Free calorie app with no subscription: what to do when your tracker goes paywall

2026, the year counting calories got (even more) expensive

It's not just a feeling. Three dated, public facts explain the wave of people looking for a free alternative right now:

• MyFitnessPal extended its Premium tier in early May 2026. Meal photo logging and custom macronutrients are now reserved for the paid plan (Premium at $79.99/year on public pricing). This follows the barcode scan that went paid in late 2022 — one of the most criticized decisions among users.
• Cal AI was briefly pulled from the App Store in April 2026. Apple temporarily removed the app over billing practices deemed deceptive — hidden auto-renewal, bypassing in-app purchase — before it was reinstated after fixes. The user complaint: subscriptions triggering without people really meaning to.
• Price is becoming a deciding factor. Between a Premium at ~$80/year on one side and PRO plans around ~$48/year on the other, stacking these subscriptions over several years adds up fast for one simple task: logging what you eat.

No judgment on the quality of these products: these are public facts, sourced at the bottom of the page. But the direction is clear — features that used to be free are becoming paid over time. If that doesn't suit you, you're allowed to leave. We break down the MyFitnessPal case in our free MyFitnessPal alternative guide.

"Free to install" is not "free, period"

The most common trap isn't the price tag: it's the word "free" used to mean "free trial". Many apps let you in without paying, then lock the essentials behind a subscription, or start a few-day trial that turns into an annual charge if you forget to cancel. Technically it's legal; in practice, it's a credit card requested before you've even decided the app is right for you.

3 signs an app will end up charging you

• It asks for your card to "unlock the trial". A truly free app doesn't need a payment method to work.
• Core features are blurred or locked from the home screen. Scanning, seeing your macros, saving a food: if it's locked, "free" is a storefront.
• An account is mandatory. An account means an email, an ID, and data leaving for a server. It's not paid in dollars, but it has a price.

To avoid a hidden subscription, the safest reflex is to check whether you can count calories without ever entering a payment method. And if you're already caught in an auto-renewal, our piece on how canceling a nutrition subscription works (from the sourced Noom case) explains the mechanics to know.

What a truly free, no-subscription app must tick

"Free" means nothing on its own. Here are the five criteria that separate real free from fake free:

• Count without a subscription — journal, calories and macros available without paying, today and in two years.
• No mandatory account — you open it and start, no email, no password.
• Barcode scanning included — the most useful feature shouldn't be a paid lure.
• Offline — it works on a plane, abroad, without depending on a server that can change its rules tomorrow.
• More than calories — Nutri-Score and micronutrients to understand what quality, not just how much.

Radish: free to count, no subscription, private by default

Radish ticks all five boxes. The core is free: journal, barcode scanning (via Open Food Facts), Nutri-Score, macros, personal recipes and 11 vitamins and minerals drawn from public reference databases — USDA (the US reference database) and CIQUAL (the French table from Anses). No account, no credit card, no subscription for the core. Everything is stored locally on your phone: your food log never goes to a server, so there's nothing to sell — that's our promise, detailed in the calorie app that doesn't sell your data.

An optional Pro exists, as a one-time purchase — not a recurring subscription — and only unlocks advanced features. In other words: you never pay to count your calories, and never "by surprise".

Comparison: free with no subscription, really?

The criteria that matter when you want to count without paying or signing up. Checked in July 2026; "~" flags a partial point or one not documented by the vendor. Public prices for reference, subject to change.

✓ included free · ✗ not included (or paid) · ~ partial or not documented. Snapshot from July 2026; vendors can change their plans at any time.

If your only need is to count cleanly without paying or signing up, Radish stands out. For a detailed head-to-head with the leader, see Radish vs MyFitnessPal; for a market overview, our best calorie app in 2026 guide.

How to switch without losing the thread

Switching apps feels scary because we think we're "starting from zero". In practice, past history barely matters: what helps with weight loss or sticking to a goal is mostly consistency from today on, not the months before. Three simple steps:

• Note your current markers — your calorie goal and your recurring foods (breakfast, snacks). Five minutes is enough.
• Install Radish and log your first day — with no account, you can start right away; the scan finds most products.
• Cancel the old app's subscription once you're reassured, from your store's subscription settings (App Store or Google Play), not inside the app itself.

The most effective tracking is the one that follows you everywhere: that's why being offline matters as much as being free. And if scanning is your number-one feature, we explain how to scan your calories for free.

Sources. MyFitnessPal Premium extension (meal photo + custom macros, Premium $79.99/year), early May 2026, and the barcode scan that went paid in late 2022 — specialist nutrition press, 2026. Cal AI temporarily pulled from the App Store over deceptive billing (hidden auto-renewal, bypassing in-app purchase), April 2026, then reinstated after fixes — TechCrunch, 04/21/2026. Yazio PRO price (~$47.90/year) — public listings 2026. Radish nutrition data: CIQUAL (Anses) and USDA. Prices subject to change; check the current plan before subscribing.

General information, not medical advice.

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