Lifesum locks almost everything useful behind a premium paywall. We tested the best free alternatives that give you full nutrition tracking without requiring a subscription.
Lifesum is a Swedish health app with a clean, Scandinavian-inspired design. It positions itself as a "healthy living" app rather than just a calorie counter — offering structured diet plans (keto, Mediterranean, vegetarian, high-protein), food quality ratings, and habit tracking alongside the standard food log.
The free tier, however, is severely limited:
Lifesum's free tier is essentially a calorie counter with no macro visibility. For anyone who wants to track protein, carbs, or fat — which most people tracking nutrition should — Lifesum requires Premium at approximately $44.99 USD/year (~$8.99/month if billed monthly). That's before you get to any of the diet plan or food quality features that differentiate it from basic trackers.
The most common complaint: you log your meals but can only see total calories. Protein, carbs, and fat — the information most people actually need — require Premium. For anyone doing IIFYM, high-protein diets, or monitoring carb intake, the free tier is functionally useless.
Lifesum's "Life Score" for foods — its key differentiator — rates foods on a colour scale. Some users find it helpful; others find the ratings counterproductive (plain Greek yoghurt sometimes scores lower than processed alternatives due to the algorithm weighting fat content). The system is not transparent about its methodology.
Lifesum was built for a Swedish market and has strong coverage for Swedish, German, and UK packaged foods. Coverage is thinner for Southern European, Eastern European, and non-European countries. Users in Australia, Canada, and Southeast Asia report significant gaps in local products.
Lifesum has a basic streak counter, but no competitive element, no rewards system, and no league rankings. For users who rely on extrinsic motivation to maintain a daily logging habit, the app provides no mechanisms beyond the streak number itself.
NutriBalance solves Lifesum's two biggest problems simultaneously: macro tracking is completely free (no paywall on protein, carbs, or fat in grams), and the gamification system (streaks, weekly leagues, NutriCoin rewards) solves the consistency problem Lifesum's flat streak counter doesn't.
The food database covers 7M+ items including strong European coverage — UK, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Australian products. The barcode scanner works without usage limits on the free tier. A home screen widget lets you check your macro budget without opening the app — useful throughout the day when making food decisions. French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese language support is built in, making it a practical choice across Europe.
Where NutriBalance differs most from Lifesum: instead of food quality ratings and structured diet plans, it focuses on building the daily logging habit through gamification. The league system — where you compete against other users weekly based on XP earned from logging — creates consistent accountability without a human coach. For users who found Lifesum's diet plans helpful, NutriBalance is more of a precision tracker; for users who found Lifesum's free tier too limiting, NutriBalance is strictly better.
MyFitnessPal has the largest food database (14M+ entries) and the best global coverage of any tracker — a significant advantage over Lifesum for users outside Northern Europe. Its integration with Garmin, Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Strava is unmatched. The core weakness is the same as Lifesum's: macro tracking is paywalled (~$19.99 USD/month). For users leaving Lifesum specifically because of the paywall, MFP free tier has the same problem.
Cronometer is the most nutritionally accurate free tracker available — it uses the NCCDB (gold-standard research database) and tracks 80+ micronutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids on the free tier. For Lifesum users who appreciated the health-oriented framing (food quality, diet plans), Cronometer offers a more clinical alternative — it tells you exactly what you're missing nutritionally, not just how many calories you've consumed. The UI is less polished than Lifesum, and there's no gamification.
Lose It! has a clean interface and good barcode scanning. Its free tier covers calorie logging but locks macros behind Premium (~$39.99 USD/year). The app has a similar Scandinavian-clean aesthetic to Lifesum and a decent food database for English-speaking markets. Limited European food coverage compared to Lifesum for non-UK markets. No diet plan structure and no food quality ratings.
Yazio is a German-made calorie counter with strong European food database coverage — particularly for German, Austrian, Swiss, and Central European products. It has a similar premium model to Lifesum (free basic tracking, premium for macros and diet plans). Yazio Pro costs ~$39.99 USD/year. It lacks Lifesum's design polish but has better Central European food coverage. Available in multiple European languages.
| Feature | NutriBalance | Lifesum | MyFitnessPal | Cronometer | Yazio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (approx.) | Free / $12.99 AUD | Free / $8.99 USD | Free / $19.99 USD | Free / $9.99 USD | Free / $3.33 USD |
| Full macros free | ✓ | ✗ Paid | ✗ Paid | ✓ | ✗ Paid |
| Food quality ratings | ✗ | ✓ (Premium) | ✗ | ✗ | ~ Basic |
| Structured diet plans | ✗ | ✓ (Premium) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (Premium) |
| Gamification / streaks | ✓ Full system | ~ Basic streak | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Home screen widget (free) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ Paid | ✗ | ✗ |
| European food coverage | Good | Very Good | Good | Moderate | Very Good (DE/AT/CH) |
| European languages | FR/ES/DE/IT/PT | Many | Many | EN only | DE/FR/IT/ES |
| Free tier rating | A | D (nearly everything locked) | C (macros locked) | A- (great micros) | D (macros locked) |
If you're in Europe, availability and local food databases matter. Here's how each alternative performs:
All apps listed here have privacy policies covering GDPR compliance for European users. NutriBalance's privacy policy is at officialnutribalance.app/privacy/. If you're in the EU and concerned about data handling, review each app's privacy policy and data processor list before signing up.
If you're on Lifesum Premium, cancel before your next billing date. Go to your iOS/Android subscriptions (Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions, or Google Play → Subscriptions → Lifesum). Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal.
Find your current Lifesum calorie target in the app (Daily Budget in the log view). Write it down — you'll enter it during NutriBalance onboarding, or let NutriBalance recalculate it from your stats.
NutriBalance's onboarding calculates your calorie and macro targets from your current weight, goal, and activity level. The process takes about 3 minutes. Select the same goal you had in Lifesum (lose weight, maintain, or gain).
In NutriBalance → Profile → Settings → Language, select your preferred language. French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese are all supported for the full app UI.
Log one meal today to start Day 1 of your streak. The streak mechanic is the primary habit engine — once you're on a 5-day streak, you'll find yourself reluctant to break it even on days when motivation is low.
For users leaving Lifesum because of the paywall, NutriBalance is the clear choice — full macros free, multi-language support, and a gamification system that actually keeps you logging. For users who valued Lifesum's food quality ratings and structured diet plans, Cronometer offers the best free clinical nutrition alternative. For users who need the largest possible food database, MyFitnessPal wins on breadth despite the same paywall problem.
A free Lifesum alternative — download now A free Lifesum alternative — download now