$ ./selfhostednutrition --boot
Calorie tracking without the SaaS.
Three years ago we were on MyFitnessPal. Two years ago we were paying $80 a year to keep using the barcode scanner. Then Under Armour sold to Francisco Partners, the dark patterns got worse, and the data sharing got stranger. Now we self-host. This is the manual we wish had existed.
No affiliate links. No sponsored posts. No telemetry on this site (check your devtools). Edited by Alex Brennan. CC BY-SA 4.0.
$ ./exit-test --all-commercial
The two questions we now ask every commercial tracker
Since September 2026 the privacy audits here score two things the rest of the category doesn't publish: can you export your full history without filing a legal request, and can software you control read your own diary. Most commercial apps fail the second one outright — no user-obtainable credential, no documented endpoint, a screen-scrape or a 30-day statutory wait. One of them ships a read-only OAuth endpoint on its free tier, which is not something we expected to be writing.
Self-hosted FOSS passes both by construction, because there is no vendor between you and the file. That is still the recommendation. Read the exit test →
Latest comparisons
The best Cronometer alternative, per Reddit (and why the honest answer is 'don't, unless you want speed')
If you sort the recurring r/Cronometer and r/nutrition threads by what people actually switched to, the pattern is clear: almost nobody leaves Cronometer for MORE micronutrient depth — there isn't more to get. They leave for speed. This comparison-table-first piece concedes Cronometer's micronutrient win outright, then maps where the faster alternatives (PlateLens, MacroFactor, Waistline) actually fit.
Database coverage of FOSS calorie trackers (2026)
We pulled five aisles of products at a US chain grocery and tested coverage across OFF-only, OFF+USDA, and pure-USDA FOSS calorie trackers. Where the gaps are, why they are there, and what a contributor can do about it.
Commercial vs FOSS calorie trackers — state of the art (2026)
Where commercial calorie trackers still beat FOSS in 2026, where FOSS has caught up, and where it has overtaken. Photo recognition is the one durable closed-source advantage. Database depth, charting, and license terms favour FOSS.
Barcode scanner accuracy across FOSS calorie trackers
Hands-on barcode scanner test across FOSS calorie trackers. Test set of 50 packaged foods under four lighting conditions. Some scanners are accurate, some are slow, some need internet.
Self-hosting guides
Proxmox VM vs LXC vs bare metal for the nutrition stack
Benchmarks of OFF mirror queries, Postgres restores, and Caddy throughput across Proxmox VMs, Proxmox LXCs, and bare-metal Debian. LXCs win the price-performance game by a comfortable margin.
Dockerized nginx with Let's Encrypt for self-hosted nutrition apps
An nginx + certbot Docker stack with auto-renew, OCSP stapling, modern TLS settings, and a sane upstream config for OpenNutriTracker companion services and OFF mirrors.
Tailscale (and WireGuard) for accessing your self-hosted tracker on mobile
Tailscale gets you point-to-point WireGuard between your phone and your homelab in five minutes. We compare it to plain WireGuard, set up MagicDNS, and make Caddy issue real LAN certs.
Backups and restore for self-hosted nutrition data
Why your calorie diary deserves a real backup, what to back up, where to put it, and how to test that the restore works. Borgmatic + restic + a one-page Ansible playbook.
Privacy
The exit test: can you get your diary out, and can your own tools read it?
Data portability is the privacy property this site actually cares about. We test six commercial trackers on two things: whether you can export your full history without filing a legal request, and whether software you control can read your own diary. One of them has a read-only OAuth endpoint on the free tier; the rest are a screen-scrape or a DSAR.
Privacy posture comparison: six commercial calorie trackers (2026)
A comparison matrix of privacy posture across six commercial calorie trackers in 2026: MFP, Cronometer, Lose It!, MacroFactor, Noom, and PlateLens. Observed traffic, stated policy, GDPR/CCPA responsiveness, and — new in the September 2026 revision — whether you can get your data back out and read it with your own tools.
Lose It! 'Snap It' and the cloud photos question
A traffic capture and EULA review of Lose It!'s Snap It feature. Photos go to a third-party classifier; the EULA permits broad retention; the privacy practices are not transparent.
Threat model: what does serious threat-modelling for personal nutrition data look like?
A practical threat model for personal calorie tracking data. Insurance discrimination, weight-stigma profiling, employer wellness programs, the data-broker ecosystem, and — new for 2026 — the AI assistant you connected to your own diary. Most readers should care more than they do, less than the maximalist case suggests.
FOSS catalog (the working subset)
A non-exhaustive list of open-source nutrition trackers we have actually compiled, run, or read source for. See FOSS roundup for full reviews.
Flutter, Open Food Facts backend, F-Droid + Play. Active.
Android-only, USDA + OFF, scanner, full export. Active.
Lesser-known, OFF-only, last release 2024.
Illustrative — multiple unrelated forks under this name.
Command-line USDA queries, local SQLite cache.
Body composition, Bluetooth scales, complementary to a tracker.
Web app, single-file SQLite, no auth — strict LAN use.
Mostly informational. Static USDA SR Legacy front-end.