Comparison

Meal Tracker vs Substrato

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

Head to head
About

Meal Tracker

Effortlessly log your meals using natural language for instant calorie and macronutrient estimates. Syncs with Apple Health for a comprehensive overview of your nutrition and activity. Designed for speed and simplicity, it helps you stay on track with your daily goals.

Highlights
  • Instant calorie and macro estimates
  • Natural-language meal logging
  • Save frequent meals
  • Daily calorie goal tracking
  • Apple Health sync
  • Minimalist interface
Features
Read full description

Bites is the fastest way to track what you eat. No scanning, no measuring, no databases, no friction. Just describe your meal in plain language and Bites instantly gives you calories and macronutrients. Everything is designed for speed: one-step logging, saved frequent meals, a clear daily overview, and seamless Apple Health sync. No setup. No learning curve. Just clarity. Features • Instant calorie and macro estimates using Apple Intelligence • One-step natural-language meal logging • Save repetitive meals for even faster entries • Daily calorie goal tracking • Macros and net-energy overview • Apple Health sync for nutrition, activity, and trends • Clean, minimal interface focused on speed • Small, thoughtful details that make tracking effortless • Optional advanced AI model for verified nutritional accuracy Bites enhances your tracking by giving you instant estimates, unified Apple Health data, net-energy calculation, and quick access to your saved meals. Advanced AI verifies nutritional data against trusted food databases when needed. Everything is built to stay fast and out of your way. Best of all, Bites is completely free to use. Privacy Policy: http://cristianrus.me/apps/bites Terms of Use: http://cristianrus.me/apps/bites

About

Substrato

Features
Read full description

Train and eat with the same precision. Substrato is for people who take training and nutrition seriously — and for the coaches who program both. Plan your macros over a dated protocol, build your workouts set by set, and watch a month of training and eating come together. Precise enough to hit your numbers. Simple enough to use every day. TRAIN • Build a workout from a 290-exercise library — five languages, muscle and equipment filters, a detail page for each • Track an exercise any way it needs — sets × reps, timed intervals, a duration, a distance, or a simple check-off — and link supersets • Run the session with a rest timer, tick sets in any order, and reorder exercises when a machine's taken • A Live Activity keeps the current set and rest countdown on your Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Apple Watch • Morning reminders on workout days PLAN AND PREP YOUR NUTRITION • Dated protocols (cut, bulk, recomposition) with real start and end dates • General — a free plan with no end date • Scan a barcode or search packaged products — with photo, brand and exact macros • Repeat a food on set days — weekdays, weekends, or until a date • Optional Training vs Rest day macros inside a single protocol • Prep: how much of each ingredient you need for the days ahead, with shelf-life warnings — then weigh everything you cook once and portion it perfectly across every meal, now with an isometric 3D view in Prep • Tag cooking methods for each ingredient (grilled, boiled, roasted…) so meal cards read at a glance • Meal logging: record what you actually ate and see how it lines up with the plan SEE IT COME TOGETHER • Insights: a month of training and eating as a calendar and cards — volume, muscles worked, rest, your usual training time, streaks, your heaviest lift, and per-lift progression • Apple Health: every ticked meal and finished workout is written to Health • An Activity timeline and cloud sync for all your protocols, not just the active one • Export your training history as a spreadsheet TRAINER MODE Substrato Trainer turns your programming into a professional tool your athletes execute with precision. • Manage every athlete on one screen • Build each athlete's protocol individually — personalized, not broadcast — now including their workouts, set by set • Log caliper skinfold readings and body-composition data for each athlete — Substrato does the body-fat math and tracks progress between sessions • See each athlete's adherence through the meals they log • Athletes receive plans instantly and run them with the same Prep and workout tools you use • Athletes can add their own food to a trainer's plan Send in seconds. You keep a read-only copy. Athlete data stays private. TRUSTED DATA Nutrition values are sourced from public food-composition databases including the U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. Dietary guidance references the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the World Health Organization Healthy Diet fact sheet. Substrato provides information for training and meal planning and is not medical advice. Packaged-product data and photos: Open Food Facts (ODbL, CC BY-SA). WHY SUBSTRATO • Planning, Prep, and workouts work offline • Product search, barcode scanning, coach handoffs, adherence tracking, and cross-device sync require an internet connection • No ads. No streaks. No nagging. • Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese • Designed for iPhone — your running workout extends to Apple Watch

Screenshots

Meal Tracker4 screens
Substrato4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Substrato at 18.0 against Meal Tracker's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Meal Tracker sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days and Substrato sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meal Tracker ships an update weekly, Substrato every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Meal Tracker versus Substrato: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeal TrackerSubstrato
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCntxt LimitedCristian Garske

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Meal Tracker

Subscriptions3
  • Bites Gourmet$0.997 Days
  • Bites Gourmet$2.991 Month
  • Bites Gourmet$9.991 Year
One-time3
  • Snack a candy$0.99
  • Snack a cookie$1.99
  • Snack a pizza$4.99
5 purchases

Substrato

Subscriptions4
  • Premium$4.991 Month
  • Trainer$14.991 Month
  • Premium$39.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Trainer$119.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Lifetime$79.99

Questions

Is Meal Tracker free?
Meal Tracker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Substrato free?
Substrato is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Meal Tracker or Substrato have ads?
Neither Meal Tracker nor Substrato shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meal Tracker or Substrato?
Meal Tracker ships an update weekly, and Substrato every 2 weeks. Most recently, Meal Tracker was updated on October 30, 2026 and Substrato on October 31, 2026.

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