Why Did MyFitnessPal Remove Barcode Scanning? The Full Story

If you opened MyFitnessPal one day and found that barcode scanning suddenly required a premium subscription, you are not imagining things and you are not alone. Barcode scanning was the single most-used feature in MyFitnessPal for over a decade. Then, almost overnight, it disappeared from the free tier and moved behind a $19.99/month paywall. The backlash was immediate, massive, and entirely predictable.

Here is the full story of what happened, why the company made this decision, how it affects your nutrition tracking, and what you can do about it.

What Exactly Changed with MyFitnessPal Barcode Scanning?

In late 2022, MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning from its free tier to its premium subscription. Free users who had been scanning barcodes for years — some for over a decade — suddenly lost access to the feature that made the app worth using. The only way to get it back was to pay $19.99 per month or $79.99 per year for MyFitnessPal Premium.

This was not a subtle change buried in an update. Barcode scanning was the core interaction that millions of users relied on every single day. For many people, it was the only reason they used MyFitnessPal instead of a spreadsheet. Removing it from the free tier was the equivalent of a messaging app charging you to send text messages.

The Full Timeline: How MyFitnessPal Got Here

Understanding why barcode scanning was paywalled requires understanding the ownership history of MyFitnessPal and the financial pressures each owner faced.

2005-2015: The Original MyFitnessPal Era

MyFitnessPal was founded by Mike and Albert Lee in 2005. It grew into the most popular calorie tracking app in the world through a simple formula: a massive food database, easy logging, and free barcode scanning. The app was largely ad-supported, and the free tier was genuinely generous. Premium existed but was optional — the free version was fully functional.

2015: Under Armour Acquires MyFitnessPal for $475 Million

Under Armour purchased MyFitnessPal in February 2015 for $475 million as part of a strategy to build a connected fitness platform alongside MapMyRun and Endomondo. The acquisition price was enormous for an app that generated relatively modest revenue. Under Armour's plan was to use the data and user base to sell athletic gear, not to aggressively monetize the app itself.

During the Under Armour era, barcode scanning remained free. The app grew to over 200 million registered users. But Under Armour was hemorrhaging money on its digital fitness division.

2018: The Data Breach

In March 2018, MyFitnessPal disclosed that approximately 150 million user accounts had been compromised in a data breach. Usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords were exposed. This was one of the largest data breaches in history at the time. User trust took a significant hit, and the breach added to Under Armour's growing desire to offload its fitness apps.

2020: Sold to Francisco Partners for $345 Million

In October 2020, Under Armour sold MyFitnessPal to Francisco Partners, a private equity firm, for $345 million — a $130 million loss from what they paid five years earlier. This is the ownership change that set the stage for everything that followed.

Private equity firms acquire companies with a specific playbook: reduce costs, increase revenue, and prepare the company for a profitable exit within 3-7 years. For a consumer app like MyFitnessPal, that means one thing — monetize the existing user base more aggressively.

2022: Barcode Scanning Moves Behind the Paywall

Under Francisco Partners' ownership, MyFitnessPal began stripping features from the free tier and pushing users toward premium. Barcode scanning, the single most important feature for daily users, was moved behind the $19.99/month paywall. The message was clear: pay up or go back to manually searching for every food item.

Why Did They Actually Remove It?

The Business Logic Behind the Decision

The decision to paywall barcode scanning was not random or careless. It was a calculated business strategy based on a simple principle: lock away the feature with the highest switching cost.

When a private equity firm acquires a consumer app, it looks at user behavior data to identify which features drive the most engagement. In MyFitnessPal's case, barcode scanning was overwhelmingly the most-used feature. Internal data almost certainly showed that users who scanned barcodes logged more consistently, stayed in the app longer, and were more likely to maintain their subscription if they ever started one.

By making barcode scanning premium-only, Francisco Partners forced a choice on every free user: either pay $19.99/month to keep using the feature you depend on, or switch to manual search logging (which is slow enough that many users would rather just pay). It is a classic conversion funnel tactic — identify the feature users cannot live without and put a paywall in front of it.

The Revenue Pressure

MyFitnessPal had over 200 million registered users but a relatively small percentage of paying subscribers. The ad revenue from free users was significant but not enough to generate the returns a private equity firm expects. Converting even 2-3% of free users to the $19.99/month plan would represent a massive revenue increase.

The math was simple: some users would pay, some would leave, and the revenue from those who paid would more than compensate for the users lost. From a pure spreadsheet perspective, the decision made sense. From a user experience perspective, it was devastating.

How Does This Affect Your Nutrition Tracking?

Without Barcode Scanning, Logging Takes 3-5x Longer

Scanning a barcode takes roughly 3 seconds. Manually searching for the same food item, scrolling through dozens of results (many with conflicting nutrition data), and selecting the correct entry takes 15-30 seconds. Multiply that by 10-20 food items per day, and you are spending an extra 5-10 minutes daily on food logging.

That does not sound like much, but research consistently shows that friction is the number one reason people stop tracking their food. A 2021 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that logging convenience was the strongest predictor of long-term tracking adherence. Making logging slower directly reduces the likelihood that you will stick with it.

Manual Search Introduces More Errors

Without barcode scanning, you are forced to rely on text search in MyFitnessPal's crowdsourced database. This means confronting the duplicate entries problem: searching for a product and getting multiple results with different calorie counts. With a barcode, the app maps directly to a specific product. Without it, you are guessing which of the 15 entries for "Greek yogurt" is the one that matches your container.

The Alternative Is Paying $19.99/Month for a Basic Feature

The only way to get barcode scanning back within MyFitnessPal is to pay $19.99 per month. That is $239.88 per year for a calorie tracking app. To put that in perspective, that is more expensive than Netflix, Spotify, and many other services that provide vastly more complex products.

What Are Your Alternatives?

The good news is that barcode scanning is not proprietary technology. It is a standard feature that many nutrition tracking apps offer, often at a fraction of MyFitnessPal's price or included in their base plans.

What to Look for in an Alternative

When evaluating alternatives, the barcode scanner itself is just the starting point. You also want to consider the quality of the database behind it. A barcode scanner is only as good as the nutrition data it returns. If the database is crowdsourced and full of errors, scanning the barcode gives you a fast path to wrong information.

Look for apps that combine barcode scanning with a verified nutrition database, so the scan returns accurate data every time.

Nutrola: Barcode Scanning Included for All Users

Nutrola includes barcode scanning for every user at a base price of just €2.50 per month. There is no feature gating, no paywall tiers — barcode scanning is a core feature available to everyone. Beyond barcode scanning, Nutrola also offers AI-powered photo recognition and voice logging, so you have three fast input methods instead of relying on a single one.

The database behind Nutrola's barcode scanner contains over 1.8 million verified food entries. Unlike crowdsourced databases, every entry in Nutrola has been verified for accuracy, so when you scan a barcode, the nutrition data you get back is reliable.

MyFitnessPal Premium vs Nutrola: Feature Comparison

Feature	MyFitnessPal Free	MyFitnessPal Premium ($19.99/mo)	Nutrola (€2.50/mo)
Barcode scanning	No	Yes	Yes
AI photo logging	No	No	Yes
Voice logging	No	No	Yes
Ad-free experience	No	Yes	Yes
Verified food database	No	No	Yes (1.8M+ entries)
Nutrients tracked	Limited	19	100+
Apple Watch + Wear OS	No	Yes	Yes
Recipe import	No	Yes	Yes
Multi-language support	Limited	Limited	9 languages
Monthly cost	Free	$19.99	€2.50

How to Switch from MyFitnessPal to Nutrola

Making the switch does not have to be complicated. Here is a straightforward migration path.

Step 1: Export Your MyFitnessPal Data

Before you leave, export your historical data from MyFitnessPal. Go to Settings, then select "Download Your Data." This gives you a CSV file of your food diary entries that you can keep for your records.

Step 2: Download Nutrola

Nutrola is available on both iOS and Android. Download it from the App Store or Google Play Store and create your account.

Step 3: Set Up Your Profile and Goals

Enter your current weight, goal weight, and activity level. Nutrola will calculate your calorie and macro targets. If you had specific macro targets in MyFitnessPal, you can manually set the same targets in Nutrola.

Step 4: Start Logging with Barcode Scanning

Open Nutrola, tap the barcode scanner, and scan your first item. You will notice immediately that the database returns a single verified result instead of a wall of duplicates. Try the AI photo recognition and voice logging as well — you may find you prefer these methods for certain meals.

Step 5: Cancel MyFitnessPal Premium

If you are currently paying for MyFitnessPal Premium, cancel your subscription through your device's app store (not through the MyFitnessPal app itself). Subscriptions renewed through the App Store or Google Play must be cancelled there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did MyFitnessPal completely remove barcode scanning?

No, barcode scanning still exists within MyFitnessPal. It was not removed from the app entirely. However, it was moved from the free tier to the premium tier, which costs $19.99 per month. Free users can no longer access the barcode scanner.

When did MyFitnessPal remove barcode scanning from the free version?

MyFitnessPal moved barcode scanning behind its premium paywall in late 2022, following the acquisition by private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2020.

Is there a way to get barcode scanning in MyFitnessPal without paying?

No. As of 2026, there is no legitimate way to access barcode scanning in MyFitnessPal without a premium subscription. Some older versions of the app may still have it, but those versions will eventually stop working as the app requires updates.

Why is MyFitnessPal Premium so expensive just for barcode scanning?

MyFitnessPal Premium costs $19.99/month and includes barcode scanning along with other features like ad removal, nutrient tracking, and meal planning. However, for many users, barcode scanning is the primary reason to upgrade. The pricing reflects the private equity ownership model focused on maximizing revenue per user.

What is the cheapest calorie tracker with barcode scanning?

Nutrola offers barcode scanning for all users at €2.50 per month, making it one of the most affordable options available. Unlike MyFitnessPal, Nutrola does not gate barcode scanning behind a higher premium tier.

Does Nutrola's barcode scanner work as well as MyFitnessPal's?

Nutrola's barcode scanner works with a database of over 1.8 million verified food entries. The key difference is accuracy: because the database is verified rather than crowdsourced, the nutrition data returned by a scan is more reliable. Nutrola also offers AI photo recognition and voice logging as additional input methods.

Can I transfer my MyFitnessPal food diary to Nutrola?

You can export your MyFitnessPal data as a CSV file for your personal records. While direct diary import between apps is not currently supported by most nutrition trackers, setting up fresh in Nutrola takes only a few minutes, and you can start logging immediately with barcode scanning, photo recognition, or voice input.

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MyFitnessPal is a trademark of MyFitnessPal, Inc. This article is an independent editorial piece and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by MyFitnessPal, Inc.