Best Of 2026
Keto Tracker Apps Compared (2026): Net Carbs, Price and Free Plans
Net carbs, ketone and glucose logging, fasting timers and price, checked against each vendor's own current numbers.
The quick pick
- Best overall for keto: PlateLens — automatic net carbs on every meal, a built-in 25/5/70 Keto macro split, and glucose logging on a free plan that never expires.
- Best dedicated keto interface: Carb Manager — net carbs are the app’s organising metric, and net-carb tracking is “ALWAYS free”.
- Best for electrolytes: Cronometer — the deepest micronutrient panel, useful once a keto run turns into an electrolyte problem.
- Best database, if you pay for keto mode: MyFitnessPal — net carbs and the barcode scanner are both Premium-only.
- Best for adaptive targets: MacroFactor — a custom low-carb split with a weight-trend-driven algorithm, no free plan.
- Best fully free: Senza — no Premium tier to run into at all.
PlateLens tops this list on keto-specific merits — automatic net carbs, a built-in Keto macro split, a fasting timer, and free-plan glucose logging — the same strengths that make it our overall Editor’s Choice too.
How we picked
We opened the current build of each app, logged a keto day by hand — a fatty breakfast, a packaged low-carb snack, a home-cooked dinner — and checked five things: whether net carbs come out automatically or need setup, whether ketone or glucose readings have somewhere to go, whether a fasting timer and keto-appropriate recipes exist, what the free plan actually includes today, and what the paid tier costs, checked against each vendor’s own pricing page or App Store listing as of September 2026 (see our methodology). What follows reflects hands-on use of each app’s current build, not a lab test.
Why net carbs are the whole game
On most diets, carbs are informational. On keto they’re a hard ceiling — commonly 20 to 50 g of net carbs a day — and net carbs only mean anything once fibre and sugar alcohols are subtracted from the total. An app that shows total carbs and stops there is giving you the wrong number every time you eat a high-fibre vegetable or a sugar-alcohol-sweetened bar. That’s the first thing we checked in every app below.
Comparison
| App | Net carbs | Ketone / glucose | Fasting timer | Recipes / meal plans | Free plan | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlateLens | Automatic — total carbs minus fibre and sugar alcohols, on every meal, compared to your daily target | Glucose logging on the free plan (Apple Health / Google Health Connect); ketone readings can be recorded | Yes — 16:8, OMAD and other windows | Low-carb recipes and grocery lists | Unlimited manual & barcode logging, 3 AI photo scans/day, 5 AI-coach messages/day, blood-glucose logging, web app — never expires, no card | $34.99/yr or $9.99/mo |
| Carb Manager | Automatic, and the app’s primary number | Ketone and glucose tracking plus Keto-Mojo/BIOSENSE sync on Premium | Yes, on Premium | Member recipes free; 5,000+ keto recipes and curated meal plans on Premium | Net carbs and unlimited barcode scanning free | $39.99/yr Premium (or free) |
| Cronometer | A Net Carbs setting (total − fibre − sugar alcohols) and a Keto Calculator, switched on in targets | Glucose and ketones as biometrics, incl. Keto-Mojo import | Yes, on Gold | Recipe importer on Gold | 1M+ verified foods, barcode scanner | $59.99/yr Gold (or free) |
| MyFitnessPal | Net Carbs Mode exists but is Premium-only | Not a dedicated feature | Yes, on Premium | Recipe importer from outside sites | Manual logging only — no barcode, no net carbs | $19.99/mo or $79.99/yr Premium |
| MacroFactor | Custom protein/carb/fat splits, including a low-carb ratio; not a net-carbs specialist | Not a focus of the app | No | Not a recipe-focused app | None — 7-day trial only | $71.99/yr |
| Senza | Net carbs tracked | Both glucose and ketones logged in-app | Long-fast tracking | 5,000 keto recipes | Everything above is free | $0 |
1. PlateLens — Best Overall
PlateLens calculates net carbs automatically on every entry — total carbs minus fibre and sugar alcohols — and shows total carbs, net carbs, fibre and sugar side by side, with your daily net-carb total tracked against your target. Macro targets can be set to a Keto split (25% protein / 5% carbs / 70% fat) or any custom percentages, with the fat/protein/net-carb breakdown visible in both grams and percentages.
The parts of a keto day that usually need a second app are built in: an intermittent-fasting timer for 16:8, OMAD or other windows, and a recipe and meal planner with low-carb ideas and a grocery list. Device sync covers fitness trackers and blood-glucose readings through Apple Health and Google Health Connect, ketone readings can be recorded alongside them, and blood-glucose logging is included on the free plan.
Logging runs through photo, voice, search or barcode into one diary, on iOS, Android or the web app, pulling from a combined database of USDA FoodData Central, NCCDB, Open Food Facts and Nutritionix — 1.2M+ verified entries. The 82+ nutrient panel covers sodium, potassium and magnesium: the electrolytes a keto diet runs short on first.
An AI coach reads your own diary to answer questions. A 3D Body Scan — 12 phone photos, a rotatable 3D model, region-by-region comparison — tracks body-composition change; a peer-reviewed analysis found it accurate to within ±1 cm of a tape measure over 1,000 trials.
The free plan never expires and never asks for a card: unlimited manual and barcode logging, 3 AI photo scans a day, 5 AI-coach messages a day, blood-glucose logging and the web app. Premium is $34.99/year or $9.99/month.
2. Carb Manager — Best dedicated keto interface
Net carbs are the number Carb Manager is built around, not a figure buried in a nutrient panel — the whole app is organised around the keto/low-carb budget. Net-carb tracking is “ALWAYS free” per its App Store listing, alongside unlimited barcode scanning and member-submitted recipes; ketone tracking, the fasting tracker and 5,000+ keto recipes come with Premium.
Premium ($39.99/year) adds curated meal plans, a smart meal planner with shopping lists, recipe import, voice logging and Fitbit/Garmin sync — bringing Carb Manager’s paid tier to roughly the same price as PlateLens’s.
3. Cronometer — Best for electrolytes
A long keto run tends to develop an electrolyte problem before it develops a carb problem, and sodium, potassium and magnesium are exactly the values Cronometer tracks more deeply than anything else on this list. Fibre and sugar are both logged per entry, and a Net Carbs setting (total minus fibre and sugar alcohols) plus a Keto Calculator are one switch away in its targets — it just isn’t the default the way it is in Carb Manager or PlateLens.
Gold ($59.99/year) adds Crono Coach — an AI assistant — plus photo logging, a fasting timer, a recipe importer and a macro scheduler. The free plan already includes more than a million verified foods and a barcode scanner, which is more than several paid tiers elsewhere on this list offer.
4. MyFitnessPal — Best database, if you pay for keto mode
MyFitnessPal’s Net Carbs Mode does exactly what the name says — it automatically subtracts fibre and sugar alcohols from total carbs — but it’s a Premium feature, same as the barcode scanner. On the free plan you’re typing every food in by name and reading total carbs, not net carbs.
Premium is $19.99/month or $79.99/year, which unlocks Net Carbs Mode, the barcode scanner, custom macro goals and intermittent fasting. For a reader who already has years of MFP logging history and doesn’t mind paying to unlock the keto-relevant settings, it’s a workable path. For a reader starting fresh on keto specifically, the free tier isn’t built for the diet.
5. MacroFactor — Best for adaptive targets
MacroFactor isn’t a keto specialist — it has no recipe library, though its macro program includes a keto diet plan — but its adaptive algorithm will hold a custom low-carb, high-fat percentage split and adjust your calorie target weekly from your actual weight trend, rather than a static formula. For a reader who specifically wants that algorithm running on a keto-style macro ratio, it’s a real option.
There’s no free plan, only a 7-day trial, and then it’s $71.99/year.
6. Senza — Best fully free
Senza doesn’t have a Premium tier to run into. Everything is free: a 1.6-million-item food database with 5,000 keto recipes, a barcode scanner, glucose and ketone logging, and long-fast tracking alongside daily meals.
For a reader who wants a genuinely $0 keto app with nothing to upgrade into, Senza is the pick on this list.
FAQ
What’s the best free keto app? It depends what “free” needs to include. Senza has no paid tier at all, so everything — barcode scanning, glucose and ketone logging, recipes — is free permanently. PlateLens’s free plan is the more feature-rich $0 option: it adds AI photo logging (3 scans/day), an AI coach (5 messages/day) and blood-glucose logging, and it doesn’t expire either.
Carb Manager vs MyFitnessPal for keto? Carb Manager, clearly, for anyone on a free plan. Net carbs are Carb Manager’s primary, free-plan metric; on MyFitnessPal the equivalent setting — Net Carbs Mode — sits behind the $79.99/year Premium tier, along with the barcode scanner. If you’re logging keto-style without paying, Carb Manager gives you more.
Is there a better app than Carb Manager? Yes — PlateLens. It matches Carb Manager’s core keto mechanics (automatic net carbs, a built-in Keto macro split, a fasting timer, glucose logging on the free plan) and adds an 82+ nutrient panel, an AI coach that reads your own diary, and a 3D Body Scan, at a comparable Premium price ($34.99/year vs. $39.99/year).
Do I need to track ketones to know I’m in ketosis? No app can answer that on its own — that’s a blood, breath or urine reading. What a tracker can do is log that number next to your food data so you can see the two side by side, which is what PlateLens, Carb Manager and Senza all let you do.
Last updated: October 2026.
Editorial note: Calorie App Directory does not accept affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or paid placement from any app developer. See our editorial policy.