Cronometer vs. MyNetDiary: Which is Better in 2026?

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Here at FeastGood, we pride ourselves on our honest review guidelines, so that you can trust that we actually use the apps and products ourselves and we are not paid by the creators or manufacturers to tell you what they want us to say.

At the same time, it’s important for you to know that we also have direct access to many of the app and product creators, with interviews with the founders of many of the apps we review, like Sergey Oreshko at MyNetDiary and Aaron Davidson at Cronometer. 

Our articles and reviews provide meaningful feedback to these creators, and our critiques and suggestions often get incorporated into updates for the next releases of the apps.  

My 2025 comparison review of MyNetDiary vs. Cronometer prompted MyNetDiary to reach out to tell me that my experience didn’t match the reality of all the features in the app (in both the free and paid Premium tiers).  I did another trial to use the exciting features in its Premium app that I hadn’t seen, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

I’ll help spell out the differences between the free and paid versions of each app in ten key categories so that you can pick the app and version that is best for you and your goals.

TLDR: 

MyNetDiary’s Premium features, especially the recent (late 2025) integration of AI for voice food logging and auto-adjustments to calorie targets (and more!), allow it to come out ahead of even Cronometer Gold, making it the new winner in this head-to-head comparison.

Key Takeaways

• MyNetDiary Premium is the overall winner, besting Cronometer Gold in 8 out of 10 categories reviewed (and there was 1 tie, so Cronometer was the winner in just 1 category).

• MyNetDiary Premium is a great investment for clients who are newer to tracking calories and/or macros: its Food Grades and AI tools provide a great education  for new users, plus these features combine with solid tracking and charting functionality to make it easy to hit your goals. 

• Cronometer is still great for clients who love data.  It’s my recommendation for serious athletes, competitive bodybuilders and intermediate to advanced macro-trackers, and those looking for extra insights to manage a health condition.  You can create custom charts and reports to look for correlations between what you eat, how you feel, and what results you are or are not getting.

What is Cronometer?

Here’s a great video on the pros and cons of Cronometer: I Tried Cronometer Gold, So You Don’t Have To

Cronometer earned the distinction of being my favorite macro-tracking app when I left MyFitnessPal behind because it has so much data in an easily accessible format.  In addition to the main macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat), it also tracks alcohol separately, and it breaks down the macronutrients (for example, it tracks individual amino acids within protein).  It also tracks over 80 micronutrients, water intake, and exercise.  And that’s just in terms of inputs to your body!

On the output side, Cronometer has nearly unlimited options for body measurements (weight, circumference measurements, body fat percentage, and more) as well as blood and lab tests, and subjective ratings like mood and sleep quality. A very literal output that it tracks is stool, which is a key indicator of your digestive health and is very closely linked to your nutrition.

As an athlete and coach, I also think it’s great because users can export reports to share with coaches, doctors, and other healthcare professionals.  You can even design custom charts and reports in the paid Gold version. 

Cronometer comes up with a suggested calorie intake spread across the three main macronutrients based on its detailed intake process (learn more in Beginner’s Guide to Using Cronometer). You have the freedom to adjust these targets however you would like.

With so many ways to track your progress, and link your results to your intake with custom charts and reports, you can easily adjust your targets to keep you on track with your goals.

Pros

• The calorie and macronutrient targets can be customized
• The food database is verified
• The micronutrient information is very detailed
• The options for biometric markers are very comprehensive
• The charts and reports are customizable (in Cronometer Gold)
• The recipes can be shared with other users (in Cronometer Gold)
• The community support is excellent (but exists outside of the app itself)

Cons

• The food database is smaller than many other nutrition apps
• Food logging only works with an internet connection (no offline food logging)
• There are multiple entries for the same food so you have to check against the label
• Several of the customization options are only available in the paid Gold version

What Is MyNetDiary?

Here’s a great video on the pros and cons of MyNetDiary: I Found the PERFECT Free Calorie Tracker (Game-Changer!)

MyNetDiary similarly offers calorie and macronutrient tracking.  The standard dashboard puts more of a focus on calories, showing an apple logo with the daily Calorie Budget prominently displayed, and no macros shown on the main screen.  It takes clicking into the Meals section to get to a macronutrient analysis: you can see the macros per meal, and overall for the day in the My Nutrients screen.  

That said, it is possible to customize the dashboard to get more of a macros‑oriented view. Even in the free version of MyNetDiary, you can set custom macro and nutrient targets by gram or by percentage of total calories. In MyNetDiary Premium, you also get built‑in macro and calorie cycling by day of the week on the Cycling tab of the My Weight Goal & Plan screen, so you can turn specific day‑level targets on or off without having to adjust everything manually each time.

Like other nutrition apps, MyNetDiary has a basic intake process that calculates a suggested calorie intake for your goals:

The estimates are reasonable unless you have higher-than-average muscle mass for your age and/or sex (this is a common problem in most nutrition apps).  In that case, you can manually select a higher calorie target.  If you’re using the free version of MyNetDiary, you can still set custom macro targets as mentioned above, with Premium adding extra automation and planning tools on top.

Once you have your targets set, it’s time to start logging your food, and MyNetDiary ranks really highly on ease of input. In a week-long test of logging 127 identical food entries, MyNetDiary required 29% fewer actions (such as clicks) compared to Cronometer.

Plus, the barcode scanner is free (unlike MyFitnessPal), and I really liked that I could switch between different types of units (ounces versus grams, for example) on the main logging screen without needing to click into additional screens.  It was also the first app I tried with an AI meal scanning function, and so far it’s got the second-best AI functionality of the apps we’ve tested for this feature (Snap Calorie was the winner, in case you’re interested).

I’m not someone who meal preps personally, but this has been a huge game changer for many of our clients at Feastgood, and the Shopping List is a practical free feature that allows users to easily prepare a shopping list based on their planned meals from their food log, or from the list of Favorite foods.

MyNetDiary makes it easy to visually “see” your progress through a weight graph that shows an expected weight loss trend into the future based on your progress, and the ability to upload progress photos and view them side-by-side to see body changes over time.

Both the free and Premium versions of MyNetDiary help remind the user that “calories are king” when it comes to weight goals, whether that is weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance.  If your goal is weight loss, the “calorie meter” (apple graphic) will turn red if you exceed your calorie budget for the day.  If your goal is weight gain, the “calorie meter” will stay green if you exceed your calorie budget for the day.

MyNetDiary is also great for providing nutrition education through its Daily Analysis and Food Grade.  In the Daily Analysis, it comments on fiber, saturated and trans fat, and sodium intake compared to recommended government guidelines.  The Food Grade gives each food a letter “grade” (A-D) to help guide users to healthier choices.

Similar to LoseIt, MyNetDiary has a free community built into the app.  There is no need to go to an outside forum or social media platform to get support.

Pros

• The food logging features are fast and easy, and they are available offline (great if you’re traveling or in a gym or other location with poor data connection)
• The Food Grade and Daily Analysis are great for nutrition education
• The Shopping list feature makes it easy to meal prep for your planned meals to hit your targets (and this feature is free!)
• The progress indicators are motivating
• The community is built-in
• The micronutrient information is even more detailed than Cronometer
• The calorie and macronutrient targets can be customized
• The food database is verified
• The recipes can be shared with anyone, via link or email, as a PDF or as text
• The options for biometric markers are very comprehensive

Cons

• The calorie recommendations are too low for muscular individuals
• The app recommends exercising more to “make up for” calories above the daily target
• Several of the customization options are only available in the paid Premium version

1. Food Database

Cronometer

Cronometer’s verified food database allows for user-submitted entries, which are verified by Cronometer staff based on photos of the nutrition labels.  These entries are identifiable as CRDB (Cronometer User Database).  

However, since manufacturer labels often only show basic information and can have errors, the most reliable entries are NCCDB (Nutrition Coordinating Center Food & Nutrient Database) and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference).

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary also has a fully verified food database, with a mixture of NCCDB and USDA entries, and user-submitted entries that are verified by MyNetDiary staff (similar to Cronometer’s CRDB entries).  MyNetDiary’s verified database is actually larger than Cronometer’s, with nearly double the number of entries.

I found that my regular food entries had the exact same basic information (calories & macronutrients) in Cronometer & MyNetDiary.

I think a downside of MyNetDiary is that it does not show whether the food information is from an independent research database (such as NCCDB or USDA) or from a user-submitted entry.

Here is an example of a Food Nutrition Comparison, where Food 1 is a user-submitted entry and Food 2 is an NCCDB entry (these labels are not visible in MyNetDiary):

The Winner: Cronometer

Since both Cronometer and MyNetDiary have verified food databases that combine USDA, NCCDB, and user-submitted entries, they are equal in my mind on that front.  MyNetDiary’s database is larger, but Cronometer lets users see the database source for the food items they are logging so they have a way of knowing whether they are getting more detailed nutrient information.

User-submitted entries are limited to the nutrients shown on the published nutrition label, so users who need very detailed micronutrient information will need a way of selecting food items from databases that actually have those additional details.

 2. Tracking Capabilities

Cronometer

Cronometer has some of the most detailed tracking capabilities in all of the apps we’ve reviewed.  With over 80 micronutrients, sub-components for all macronutrients (and a separate category for alcohol), body measurements, and the ability to create custom metrics (in the paid version), there is virtually nothing you can’t track.  

Then, once you’ve tracked it, you can produce charts and reports, and plot variables against each other to see if there is a connection, and share your reports with healthcare professionals.

MyNetDiary

Even in the free version, MyNetDiary has more micronutrient information (107 micronutrients compared to Cronometer’s 92).  But, it only offers detailed micronutrient analysis in the Premium version (per the screenshot on the right, below).  Like I described for Cronometer, it similarly breaks down macronutrients into sub-components.

MyNetDiary is also faster for logging food, and has some of the best AI logging tools we’ve reviewed so far, including voice and photo logging. 

MyNetDiary Premium offers biometric and health marker tracking on par with Cronometer, including the ability to create and track custom markers.  It also has charts and reports in the Premium version, although these cannot be customized to track metrics against one another (just changes in metrics over time).

MyNetDiary’s Progress Photos is better than Cronometer’s Snapshots features.  It easily allows users to upload photos (including for past dates) and automatically notes the weight as of the date of the photo (if there is a weight entry for that date).  Cronometer defaults to the weight entry as of the day of upload, and does NOT automatically adjust the weight when the date of the photo is updated (a step that has to be done manually after uploading the “snapshot”).

The Winner: MyNetDiary Premium

MyNetDiary Premium offers even more than Cronometer when it comes to tracking across all categories.  Tracking provides insights into what is and isn’t working so you’re not left guessing about how to make progress. 

MyNetDiary especially shines with its Photo Logger functionality being much more robust than Cronometer’s Snapshots.  I’m a big fan of getting clients to look at Progress Photos as a way to literally see their progress, and MyNetDiary’s built-in side-by-side photo function makes this easy and rewarding.  

3. Calorie Recommendations

Cronometer

Cronometer provides scientifically-based realistic, sustainable calorie recommendations for various goals.  I’ve had success using Cronometer personally for weight loss, weight maintenance, and weight gain.

You get a lot of insight into what inputs and formulas Cronometer is using to calculate its targets (BMR Mifflin-St. Jeor method), and you can adjust whatever you need, or just override the targets with your own or your coach’s recommendations.

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary makes some generalizations about muscle mass (expecting it to be less for women and for people as they age) that result in a calorie target that is too low for people with above-average muscle mass for their sex and/or age.  

With a too-low calorie target, the risk is that more of the weight loss will be lean muscle mass instead of body fat, leading to a less favorable body composition at the new lower body weight.

The good news is that MyNetDiary’s Premium version offers two scientifically-based estimation methods: EER from the Institute of Medicine and BMR Mifflin-St. Jeor.  Plus, like MacroFactor (our number-one rating macro tracking app), MyNetDiary Premium has “Advanced AutoPilot,” an adaptive metabolism adjustment algorithm that recalculates targets based on the user’s actual weight trend data.  

You can also adjust/override the targets with your own or your coach’s recommendations.

The Winner: MyNetDiary Premium

MyNetDiary’s scientific approach to calculating calorie and macronutrient recommendations, its Advanced Autopilot feature, and the ability to adjust all of the inputs and targets make it the winner in this category.

4. Level of Customization

Cronometer

I love all of the customizations available in Cronometer.  Beyond just tweaking the macronutrient recommendations (as I mentioned above), I also use a different “template” on different days for different macronutrient targets (for example, my rest day targets are lower than my training day targets, which are lower than my competition day targets).  In Cronometer Gold, I can use the Target Scheduler feature to schedule my templates in advance.

I also make custom charts to plot variables of interest to me.  For example, does high carbohydrate intake lead to better or worse sleep scores for me?  Is there a link between my fiber intake and my stool quality ratings?  

Finally, I toggle “on” or “off” the key nutrients I want to see on the dashboard, depending on my focus at the time.  It’s easy for me to focus on the data that matters most to me so that I don’t get overwhelmed with all the detail available.

MyNetDiary

As much as I love the customizations available in Cronometer, when I started poking around in MyNetDiary Premium, I realized that it offered even more than Cronometer in terms of customizations overall.  

Like Cronometer, I can update the calorie and/or macronutrient recommendations on a day‑to‑day basis, and MyNetDiary Premium also offers built‑in calorie and macro cycling on the Cycling tab of the My Weight Goal & Plan screen. Once I’ve set a day’s calorie and macro goals, I can turn those targets on or off for different days of the week, achieving a similar effect to Cronometer Gold’s Target Scheduler without having to manage everything manually

When it comes to visual display of data: in addition to calories, macros, water intake, daily step count, vitamins & supplements, any one of the 107 micronutrients can be added individually to the daily dashboard.  Plus, any biometric or body measurement I want to track can be added to the dashboard.  

The Winner: MyNetDiary Premium

The high level of customization in all areas makes MyNetDiary Premium the winner in this category.

5. Education Opportunities

Cronometer

In the Gold version of Cronometer, there is a feature called “Ask the Oracle” that recommends food items to help get more of a particular micronutrient in your intake. For example, I wanted to naturally increase my magnesium intake without supplements, so I asked the Oracle for food recommendations naturally high in magnesium.

Cronometer’s detailed information allows you to learn on your own, but it doesn’t offer formal lessons like Noom.  It does, however, have a Nutrition Scores section in the Daily Report to see if you met the RDA (recommended daily allowance) for various targets.  

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary’s Food Grade system and Daily Analysis help users learn more about healthy eating.  It doesn’t have lessons either, but it does have links to educational blog posts, and overall, I think it does a better job of spelling out why certain intake levels of certain nutrients are good for you.

The Winner: MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary’s Food Grades and Daily Analysis provide more explanation of insights than Cronometer’s Daily Report, so MyNetDiary is the winner in this category.

6. Coaching

Cronometer

Cronometer does not have built-in coaching features.

However, Cronometer Pro is an account that a nutrition coach or other healthcare professional can use to enrol clients into Cronometer.  The coach can monitor a client’s food logs, reports and progress, and provide coaching via in-app messages.  

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary Premium does not have built-in coaching features, but the Premium Plus version (for an extra $6/month) does offer AI coaching.  I have not yet tested out this functionality.

MyNetDiary’s Professional connect is a free platform that lets dietitians, nutritionists, and fitness coaches access client food diaries, analyze nutrition data, provide personalized feedback, and send weight loss and meal plans. 

Professional Connect is completely free for practitioners.

The Winner: MyNetDiary

While both apps have ways for coaches to monitor clients’ progress (Cronometer Pro and MyNetDiary Professional Connect); MyNetDiary is the winner in this category due to the fact that its Professional Connect functionality is free for practitioners.

7. Recipe Database

Cronometer

Cronometer does not have a recipe database.  On the other hand, users can input their own recipes, import recipes using a URL, or share recipes with other users (or their coach) in the app.

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary has a recipe database in the Premium version of the app. Plus, users can input their own recipes (quickly and easily based on my experience) in the free version of the app, and they can share those recipes with anyone (not just other MyNetDiary users) via sharing links, emails, and the recipes can be sent as PDFs or text.

The Winner: MyNetDiary

You do have to pay for the recipe database in MyNetDiary Premium, but Cronometer does not have a built-in recipe database at all.  And the increased functionality of sharing personal recipes in the free version of MyNetDiary also put it ahead of Cronometer.

8. Exercise Calories

Cronometer

Users can decide whether “exercise calories” (estimated calories burned during exercise) should be added to their daily calorie target or not in Cronometer. 

I personally don’t log exercises in Cronometer, and I don’t adjust my intake based on the specific exercises I do or don’t do on any given training day.

Users can also use a built-in “activity multiplier” in Cronometer to estimate their calorie burn from exercise above and beyond their base metabolic rate.  The other option is to import “activity calories” from wearable trackers.  These trackers are notoriously inaccurate, so I stick to the activity multiplier.

MyNetDiary

Similar to Cronometer, users can decide whether exercise calories are added to their daily calorie target in MyNetDiary.  In fact, users can also decide if they want any percentage of exercise calories added back: this percentage is fully customizable in the Premium version, and can be 0% (fully off), 50%, or 100% (fully on) in the free version.  

The Winner: Tie

MyNetDiary Premium’s ability to adjust calories added back for exercise (if any) allows users to achieve the same end result as varying levels of activity multipliers in Cronometer. 

9. Price

Cronometer

Right now, Cronometer Gold is $4.99 US/month for a yearly subscription ($59.88 US) or $10.99 US/month monthly. Use this link to get 10% off Cronometer Gold.

Cronometer makes a ton of valuable features available in its free version.  The only exceptions I’ve mentioned are: the template Target Scheduler, custom biometrics, custom charts & reports and recipe sharing.

What is missing overall (free or Gold version): AI food logging (photo or voice logging), GPS exercise tracking (helpful for runners), built-in community and robust progress photo features.  And unfortunately, Cronometer’s free version is starting to get cluttered and perform more slowly due to ads.

MyNetDiary

Right now, MyNetDiary Premium is $59.99 US annually or $8.99 US/month monthly (and +$6.00 US/month to update to Premium Plus).

MyNetDiary’s free version actually offers more micronutrient coverage than Cronometer (108 nutrients versus 92 as of Cronometer’s February 2026 update), and it includes both micronutrient tracking and target setting in the free tier. On top of that, the free version still gives you full macronutrient tracking, barcode scanning, water and step tracking, and access to a supportive built‑in user community.

A real differentiator for me was the fact that the only ads I saw in MyNetDiary’s free version were occasional prompts to sign up for MyNetDiary Premium (or Premium Plus), and often at a discount to the prices quoted above (for example, current users of the free version of MyNetDiary might get an offer to a year of MyNetDiary Premium at $29.99 – 50% off).

The Winner: MyNetDiary

Given they have essentially the same annual price, what edges MyNetDiary ahead in this category is the absence of annoying ads.

10. Reviews

Cronometer

Cronometer is rated #11 in Health & Fitness in the Apple App Store on mobile. Cronometer currently has around 90k ratings with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. On Google Play, it sits at 4.6 stars out of 5 on roughly 52k reviews with over 1M downloads.

Recent reviews are mostly positive and highlight Cronometer’s data‑rich tracking and flexible customization options, though there are some 1–3 star reviews mentioning occasional bugs and integration issues.

MyNetDiary

MyNetDiary is rated #29 in Health & Fitness in the Apple App Store on mobile. MyNetDiary has about 147k ratings with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. On Google Play, it holds a 4.7 out of 5 rating on roughly 106k reviews with over 5M downloads.

MyNetDiary similarly boasted many recent 5-start reviews, with users talking about how much they loved it and how well it worked for them for their weight loss journey.  I was also impressed with the fact that user reviews were almost always followed up promptly with a Developer Response, thanking users for their reviews and seeking additional insights on how to make the app even better.

The Winner: MyNetDiary

Looking specifically at the US app stores, MyNetDiary has a higher volume of ratings and reviews, slightly higher average scores on Google Play, and significantly more total downloads than Cronometer. Combined with its strong, recent user feedback and active developer responses, this tips the Reviews category in favor of MyNetDiary for 2026.

Other Features to Note

Although they don’t fit into the categories for our standard app criteria, it is worth pointing out that MyNetDiary offers a feature I haven’t seen before: it supports dynamic font sizes, meaning that if user increases the default font size on their iPhone to improve readability, this setting carries over into the MyNetDiary app (it doesn’t carry over into Cronometer).  

This is a nice accessibility consideration for any clients with eyesight issues.

GLP1 Support 

For anyone using GLP‑1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound, MyNetDiary Premium also includes a dedicated GLP‑1 Companion that Cronometer doesn’t currently offer. It bundles a medication tracker with reminders, a protein‑first dashboard, and a customized macro plan that emphasizes fiber and hydration to address the most common nutrition gaps on GLP‑1s. There’s also a digestive symptom log, GLP‑1‑specific AI advice, curated high‑protein recipe collections, and specialized charts that show weight, protein, hydration, symptoms, and medication adherence together, making it easier to manage side effects while protecting lean muscle during rapid weight loss. For GLP‑1 users specifically, this makes MyNetDiary the stronger overall choice right now.

Conclusion

Based on our review for serious athletes and health enthusiasts (Feastgood readers, that’s you!): MyNetDiary Premium is the winner in our books in 2026, with wins in 8/10 categories reviewed.

Other Diet App Comparisons

• Noom vs Lose It
• Cronometer vs MyFitnessPal
• MacroFactor vs Cronometer
• MacroFactor vs Lose It