Halera vs MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal has the larger food database and more integrations. Halera has no ads on any tier, a built-in fasting timer, blood pressure and mood tracking, and a $4.99 upgrade that only lifts the photo-estimate cap. Pick MyFitnessPal for breadth, Halera for a quiet ad-free log.
Last updated September 2, 2026
MyFitnessPal is the biggest calorie counter there is. Halera is the one that doesn't show you ads. Here's an honest look at where each one wins.
Side by side
| Halera | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads in the free version | None, ever | Free tier is ad-supported |
| Food database | USDA FoodData Central, plus AI estimates for anything not in it | Very large crowd-sourced database |
| Barcode scanning | Yes | Yes |
| Photo estimates | 8 a month free, unlimited on Plus | Available on the paid tier |
| Intermittent fasting timer | Built in — 16:8, 18:6, 20:4, OMAD, custom | Not a core feature |
| Blood pressure, mood, sleep, symptoms | Built in, all optional | Not a core feature |
| Full data export | CSV, any date range, free | Available on the paid tier |
| Paid tier | $4.99/mo or $29.99/yr — lifts the photo cap only | Premium subscription unlocks a broad feature set |
| Made by | One developer in Kentucky | A company |
Where your data goes
Halera shows no ads and never sells your data. We use one product-analytics tool, but it is deliberately walled off from your log: the signed-in part of the app is marked so it cannot record what you tap or see, and the only things sent are five named events like "signed in" and "subscription started". Nothing you log — food, weight, blood pressure, mood, symptoms — ever reaches it. Your log is stored in a US Azure region over encrypted connections, and you can delete your account and everything in it from inside the app, no email required. The details are in the Privacy Policy and the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.
We won't characterise anyone else's data practices for them — read MyFitnessPal's own privacy policy and decide. That is the honest comparison, and it's the one worth making for an app you'll hand your health data to.
Which one should you use?
Use MyFitnessPal if…
- You want the largest food database and barcode scanning above all else — that's the one place Halera can't match it today.
- You rely on integrations with a wide range of fitness devices and apps.
- You want a big community, recipes and guided programmes alongside logging.
Use Halera if…
- Ads in a health app bother you, and you'd rather not be the product.
- You want food, fasting, blood pressure, sleep and mood in one place instead of three apps.
- You want to pay once, cheaply, for the one thing that actually costs money to run — and get everything else free.
Switching
Halera imports CSV and finds columns by name, so an export from another tracker often loads once the headers line up; rows it cannot read are skipped and counted rather than failing the whole file. It is still not a one-click migration, so most people run both for a week and then stop opening the old one. Halera's own export is free CSV for any date range, so you are never locked in either.
Checking this yourself
Everything above about MyFitnessPal comes from what MyFitnessPal publishes about itself — pricing, tiers and feature lists change, so check myfitnesspal.com for the current position rather than trusting a comparison page written by a competitor. Halera's own food lookups come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's FoodData Central database, with an AI estimate as the fallback for anything not in it.
Common questions
What does Halera not do that MyFitnessPal does?
Three things worth knowing before switching. The food database is smaller: Halera looks up USDA FoodData Central and falls back to an AI estimate, where MyFitnessPal has years of crowd-sourced entries including obscure restaurant items. There is no recipe builder and no community feed. And the integration list is short — Apple Health and Health Connect are supported, but the long tail of fitness devices and third-party apps is not. If any of those three is central to how you track, MyFitnessPal is the better fit and this page is not trying to argue otherwise.
Can I bring my MyFitnessPal history into Halera?
Partly. Halera's importer takes a CSV and finds the columns by name rather than by position, so an export from another tracker often loads once the headers line up — date, food, calories, protein and so on. Rows it cannot read are skipped and counted in the preview instead of failing the whole file. It is not a one-click migration, though. Most people run both apps for a week, then stop opening the old one.
Does Halera scan barcodes?
Yes. Scan a packaged food and Halera fills in the label data for you. This arrived after the comparison above was first written, so if you have seen an older version of this page saying otherwise, that was out of date.
What does the free version actually include?
Everything except unlimited photo estimates. Food logging, macros, the fasting timer, weight, blood pressure, supplements, barcode scanning and CSV export are all free, with no ads and no trial clock. Photo estimates are eight a month free; Halera Plus lifts that cap for $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year, and changes nothing else.
🤖 Get Halera free on Google Play