MyCalorieCoach: a Lifesum alternative with one price and one job
Lifesum is a polished tracker with diet plans and good editorial content, and it is one of the nicer apps to look at in this category. Two things separate it from MyCalorieCoach: it records rather than decides, and what you pay for it depends heavily on where you are, what device you are on, and when you happened to sign up.
Price, side by side
MyCalorieCoach
$29.99 / year
or $9.99 a month. 14 day free trial, the whole app.
Founding price, locked for 3 years against a standard annual plan of $83.99.
Lifesum
$44.99 / year
or $12.99 a month. Free trial length not stated.
This is the most commonly reported annual price, and it is not a stable number. Reported annual prices range from about $30.99 to $99.99 and monthly from about $7.49 to $14.99, varying by region, device and signup timing. Check what you are actually offered. There is a free tier.
That is $15 a year less, every year.
Prices in USD. App Store prices vary by territory, and several apps in this category run frequent price tests, so check before you buy. Lifesum price checked on 2026-09-01: Lifesum pricing, as reported.
MyCalorieCoach vs Lifesum
Including the rows we lose. A table one side wins ten to nothing is an advert, not a comparison.
| MyCalorieCoach | Lifesum | |
|---|---|---|
| How you log a meal | Say it, type it, or photograph it | Search, scroll, pick an entry |
| Conversational coach | Yes, it is the whole product | No |
| Tells you what to eat next | Suggestions sized to what is left today | Template diet plans, not tonight |
| Foods it will never ask you to cut | You name them, it plans around them | Not a concept in the app |
| Non-Western and home-cooked dishes | Any cuisine, nothing to fall out of | Strong on packaged food, thin on mixed plates |
| Price you can predict | One price, $29.99, locked for 3 years | Observed from $30.99 to $99.99 a year |
| Free tier | No, a 14 day free trial then paid | Yes |
| Android | iPhone only at launch | Yes |
| Available today | Founding waitlist, launching soon | Yes |
Why people go looking for a Lifesum alternative
You cannot tell what it costs
Reported annual prices span $30.99 to $99.99 for the same features, depending on your region, your device and the week you happened to sign up. That is the same app at more than three times the price. It is a legitimate strategy, widely used, and it leaves you no way to tell whether you got the good number or the bad one.
Diet plans are templates
Keto, high protein, Scandinavian: they are well made, and they are the same plan for everyone who picks them. None of them start from the food you already eat and refuse to give up.
It tells you where you ended up
A log is a record of a day that has already happened. The question you actually have, standing in front of the fridge, is what to eat now so that the week still works.
The database was built around packaged food
Good for a barcode, thin for a home-cooked mixed plate. The dish you make most weeks is probably not in there at all.
Where Lifesum is the better choice
If any of these matter more to you than the rest of this page, stay where you are. It is a good app and we would rather you kept using it than paid us for the wrong fit.
- The design and the editorial content are excellent, and the diet plans are genuinely well researched.
- Free tier, and Android.
- Land on a low price test and it is cheaper than we are.
- It has been shipping and iterating for over a decade.
Common questions
- How much does Lifesum Premium actually cost?
- It depends on you. The most commonly reported annual price is $44.99, but prices from about $30.99 to $99.99 have been observed for the same features, varying by region, device and signup timing. Checked on 2026-09-01. Ours is $29.99 a year for everyone, locked for three years.
- What is a good Lifesum alternative?
- For the same kind of app, YAZIO is the closest match on design and is usually cheaper. For something that coaches rather than records, that is a different category and it is what MyCalorieCoach is.
- Does MyCalorieCoach have diet plans like keto or high protein?
- Not as templates. You tell the coach how you eat, including anything you avoid, and it works within that. If you want a named, structured plan handed to you, Lifesum does that and we do not.
- Does MyCalorieCoach price-test?
- No. It is $29.99 a year, the founding rate is locked for three years, and the standard annual price is $83.99 so you can see what you are getting. App Store prices still vary by territory, which is Apple, not us.
- Is Lifesum good for non-Western food?
- It is a Western-built database, so packaged food is well covered and home-cooked mixed plates are not. That gap is the reason this app exists.
Lose weight without losing your food.
14 days free, then $29.99 for the year. We are onboarding founding members by hand before launch.
Join the founding waitlistNot sure of your number yet? Try the free calorie calculator.