Comparison

Carbon vs MacroFactor

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

Head to head
About

Carbon

This app acts as a personalized nutrition coach, helping you track your food intake and weight to adjust your calorie and macro targets. It provides weekly check-ins with clear explanations for any changes made to your plan, supporting various dietary goals like fat loss or muscle gain.

Highlights
  • Adaptive macro coaching
  • Personalized calorie and macro targets
  • Weekly weight trend analysis
  • Flexible calorie planner
  • Smart food logging with photo recognition
  • Support for various diet styles
Features
Read full description

The macro tracker that coaches you. Carbon Diet Coach is a nutrition coach and calorie tracker in one. Log your food, weigh in, and check in once a week. Carbon reviews your weight trend and what you logged, decides whether your targets should change, and explains every decision. Carbon pioneered adaptive macro coaching, and thousands of members use it to lose fat, build muscle, maintain, and reverse diet. HOW WEEKLY COACHING WORKS • Answer a few questions about your goal, body, and preferences • Get personalized calorie, protein, carb, and fat targets • Log your food and weigh in, or sync your weight from Apple Health • Check in weekly. Carbon looks at your multi-week weight trend and what you actually logged, then adjusts your macros or holds them steady • Read a clear check-in report, so you're never left wondering why Carbon did or didn't make a change • Pick your check-in day, or check in early when your schedule changes PROTEIN BUILT AROUND YOU Your protein target is based on your lean body mass, with an optimal range for your goal and diet style. Research links higher protein intake during fat loss to keeping more lean mass, so Carbon keeps protein front and center all week. FLEXIBLE CALORIE PLANNER The Calorie Planner works like a weekly calorie budget. Give yourself more calories for weekends, dinners out, and events, and fewer on quieter days, while your week stays on target. • Finished days reflect what you actually tracked, and the rest of your week rebalances around them • Hold protein keeps your protein target steady while daily calories shift • Adjust calories, protein, carbs, and fat for any upcoming day, or reset a day to your weekly defaults COACHING WITH GUARDRAILS When progress stalls, Carbon makes small changes instead of big cuts, keeps your rate of loss in check, and sets a calorie floor for you. If you reach it, Carbon recommends a switch to maintenance or a reverse diet. If your week wasn't fully tracked, Carbon won't react to incomplete data. SMART LOGGING Smart Logger: snap a photo of your meal or describe it, and Carbon matches each food to an entry in our verified food database. You review the matches, confirm your servings, and log the whole plate at once. Smart Suggestions: foods you log often are pre-filled in your diary. Tap to confirm or skip. Remaining Macros: see what's left for the day and preview how a food fits before you log it. Serving Amount Solver: enter the macros you have left and Carbon finds the serving that fits. Plus a barcode scanner, nutrition label scanner, quick add, copy meals, favorites, and custom foods and recipes. GOALS AND DIET STYLES Fat loss, muscle gain, weight maintenance, and reverse dieting. Choose Balanced, Low Carb, Low Fat, Keto, Plant-Based, or High Protein then fine-tune each macro within recommended ranges. PROGRESS YOU CAN SEE Charts for weight, body fat, lean body mass, calories, macros, and estimated metabolic rate, plus a check-in history showing every adjustment and why. ALREADY HAVE YOUR OWN TARGETS? Use Carbon as a macro, protein, and nutrition tracker, calorie counter, and food log. SUPPORT FROM REAL PEOPLE Questions go to Carbon's support team, and members share tips in our private community. BUILT ON EVIDENCE Created by Dr. Layne Norton (PhD, Nutritional Sciences) and Keith Kraker, RD. SUBSCRIPTIONS Monthly, 6-month, and yearly plans. Every plan includes full access to all features. Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm your purchase. Food database powered by FatSecret: https://fatsecret.com Terms and Conditions: https://joincarbon.com/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy: https://joincarbon.com/privacy-policy/

About

MacroFactor

This nutrition app personalizes calorie and macro targets using adaptive algorithms and behavioral science. It offers advanced food logging, detailed breakdowns, and weight trend analysis to help users achieve sustainable diet goals.

Highlights
  • Adaptive nutrition coach
  • Best-in-class expenditure estimate (TDEE)
  • Fastest macro tracker
  • Verified food database
  • Weight Trend visualization
  • Flexible plan modes
  • AI photo food logging
Features
Read full description

MacroFactor is a macro tracker, calorie counter, and nutrition coach app that helps you reach your diet goals to lose weight, gain muscle, or maintain with empowering, sustainable results, by combining innovative coaching algorithms with proven nutrition and behavioral science. KEY CAPABILITIES • Adaptive nutrition coach: smart algorithms personalize your calorie and macro intake targets, just like a nutrition coach would, and weekly check-ins keep you on track • Best-in-class expenditure estimate (TDEE): calculates how many calories you actually burn from your own logs and weight data, so your plan fits your body instead of a generic formula • Fastest macro tracker on the market: log food by AI photo, meal description, speech-to-text, barcode scanner, or nutrition label scanner, so logging takes seconds • Verified food database: more than 1.36 million entries, so you can trust the calorie and macro information of the food you log • Food and meal tracker: covers macros and micronutrients with detailed breakdowns for every meal and day, so you see exactly what you eat • Weight Trend: cuts through the noise of daily weight fluctuations, so you see your real progress • Flexible plans: choose Coached, Collaborative, or Manual mode with balanced, low-carb, keto, or carb-focused diets and different macros on different days, so your plan fits your health and fitness goal • Extra tools in one app: period tracker, habit tracker, data insights and visualization, integrations, and dark mode. HOW IT WORKS 1. Set your goal (lose, maintain, or gain) and choose your rate of weight change to set your calorie deficit or surplus. 2. Log your meals in the food log and weigh in with the weight tracker as usual. 3. Each week, MacroFactor compares your calorie and macro intake with your weight trend to calculate your true energy expenditure (TDEE) and detect changes in your metabolism. 4. It then adjusts your calorie, protein, and macro targets for the week ahead, so your diet plan keeps working and you avoid a plateau. FAQ • How does MacroFactor set my calorie target? It estimates your energy expenditure from your food logs and weight trend, then adjusts your targets at each weekly check-in. • What if I go over my targets or skip logging? Nothing breaks. The algorithm is adherence neutral, so your check-in and calorie adjustment still work, with no warnings or red numbers. • Can I set my own macros instead of following the coach? Yes. Choose Manual mode, and set different macros for different days. • How can I log food quickly? Snap a photo with AI food logging, describe your meal, speak it, or scan a barcode or nutrition label. NOTICES Contains information from Open Food Facts, which is made available here under the Open Database License (ODbL). Open Food Facts: https://openfoodfacts.org/ ODbL: https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/ SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & TERMS MacroFactor is a premium macro tracker app that offers three auto-renewing subscription options: $11.99 / month $47.99 / half year $71.99 / year (equal to $5.99 a month) MacroFactor has a free trial, but does not offer a free subscription tier. These prices are for US customers. Pricing in other countries may vary. Payment will be charged to your Apple account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription to MacroFactor will automatically renew, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can cancel or manage your subscription from your Apple account settings. Terms & Conditions: https://terms.macrofactorapp.com/ Privacy Policy: https://privacy.macrofactorapp.com/ MacroFactor is a macro counter, calorie tracker, and AI food tracker with a nutrition coach that adapts your calorie and macro targets every week, helping you lose weight, maintain, or build muscle without stress.

Screenshots

Carbon4 screens
MacroFactor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: MacroFactor at #12 against Carbon's #114. MacroFactor also leads on device support (4 vs 1). Carbon's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 71%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Carbon sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and MacroFactor sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 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 — 4.8 for Carbon against 4.8 for MacroFactor. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8.1K and 24K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Carbon's written reviews are positive against 71% of MacroFactor's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Carbon ships an update weekly, MacroFactor every 9 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Carbon versus MacroFactor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCarbonMacroFactor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (8.1K ratings)4.8 (24K ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.2% of reviews — better70.5% of reviews
Number of ratings8.1K24K — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#114#12 — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.615.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size105 MB247 MB
Age rating17+9+
DeveloperReform LLCStronger By Science Technologies LLC

Customer experience

Carbon

All ratings8,144 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.4%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews453 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral6.4%
Negative14.3%

MacroFactor

All ratings23,836 ratings
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.3%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews1,592 reviews
Positive70.5%
Neutral9.5%
Negative19.9%

User reviews

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

MacroFactor

From 24K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🔍 Detailed analytics and data
  • 🤖 Intelligent algorithm adjustments
  • 👍 Flexible and customizable
  • 💯 Comprehensive food database

Room to improve

  • 🔍 Limited food database for some regions
  • 🤔 Steep learning curve for some users
  • 💰 Subscription-based model
  • 🤖 Occasional inaccuracies in AI-generated entries
  • 🔀 Convoluted navigation in some areas

Bugs and requests

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

MacroFactor

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Disappearing food entries
  • Inconsistent syncing with Apple Health

Requested features

5 requests
  • Apple Watch integration
  • Micronutrient tracking
  • Ability to edit database entries
  • Improved barcode scanning for international users
  • Customizable dashboard and widgets

In-app purchases

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
10 purchases

MacroFactor

Subscriptions10
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$11.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription$11.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$11.991 Month
  • Semiannual Subscription7 Days trial$47.996 Months
  • Semiannual Subscription14 Days trial$47.996 Months
  • Annual Subscription14 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Annual Subscription7 Days trial$71.991 Year
  • Annual Subscription14 Days trial$71.991 Year
  • Annual Subscription Bundle$89.991 Year

Questions

Is Carbon free?
Carbon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MacroFactor free?
MacroFactor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Carbon or MacroFactor?
MacroFactor is rated higher. Carbon averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8.1K ratings, while MacroFactor averages 4.8 from 24K ratings.
Do Carbon or MacroFactor have ads?
Neither Carbon nor MacroFactor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Carbon or MacroFactor?
Carbon ships an update weekly, and MacroFactor every 9 days. Most recently, Carbon was updated on November 6, 2026 and MacroFactor on November 6, 2026.
Which is more popular, Carbon or MacroFactor?
Carbon currently peaks at #114 in the App Store charts, and MacroFactor at #12. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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