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Choosing an app

Best Calorie Counter Apps in the UK (2026)

6 min read
A UK supermarket aisle with shelves of biscuits, sweets and cereal bars under a sign for aisle 16.
Photo by Jack Lee on Unsplash.

Good calorie counting apps for the UK include the free NHS Weight Loss Plan, Nutracheck for UK supermarket foods, MyFitnessPal for the biggest food list, Cronometer for detail, and Ori if numbers are not your thing. They’re in no particular order, because the best one depends on what you need. We checked each app’s own website on 11 and 12 October 2026.

In brief

  • The NHS Weight Loss Plan is free and gives you a 12-week plan with a daily calorie target.
  • Nutracheck focuses on UK foods. It's paid after a 7-day free trial.
  • MyFitnessPal and Cronometer both have free versions, plus paid upgrades.
  • Ori is our app, made by a small UK team. It's free for the basics and can hide calorie and weight numbers.

Which calorie apps work well in the UK?

We picked these five to cover the main choices in the UK. That’s a free NHS app, an app built around UK foods, the biggest global app, a detailed free tracker, and our own app.

App Free to use? Paid plan (UK prices) Best for
NHS Weight Loss Plan Yes None A simple 12-week plan with a daily calorie target
Nutracheck 7-day free trial £6.99 a month or £39.99 a year UK supermarket foods, with photos and a barcode scanner
MyFitnessPal Yes Premium £15.99 a month or £64.99 a year, 7-day free trial A very large food list and lots of ways to log
Cronometer Yes Paid upgrade (Gold) Detailed nutrition, with a free barcode scanner
Ori Yes Premium £6.99 a month or £39.99 a year, first month £1 Calm tracking that can hide the numbers

Prices and features change, so check before you pay.

Which UK calorie app suits you?

The NHS Weight Loss Plan is a good place to start if you want something simple and structured. It’s free and comes from the NHS. It gives you a 12-week goal, a daily calorie target and a place to track what you eat.

If you mostly shop at UK supermarkets, look at Nutracheck. It says its food list includes over 600,000 UK foods with photos, which makes it easier to pick the right product. You can scan barcodes in the app or keep a diary on its website. It’s paid after the 7-day trial.

MyFitnessPal is the one many people already know. Its homepage says it has 20.5 million foods and over 280 million members. It suits you if you want a huge food list and lots of ways to log. The free version covers the basics, and Premium adds barcode scanning, Meal Scan (logging from a photo) and voice logging. There’s a 7-day free trial of Premium.

For more detail, try Cronometer. It says its free version includes over a million foods, an unlimited barcode scanner and tracking for up to 95 nutrients. It’s a good fit if you want to check your vitamins and minerals as well as calories.

Ori is our app, made by a small UK team. It’s for people who find calorie numbers stressful. Stealth Health, which is free, hides calorie and weight numbers and gives plain guidance instead, like “room for a snack”. With Premium, Ori adjusts your target each week based on how your weight is changing, and lets you log by photo or voice. It can also read your bathroom scale without showing you the number. Ori has no barcode scanner. If you want to scan everything in your trolley, try Nutracheck or Cronometer. If a calmer app sounds better, you can try Ori here.

Is there a free calorie counting app in the UK?

Yes. The NHS Weight Loss Plan is completely free, and MyFitnessPal, Cronometer and Ori all have free versions. What’s free differs:

  • Cronometer’s free version includes its barcode scanner.
  • MyFitnessPal’s barcode scanner is part of Premium.
  • Ori’s free version covers Stealth Health and logging food and weight by hand.
  • Nutracheck isn’t free, but you can try it for 7 days.

Is there an NHS calorie counter app?

Yes. The NHS Weight Loss Plan is a free NHS app. The NHS says it gives you a 12-week plan to help you build healthier habits. You set a 12-week weight loss goal and a daily calorie target, then track what you eat.

It suits you if you want a simple, structured start from a source you trust. It’s built around a 12-week plan for losing weight, so it’s less suited to gaining weight or tracking for the long term. The NHS page doesn’t mention a barcode scanner. If scanning matters to you, Cronometer’s free version has one.

If you’d like to work out a daily target before you start, our calorie deficit calculator uses your height, weight and activity, and works in kg, lbs or stone.

How do you choose a calorie app in the UK?

Try one or two before you pay. We haven’t tested how well each app covers UK own-brand foods, so check that yourself.

  1. Decide what matters most: free, UK foods, lots of detail, or fewer numbers.
  2. Use the free version or trial for a week.
  3. Search for a few things you buy every week, including own-brand ones. UK packs usually show nutrition per 100g, which helps you check the app’s entry. We explain labels in why are nutrition labels so confusing.
  4. Keep the one you’d still open on a busy day.

If counting calories starts to make you anxious, it’s OK to step back. We looked at the research in is calorie counting bad for your anxiety, and compared calorie apps that let you hide the numbers. If you think you may have an eating disorder, the NHS says to see a GP as soon as you can. You can also talk in confidence to Beat, the eating disorder charity.

Sources

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A gentle safety note

Ori supports general wellness. It is not medical care. If you have a history of disordered eating, are pregnant or breastfeeding, take medicines that affect weight or appetite, or have a clinical nutrition need, speak with a qualified healthcare professional before changing your intake or weight goal.

Read Ori's Health Disclaimer