A private MyFitnessPal alternative — no subscription, no account
MyFitnessPal is the app most people start with, and the app most people leave: the barcode scanner moved behind Premium, the free tier is dense with ads, and the subscription runs about $80 a year. Tare is the opposite trade — $6.99 once, every feature included, and a log that stays on your device.
Tare vs MyFitnessPal, side by side
| Tare | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 once | Free + ads, or ~$80/yr Premium |
| Barcode scanner | Included | Premium only |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Where your data lives | Your device & your iCloud | Their servers |
| Ads | Never | Free tier |
| Calorie targets | Learned from your weight & log | Formula-based |
| Your corrections take priority | Checked before public databases | — |
| Supplements | Count toward totals, grouped reminders | Log manually as food |
| Platforms | iPhone & iPad | iOS, Android, web |
MyFitnessPal pricing and features as published in July 2026 — check their site for current details. A dash means we found no published equivalent, not that one cannot exist.
The scanner you already had
MyFitnessPal's barcode scanner was free for a decade before moving behind the paywall. In Tare it is simply part of the app — and it works differently: scans check your own foods before any public database, so when a crowd-sourced entry is wrong, you correct it once and your version wins every scan after that, permanently and privately.
Targets that stop guessing
MyFitnessPal sets your calorie target from a formula — a population average that can miss your real expenditure by hundreds of calories, and only changes when you re-enter your stats. Tare starts from the same kind of formula, then measures your actual burn from how your weight trend responds to what you log, and retires the formula after about four weeks.
What the subscription was paying for
An $80/year tracker is funding servers, sync infrastructure, and an advertising business. Tare has none of those: no accounts, no backend, and sync through your own iCloud. That is why one payment can cover the app's whole life — there is no recurring cost for you to underwrite, and no incentive for the app to monetize your data.
When MyFitnessPal is the right choice
An honest comparison cuts both ways. Stay with MyFitnessPal if you need Android or web access (Tare is native iOS only, by design), if its community, social feed, and coach integrations are part of how you stay accountable, or if you want a free tier and can live with the ads. Its crowd-sourced database is also larger than any single source Tare queries — Tare answers that with corrections that stick, not with size.
Common questions
Is there a MyFitnessPal alternative without a subscription?
Tare is a one-time $6.99 purchase with every feature included — barcode scanning, micronutrients, recipes, adaptive calorie targets. There is no free tier, no Premium tier, and nothing to renew. A year of MyFitnessPal Premium costs more than eleven copies of Tare.
Does Tare have a barcode scanner without paying extra?
Yes. Barcode scanning is part of the one-time purchase, not a premium add-on. It checks your own foods first, then Open Food Facts, then the USDA Branded database — so a food you create or correct wins every future scan.
Can I import my MyFitnessPal history into Tare?
Not today — Tare has no MyFitnessPal importer, so you start with an empty log. In practice most people re-create their dozen staple foods and recipes in the first few days; barcode scanning and the USDA database cover the rest. Tare itself exports everything to CSV at any time, so you are never locked in going the other direction either.
Is Tare actually private, or just marketed that way?
There is no account to create, no analytics SDK in the app, and no Tare server anywhere — the company could not read your data even if it wanted to, because nothing is ever sent to it. Your log lives on your device and, if you enable sync, in your personal iCloud.
Try the honest tracker
One purchase, no account, no ads. If it's not for you, Apple refunds are straightforward.