Comparison

Playbook vs MacrosFirst

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Playbook

Access thousands of workouts and classes from top fitness influencers, trainers, and athletes. Support your favorite creators directly with your subscription. Workout at home, at the gym, or while traveling with offline downloads and live streaming options.

Highlights
  • Creator-supported workouts
  • Thousands of classes and programs
  • Direct communication with creators
  • Offline workout downloads
  • Live streaming classes
  • Wellness guides (nutrition, mindset)
  • Progress tracking
Read full description

Playbook is one of the top fitness apps on the market where you can support your favorite creators directly. THE MAJORITY OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION GOES DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE CREATING THE WORKOUTS AND CLASSES YOU LOVE. Get access to the world’s leading fitness influencers, trainers, wellness gurus, athletes, and more all on your phone. With over 56,000 workouts and more than 500 instructors, there is something for everyone to achieve health and wellness goals. Take Playbook with you to the gym; workout at home and even while traveling — with the ability to download workouts you can sweat any time, anywhere. Premium features: • Join a community of motivated individuals to help reach your goals • Communicate directly with your favorite creators • Get daily workouts and access to programs and challenges (with prizes) • Wellness guides for the full experience: Nutrition, supplements, recipes, mindset, productivity, and more • Unlimited offline downloads, plus stream to other devices • Favorite workouts, schedule classes, and track your progress • Live streaming classes to workout with instructors in real time • Your subscription money supports your favorite creators directly • Compatible with Apple health SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS Playbook is free to download and includes a 7-day free trial period to unlock access to the entire platform, including all instructors, workouts, programs, and videos. After trial period there are two subscription options: $14.99/month $99.99/year These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. Your iTunes account will be charged when the purchase is confirmed. If you subscribe before your free trial ends, the rest of your free trial period will be forfeited as soon as your purchase is confirmed. Your Playbook subscription will automatically renew unless turned off in your iTunes Account Settings at least 24 hours before current period ends. You can go to your iTunes Account settings to manage your subscription and turn off auto-renew. Read Terms and Conditions here: www.playbookapp.io/terms-of-use Read Privacy Policy here: http://www.playbookapp.io/privacy-policy

About

MacrosFirst

This app helps users track their food intake, calories, and macronutrients to achieve health and fitness goals. It offers features like custom goal setting, automatic serving size calculation, and quick food logging via barcode scanning or label analysis. Users can also monitor progress, share meals, and even convert alcohol calories into macro equivalents.

Highlights
  • Custom macro goal setting
  • Automatic serving size calculation
  • Barcode and label scanning for food logging
  • Detailed macro and nutrient tracking
  • Progress analysis and trend reporting
  • Meal sharing and social support
  • Alcohol calorie conversion
Features
Read full description

MacrosFirst is the most powerful macro tracker, food logger, calorie counter, and meal planner—designed to help you easily achieve your health and fitness goals, no matter your diet or fitness level. [ SET & TRACK YOUR MACRO GOALS ] • Create custom daily and meal-level macro goals, including unlimited custom meals, to fit any schedule or diet plan. [ AUTO-CALCULATE SERVING SIZES ] • Automatically calculate serving sizes to hit your specific macro targets with precision. [ LOG FOODS & MEALS IN SECONDS ] • Search a database of over 3M+ verified foods or scan barcodes with the barcode scanner for quick, accurate tracking—and easily copy meals or entire days between dates. [ SCAN NUTRITION LABELS ] • Instantly import nutrition facts by scanning food labels with your camera—no manual entry required. [ TRACK MACROS & NUTRIENTS ] • Get detailed breakdowns of calories, protein, carbs, fats, and more, and customize your view to track the metrics that matter most. [ ANALYZE YOUR PROGRESS ] • Track body weight trends and compare them with your food intake over time using detailed progress reports. [ SHARE MEALS & STAY CONNECTED ] • Share meals, foods, and recipes with friends and family, and view their daily logs for mutual support. [ CONVERT ALCOHOL INTO MACROS ] • Allocate alcohol calories as carbs, fat, or a combination of both, keeping your calorie and macro tracking perfectly aligned. ▶ GET EVEN MORE WITH PREMIUM ◀ [ UNLIMITED DAILY GOALS ] • Set personalized macro targets for specific days, perfect for carb cycling or training and rest days. [ SMARTER FOOD SEARCH ] • Find foods fast using AI—just describe your meal with voice or text, or snap a photo of your plate. [ PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE ] • Save meal and day notes, and use Extra Meals to track unplanned or one-off meals seamlessly. [ ANALYZE YOUR NUTRIENT TRENDS ] • View nutrient trends and averages over any date range to track long-term progress and insights. [ SAVE & EXPORT DATA ] • Export your meal history to Excel or sync your data to Google Sheets for a deeper analysis of your nutrition. [ IMPORT RECIPES ] • Import recipes from any website, complete with ingredients and step-by-step instructions. [ MACRO MATH CALORIE REPORTING ] Calculate calories based on the actual macros to ensure that calories and macros always match, even when nutrition labels are inconsistent. [ UNLIMITED CONNECTIONS ] • Follow unlimited friends and share your progress, meals, and nutrition insights with your support network. [ VIP SUPPORT ] • Enjoy priority VIP support for Premium subscribers, ensuring your questions and needs are addressed promptly. ▶ SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS ◀ MacrosFirst is free to download and use, with optional Premium features available through auto-renewing subscriptions. Privacy & Security Policy: https://www.macrosfirst.com/privacy-policy.html Terms of Use: https://www.macrosfirst.com/terms.html

Screenshots

Playbook4 screens
MacrosFirst4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: MacrosFirst at freemium against Playbook's subscription. Playbook's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Playbook sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month and MacrosFirst sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Playbook against 4.9 for MacrosFirst. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 37K and 23K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Playbook's written reviews are positive against 74% of MacrosFirst's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Playbook ships an update every 4 days, MacrosFirst weekly. Both last shipped on October 22, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Playbook versus MacrosFirst: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlaybookMacrosFirst
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (37K ratings) — better4.9 (23K ratings)
Positive reviews79.2% of reviews — better74.0% of reviews
Number of ratings37K — better23K
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFreemium — better
Best chart rank#182#83 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB212 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperPlaybook Technologies IncMacrosFirst, Inc.

Customer experience

Playbook

All ratings36,987 ratings
Positive98.5%
Neutral0.5%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews837 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral4.5%
Negative16.2%

MacrosFirst

All ratings23,150 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral1.6%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews516 reviews
Positive74.0%
Neutral6.4%
Negative19.6%

User reviews

Playbook

From 37K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💪 Challenging and effective workouts
  • 🙌 Variety of trainers and workout styles
  • 📈 Helpful for tracking progress
  • 🤩 Motivating and inspiring content
  • 🤖 Easy to use and navigate

Room to improve

  • 🤔 Inconsistent customer support
  • 🔍 Difficulty finding specific workouts
  • 🧠 Lack of customization options
  • 💳 Unexpected charges and subscription issues
  • 🔌 Technical issues with the app

MacrosFirst

From 23K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Intuitive interface
  • 💯 Accurate macro tracking
  • 🔍 Extensive food database
  • 🔓 Free features without paywall

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 📚 Limited food database for some users
  • 🔢 Difficulty adjusting serving sizes
  • 🔍 Inaccurate nutrition info for some items
  • 🔧 Lacking certain customization options

Bugs and requests

Playbook

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Videos not loading or playing correctly
  • Workout data not syncing or saving properly
  • Login and account management problems

Requested features

4 requests
  • Weight and rep tracking
  • Nutrition and meal planning integration
  • More video angles and exercise demonstrations
  • Ability to create custom workout routines

MacrosFirst

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Search function not working properly
  • Time zone issues causing date discrepancies
  • Scanning feature recording incorrect nutrition info

Requested features

5 requests
  • Integration with Apple Health
  • Ability to share meals/recipes with friends
  • Customizable macro goals (e.g., carb cycling)
  • Improved reporting and progress tracking
  • Option to submit food data corrections

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Playbook

Subscriptions4
  • Playbook Premium1 Month trial$14.991 Month
  • Playbook Premium7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Playbook Premium7 Days trial$39.993 Months
Show 1 more
  • Playbook Premium7 Days trial$99.991 Year
7 purchases

MacrosFirst

Subscriptions7
  • MacrosFirst Premium7 Days trial2 variants$11.991 Month
  • MacrosFirst Premium14 Days trial2 variants$11.991 Month
  • MacrosFirst Premium7 Days trial$41.991 Year
Show 4 more
  • MacrosFirst Premium7 Days trial$71.991 Year
  • MacrosFirst Premium14 Days trial$71.991 Year
  • MacrosFirst Premium7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • MacrosFirst Premium14 Days trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Playbook free?
Playbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MacrosFirst free?
MacrosFirst is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Playbook or MacrosFirst?
Playbook is rated higher. Playbook averages 4.9 out of 5 from 37K ratings, while MacrosFirst averages 4.9 from 23K ratings.
Do Playbook or MacrosFirst have ads?
MacrosFirst shows ads; Playbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Playbook or MacrosFirst?
Playbook ships an update every 4 days, and MacrosFirst weekly. Most recently, Playbook was updated on October 22, 2026 and MacrosFirst on October 22, 2026.
Which is more popular, Playbook or MacrosFirst?
Playbook currently peaks at #182 in the App Store charts, and MacrosFirst at #83. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

Other comparisons