A MyFitnessPal alternative without the ads.
MyFitnessPal has the deepest food database on the market — but the free tier is heavy with ads, the barcode scanner went behind a paywall, and Premium is NZ$19.99-equivalent a month. Ascend logs food by photo, keeps the scanner free, and ties every meal to a visible climb.
The pain points that send lifters searching for a MyFitnessPal alternative.
Ads everywhere in the free tier
Barcode scanner moved behind Premium in 2024
Premium pricing crept up over the years
Owned by a PE firm; ad-funded data model
Calorie number with no long-arc 'why' behind it
What MyFitnessPal does better.
MFP's database is simply bigger — 11M+ foods. If you eat a lot of obscure regional packaged brands, MFP will have entries where we won't, and its barcode catalogue covers more SKUs after a decade of crowd-sourcing.
Where Ascend is different.
Ascend's snap-a-meal logs macros from a photo — no weighing, no database hunting — and the barcode scanner stays free. We track strength and cardio as first-class data, not an afterthought, and tie macros to elevation so a high-protein day shows as real distance up the mountain. No ads, ever, on any tier, and no data sale.
Point your phone at your plate and the macros come back.
Snap a photo and Ascend's vision model returns its best guess plus alternates and a confidence score — you confirm in a tap and it logs. No weighing, no endless database search.
- Photo → calories + protein + carbs + fat in seconds
- Best guess + alternates + a confidence score you confirm
- Auto-matches your recipe library when it recognises a meal
- No food scale, no barcode hunting
Switching from MyFitnessPal — straight answers.
Will Ascend have my regional food brands like MyFitnessPal does?
Our database is FatSecret-backed — 1.5M foods across 50+ countries — plus snap-a-meal photo logging. MFP's catalogue is bigger for obscure packaged goods, but for everyday eating the photo flow is faster than searching a database, and adding a custom food is two taps.
Is the barcode scanner really free?
Yes. MFP moved barcode scanning behind Premium in 2024; in Ascend it's part of free core nutrition, alongside snap-a-meal photo logging.
Are there ads in Ascend?
No — none, on any tier, free or Club. We run zero ad SDKs and zero data brokers. That's a permanent decision, not a launch concession.
Dig deeper before you switch.
The app is free. Club adds the coach, leagues and analytics.
Core tracking stays free forever — the climb, streaks, logging and your league tiers. Club is for when you want the full coach, worldwide competition and the depth, at about the price of one coffee a month.
14-day free trial · no card to start
| Free | Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking, the climb and streaks | ||
| Per-set logging, PR detection, wearables | ||
| Muscle-league tiers | ||
| The AI coach | nudges | Full conversation |
| Worldwide leagues and challenges | — | |
| PR projections and deep analytics | — | |
| Unlimited crews | — | |
| Themes, export and higher AI limits | — |