Research
We read 7,853 App Store reviews of calorie trackers.
Three of the most popular calorie trackers on the App Store have close to 2.9 million US ratings between them. We read what their users write, in 6 languages, to find the biggest gaps. Here is what we found, what we did about it, and what we haven’t solved yet.
- 7,853written reviews analyzed
- 4,202negative reviews (1–3 stars)
- 8App Store storefronts
- 6languages
Why we did this
Calorie trackers are a crowded category, and we didn’t want to guess what was missing. App Store reviews are the most direct record of where these apps let people down, and of what keeps people using them.
We don’t name the apps: this is about the gaps, not the apps. We call them App A, a photo-first AI calorie tracker; App B, a long-established calorie counter; and App C, a tracker known for micronutrient detail.
How we did it
On October 31, 2026 we pulled reviews from Apple’s public customer-review feeds: the same reviews anyone can read on an app’s App Store page. We covered 8 storefronts: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.
That gave us 7,853 unique written reviews. 4,202 of them were negative, meaning one to three stars.
| App | Written reviews | Negative (1–3 stars) | Five stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| App A | 1,819 | 1,216 | 421 |
| App B | 4,492 | 2,549 | 1,535 |
| App C | 1,542 | 437 | 921 |
| Total | 7,853 | 4,202 | 2,877 |
We sorted the reviews into themes with keyword patterns written in 6 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. One review can touch several themes. For every theme we read a random sample of matches by hand to check they were on topic. Broad themes such as price over-count a little, so where it matters we also give a strict count.
What this data can’t tell you
- The feed only holds the latest written reviews, around 500 per storefront, and leaves out star-only ratings. So it leans negative: App A is rated 4.8 stars overall, yet 67% of its reviews in the feed have three stars or fewer.
- Read every percentage as a share of complaints, not a share of users.
- Some markets had too few reviews of one app to quote on their own, so we don’t.
- Reddit is not included: its public search blocked our requests.
The biggest gaps
Seven themes stood out. The chart shows how often each one came up. The base differs from bar to bar, so each label says whose reviews it counts.
1. Paying before you can use it
Money was the most common complaint about every app: 42% of all 4,202 negative reviews mention a paywall, the price or the subscription.
The sharpest version is being asked to pay right after a long setup quiz, before you have seen the app. At App A, the strict count of those reviews rose from 13% of negative reviews in the prior year to 16% in the last 90 days. At App B, the complaint is features that used to be free: 9% of its negative reviews are about the barcode scanner moving to the paid plan.
“It asks 50 questions and then it tells you to pay or else you can’t use it”
“They keep taking away features that used to be free”
2. Losing the day at a glance
App B redesigned its app in 2026. In the last 90 days, 47% of its negative reviews were about the update or the new layout, up from 39% in the 12 months before. One phrase kept coming back: people can no longer see their day at a glance.
“it’s hard to see at a glance what my macros & foods are for a day.”
„Das neue App Design ist jedoch so unübersichtlich“
Our translation: The new app design, however, is so cluttered
3. Full-screen ads
28% of App C’s negative reviews are about full-screen ads, often shown while someone is logging food. At App B, ads and pop-ups rose to 12% of negative reviews in the last 90 days, from 7% before, and some of those reviews came from people who pay.
“This app is ruined by extremely frequent and intrusive full screen ads.”
« La pub prend littéralement la moitié de l’écran »
Our translation: The ads literally take up half the screen
4. AI that guesses portions wrong
13% of App A’s negative reviews say its photo estimates get portions or calories wrong. Track Macro offers AI estimates too, so this is a risk we share, not a weakness we can point at.
“This app is genuinely terrible at guessing portion sizes. What should be an 800-900 calorie meal says it’s 400 every single time.”
5. No Arabic
In Saudi Arabia, 45% of App B’s negative reviews were about one thing: the app does not support Arabic. Language came up elsewhere too. App B’s AI meal scan works only in English; about 30% of App C’s negative reviews in Germany and France were about language or translation; and so were 19% of App A’s negative reviews in Germany.
«التطبيق سهل الاستخدام، لكن للأسف لا يدعم اللغة العربية»
Our translation: The app is easy to use, but unfortunately it doesn’t support Arabic
6. An account before anything else
A smaller theme, but it came up for all three apps: being made to create an account, or hand over personal data, before using the app. At App B it was 4% of negative reviews.
“I don’t want to create an account, I want to track my calories.”
7. History that disappears
9% of App B’s negative reviews are about sync breaking or logged history disappearing, sometimes years of it. They were among the angriest reviews we read.
“logged data here since 2017. now everything is gone until last week.”
What people love
Five-star reviews were just as useful. Being easy to use was the most common praise for all three apps. Micronutrient detail was a clear reason to love one of them: 26% of App C’s five-star reviews mention vitamins, minerals or micronutrients, against 3% and 4% for the other two.
What we did about it
Track Macro is a new app, so we could build it around these gaps. This is what is in the app today.
- Paying before you can use itLogging is free with no daily limit, barcode scanner included. You can close the upgrade screen right away and keep logging. Pro adds more AI estimates and a longer history view.
- Losing the day at a glanceHome shows your whole day on one screen: calories and macros as rings, with fiber, omega-3, potassium and magnesium against your own targets right below.
- Full-screen adsNo ads. There is no ad SDK in the app.
- AI portion guessesAn AI result is a starting point: you review and edit every value before you save, and we don’t call it accurate. Photos are estimated on our server and not kept.
- No ArabicThe app and its AI answers are in English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic, with a right-to-left layout for Arabic.
- An account before anything elseNo sign-up, no email.
- History that disappearsYour diary is stored on your iPhone, and you can export it as a file at any time.
- What people loveAround 30 nutrients are recorded for each food. Text follows your iPhone’s text size and buttons are at least 48 points tall. We don’t claim to track the most nutrients: another popular app tracks more.
Where we still have work to do
Some gaps we only partly close, and one risk we share with every app that estimates food with AI.
- Food search uses Open Food Facts, a crowdsourced database that is strongest on packaged foods. It can show duplicates or wrong values, and a plain egg doesn’t always come first.
- AI estimates can be wrong, especially portion sizes. Reviewing before you save helps, but it doesn’t turn an estimate into a measurement.
- A diary that lives on one phone can be lost with it. Export works today. Restoring your diary on a new iPhone is still being tested, so we don’t promise it yet.
- There is no reminder before a free trial ends yet, and support is by email and our help page, with no contact form in the app.
- Our own setup asks a few questions before the upgrade screen, the same shape people complained about. That screen closes straight away and logging stays free, and we watch this closely.
We plan to repeat this study, and we will update this page when something here changes.
About this study
Reviews were pulled from Apple’s public customer-review feeds on October 31, 2026. Percentages are shares of negative reviews (one to three stars) unless a chart says otherwise. Quotes are reproduced as written, in their original language, with our translation where needed. App names are withheld.