Comparison

Palmful vs Ballpark

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

Head to head
About

Palmful

This app helps you track your daily nutrition using a hand-portion method, eliminating the need for calorie counting or barcode scanning. It visualizes your intake at a glance and adjusts targets for different activity levels, all while keeping your data private on your device.

Highlights
  • Hand-portion nutrition tracking
  • No calorie counting
  • Visual daily intake summary
  • Adjustable targets for activity days
  • Weekly eating pattern overview
  • Private local data storage
  • No streaks or nagging reminders
Read full description

You are already carrying a better instrument. Palmful is a daily nutrition journal built on the hand-portion method — no calorie counting, no barcode scanning, no hand-entering every ingredient in the meal you just cooked. Your hand is the ruler: • Palm = a serving of protein (about 4 oz, or 2 eggs) • Cupped hand = a measure of carbs (about ½ cup of rice, or a slice of bread) • Fist = a portion of vegetables (about a cooked cupful) • Thumb = a thumb of fat (a tablespoon of oil, or an ounce of cheese) The ruler scales with you. Bigger hands, bigger portions — the measure is the body itself. WHY THE NUMBERS FAIL Log a home-cooked meal in a calorie app and you're typing in every ingredient by hand. The more you vary what you eat, the more tedious it gets — so the app quietly nudges you back toward the same safe, packaged meals. But you cook. And the precision was never real anyway; the labels are estimates. Palmful drops the false precision and keeps the part that works: a simple, repeatable portion you can eyeball anywhere, with any meal, in any kitchen. TODAY, AT A GLANCE Open Palmful and see what you've still got room for — two palms of protein short, a fist of veg to go. It answers the only question you actually have at six in the evening: what should I eat next? A few taps to log, then get on with your day. TARGETS THAT MOVE WITH YOUR DAY Training days aren't all the same, so your targets aren't either. Palmful shifts your protein, carb, veg, and fat goals for Hard, Easy, and Rest days — more fuel when you're working, less when you're recovering. And if you already know your numbers, set them yourself: any portion, on any day type. Anything you don't touch keeps following your profile. THE WEEK, AS ONE PAGE Each day is a row; the week is a page you can read at a glance. See the shape of how you've been eating without digging through a feed. QUIET ON PURPOSE No streaks. No "good job!" No red numbers shaming you at midnight. Palmful is the tool a good coach hands you so you can stop obsessing — log a few taps, then put it down. Miss a week and nothing breaks. Nothing resets, nothing nags. Come back when you want to. SETUP IS OPTIONAL Open the app and start logging. Sex, activity level, weight, and goals can all be left blank — tap Skip for now to jump straight in with general targets, and personalize anytime in Settings if you want targets tuned to you. YOUR FOOD LOG STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Everything you log — every portion, every day — stays on your device, in a local database on your iPhone. No account, no sign-up. No server ever sees your food. To make Palmful better, the app sends anonymous, aggregate usage analytics — which screens you open and a few basic actions, nothing more. It never includes your journal entries and is never tied to your identity. If you choose to send feedback from Settings, your message — and a reply address, if you add one — goes to us so we can write back. Nothing else you enter ever leaves the phone. See our privacy policy for exactly what is and isn't collected. Made for iPhone. — Palmful is a tracking journal, not medical advice. Portion estimates are general guidance. Talk to a qualified professional about your own nutrition and health needs. Questions, bugs, or feedback: support@nsquaredlabs.com

About

Ballpark

Features
Read full description

Ballpark is a simple, flexible macro tracker built for real life, not perfect precision. LOG MEALS YOUR WAY Write what you ate in your own words, add a photo, or use your voice. Ballpark AI creates an approximate meal entry with calories and macros for you to review and adjust before saving. Prefer full control? Manual meal tracking is always available for free. FLEXIBLE GOALS, USEFUL CONTEXT Set only the calorie and macro ranges that matter to you, or skip goals entirely. Ballpark gives you a clear daily overview and helps you follow longer-term trends without treating incomplete tracking days as complete data. FEATURES • Track calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat • Log meals manually or from natural-language descriptions • Add meal photos or nutrition labels for context • Use voice input and written clarifications • Review and edit every AI estimate before saving • Set optional minimum and maximum goals • Get suggested starting goals from basic personal details • Save favorite meals and quickly reuse recent entries • View weekly, monthly, six-month, and yearly trends • Mark incomplete days for more meaningful averages • Optionally sync weight from Apple Health to track weight trends on your device • Set meal reminders • Export meal data and create local backups • Choose metric or imperial units • Available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian DESIGNED FOR CONSISTENCY Nutrition tracking does not need to be perfectly precise to be useful. Ballpark focuses on reasonable estimates, visible assumptions, and easy corrections, so tracking can fit into everyday life. PRIVACY AND CONTROL Your tracking data is stored locally on your device, and no account is required. You decide whether to use AI processing, photos, voice features, or Apple Health integration. When you use Ballpark AI, the information needed for your request is sent through Ballpark’s backend to OpenAI for processing. Apple Health weight data is read-only, remains stored locally in Ballpark, and is never sent for AI processing. BALLPARK AI Manual tracking, history, trends, exports, and access to existing data remain available without a subscription. Ballpark AI is available through a monthly auto-renewable subscription. It adds AI-powered meal estimates, photo logging, and the option to refine estimates by voice. Estimates are approximate and should always be reviewed before saving. Privacy Policy: https://nickburri.github.io/ballpark-site/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Palmful4 screens
Ballpark4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Palmful at none against Ballpark's 1. Palmful also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.2). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. Ballpark sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Palmful asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Palmful versus Ballpark: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPalmfulBallpark
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNishal NarechaniaNICK BURRI

In-app purchases

None

Palmful

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Ballpark

Subscriptions1
  • Ballpark AI7 Days trial$1.991 Month

Questions

Is Palmful free?
Palmful is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ballpark free?
Ballpark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Palmful or Ballpark have ads?
Neither Palmful nor Ballpark shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Palmful or Ballpark?
Palmful ships an update every 3 weeks, and Ballpark every 3 weeks. Most recently, Palmful was updated on November 10, 2026 and Ballpark on November 10, 2026.

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