Cronometer vs FatSecret

Where each feature sits across the four plans

These cells reflect the companies' own descriptions. When two pages from one company disagree, both descriptions remain in the cell.

Using Cronometer and FatSecret without paying

Cronometer's Basic account

No time limit applies to free use in Cronometer's Subscription Types article, and its free-version page says an upgrade will never be forced. The help article gives all users lab-analyzed data, the Community Database, custom foods and recipes, activity tracker syncing, Diary Groups, limited analysis tools, full data export and the iOS and Android apps.

Cronometer's free-version page opens the entire food database to Basic and includes unlimited barcode scans, calories and up to 95 nutrients and compounds. Its barcode scanner blog post limits scanning to the mobile app. The free-version page also describes two basic charts and a 7-day outlook on nutrition data.

The nutrient total changes with the page. The Gold page's mobile table and Cronometer's features page use 84. Its February 2026 nutrient blog post uses 92, while the Data Confidence help article says more than 70.

Cronometer's Google Play listing names ads, and its App Store listing includes advertising. The account settings help article identifies Google as the provider of in-app ads and says personalized ads can be turned off. TrueCal's Cronometer review follows the Basic account through everyday diary use.

FatSecret's free app

FatSecret's home page calls the app and core tools free. Its Premium page puts macro tracking, barcode scanning, the community, achievements and streaks, reports and a limited Weekly Review in the free column. The App page allows up to 4 meal types free and up to 10 with Premium.

FatSecret's App Store listing describes a food diary, exercise diary, diet calendar, weight tracker, calorie and macro reports and goals, a journal and reminders without assigning those descriptions a plan. Its older food logging guide shows calories, macros and each meal's share of the daily intake goal. Its diary columns guide explains how those columns can be changed.

FatSecret's Reports guide has Calories, Macros and Nutrients tabs. Calories and macros have goals by default, and goals can also be added for fiber, sugar, sodium and fat types, with no plan named for the extra goals. Its potassium help page says potassium is tracked but is optional when members enter foods, so some entries lack it. The account registration guide requires an account.

Whether the free app shows ads or Premium removes them is Not stated. FatSecret's Google Play listing has no ads label. Its Terms mention banner advertisements on FatSecret pages without tying them to a plan. Our FatSecret vs MyFitnessPal comparison places this free diary alongside MyFitnessPal's free plan.

Where the food numbers come from

Cronometer's named databases and source labels

Cronometer's database page names NCCDB, CFCD, USDA SR28, CNF 2015, IFCDB, NEVO, CoFID, NUTTAB, Nutritionix and FDC UPC. It describes lab-analyzed data and verification of each submitted item. That page and its About page say the data is not crowdsourced.

The Data Sources help article calls CRDB Cronometer's own collection of user submissions, usually based on product labels, which its curation team reviews. The article says NCCDB, curated by the University of Minnesota, accounts for most foods, while Nutritionix supplies barcode scanning. It suggests NCCDB or USDA SR28 for nutrient detail and the barcode scanner for a package label match.

Cronometer's food search blog post places database letters such as USDA, NCCDB, CRDB and Custom at the right of search results. The food screen also identifies its source and nutrient count. Its June 2026 article on AI says AI does not create the nutrition numbers. The Data Confidence article says US labels usually report about 15 nutrients. TrueCal's page on how accurate Cronometer is covers the individual databases and studies that tested the app.

FatSecret's own database and how entries are checked

FatSecret's App page claims more than 2.3 million human-verified items and says every food is checked by a person. Its help center also describes private member entries. The new food help page sends a Branded Food entry for review before it may appear to everyone, while a custom entry stays private. The missing food guide says any user can add food for later personal use and that some submissions are not accepted for other users.

FatSecret's calorie calculation help page says branded foods use public labels or manufacturer data. For generic foods, it describes the 4-4-9 rule, with 4 calories per gram for carbohydrate and protein and 9 for fat. Its new food nutrient requirements page requires calories, fat, carbohydrate and protein. Its food availability guide ties branded product availability to the region setting.

FatSecret's developer platform page names nutritionists, dietitians, data and content moderators, government publications, Brand Tools submissions from brands and restaurants, public information and verified member data. It says data is reviewed before reaching the API. FatSecret's developer platform page also describes Brand Tools as a way for brands and restaurant chains to submit and manage their data. FatSecret's Terms disclaim responsibility for incorrect content on its services. How to report an incorrect food entry is Not stated.

Ways to log a meal and the plan each needs

Logging in Cronometer

• Search is free in Cronometer's free-version page. Its Add a Food help article also accepts food numbers and barcode numbers as search terms.
• The free-version page includes unlimited barcode scans. The barcode blog post limits the scanner to mobile, while the Data Sources article describes typing a barcode number into web search.
• The Scan Food help article starts a custom food from label photos when a barcode is missing. US labels fill in automatically and the curation team checks the submission before publication. The plan for that label autofill is Not stated.
• The Photo Logging help article gives Gold users AI Photo Log to take or upload a photo and review the food matches. The photo logging blog post also identifies it as Gold.
• The Voice Logging help article puts AI Voice Log for spoken or typed meal descriptions in Gold. The voice logging blog post names iOS and Android, and the Siri help article makes Siri logging an iOS Gold feature.
• The Recipe Importer help article reserves importing website recipes for Gold. The Recipe Importer blog post describes both the web and mobile paths.
• The Gold page's plan table includes manually created foods in Basic. The custom food help article allows up to 82 nutrients in the mobile editor.
• Cronometer's Track Food page leaves copy and paste and multi-select without a Gold mark, but marks Repeat Items as Gold.
• Cronometer's blog post about moving from MyFitnessPal describes Quick Add for calories or a single macro. The required plan is Not stated.

Logging in FatSecret

• FatSecret's food logging options guide describes generic and branded food search without a Premium label.
• FatSecret's App page calls barcode scanning free. Its barcode help guide describes retrieving nutrition data from a store-bought product's barcode.
• The Smart Food Scan guide gives Premium users meal photos that identify foods, estimate portions and match FatSecret entries.
• The Smart Assistant guide puts a whole meal described by voice or text in Premium.
• The missing food help guide allows any user to create food with Add New Food at the bottom of search results.
• The Saved Meals guide groups foods eaten together for later logging. Its plan is Not stated.
• The Copy Food guide requires Premium to copy foods to another meal or day.
• The recipes guide allows browsing for everyone and diary logging for Premium. The food logging options guide also includes CookBook for a member's own recipes, with its plan Not stated.
• The food logging options guide says Most Eaten and Recently Eaten fill in as foods are logged.
• Reading nutrition labels from photos is Not stated. The missing food guide only describes typing the serving size from the nutrition panel when adding food.

Gold and Premium, what each adds and lists

Cronometer Gold

Cronometer's Gold page assigns Photo Log, Voice Log, Recipe Importer, Timestamps, Macro Scheduler, Fasting Timer, Custom Biometrics, Repeat Items, Nutrition Scores, Custom Charts, Food Suggestions, Nutrient Oracle search, sharing custom foods and recipes, printed reports, charts across any time frame and Crono Coach to Gold. The page also lists ad-free use, unlimited history and partner offers. The help center's subscription list omits photo logging, voice logging and Crono Coach from its Gold list.

The Gold page lists $10.99 for monthly billing or $59.99 for yearly billing, presenting the yearly option as $4.99 a month. The US App Store listing has ten purchase items using just $10.99 and $59.99. The Google Play listing provides a $2.99 to $89.99 range per item without plan names. Cronometer gives US dollar prices, but regional price variation is Not stated. A Gold trial available to every new user is Not stated.

FatSecret Premium

FatSecret's Premium page names Smart Assistant, Smart Food Scan, Meal Planner, Dietitian-designed Meal Plans, Water Tracker and Learning Center. Its table also includes logging recipes, Custom Meals and Copy Food. The Custom Meals guide describes up to 6 extra meal headings.

The Premium page says most features work in all regions, lists the United States among countries with Dietitian-designed Meal Plans, and offers Learning Center in English and four other languages. The App Store listing and the Google Play listing instead name four Premium items, dietitian meal plans, advanced meal planning, extra meal headings and water tracking.

No price appears on FatSecret's Premium page. It offers monthly, quarterly and annual terms, says prices depend on region and currency and directs readers to the app for the amount. Its home page also says prices vary by region.

FatSecret's US App Store listing contains nine purchase items. Monthly items are $14.99 and $10.49, quarterly items are $28.99, $19.99 and $20.00, and annual items are $59.99 and $38.99. Which item a new subscriber sees is Not stated. The Google Play listing gives only a $14.99 to $59.99 range per item. A Premium trial is Not stated. Our FatSecret Premium cost guide separates the listed amounts by plan length.

Yearly cost from the listed prices

• For Cronometer Gold at the monthly price on its Gold page, 12 payments of $10.99 come to $131.88. The yearly option is one payment of $59.99.
• For FatSecret Premium monthly items on the US App Store listing, 12 payments of $14.99 come to $179.88, and 12 payments of $10.49 come to $125.88.
• For FatSecret Premium quarterly items on the US App Store listing, 4 payments of $28.99 come to $115.96, 4 payments of $19.99 come to $79.96, and 4 payments of $20.00 come to $80.00.
• For FatSecret Premium annual items on the US App Store listing, the year is one payment of $59.99 or of $38.99.

Phones, watches and the web

Cronometer's home page lists web, iOS and Android. Its Apple Watch guide requires the app on the paired iPhone or iPad, and its Wear OS guide also requires the phone app. The App Store listing requires iOS 15.5 or later, iPadOS 15.5 or later, macOS 13.0.0 or later on a Mac with an M1 chip or later, visionOS 1.0 or later and watchOS 9.0 or later. The Google Play listing names Health Connect and Wear OS syncing. The minimum Android version is Not stated. Web access for photo or voice logging is Not stated.

FatSecret's account creation guide names Android and iOS phones and tablets. The App Store listing requires iOS 16.0 or later, iPadOS 16.0 or later, visionOS 1.0 or later and watchOS 6.0 or later and lists no Mac. Its Apple Watch guide says the watch app needs the iPhone app opened first and cannot run alone. FatSecret's About page dates its web calorie counter to 2009, and its email change guide limits that account change to the website. Its health app sync guide lists Samsung Health, Fitbit, Apple Health, Google Health and Garmin. Wear OS support is Not stated. Buying Premium on the website is Not stated.

App Store and Google Play ratings on October 19, 2026

• Cronometer shows 4.8 from 100K ratings on the App Store listing.
• Cronometer shows 4.5 with 59.3K reviews on the Google Play listing.
• FatSecret shows 4.7 from 15K ratings on the App Store listing.
• FatSecret shows 4.5 with 548K reviews on the Google Play listing.

The figures belong to the stores, and TrueCal assigns no score.

Where TrueCal comes in

The free account described on TrueCal's information page allows manual calorie entry and displays calories. Seeing macros or logging a typed meal description, voice, photo or barcode requires Pro. iPhone, Android and web are the platforms named there. Annual Pro billing is $29.99 and monthly billing is $9.99 on TrueCal's pricing page.

TrueCal's information page names sources including USDA FoodData Central, FatSecret, Open Food Facts and published restaurant and brand information. It describes results as estimates that can be wrong. TrueCal's FAQ links scanned barcodes to FatSecret and Open Food Facts. There are more app comparisons on TrueCal's comparison page.

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