Why I built Tare

The very first app I tried was the free version of a big tracker, and I hated it from the beginning. The free version was full of ads, and it looked complicated to me, so I could not really use it, and I did not.

Then in 2023 or 2024 I decided to go to the gym and change my diet. I found an online fitness coach through the Caliber service, and my coach suggested Cronometer. That was the very first time I used a calorie and food tracking app properly. I started with the premium version from the beginning. I don’t really know if they show ads or not, but I paid for it, and one of the reasons was: I paid, so I must use it.

I always hated subscription-based apps, but these days it looks like all apps are subscription based. So, with current AI technologies, I thought: yeah, let’s try to build it. I already had an AI subscription plan for personal use, and in March 2026 I spent a few nights building it just for myself. It did what I needed. Obviously it was missing features compared to what we have today, but it was serving my needs and nobody else’s. The first version went to the App Store in April 2026, and since then I have shipped 28 updates.

Why $6.99, once

I don’t know, honestly. My thought was that if I made it too cheap, people might feel it is garbage, and if I made it more expensive, people would be hesitant to spend money on something they don’t know is going to work. So $6.99 feels like a cup of coffee at Starbucks, although I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t know how much it costs.

The only reason I made it paid is to cover the Apple Developer Program and the usetare.app domain name. I did not really know if anyone was going to buy it. I did not really do any ads, but I got some sales, got requests for improvements, and was happy people liked it after their requests were satisfied.

No account, no ads, no server

I am a big privacy advocate. I hate always creating new accounts for something; I always use email aliases and password managers. So for me, no account, no ads and no server was a no-brainer. I don’t really need to know what people eat, their emails or their habits, and there is nothing that can be hacked on my side. Fewer things to worry about.

And no AI inside the app

Taking a photo of a meal and letting AI count the calories is very popular now. Tare doesn’t do it, for a few reasons. AI can only estimate, and estimates never worked for me. I love to be precise. Privacy is another big reason.

If you really need this feature, you can always use an AI like ChatGPT and then add those results in Tare. Tare also has prompt generation for your AI assistant, based on what you ate and your weight trend, so you can generate it, copy and paste it, and get some insights. In the app it is called Ask AI.

Do I use it?

Yes, I do, every day. I log everything, from food to supplements. I usually eat the same food and don’t really have lots of different things, so templates are a must-have for me :)

Is it my job?

No. I am a software engineer. I like sport: I go to the gym, play hockey, do morning runs, and did a half marathon twice.

Making a living from Tare was never a goal, though I would not mind if it gave me some spare money :) Success? If people find it useful and it helps, I am happy.