Carb Manager vs MyFitnessPal

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Carb Manager

Keto and low-carb diet tracker with net-carb counting, recipes and meal plans

Free plan + paid

Visit Carb Manager Carb Manager profile

MyFitnessPal

Calorie and macro tracking app with a very large food database, barcode scanning and device sync.

Free plan + paid

Visit MyFitnessPal MyFitnessPal profile

The short answer

Carb Manager suits people on keto or low-carb diets: it is built around net carbs, low-carb recipes and, on Premium, ketone, glucose and fasting tracking. MyFitnessPal suits general calorie counting, with a food database of 20.5M foods and sync with 40+ apps and devices. The biggest difference is focus: one is a specialist diet tool, the other a broad everyday tracker.

Carb Manager or MyFitnessPal: our take

Carb Manager, made by Wombat Apps, treats net carbs and keto macros as the main numbers rather than an optional view. Its free Basic account logs food, exercise and weight and opens a large library of member-submitted low-carb recipes. Premium adds meal plans and shopping lists, voice and natural-language logging, carb cycling and per-day goals, and tracking for ketones, glucose, blood pressure and fasting. MyFitnessPal is a general calorie and macro counter. Its strength is the size of its food database, including restaurant dishes, and the totals it keeps for calories, macros and many micronutrients. A net-carbs mode and intermittent fasting tools exist, but they sit inside Premium alongside Barcode Scan, Meal Scan and Voice Log.

Pricing differs in shape as well as content. Carb Manager Premium starts at $3.33/month billed annually and has no monthly billing option. MyFitnessPal's free tier shows ads and no longer includes barcode scanning, while first-time Premium users get a 7-day trial. Both run on iPhone, Android and the web. For devices, MyFitnessPal connects with 40+ apps and devices, including Apple Watch, Fitbit and Garmin; Carb Manager syncs with Fitbit and Garmin on Premium only.

The trade-offs are mostly about fit. MyFitnessPal's database is huge, but many entries are user-added, so duplicates and inaccurate items turn up. Carb Manager's narrow focus is its main appeal, and also the reason it feels limiting if you are not eating low-carb.

Pick Carb Manager if you follow keto or another low-carb plan, want recipes that already fit your macros, or want to log ketones and glucose next to food. Pick MyFitnessPal if you are counting calories in general, eat out often and want restaurant items in the database, or already use a watch or app that it syncs with.

Choose Carb Manager if…

Keto and low-carb dieters who want net-carb tracking and matching recipes
Built around net carbs and keto macros
Huge low-carb recipe library, with more on Premium

Choose MyFitnessPal if…

People who want the biggest food database and wide device sync for everyday calorie counting
Food database of over 20 million items, incl. restaurant dishes
Syncs with 40+ apps and devices

What is Carb Manager?

Carb Manager is a food and macro tracker built for keto and low-carb diets, made by Wombat Apps since 2010. It runs on the web and as iPhone and Android apps. The free Basic account covers logging food, exercise and weight, plus access to a large library of member-submitted low-carb recipes. Premium adds meal plans and shopping lists, voice and natural-language logging, carb cycling and per-day goals, ketone, glucose, blood pressure and fasting tracking, sync with Fitbit and Garmin, and detailed reports and weight projections. The app also runs a Keto Academy course and an active community forum. It is the obvious pick if you count net carbs and want recipes that fit; if you don't follow a low-carb diet, a general calorie counter will feel less narrow. Premium is billed quarterly or annually.

What is MyFitnessPal?

MyFitnessPal is the best-known calorie counter. You log meals into a food diary drawn from a database of more than 20 million foods, including restaurant menu items and user-added entries, and the app totals calories, macros and many micronutrients against your goals. Exercise, weight and steps can be logged too, and it syncs with dozens of apps and devices such as Apple Watch, Fitbit and Garmin. The free version covers basic food and weight tracking. Premium adds barcode scanning, photo-based Meal Scan, Voice Log, custom macro goals by day, a net-carbs mode, intermittent fasting tools and an ad-free experience, with a free trial for first-time subscribers. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web. The trade-off: barcode scanning, once free, is now a paid feature, the free tier shows ads, and because many foods are added by users, entries can be duplicated or inaccurate. People who care about micronutrient accuracy often prefer Cronometer.

Side by side

Attribute	Carb Manager	MyFitnessPal
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	iOS, Android, Web
Best for	Keto and low-carb dieters who want net-carb tracking and matching recipes	People who want the biggest food database and wide device sync for everyday calorie counting
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Carb Manager	MyFitnessPal
Free plan	Yes (Basic account)	Yes