Lose It! Review 2026: Best Free Barcode Scanner After MFP's Paywall

I switched off MyFitnessPal in November 2022, the week the barcode scanner went premium-only. I had been logging on it daily since 2014 — nine years of food history, a 50,000+ entry custom-food list, a workflow muscle memory I did not realise I had. The next four weeks were uglier than I would like to admit. I tried Cronometer second because the r/loseit consensus says it is the accuracy winner. The database is half the size of MFP’s and the logging took me three times as long. I tried FatSecret because it is actually free. The UI is from 2012. After a month I settled on Lose It Premium, which was £40 on a Black Friday deal, and I have stayed there. This review is what I would tell myself in October 2022, if I could go back.

The barcode scanner — why it matters

The barcode scanner is the feature that made calorie tracking viable for most people. Before the scanner, logging required knowing the nutrition label, finding the right database entry, and trusting the numbers matched. The scanner eliminates all three friction points: scan the barcode, confirm the serving size, done.

MyFitnessPal moved the scanner to Premium (currently £64/year first year, £80 year two) in late 2022. Lose It kept it free. This single decision is why Lose It is the default recommendation for any Segment 1 query in 2026.

Food database quality

Lose It’s database is smaller than MFP’s (approximately 7 million entries vs MFP’s 14 million) but meaningfully cleaner. The user-submitted entries go through a moderation queue that rejects obvious outliers. The error rate is lower than MFP’s measured 18% average, though Lose It does not publish accuracy data.

Restaurant coverage in the US is excellent. UK and EU restaurant coverage is adequate for chains but thin for independent restaurants. For home cooking, the barcode scanner + custom recipe builder covers most gaps.

The meal-template and quick-add system

Lose It’s Meal Templates feature is genuinely the fastest multi-item logging I have used. Set up your standard breakfast once, log it every day in two taps. The Quick Add feature (numeric-only entry, no food lookup) is useful for “I had a handful of almonds and I am not going to look that up right now” scenarios.

These two features reduce the per-meal logging time for habitual eaters — which is most users after week two — to under 60 seconds.

Pricing breakdown

App	Headline price	Real year-2 cost	Notes
Lose It! Free	£0	£0	Barcode scanner included. Upsell prompts start at day 14. Core tracking features remain free indefinitely.
Lose It! Premium	£69.99/year list	~£40/year (Black Friday typical)	Adds exercise tracking, nutrient reports, water tracking, and removes ads. Worth it if you find it on sale.

What logging this seriously looks like

The typical user who logs 5+ days per week for 12 weeks loses 4–8 lb. Heavier starting weights see more; smaller deficits see less. If you log ad-hoc 2–3 days per week, expect roughly no change — the difference between "tracking" and "tracking enough" is the whole game.

Real annual cost in 2026: Truly-free track-only = £0 (Lose It free, Cronometer free, FatSecret). Solid mid-tier = £24–£60/year (Cronometer Gold £48, Yazio Pro £35, MacroFactor £72). Coaching-included = £150–£300/year (Noom 6-month £159, WW Core £276/year).

What the upsell looks like after day 14

On day 14 of the free tier, Lose It starts surfacing Premium upgrade prompts in the daily summary screen. The prompts are persistent but skippable. Core features — logging, barcode scanner, calorie goal — remain accessible. Premium gates: weekly and monthly nutrient reports, the workout planning section, and ad removal.

For casual trackers (Segment 6), the upsell is annoying but not a dealbreaker. For committed trackers, Premium at £40/year is worth it for the nutrient reports alone.

Verdict

The best MyFitnessPal alternative for anyone who primarily tracks packaged food and restaurant meals. The barcode scanner works. The UI is clean. The database is adequate. For anything beyond surface-level macro tracking, consider adding Cronometer or upgrading to MacroFactor. But as a replacement for MFP’s free tier, Lose It is the honest answer.

Score: 7.8 / 10.