DietX vs MyFitnessPal: Price, Logging and Who Should Pick Which

By the DietX team · Updated November 4, 2026 · 7 min read

In DietX vs MyFitnessPal, choose MyFitnessPal if you want a free plan and the app with the longest history. Choose DietX, the app we make, if you'll pay for photo, voice and barcode logging anyway and want the lower listed yearly price: $17.99 to $29.99, against $79.99 for MyFitnessPal Premium on the US App Store.

We have an obvious interest in this comparison, so the table links to each app's own pages. Check it for yourself.

DietX vs MyFitnessPal side by side

"Not stated" marks a gap in what MyFitnessPal's pages, as checked, told us, so the feature may still exist. Prices are US App Store listings.

Where MyFitnessPal wins

Scale and history. It has the longest history of the apps we looked at and a far larger user base than DietX. DietX is young, and its App Store rating of 4.5 comes from just 20 ratings, which is too few to tell you much. If you want an app with a long public track record, MyFitnessPal is the clear choice.

A free plan. This is the biggest practical difference. You can track food, weight and exercise on MyFitnessPal for $0, with ads. DietX says plainly that it "does not offer a free subscription tier." If you won't pay for a calorie tracker, DietX isn't an option and MyFitnessPal is. So are the apps in our guide to free calorie counters.

Food data and connections. Its listing gives 20.5M+ foods, including restaurant dishes, plus an AI Coach, Wear OS support and connections to 40+ trackers, smartwatches and health apps. DietX connects to Apple Health if you allow it, and we can't give you a database size for it. If you eat out a lot or live inside a fitness ecosystem, this counts for a lot.

A stated trial. MyFitnessPal lists 7 days. DietX has a free trial, but its length isn't stated on the listing.

Its reach into AI. Since announcing the acquisition of Cal AI on 2 March 2026, it has a photo-first app alongside its own Meal Scan, though Cal AI continues as a standalone product.

Where DietX wins

Listed yearly price. Both apps charge for photo, voice and barcode logging. DietX's highest listed yearly price, $29.99, is $50.00 below MyFitnessPal's $79.99 Premium. The next section does the math, including where this advantage shrinks.

One paid level. The US App Store lists DietX's subscription by term: weekly, monthly or yearly. You can log by photo, voice, text or barcode and edit any item before saving, and personal meal plans and recipes that fit your goal are part of the app. MyFitnessPal Premium covers its logging shortcuts, but its full meal planning sits a level higher, in Premium Plus, whose price isn't stated.

Sleep beside your food. Both apps log water, steps and workouts, and both track fasting, which is a Premium feature on MyFitnessPal. DietX adds sleep logging and BMI next to your meals. MyFitnessPal's pages don't mention sleep logging, so check there if it matters to you. This is a small difference, not a reason on its own to switch.

What a year costs

Here is the same comparison over a full year, using the US App Store listings.

Three things that table shouldn't hide:

• DietX's weekly plan is the expensive way to pay. At $259.48 or more over a year, it costs over three times MyFitnessPal's yearly price. Pick weekly only for a short stretch.
• Your price may differ. DietX lists several price points, and the store doesn't say who sees which. MyFitnessPal also lists $9.99 and $49.99. If $49.99 is the yearly price you're shown, the gap to DietX's top yearly price falls to $20.00.
• MyFitnessPal's free plan costs $0. No DietX price beats that, if the free features are enough for you.

MyFitnessPal vs an AI calorie tracker: does the method matter?

If you searched this, you may really be asking whether to keep typing entries or let AI estimate from a photo. The line between the two isn't sharp, since MyFitnessPal has AI features of its own. The trade-off is still worth understanding.

Faster methods usually give up some precision. A 2020 review found less burdensome methods are less accurate. And ChatGPT, tested on meal photos, did well at identifying foods but poorly on medium and large portions, tending to underestimate. That was a general chatbot and tells you nothing about either app here. Nothing in our research puts consumer calorie apps through an independent head-to-head, so we can't say which of these two is more accurate, and we have no accuracy figure for DietX. Its own listing says "Nutrition, calorie and macro estimates may vary."

Effort matters too. The 142 adults in one study spent 23.2 minutes a day on self-monitoring in month one and 14.6 in month six, and more frequent logging was tied to more weight loss. So a slightly rougher entry you actually make can be worth more than a precise one you skip. A validation study of one app also found that correcting its results by hand improved them, which is a good habit in either app.

A rough guide by what you eat:

• Mostly packaged food: a barcode scan is hard to beat, and it's available in both once you pay.
• Home-cooked meals: a photo or a description is quicker, but you'll need to add the oil and butter yourself. Here's how photo calorie counting works.
• A few repeated meals: MyFitnessPal's free plan may be all you need, since there's less to type each day.

Who should pick which

Choose MyFitnessPal if:

• You want to track for free and can live with ads and no barcode scanner.
• A long track record and a large user base matter to you.
• You've already built up years of habit there. Switching has a real cost.

Choose DietX if:

• You'd pay for photo, voice and barcode logging either way, and the yearly price matters.
• You want sleep logged beside your meals.
• You want meal plans and recipes that take vegetarian, vegan and other preferences into account.
• You're comfortable using a young app with few ratings.

Neither app can promise a result. Results vary, and calorie counting isn't for everyone, so if tracking makes you anxious, look for support. Avoid extreme restriction, and talk to a professional first if you're pregnant or have a medical condition.

If you want to try DietX

It's free to download, with a free trial, and Premium is a subscription. Log a normal day and one awkward meal, then check how much you had to fix. You can see how DietX works here. If neither of these feels right, look at our other MyFitnessPal alternatives, or at how DietX compares with Cal AI.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. DietX on the App Store
2. MyFitnessPal: Premium
3. MyFitnessPal on the App Store
4. TechCrunch: MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI
5. Review of the validity and feasibility of image-assisted methods for dietary assessment (2020), Int J Obes
6. An evaluation of ChatGPT for nutrient content estimation from meal photographs (2025), Nutrients
7. Harvey et al. (2019), Obesity: Log Often, Lose More
8. Nutrient and food group prediction by image recognition in a smartphone app (2022), JMIR Form Res
9. NHS: Eating disorders

General information, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or dietitian before changing your diet, especially if you are pregnant, under 18 or have a health condition. If tracking food makes you anxious or you have a history of disordered eating, please skip calorie counting and ask a professional for support.