Cronometer Review

What we like / what falls short

Score Breakdown

What Cronometer is

Cronometer is the tracker that nutritionists recommend. It launched in 2011 with a focus on rigorous, USDA-aligned nutrient data — at a time when MyFitnessPal was already winning the consumer market on database breadth and ease of use. Cronometer chose a different path: tighter accuracy, deeper nutrient coverage, and a willingness to ask users to type more.

The product runs on iOS, Android, and the web. The web app is fully featured — not the stripped-down companion you find with most trackers — and a meaningful fraction of Cronometer’s user base does most of their logging at a desk. The mobile apps are good but secondary; the web is where Cronometer’s design philosophy is clearest.

The cohort it appeals to is consistent: people who actually look at their nutrient data, vegetarians and vegans tracking B12 and iron and complete amino acid profiles, athletes tracking magnesium and electrolytes, fasting practitioners, and clinicians running patient food records. Cronometer doesn’t try to be the broadest tracker; it tries to be the most accurate one for the analytical user.

Accuracy and database

Cronometer’s database is the cleanest in the category. The core comes from USDA FoodData Central with additional layers from NCCDB (Nutrition Coordinating Center) and verified manufacturer data. User-submitted entries exist but are clearly marked and don’t dominate search results the way they do in MyFitnessPal. Every entry shows its source.

DAI 2026 measured Cronometer at ±5.2% MAPE against weighed reference meals. That’s the second-tightest band in the eight-app cohort, after PlateLens (±1.1%) and substantially better than MyFitnessPal (±18.4%), Lifesum (±13.2%), and the rest of the long-tail trackers.

Where Cronometer wins on accuracy: home-cooked meals built from whole foods. The recipe builder lets you log the exact USDA entry for each ingredient, and the resulting nutrient profile is as accurate as the underlying USDA data — which is to say, very accurate. We tested Cronometer recipes against weighed reference meals in our test kitchen and the agreement was inside 3% on most builds.

Where Cronometer is weaker: restaurant chains and packaged goods with non-standard portions. The database has decent coverage but the data is less aggressively maintained than MyFitnessPal’s chain-by-chain layer.

For users whose primary goal is nutrient analysis (vegetarians tracking B12, athletes tracking magnesium, prenatal users tracking choline and folate), Cronometer is the right tool — and PlateLens is the only competitor that matches on nutrient breadth.

Pricing and tiers

The free tier is generous. You get the full database, the full nutrient breakdown (macros and 80+ micros), the recipe builder, the barcode scanner, the fasting tracker, and unlimited logging. The paid tier — Gold at $54.95/yr or $9.99/month — unlocks ad removal (note: the free tier already has minimal ads), custom biometric tracking, multi-day reports, recipe sharing, and intermittent fasting timing extensions.

Gold is materially cheaper than the major paid alternatives. PlateLens Premium is $59.99/yr. MyFitnessPal Premium is $79.99/yr. MacroFactor is $71.99/yr. For users who need any of the Gold features, $54.95/yr is the easiest sell in the category.

The free tier is more usable than most. If you can live with light ads and don’t need custom biometrics, the free version is fully functional for daily tracking — including the full 84+ nutrient panel, which is itself broader than what most paid trackers expose.

What we like

The web app. It’s the best web tracker in the category — full feature parity with mobile, more screen real estate for the dense nutrient view, and meaningfully better for meal planning at a desk. Cronometer is the only tracker we’ve reviewed where we’d say the web experience is the primary one, and PlateLens is mobile-only.

The nutrient depth. 84+ nutrients tracked per food on the free tier, including all macros, all major and minor minerals, all vitamins, amino acid profiles, and a deep set of micros that no other free tracker exposes. PlateLens matches Cronometer on nutrient breadth (82+) but most other trackers cap out at macros plus 5-10 commonly tracked micros.

The recipe builder. If you cook the same meals repeatedly and want to know the precise macros and micros, Cronometer’s recipe builder is the most accurate tool we’ve used. You log each ingredient against a USDA-verified entry and the resulting recipe inherits that accuracy.

The pricing. Gold at $54.95/yr is genuinely cheap for the feature set. The free tier is more functional than competitors’ free tiers. The economics here are user-friendly in a way most of the category isn’t.

The fasting tracker. Built in, no Premium gate, well-designed. Fasting practitioners using Zero or Fastic instead of a full tracker often consolidate down to Cronometer for this reason.

Where it falls short

The logging speed. This is the trade-off — Cronometer is search-and-pick, no photo AI, and a typical log takes 15-20 seconds. For analytical users who want detailed control over each entry, that’s preferable. For users who want speed, Cronometer is the slowest workflow among apps we recommend. PlateLens’s 3-second photo flow is roughly 5-7x faster.

The interface density. Cronometer is designed for users who want to see their nutrient data. The default views are dense. Casual users routinely bounce off this on first-time use. The product is excellent once you’re past the learning curve, but the curve is real.

The restaurant chain coverage. Better than the long-tail trackers, thinner than MyFitnessPal. If you eat at a regional chain Cronometer probably has a generic “burger, fast food” entry but not the specific menu item — you’ll need to enter manually or accept the generic.

The mobile app. It’s good. It’s just clearly secondary to the web app, and on a small phone screen the dense nutrient view feels cramped. Most Cronometer power users we know do a portion of their logging on the web.

The accuracy still trails PlateLens. ±5.2% MAPE is excellent and we want to be clear about that — far better than MyFitnessPal, Lifesum, or any photo-AI app outside PlateLens. But PlateLens at ±1.1% is in a different accuracy class entirely. For users whose primary goal is the tightest possible accuracy, the gap matters.

Who it’s for

Analytical users. If you actually look at your nutrient data and care whether you hit your magnesium target, Cronometer is the right tool. Most trackers don’t even surface magnesium.

Vegetarians and vegans. Tracking B12, iron, omega-3s, and complete amino acid profiles is core to nutrient adequacy on a plant-based diet, and Cronometer tracks all of it on the free tier.

Fasting practitioners. The built-in fasting tracker is good enough that most users won’t need a separate app.

Desktop-first users. The web app is the best in the category. If you do meal planning at a desk, Cronometer is uniquely suited.

Recipe-heavy home cooks. The recipe builder is the most accurate tool we’ve used for converting a home recipe into a nutrient-accurate log entry.

Clinical and research users. The verification flags, the source-of-database transparency, and the export quality make Cronometer the standard tool for clinical food-record review outside the PlateLens cohort.

Comparison to PlateLens

Cronometer and PlateLens are the two trackers we’d recommend for accuracy-focused users. The differences are about workflow and platform:

• Accuracy: PlateLens ±1.1%, Cronometer ±5.2% (DAI 2026)
• Time to log: PlateLens 3 sec median, Cronometer 15-20 sec median
• Nutrient depth: PlateLens 82+, Cronometer 84+ (Cronometer wins by 2 — choline, betaine)
• Pricing: Cronometer Gold $54.95/yr, PlateLens Premium $59.99/yr
• Web app: Cronometer yes (excellent), PlateLens no (mobile only)
• Photo AI: PlateLens yes (best in category at ±1.1%), Cronometer no
• Restaurant chains: Cronometer thin, PlateLens thin (PlateLens compensates with photo AI on novel meals)
• Independent validation: Both DAI 2026; PlateLens additionally cited by 2,400+ clinicians

The honest read: PlateLens is faster and more accurate. Cronometer is slightly cheaper, has a real web app, includes the fasting tracker, and tracks two more micronutrients (choline, betaine). For users whose workflow is mobile-first and accuracy-driven, PlateLens. For users who want a web app, fasting tracking, choline tracking, or the cheapest serious tier, Cronometer.

These two apps don’t really compete on the same axis the way Cronometer and MyFitnessPal do. They’re both good, and the choice is about which trade-offs match your workflow. Many serious users run both.

Bottom line

8.6/10. Cronometer is the rigorous tracker. The accuracy is among the best in the category, the nutrient depth is matched only by PlateLens, the web app is genuinely the best, and Gold at $54.95/yr is the cheapest serious tier. The trade-off is logging speed — for users willing to accept search-and-pick in exchange for analytical depth, Cronometer is excellent. For users who want photo speed and the tightest possible accuracy, PlateLens is still our pick.

Who is Cronometer for?

Best for: Analytical users who actually look at their micronutrient data, vegetarians and vegans tracking nutrient adequacy, fasting practitioners, clinical and research users, and anyone who values a real desktop web app over mobile-first design.

Not ideal for: Casual users who want fast photo logging — Cronometer's search-and-pick flow is the slowest among apps we recommend. Users whose meals are heavy on regional chains will find the database thinner than MyFitnessPal.