Today vs MyFitnessPal.
MyFitnessPal invented a category and largely still owns it. Today is not in that category. This page is for people who've spent a few years in MFP and quietly suspect that counting calories is no longer what they need.
What each app is for.
MyFitnessPal is a calorie- and macro-tracking app with a very large food database, barcode scanning, exercise logging, and a long history of users going through cuts, bulks, and maintenance. Its core loop: set a daily calorie target, log what you eat, watch the bar fill.
Today does not have that loop. Food is logged as a sentence; there is no bar, no target, no daily calorie budget. The AI uses your food alongside your weight, your cycle, and your mood to point out what's actually moving together. The output isn't "you have 340 calories left" — it's "you had blue cheese last Tuesday and felt the same."
At a glance.
| Today | MyFitnessPal | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Notice cross-domain patterns | Hit a daily calorie / macro target |
| Domains covered | Weight, cycle, mood, food | Food (calories / macros), weight, exercise |
| Menstrual cycle awareness | Yes — weight + mood in cycle context | No |
| Daily calorie target | None | Core feature |
| Food database / barcode scan | No | Large database, barcode scan |
| Food logging style | Narrative sentence | Database lookup, exact grams |
| Mood / journaling | Yes, core feature | No |
| Streaks | None | Yes |
| Daily notifications | None | Yes, default |
| AI partner | Yes — Anthropic Claude, terse | Some AI features; not a conversational partner |
| Ads (in free tier) | None | Historically yes |
| Pricing | Free in beta; subscription planned | Freemium; paid "Premium" tier |
| Platform | iOS, Android | iOS, Android |
Pick MyFitnessPal if…
You specifically need calorie or macro counting. You want a massive food database and barcode scanning. You've got a defined body-composition goal and the numbers are still working for you.
Pick Today if…
You've been counting for a while and you've noticed it's not helping anymore — or it's quietly becoming a problem. You want your weight read in the context of your cycle, your food in the context of a sentence, and your day in the context of your body, not a bar graph.
The honest bit.
MyFitnessPal is excellent at what it does. It invented the interface most people think of when they think "calorie counter." Today is not a better calorie counter — it is a different product, aimed at the person who has concluded that calorie counting, no matter how well-executed, is no longer the tool for them.
If you're on that fence, the essay worth reading first is What tracking means, if it's not for optimising.
Today is a quiet AI health partner that correlates your weight, cycle, and mood — without calorie counting, without targets, without guilt.
Join the beta →MyFitnessPal is a trademark of its respective owner. This page is editorial comparison content; Today is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with MyFitnessPal. Feature claims reflect publicly documented behaviour at the time of writing — please verify current details on the official site.