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App Imp

Calorie tracking.

UX runs in 9 of the 10 apps here — nobody on this shelf has fixed it.

10 apps · 6,304 reviews held · 2,868 negative · 2026-08-24 snapshot

73/100 opportunity

6 of 6 factors · not advice
Nobody's fixed it9 of 10 apps90
How far above typical9.1% vs 2.9% typical78
How angrystar2.4 · 262 reviews39
People in the market4,006,593 ratings87
Room to enterleader holds 59% of ratings41
Willingness to pay9 of 9 checked charge · $9.99 entry100

Mostly solved: ads. 7 of 9 apps run below the store’s typical rate on it — while 9 of 10 still carry ux complaints.

How this is scored

Weighted mean of the sub-scores, weights re-normalized over whatever is computable (nobody's fixed it 25 · how far above typical 20 · how angry 15 · people in the market 15 · room to enter 15 · willingness to pay 10). Fixed anchors map each count to 0–100: breadth and willingness-to-pay are straight shares; the gap’s heat tops out at 4times the store’s typical rate; anger scores star3 as 0 and star1.5 as 100; reach runs 104 to 107ratings on a log scale; room to enter is one minus the leader’s share of shelf ratings. A factor that cannot be counted is dropped and named — never imputed. The site’s one composite (#115, owner decision 2026-08-15); cited industry benchmarks are never blended in.

5 gaps.

01

UX — unfixed in 9 of 10 apps

high · 9.1% of this shelf’s 2,868 negative reviews, against 2.9% typical store-wide, at 2.42star average anger.

What they said · 262 reviews
“Terrible update — I’ve used this app for years, and the new layout/design is a disaster. Please bring back the old interface.”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 14, 2026
“Hate the latest update — The is app has been extremely helpful in tracking my meals & my macros. Unfortunately, the latest update to the interface makes me not even want to open the app. It’s less user friendly & quick to log meals now.”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 3star · Aug 14, 2026
“awful new UI — this new interface is absolutely awful, does not look good, and makes the app harder to use. I desperately want to go back to the older version, can we switch back?”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 13, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
9.1%
262 of 2,868
store-wide
2.9%
typical
breadth
90%
9 of 10 apps
02

Billing — unfixed in 10 of 10 apps

elevated · 43.3% of this shelf’s 2,868 negative reviews, against 32.1% typical store-wide, at 1.78star average anger.

What they said · 1241 reviews
  • Price judged too high for the value99 of 1241
  • Trial converted without clear consent55 of 1241
  • Cancellation blocked or broken37 of 1241
  • Charge the user never authorised21 of 1241
“Slowly going downhill — I’ve used this app since 2013 when there was no paid subscription, after under armor purchased it they made it so some features like the barcode scanner cost extra to use and now they have annoying pop up ads added as well, there’s a lot of other apps out there that don’t charge for features as well so I recommend anyone looking to download a app to use then search fir a be”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 15, 2026
“Steals your money after closing account — If I could rare this -10000 stars, I would. I first enjoyed the app, but due to financial stress, I closed my account. It now continues to charge me $9.99/week! I try to log in in case I maybe didn’t close the account, yet it says there’s no account connected to my email.”BitePal: Food Calorie Tracker · 1star · Aug 15, 2026
“Charging to use Barcode Scanner feature — This is ridiculous. I got so excited to start tracking my macros again, and I never expected an app like this to charge for something as basic as a barcode scanner—especially when that feature is free in most other fitness apps. I deleted the app immediately after seeing that I had to pay for a Premium subscription JUST TO USE THE BARCODE SCANNER. Serious”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 14, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
43.3%
1,241 of 2,868
store-wide
32.1%
typical
breadth
100%
10 of 10 apps
03

Accuracy — unfixed in 9 of 10 apps

elevated · 14.7% of this shelf’s 2,868 negative reviews, against 11.5% typical store-wide, at 1.93star average anger.

What they said · 423 reviews
“App is not fully functional — I am re-implementing MyFitnessPal. My screen does not correlate with instructions to add/edit steps, barcodes, activities. Help needed! Chat is inaccurate and not helpful.”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 3star · Aug 14, 2026
“Disappointed — I literally have 210 mg of sodium in my breakfast, and according to the nutrition information for the day, it’s 900 and something milligrams, and I haven’t had anything else today, I also looked up about MyFitnessPal being accurate, and there are reviews with the Better Business Bureau stating how inaccurate MyFitnessPal has become. It’s really sad.”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 14, 2026
“Horrible — Doesn’t recognize food, completely inaccurate, search tool is trash, colossal waste”Cronometer: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 13, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
14.7%
423 of 2,868
store-wide
11.5%
typical
breadth
90%
9 of 10 apps
04

Limits & caps — unfixed in 9 of 10 apps

elevated · 3.5% of this shelf’s 2,868 negative reviews, against 2.8% typical store-wide, at 2.67star average anger.

What they said · 101 reviews
  • Core feature locked behind the paywall14 of 101
“Good app, paywall unreasonable — Great apps but the fact that you need to pay money to do a “fresh start” is stupid. It’s incredibly frustrating and makes it impossible to start new goals and feel like you’re making actual progress.”Calorie Counter - MyNetDiary · 2star · Aug 13, 2026
“Misleading ad — I tried this after trying another app bc this one stated the scanner and other things were free. Well they are free once a day. I wasn’t even able to describe one meal this morning bc I “ran out” of uses??? But you can get unlimited if you pay! So they lied about the features being free. I will now be using fatsecret.”Calorie Counter - MyNetDiary · 1star · Aug 12, 2026
“corporate greeds touches us all — i am really shocked and disappointed that i have to move on from this app. i’ve been using lose it since 2017 and it’s always been wonderful and easy to use. imagine my surprise when i reopen it after a year off and seeing its most prominent feature blocked behind a paywall. the whole point of this app was its ease, it was easy to quickly scan and log your food. b”Lose It! – Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 12, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
3.5%
101 of 2,868
store-wide
2.8%
typical
breadth
90%
9 of 10 apps
05

Sync & data — unfixed in 9 of 10 apps

elevated · 2.9% of this shelf’s 2,868 negative reviews, against 2.2% typical store-wide, at 2.60star average anger.

What they said · 84 reviews
  • Sync fails between devices12 of 84
“Apple watch syncing — I would love to give 5 stars as I absolutely LOVE this app. The literal only thing that is driving me nuts is the fact that the steps NEVER match up with my Apple Watch. I have reset watch and everything I can think of. Even when I manually put steps in on the app it never updates. If I go out of app and back it, it reverts to the original steps not what I tried to correct. V”Lose It! – Calorie Counter · 3star · Aug 13, 2026
“Bad UI changes and performance — I’m a lifetime premium subscriber and have been using this app pretty much since it came out. The recent UI changes have made the app so difficult to use. The fat bubbles around meal items when adding food and font changes have made it almost illegible. It used to be easy to visually scan through many past entries to add food. but now the info density is so much”Lose It! – Calorie Counter · 3star · Aug 11, 2026
“No help from support — I have not received any help for a syncing issue within the app and it’s been about five days. This app sucks. It’s so annoying. I need this fixed.”MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter · 1star · Aug 10, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
2.9%
84 of 2,868
store-wide
2.2%
typical
breadth
90%
9 of 10 apps

Is there a market for a new calorie tracking app?

10 apps compete on this shelf, holding 6,304 App Store reviews — and the widest unfixed complaint, ux, runs in 9 of 10 of them at 9.1% of negative reviews against 2.9% typical. Those are counts, not a verdict — the page shows what is unfixed, not whether to build.

What do users complain about most in calorie tracking?

1. UX — in 9 of 10 apps, 9.1% of negative reviews; 2. Billing — in 10 of 10 apps, 43.3% of negative reviews; 3. Accuracy — in 9 of 10 apps, 14.7% of negative reviews; 4. Limits & caps — in 9 of 10 apps, 3.5% of negative reviews; 5. Sync & data — in 9 of 10 apps, 2.9% of negative reviews.

How many calorie tracking app reviews did App Imp count?

6,304 US App Store reviews across 10 apps, 2,868 of them negative — counted on the 2026-08-24 snapshot, never estimated.

Searched on the App Store.

Apple’s own suggestions for calorie tracking terms, in their order.

calorie counter freecalorie trackingcalorie tracking app for freefood calorie tracker freefree ai calorie counterfree calorie tracking appai calorie countercalorie counter

Searched, but no app on this shelf says it in its name.

Who’s in it

All 10 apps counted on this shelf · 2026-08-24.

App
MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter2,352,67921%25%10%3%
Lose It! – Calorie Counter773,2194%43%9%8%
Cal AI - Calorie Tracker358,4212%59%15%2%
Calorie Counter - MyNetDiary162,8756%42%5%5%
Lifesum: AI Calorie Counter150,5158%37%26%3%
Cronometer: Calorie Counter96,8007%26%13%2%
BitePal: Food Calorie Tracker53,5533%68%21%2%
Calorie Counter by Numify37,2484%59%17%4%
MacroFactor - Macro Tracker21,2117%40%21%5%
Nommie - AI Calorie Tracker72—100%——

Each cell: that app’s share of its own negative reviews. Bold from 1.15 times the store’s typical rate for that complaint, and only where an app holds 20+ negative reviews. Click a column to sort.

What they charge, and what it costs them

Prices from Apple’s public pages; the share counts payment-mechanics language only.

AppMoney complaints
BitePal: Food Calorie Tracker$3.99–$59.99 · 8 tiers14.1% of 349
Cal AI - Calorie Tracker$0.99–$29.99 · 7 tiers13.7% of 461
Lose It! – Calorie Counter$9.99–$79.99 · 10 tiers9.6% of 280
Calorie Counter - MyNetDiary$8.99–$59.99 · 5 tiers9.3% of 86
MacroFactor - Macro Tracker$9.99–$89.99 · 6 tiers6.1% of 131
Calorie Counter by Numify$5.99–$59.99 · 6 tiers5.4% of 279
Lifesum: AI Calorie Counter$21.99–$119.99 · 8 tiers4.4% of 294
MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter$9.99–$79.99 · 7 tiers2.3% of 824
Cronometer: Calorie Counter$10.99–$59.99 · 5 tiers1.8% of 163

What each one owns, where each is exposed

MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter

Owns. Dominant reach (2.34M ratings), decade-long food database, brand recognition, streak culture

Exposed. 72% negative share; two-star reviews explicitly citing the May 2026 UI overhaul destroying daily readability; basic features like quick-add moved behind a paywall at $79.99/yr max; users publicly directing others to competitors

Cal AI - Calorie Tracker

Owns. Photo-based logging novelty, 335K ratings showing real reach

Exposed. 72% negative share; billing described as predatory — refund requests rejected for a full year per receipts; 7 IAP tiers up to $29.99

Lifesum: AI Calorie Counter

Owns. Design polish, AI logging hook, 150K ratings

Exposed. 64% negative share; AI hallucinations destroying tracking trust ('The AI hallucinates, sometimes fails to record items to the diary entirely'); 8 IAP tiers up to $119.99

AI Calorie Tracker by Yazio

Owns. Free entry tier, broad nutrition data

Exposed. 62% negative share; opaque hidden usage limits users hit without warning; bait-and-switch pricing in ads (advertised $23.90, charged $35.89 per receipt)

BitePal: Food Calorie Tracker

Owns. Gamified avatar concept, low entry price ($0.99 min)

Exposed. 53% negative share; receipts document charging both basic and pro simultaneously then refusing to cancel one; ghost charges after deletion

Lose It! – Calorie Counter

Owns. Lowest negative share among scaled apps (40%), 763K ratings — the current safe harbor for MFP refugees

Exposed. Still 40% negative; 10 IAP tiers up to $79.99; the incumbent most likely to absorb the exodus if a new entrant is slow

Cronometer: Calorie Counter

Owns. Nutrition-depth reputation, 93K ratings, 26% negative share — best-in-class anger metric at scale

Exposed. Full-screen interstitial ads in free tier driving paid-user defection; search UX regressed in recent update; not a UI stability story

MacroFactor - Macro Tracker

Owns. Lowest negative share in the set (25%), coach-mode differentiation, 18K ratings

Exposed. Small reach; billing loop bug trapping users post-subscription with no working escape; support scripted and unresponsive

Calorie Counter - MyNetDiary

Owns. 13% negative share — the quietest app in the category; 156K ratings

Exposed. Low anger may reflect low engagement rather than delight; no receipt-level evidence of a loyal, vocal power-user base

Browse the apps behind these counts

Every app we count, with the complaint it runs furthest above the store’s typical rate.

Open the app library
How this is counted

Every number is arithmetic over the reviews we hold, re-counted weekly — nothing modelled, nothing scored. Themes come from a frozen pattern classifier rather than a model reading reviews, so the same review always lands in the same bucket. A shelf rate is pooled across every app here; the store rate is the same count across 12,122 apps. A complaint is only called a gap when at least half the shelf carries it and at least 20 reviews are behind it — a problem concentrated in one app is that app’s bug.