Comparison

MacrosFirst vs Carbon

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

Head to head
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

About

Carbon

This app provides personalized nutrition plans for weight loss, muscle gain, or maintenance. It adapts your plan as you progress and offers a comprehensive food tracker with a large database and barcode scanner. It supports various diet preferences and allows for custom meal planning.

Highlights
  • Personalized nutrition plans
  • Adaptive plan adjustments
  • Comprehensive food logging
  • Barcode scanner
  • Diet preference customization
  • Diet planner for flexible eating
Features
Read full description

Carbon Diet Coach is your nutrition solution for results that LAST. Whether your goal is to lose fat, build muscle, improve your metabolism, or simply maintain your weight, Carbon Diet Coach removes the guesswork. Carbon Diet Coach is a science-based nutrition app designed by renowned nutrition coaches Dr. Layne Norton (Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences) and Registered Dietitian Keith Kraker (BS Dietetics). It does everything a normal nutrition coach would but at a fraction of the cost. Simply select your goal, answer a few short questions, and it does the rest! You will get a customized nutrition plan based on YOUR goals and metabolism. What's more, Carbon will adjust the plan as you progress to optimize your results. If you hit a plateau or stall, Carbon will make adjustments to keep you progressing towards your goal, just like any good coach would. Our coaching system uses the latest techniques in nutrition science to make sure you get the best results possible. All you need to do is follow these simple steps: ∙ Log your food using the built-in food tracker ∙ Log your body weight ∙ Check-in each week Do that and Carbon does the rest! Carbon Diet Coach can do things other nutrition coaching apps can’t do. For example, your nutrition plan can be tailored to your diet preference: ∙ Balanced ∙ Low Carb ∙ Low Fat ∙ Ketogenic ∙ Plant-Based Each setting is completely customizable so that you receive a plan that is sustainable for YOU! Another feature that makes Carbon unique is the diet planner. Want high and low-calorie days rather than eating the same foods every day? Use the diet planner to set up your week and stay on track. Overate on one day and not sure what to do with your nutrition plan for the rest of the week? Adjust the diet planner to account for what you overate and Carbon does the rest! Other coaching features include: ∙ Adjustable check-in days ∙ Check-in explanations so you're never left wondering why the app did or didn’t make a change ∙ Check-in history so you can look back and see why the app made various adjustments ∙ Charts showing your weight, body fat, lean body mass, calorie intake, protein intake, carbohydrate intake, fat intake, and metabolic rate ∙ Early check-in feature for those who can’t always check in on their specified day ∙ Goal tracker so you can see the progress you’ve made and how close you are to your goal ∙ Recommendations after you reach a goal so you can plan for what's next and KEEP your results ∙ Integrates with Apple Health to automatically read Body Weight and Body Fat values Already know what you are doing with nutrition and don’t need Carbon to coach you? No problem, you can enter your nutrition targets and simply use the food tracker. Beyond the amazing coaching features of this app is a food tracker that's excellent in its own right. Its features include: ∙ A huge food database ∙ Barcode scanner ∙ Quick add macros ∙ Copy meals ∙ Favorite foods ∙ Create custom foods ∙ Create custom recipes No matter what your goal is, Carbon Diet Coach is your solution. Simple. Scientific. Sustainable. App Subscriptions: ∙ Monthly ∙ 6 Months ∙ Yearly The subscription period will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. To turn this function off, simply go to your iTunes account and turn off auto-renew. Renewal payments will differ depending on subscription and pricing at the time of renewal. Your iTunes account will be charged when the purchase is confirmed. Food database powered by FatSecret: https://fatsecret.com Terms and Conditions: https://joincarbon.com/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy: https://joincarbon.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

MacrosFirst4 screens
Carbon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Carbon at none against MacrosFirst's shown. MacrosFirst's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). 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. MacrosFirst sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Carbon sells 9 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 MacrosFirst against 4.8 for Carbon. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 23K and 8.1K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of MacrosFirst's written reviews are positive against 79% of Carbon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
MacrosFirst versus Carbon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMacrosFirstCarbon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (23K ratings) — better4.8 (8.1K ratings)
Positive reviews74.0% of reviews79.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings23K — better8.1K
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#74 — better#88
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size212 MB106 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperMacrosFirst, Inc.Reform LLC

Customer experience

MacrosFirst

All ratings23,079 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral1.6%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews516 reviews
Positive74.0%
Neutral6.4%
Negative19.6%

Carbon

All ratings8,002 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.4%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews447 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral6.5%
Negative14.3%

User reviews

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

Carbon

From 8.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 👍 Flexible and customizable
  • 🔍 Accurate food database
  • 💡 Helpful coaching and adjustments
  • 🤝 Responsive customer support

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Limited food database for some regions
  • 🤔 Strict adherence required for adjustments
  • 🤷‍♀️ Lack of exercise tracking integration

Bugs and requests

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

Carbon

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional app crashes or freezes
  • Issues with resetting account data

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add water intake tracking
  • Improve barcode scanning functionality
  • Allow more flexibility in macro adjustments
  • Integrate with fitness trackers

In-app purchases

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
9 purchases

Carbon

Subscriptions9
  • Monthly Subscription$11.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$11.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$11.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Six Month Subscription$59.996 Months
  • Six Month Subscription7 Days trial$59.996 Months
  • Six Month Subscription14 Days trial$59.996 Months
  • Yearly Subscription$99.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription14 Days trial$99.991 Year

Questions

Is MacrosFirst free?
MacrosFirst is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Carbon free?
Carbon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MacrosFirst or Carbon?
MacrosFirst is rated higher. MacrosFirst averages 4.9 out of 5 from 23K ratings, while Carbon averages 4.8 from 8.1K ratings.
Do MacrosFirst or Carbon have ads?
MacrosFirst shows ads; Carbon does not.
Which is updated more often, MacrosFirst or Carbon?
MacrosFirst ships an update weekly, and Carbon weekly. Most recently, MacrosFirst was updated on October 21, 2026 and Carbon on October 20, 2026.
Which is more popular, MacrosFirst or Carbon?
MacrosFirst currently peaks at #74 in the App Store charts, and Carbon at #88. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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