MacroFactor vs MyFitnessPal: Adaptive Targets or a Big Database

MacroFactor vs MyFitnessPal asks whether you want a target that adjusts itself or a much larger food list. MacroFactor recalculates your calorie and macro targets every week from what you log, and it has no free version. MyFitnessPal lists about 15 times as many foods and has a free plan.

I wanted to know what “adaptive” means in practice. So I read both help centers and worked through the logic with round numbers. The facts are from their pages. The arithmetic is mine, and I label it.

MacroFactor vs MyFitnessPal: how does each one set your targets?

MacroFactor estimates your daily energy expenditure from the food you log and the trend in your weight. After a week of both, it invites you to a check-in and recommends new intake and macro targets. Here is my own illustration, not MacroFactor’s published example. Say you eat about 2,000 kcal a day for two weeks and your trend weight stays flat. Your expenditure is then close to 2,000 kcal. If the trend drifts down instead, your expenditure is higher than what you ate.

MyFitnessPal works from goals you set. Its plan comparison table lists goals by percentage on Free, and goals by meal and different goals by day on Premium. It doesn’t list a weekly recalculation from your weight trend. Premium members on iOS also get Coach, an AI assistant that answers from your diary, goals and the last couple of weeks of history. It answers questions, and I found nothing saying it rewrites your targets.

	MacroFactor	MyFitnessPal
Who changes the target	the app proposes it at a weekly check-in	you, with goals by percentage (Free) or by meal and day (Premium)
What it reads	logged food and weight trend	logged food; Coach also reads goals and steps
Plan needed	paid, no free version	Free for basic goals

Goals can also be set as a percentage split or as grams per kilogram, and the two don’t always agree; the macro targets compared show how at 2,000 kcal.

What does each one cost?

MacroFactor’s own site lists $11.99 a month, $47.99 every 6 months or $71.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial. MyFitnessPal’s membership page lists Premium at $79.99 a year or $19.99 a month, and Premium+ at $99.99 a year or $24.99 a month. The annual gap is $8.00, and the monthly gap is $8.00 too.

Plan	Price (US, checked 10 Oct 2026)	Source
MacroFactor, monthly	$11.99	MacroFactor site
MacroFactor, every 6 months	$47.99	MacroFactor site
MacroFactor, yearly	$71.99	MacroFactor site
MacroFactor bundle with its Workouts app (new users)	$89.99 a year	MacroFactor help
“MyFitnessPal Annual Premium”	$79.99	US App Store
MyFitnessPal Premium	$79.99 a year or $19.99 a month	MyFitnessPal membership page
MyFitnessPal Premium+	$99.99 a year or $24.99 a month	MyFitnessPal membership page

The US App Store shows more than one price under the same names. MacroFactor’s listing has “Annual Subscription” at both $71.99 and $59.99, and I can’t tell from the page why. Trust the price on the screen where you pay. Whether the adaptive coach is worth that price gets its own answer in MacroFactor cost.

Which one has the bigger food database?

MyFitnessPal, by count. Its App Store page says 20.5M+ foods. MacroFactor says it has more than 1.36 million entries that it calls verified. The two numbers count different things, so I wouldn’t pick on either. What matters is whether the entry for your lunch is right, so count how many entries you fix by hand in a week. A large one wins when your cart holds packaged food from every aisle. If you’d rather give up the weekly targets for micronutrient depth, MacroFactor vs Cronometer lays out that trade.

Logging methods are the fairer test. MacroFactor lists AI photo logging, a barcode scanner, a nutrition label scanner, recipe import from a URL and speech-to-text, all inside the one subscription. At MyFitnessPal the barcode scanner, Meal Scan and food timestamps are Premium features. Count the methods you use daily. Then price them on each side.

What do you have to log for adaptive targets to work?

Food every day, and weight at least once a week. MacroFactor’s help page says weekly is the minimum and daily is better. Log food but skip weight and the expenditure estimate pauses until the next weigh-in. It then catches up with one new entry.

The adaptive model needs a weigh-in at least once a week, and more often is better. If weighing in makes you anxious, a fixed target may serve you better. You can skip the scale, but then the adaptive part has nothing to work from and you pay for a feature you don’t use.

What happens when you leave?

Both apps send cancellation to the store where you subscribed. MacroFactor’s subscription page says payment details and cancellation are managed in your phone’s app store. Export differs. MacroFactor has a Data Export screen under More, with a granular and a quick export. MyFitnessPal’s export is a Premium feature, so download your files before you cancel.

Where does Calsa fit next to these two?

How we compare: 15 calorie trackers sold in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, checked against their websites, help centers and App Store pages. Paid screens were left unopened.

	In the category (of 15 apps, checked 8 Oct 2026)	Calsa
Source of each number	0 of 15 show the database source of every number; 9 show a check badge or a “checked by nutritionists” claim without it	every number shows its source and database release; an unconfirmed amount is marked “estimate”
Price	0 of 15 show the price before the first question; 7 of 15 use timers, discount wheels or a second offer	price, trial and how to cancel before any question; no timers
Calorie floor	0 of 15 keep a floor that cannot be switched off	a goal below the floor is not saved, and the reason is shown

Where Calsa is weaker. Next to these two, it has a smaller food database than MyFitnessPal, no manual workout logging, no Apple Watch app or widget, and no meal plans or fasting. Every plan is paid once the trial ends.

Choose something else if you want to pay nothing, wear the app on your wrist, or have the app own the weekly math the way MacroFactor does.

Pick MacroFactor if you’ll weigh in and want that weekly math done for you. MyFitnessPal is the pick for the widest food list or a free plan. MacroFactor offers a 7-day trial and MyFitnessPal a free plan, so you can try either before paying for a year, and the checks in the best calorie counter app guide work on both.

On the weight trend, Calsa shows a smoothed line instead of daily jumps and suggests a new goal when the trend calls for it, and you decide whether to accept. I haven’t compared its suggestions with MacroFactor’s algorithm.