+ vitamins and minerals, by its
listing, from more than 1.1 million verified foods. It syncs with Apple Health, Fitbit,
Garmin, Oura and Whoop, and can show how caffeine and alcohol line up with your sleep.
StrengthNutrient depth, and a free scanner. Barcode scanning is on the free tier.
LimitationUS-rooted database. UK own-label often needs typing in, and there's no UK NRV preset (the EU one is close).
Best forMicronutrient detail: vegan B12 and iron, high-protein diets, anyone who wants the full panel.
MacroFactor
A macro tracker that recalculates your targets every week.
Free tier
None, 7-day trial
Paid
£10.99/month or £62.99/year
UK rating
4.8 from 1,925
Platform
iOS, Android
What it's for. Hitting a goal without stalling. It estimates how much
energy you actually burn from what you log and how your weight moves, then adjusts your
calorie and macro targets at a weekly check-in. Its listing says it never shows red
numbers or warnings when you go over.
StrengthTargets that follow you. The weekly recalculation is the thing none of the others do.
LimitationNo free tier at all. After the 7-day trial it is a subscription or nothing.
Best forPeople who lift, cut and bulk and want the maths done for them.
Yazio
Calorie counter and fasting tracker in one.
Free tier
Diary and barcode scanner
PRO
£35.90 for 12 months
UK rating
4.7 from 12,217
Platform
iOS, Android
What it's for. Calorie counting with intermittent fasting alongside,
including 16:8 and 5:2 plans. The free tier has the diary and barcode scanner against
a database of over 4 million items. PRO adds meal plans, recipes with a cooking mode
and more analysis.
StrengthFasting built in. One app for the eating window and what you eat in it.
LimitationPricing is hard to read. The UK listing shows PRO prices from £9.99 to £47.90.
Best forCalorie counting with 16:8 or 5:2 fasting.
Lose It
A weight-loss calorie counter with photo and voice logging.
Free tier
Calorie budget and plan
Premium
£9.99 to £75.99, or £59.99 lifetime
UK rating
4.7 from 41,356
Platform
iOS, Android, web
What it's for. Weight loss to a schedule. It sets a daily calorie budget
from your profile and tracks food, exercise and weight against it. It has added GLP-1
medication logging. Photo logging and AI voice logging ("I had 2 eggs and toast") are Premium.
StrengthFast logging and a lifetime option. The only app here you can buy once, at £59.99.
LimitationThe barcode scanner is Premium. Its UK listing puts it under Premium Plan Features. The database is US-rooted.
Best forPeople on GLP-1 medication, or anyone who'd rather talk to the app than type.
Our app
NutraSafe
A UK calorie counter that also reads the ingredient list.
Free tier
25 logs a day, scanner, no ads
Pro
£3.99/month or £34.99/year
UK rating
4.5 from 36
Platform
iPhone
What it's for. Counting calories on UK supermarket food and seeing what
else is in it. Scan a pack and the free tier gives you calories, macros,
a score out of 100 with the reasons behind it, and a count of the additives in it.
Pro names each additive and says what published science links it to,
from the same research behind our 454 E-number pages, citing EFSA,
FSA, NHS, WHO and IARC. Pro also tracks 13 vitamins and 12
minerals against UK NRVs as you log, and adds an AI Coach, workouts, fasting and
food reaction patterns in the same diary.
A day on NutraSafe
Scan a food, check the score, log a workout, see your vitamins.
A scanned pack: calories, macros and a score out of 100. This sandwich scored 20, with five added additives and palm oil, at 506 kcal per pack. Pro names each additive and cites the evidence behind it.The diary. Calories and macros against your targets, how processed the day was, and your vitamins and minerals so far.Workouts in the same app. Sets and reps against a rolling 1RM, with a rest timer and plate calculator.Vitamins and minerals against UK NRVs. Sorted lowest first, so what you're short on shows at the top. Here chromium is at 2% and vitamin E at 65%.
StrengthThe ingredient list, read for you. Each additive in a food named, with what published science links it to.
LimitationiPhone only, and new. 36 UK ratings against Nutracheck's 264,827. The free tier counts additives without naming them, and caps logging at 25 a day.
Best forUK shoppers who read the back of the pack and want calories, additives, vitamins, workouts and fasting in one place. The full case is on our best nutrition app UK page.
Which calorie counter app should you pick?
Finish one of these sentences and you've picked. Still deciding between counting calories
and counting macros? Our macro tracker page sets the two side by side.
if
"I want a proper diary and I'm not paying."
An unlimited diary with a barcode scanner and no ads, which is what MyNetDiary's free tier lists.
Pick MyNetDiary
if
"I want a plan to follow, free."
Twelve weekly NHS guides, a calorie target and a food diary, with nothing to buy.
Pick NHS Weight Loss Plan
if
"I want to lose weight on UK food."
A verified UK database with product photos and high-street chains, at £29.99 for a paid year.
Pick Nutracheck
if
"I eat out and need everything to be in there."
Over 20.5 million foods, restaurants included, and the barcode scanner is free in the UK.
Pick MyFitnessPal
if
"I want every nutrient, not just calories."
95+ vitamins and minerals per its listing, with the scanner on the free tier.
Pick Cronometer
if
"I train, and I want my targets worked out for me."
Weekly check-ins that recalculate calories and macros from what you actually burn.
Pick MacroFactor
if
"I fast, and want one app for both."
16:8 and 5:2 fasting plans next to the calorie diary, with a free scanner.
Pick Yazio
if
"I'm on a GLP-1 and want to log by voice."
GLP-1 medication logging, and voice and photo logging on Premium, or buy it once at £59.99.
Pick Lose It
if
"I want to know what's in it, not just the calories."
Free scans count the additives in each UK pack. Pro names them, tracks 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against UK NRVs, and adds workouts, fasting and an AI Coach.
Free download · 25 logs a day free · Pro £3.99/month or £34.99/year
How we compared these apps
One of these nine is ours, which is a conflict of interest. Here is exactly what we did and didn't do.
Everything came off the UK listings
Prices, free-tier features, database claims and ratings were read from each app's UK App Store listing on 22 September 2026. Where a listing doesn't say something, the table says "not stated" rather than guessing. Database sizes are each company's own claim.
We didn't lab-test nine apps
Nobody has published an independent UK accuracy test of these apps, and we haven't run one. That is why the page tells you how to test the database against your own shop instead of naming a winner on accuracy.
No league table
These apps do different jobs, so the order isn't a ranking and nothing gets a score. Each one gets a strength, a limitation and who it suits. Ours is listed last.
What we say about ours is in the app
Every NutraSafe figure (25 logs a day, 13 vitamins and 12 minerals, the prices) is checked against the shipped app. See the full free and Pro split.
Calorie counter app questions
What is the best calorie counter app in the UK?
It depends on what you need most. For a free diary with no daily cap and no ads, MyNetDiary's UK listing offers the most. For UK weight loss on UK food, Nutracheck has 600,000+ UK foods and 264,827 UK ratings at 4.8. MyFitnessPal has the biggest database, over 20.5 million foods, and its UK barcode scanner is free. Cronometer goes deepest on vitamins and minerals. If you want to know what is in a food as well as its calories, that is what we built NutraSafe for.
What is the best free calorie counter app in the UK?
The NHS Weight Loss Plan is the only one with nothing to buy, but it is a 12-week plan. For a diary you keep indefinitely, MyNetDiary's free tier lists an unlimited diary, barcode scanning and no ads, and Cronometer's free tier includes a barcode scanner with ads. Ours covers up to 25 food logs a day with barcode scanning, calories, macros and a count of the additives on each pack, with no ads.
Is there a free NHS calorie counting app?
Yes. The NHS Weight Loss Plan is free on iPhone and Android, made by the Department of Health and Social Care, with no in-app purchases. It sets a calorie target, gives you 12 weekly guides, and has a diary for the food and calories at each meal plus a weekly weigh-in. It is rated 4.5 from 5,881 UK ratings.
Is there a calorie counter app with no subscription?
The NHS Weight Loss Plan has no subscription at all. MyNetDiary, Cronometer, Yazio and ours all have free tiers you can keep using without subscribing, each stopping in a different place. Lose It also sells a one-off lifetime Premium for £59.99 on the UK App Store, so you pay once instead of subscribing.
Which calorie counter apps have a free barcode scanner?
On their UK App Store listings on 22 September 2026: MyNetDiary, Cronometer and Yazio include barcode scanning free, and so do we. MyFitnessPal's scanner is free in the UK; it went behind Premium in the US in 2022, which is why many articles say otherwise. Lose It lists its barcode scanner under Premium Plan Features, though some users report it still works free. MacroFactor has no free tier.
Is MyFitnessPal free in the UK?
The download and basic logging are free, with ads. In the UK the barcode scanner is on the free tier; meal scan and voice logging are Premium. Premium is £15.99 a month or £64.99 a year, and the listing also shows Premium at £7.99 and £39.99.
Is MyFitnessPal still the best calorie counter?
It is still the biggest. It has over 20.5 million foods and 470,766 UK App Store ratings, more than the other eight apps in this comparison put together. It is also the most expensive per month at £15.99, which is why many people now look at MyNetDiary, Cronometer or Nutracheck.
What is the number one calorie counter app?
By size, MyFitnessPal: 470,766 UK ratings at 4.7 on 22 September 2026. By UK rating among the calorie counters, Nutracheck: 4.8 from 264,827 ratings. Neither is a measure of which one suits you, so check where each free tier stops before you choose.
Which calorie counting app is the most accurate?
There is no independent UK accuracy test of these apps, so treat any app that claims the title with caution, ours included. Accuracy comes down to whether the pack in your hand is in the database, and whether its figures came off the label. Scan five products you buy every week in two apps and compare each with the pack. The one that matches is the accurate one for your shop.
What's better, Nutracheck or MyFitnessPal?
They win on different things. Nutracheck's database is UK-first and verified in house, with UK chains like Greggs, Nando's and Pret, and costs £6.99 a month or £29.99 a year. MyFitnessPal has the larger database, much of it user-entered, and costs £15.99 a month or £64.99 a year. If your shop is mostly UK supermarket own-brand, the UK database matters more than raw size.
What calorie counter app tracks vitamins and minerals?
Cronometer tracks the most, 95+ vitamins and minerals by its listing. MyNetDiary lists up to 108 nutrients per food. We track 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against UK Nutrient Reference Values, as part of NutraSafe Pro. Nutracheck tracks calories and seven label nutrients.
Which calorie tracker is best for UK supermarket own-brand food?
Own-brand is where US-built databases thin out. Nutracheck's listing names Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, M&S and Waitrose. We cover UK branded and supermarket own-brand food too, and if a barcode is missing the app asks for three photos of the pack and adds it. Cronometer and Lose It are US-built and MyNetDiary is built on US sources, so test your own-brand staples before committing.
Calories, and what is in the food
Scan a UK barcode and NutraSafe logs the calories and macros, and counts the additives on the pack. Pro names each one, says what the published evidence links it to, and tracks 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against UK NRVs.
