Tired of logging every meal in Cronometer? Try planning the week instead.
Cronometer wants you to log what you already ate. Macro Recipe decides what you cook, so the numbers land close to target without you typing a single entry.
Updated September 2026
Cronometer is a food diary: you search or scan what you eat, and it tallies calories, macros and dozens of micronutrients against your targets. For people who want to see the detail of what they already ate, it is a serious, well-built tool — a huge lab-analyzed food database and a reputation for accuracy that few trackers match.
That accuracy comes at a cost most people underestimate before they start: every meal has to be typed in, searched for, or scanned, every single day, or the numbers stop meaning anything. This page looks at what Cronometer does well, where people say it stops working for them, and what a weekly-menu app does instead — same goal, different method, written by the team behind Macro Recipe so read it with that in mind.
What Cronometer does well
Its food database is unusually large and lab-analyzed — over a million entries — which is why it is the reference pick for anyone who cares about specific vitamins and minerals, not just calories in and out.
The free tier is genuinely generous compared with most trackers: full logging, a barcode scanner, custom foods and recipes, and device sync are all free. Only longer report history and a handful of convenience features sit behind the paid Gold tier.
Ratings on the App Store are strong, and reviewers consistently point to the same strength: if you want to know exactly what you ate down to the micronutrient, Cronometer will tell you.
Who it is for
Cronometer fits someone who wants a detailed record of what they already eat — people managing a specific nutrient (iron, B12, fibre), athletes tracking intake against a coach's plan, or anyone who simply likes reviewing yesterday's numbers and adjusting today's choices by hand.
It assumes you already know what you are going to eat and are willing to record it. It does not choose meals for you, and it does not build a grocery list from your week — that part stays entirely on you.
Where it stops — what users say
The most common complaint is the paywall itself: reviewers describe "Gold pricing issues" and note that "almost everything beyond entering what you eat ... is behind a paywall".
Support is another recurring theme. One Gold subscriber since 2019 wrote: "nothing but crickets. None of my tickets have received a response".
Outside the US, the food database thins out. A UK user wrote that "nutritional values as basic as macros for well known brands in UK are consistently incorrect" — and French-language searches in September 2026 surface the same complaint about European products.
Some reviewers also flag friction after updates — one wrote that the search "doesn't give me the option to create a new food" anymore — and the app's overall Trustpilot rating sits around 3.2–3.3 out of 5, well below its App Store score, which suggests the daily grind of logging wears on people over time more than a first impression does.
What Macro Recipe does the same
Like Cronometer, Macro Recipe starts from your goal — cut, maintain, or build muscle — and works out calorie and protein targets from it. You still get numbers to aim for.
Diets and allergies are respected the same way: tell the app once, and every meal it gives you honors it, instead of you checking each entry as you log it.
What it does differently
Cronometer records what you ate after the fact. Macro Recipe decides what you cook before the week starts: a full weekly menu of real recipes, adapted to your goal, with portions sized so each day lands close to your estimated calorie and protein target — no search bar, no barcode, no daily entry.
Everything in the menu becomes one grocery list, with quantities combined across recipes, plus an estimated grocery budget in your own currency. Cronometer has no concept of what your week costs to cook; Macro Recipe puts a number on it upfront.
When a day cannot hit the target exactly with a real, coherent recipe, the app says so and serves the closest honest version rather than a hidden shortfall — the same way you would notice a gap once you logged it in Cronometer, except you see it before you shop, not after you have eaten.
What it does not do
It is not a food diary. There is no barcode scanner, no daily logging screen, and no meal-by-meal micronutrient breakdown — if you want to see 95 nutrients per entry the way Cronometer shows them, this is not that tool.
It is not free the way Cronometer's Basic tier is. Your first menu is free and there is a 3-day trial; after that it is a paid subscription. Weigh that against what you are paying for: not logging.
There is no coach chat and no clinic/dietitian mode. It is on iPhone today.
Switching in practice
Nothing to import: Cronometer's history is a record of what you ate, not a plan for what to cook, so there is nothing to carry over except your goal (cut, maintain, or build) and any diet or allergy rules — set those once in Macro Recipe and you are done.
A first week looks like this: set your goal, your diet, and your weekly grocery budget; get a menu of real dishes for the week and one combined grocery list with an estimated total; shop once; cook from the list without opening a search bar. If a day's estimated numbers matter to you, they are shown on the plate — no typing required to see them.
If you still want the depth of a micronutrient log for a specific health reason, the two tools are not mutually exclusive — but most people switching say what they wanted was to stop typing in what they ate, not a better place to type it.
Price, side by side
Cronometer: Basic is free with full logging but a 7-day report window; Gold is $10.99/month, or $4.99/month billed annually ($59.99/year); Pro, for dietitians and clinics, is $39.99/month.
Macro Recipe: first menu free, 3-day trial, then 9.99 € a month or 69.99 € a year — an estimated weekly grocery budget is part of the plan, not a separate feature to unlock.
What three days of a weekly menu look like
An indicative example for someone aiming at roughly 1,900 kcal and 130 g of protein a day. Estimated figures; your own menu is built from your profile, your tastes and your budget.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Cronometer alternative?
Cronometer's own free Basic tier already covers full logging, a barcode scanner and custom foods, with only long-range reports behind Gold. Macro Recipe is a different kind of app — a weekly menu and grocery list rather than a food diary — and its first menu is free, then a 3-day trial before the paid plan starts.
Cronometer vs MacroFactor: which one should I use?
Both are logging apps: you record what you eat and they track it against targets. Macro Recipe is not in that category — it plans your week's recipes and grocery list upfront so you are not logging at all, which is a different trade-off worth weighing against either tracker.
Why does Cronometer feel expensive?
Reviewers commonly describe "Gold pricing issues", noting that most convenience features sit behind the paid tier once the free 7-day report window is not enough. Gold is $10.99/month or $4.99/month billed annually.
Is Cronometer's food database accurate outside the US?
Some UK users report it is not: one reviewer wrote that "nutritional values as basic as macros for well known brands in UK are consistently incorrect", and the same gap is reported for European products more broadly.
How do I cancel Cronometer if I switch?
Cancel any Gold subscription from your App Store or Google Play account settings, the same way you manage any app subscription. Cronometer's Basic tier stays free and usable if you want to keep it for reference; you do not need to delete your data to try something else.
First menu free · 3-day trial · on iPhone