Lifesum Free vs Premium: What Do You Actually Get?

If you have ever downloaded Lifesum hoping to track your nutrition for free, you have probably noticed how quickly the app pushes you toward a paid subscription. The free version exists, but it is designed to demonstrate what you are missing rather than to be a functional product. This article breaks down exactly what Lifesum gives you for free, what is locked behind Premium, and whether the paid version justifies its cost — or whether alternatives offer more value.

What Does Lifesum Free Actually Include?

Lifesum's free tier is one of the most restricted among major nutrition tracking apps. Here is what you can and cannot do without paying:

Features Available for Free

• Basic calorie logging. You can search for foods and log them to your daily diary. The core tracking function works.
• Basic food diary. You can see your logged meals organized by breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
• Limited food search. Access to the food database for manual search, though without barcode scanning.
• Account creation and goal setting. You can set a calorie target and basic profile information.
• Water tracking. Basic water intake logging is available on the free tier.

Features Locked Behind Premium

• Barcode scanning. One of the most basic convenience features in any calorie tracker is paywalled.
• Macronutrient breakdowns. You cannot see your protein, carb, and fat totals without Premium.
• Meal plans and diet programs. All structured diet plans (keto, high protein, Mediterranean, etc.) require a subscription.
• Food ratings. The scoring system that tells you how well a food fits your diet plan is Premium-only.
• Detailed nutrition information. Even basic per-food nutrient breakdowns require payment.
• Recipes and meal suggestions. All recipe content is behind the paywall.
• Ad-free experience. The free version includes advertisements throughout the interface.

What Does the Free Experience Actually Feel Like?

In practice, the free version of Lifesum feels like a guided demo. You can log calories, but you cannot see your macros. You can search for food, but you cannot scan a barcode. The app shows you grayed-out features and locked sections at every turn, with upgrade prompts appearing frequently during normal use.

For most users, the free version is frustrating enough to either upgrade or uninstall within the first week. It is not designed to be a long-term free product.

What Does Lifesum Premium Include?

Here is the complete feature set you unlock with a Lifesum Premium subscription:

Feature Category	What Premium Adds
Tracking	Macronutrient breakdowns, meal-by-meal nutrition data, daily/weekly summaries
Food logging	Barcode scanning, meal ratings, food quality scores
Diet plans	Keto, high protein, Mediterranean, Scandinavian, classic calorie deficit, and more
Recipes	Curated recipes aligned with your diet plan
Insights	Weekly reports, progress tracking, streak tracking
Experience	Ad-free interface, premium design elements

How Much Does Lifesum Premium Cost?

Lifesum offers several subscription tiers:

Plan	Price	Effective Monthly Cost
Monthly	$9.99/month	$9.99
3 months	$21.99	~$7.33
12 months	$49.99	~$4.17

The annual plan is the best value, but the onboarding flow typically promotes the monthly subscription first. Many users report being charged $9.99/month for several months before discovering the annual option.

Important note about auto-renewal: Lifesum subscriptions auto-renew unless you cancel through your App Store or Google Play subscription settings. Canceling through the app itself does not always stop billing. This is a common complaint in app store reviews.

Is Lifesum Premium Worth the Price?

This depends entirely on what you need from a nutrition tracker.

Lifesum Premium Is Worth It If:

• You love the design. Lifesum genuinely has one of the most beautiful interfaces in the nutrition app category. If aesthetic enjoyment is what keeps you tracking consistently, that has real value.
• You want structured diet plans. The built-in meal plans and food ratings provide guidance that fully open-ended trackers do not offer.
• You only need macro tracking. If calories, protein, carbs, and fat are the only numbers you care about, Lifesum covers those competently.

Lifesum Premium Is Not Worth It If:

• You want micronutrient tracking. Even the Premium version tracks only about 10 nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids are not available. For $9.99/month, this is a significant gap.
• You care about database accuracy. Lifesum's database includes user-submitted entries that have not been verified. Paying premium prices for unverified data is hard to justify.
• You want AI-powered food logging. Premium adds barcode scanning but does not include photo recognition or voice logging — features that are available in cheaper alternatives.
• You want the best value. At $9.99/month, Lifesum is one of the most expensive nutrition trackers relative to its feature set.

How Does Lifesum Premium Compare to Alternatives at the Same Price?

Here is what you could get from competing apps at or below Lifesum Premium's price point:

Feature	Lifesum Premium ($9.99/mo)	Nutrola (€2.50/mo)	Cronometer Gold (~$7.49/mo)	Lose It Premium (~$3.33/mo)
Calorie tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Macro tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nutrients tracked	~10	100+	80+	~10
Verified database	No	Yes (1.8M+)	Yes	Partial
AI photo recognition	No	Yes	No	Yes
Voice logging	No	Yes	No	No
Barcode scanning	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diet plans	Yes	No	No	Yes
Recipe import	No	Yes	Yes	No
Apple Watch	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Wear OS	No	Yes	No	No

At the same price point, Nutrola offers significantly more features. At a lower price point, it offers dramatically more. Lifesum's only unique advantage in this comparison is its built-in diet plans — a feature that can be replicated by setting custom macro targets in any other app.

What Are the Best Free Alternatives to Lifesum?

If you are currently using Lifesum's free tier and finding it too limited, these free alternatives offer substantially more:

FatSecret (Free)

FatSecret's free version includes full calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, a recipe calculator, and community features — all without a subscription. The interface is less polished than Lifesum, but the free feature set is dramatically more generous.

Nutrola (Free Trial)

Nutrola offers a free trial that gives you access to the full feature set — AI photo recognition, voice logging, barcode scanning, 100+ nutrient tracking, and a verified database. After the trial, the cost is €2.50/month, which is still less than a quarter of Lifesum Premium.

MyFitnessPal (Free)

MyFitnessPal's free version includes calorie and macro tracking, barcode scanning, and a large food database. The free tier is more functional than Lifesum's, though the database includes unverified user submissions.

Should You Upgrade Lifesum Free to Premium or Switch Apps?

Here is a straightforward decision framework:

Upgrade to Lifesum Premium if:

• You have been using the free version and love the interface enough to pay for it
• You specifically want Lifesum's diet plan templates
• You only need macro tracking and are comfortable with $9.99/month for that

Switch to a different app if:

• You want micronutrient tracking at any level
• You want AI photo or voice logging
• You want a verified food database
• You want to spend less than $9.99/month
• You found Lifesum's free tier frustrating and want an app with a more generous free option

For most users who reached this article by searching for what Lifesum's free version includes, the answer is clear: the free version is not a viable long-term product, and the Premium version is overpriced relative to alternatives.

How to Cancel Lifesum Premium if You Decide to Switch

If you are currently paying for Lifesum Premium and want to switch:

1. On iPhone: Go to Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, find Lifesum, and tap Cancel Subscription.
2. On Android: Open Google Play Store, tap your profile icon, tap Payments and Subscriptions, tap Subscriptions, find Lifesum, and tap Cancel.
3. Do not just delete the app. Deleting Lifesum does not cancel your subscription. You will continue being charged until you cancel through your phone's subscription management.

The Bottom Line

Lifesum's free version is a demo, not a product. The Premium version is a competent macro tracker with excellent design, but at $9.99/month it charges premium prices for a mid-range feature set that lacks micronutrient tracking, AI features, and a verified database.

If you want more features for less money, try Nutrola's free trial. At €2.50/month after the trial, you get AI photo and voice logging, a verified database of 1.8 million foods, 100+ nutrient tracking, Apple Watch and Wear OS support, recipe import, and 15 language support — all for roughly 75 percent less than Lifesum Premium. That is not a marginal improvement; it is a fundamentally different value proposition.