Lifesum alternative: zweitaps
Lifesum is one of the best-known calorie trackers there is, with 81,284 App Store ratings. This page tells you why people switch anyway, and where zweitaps is different — with evidence, and with what Lifesum does better.
Lifesum does its job well, and the reason to leave is usually not a flaw in the app. It is the bill.
That is the loudest single finding across the whole market: seven days of trial, then an annual subscription, and features that used to be free sitting behind it. "Happy to pay once — never a subscription" is the sentence that comes back in every category we looked at.
What zweitaps does differently
zweitaps is built around one movement: tap plus, tap the food, done. Two taps for anything you have eaten before, because "Recent" opens directly under the plus. No streaks, no diamonds, no confirmation after saving, no ads in the diary.
You pay once, and only for photo recognition: 100 photos 2,99 € or 500 photos 9,99 €. Logging costs nothing and that will not change — nothing that is free today moves behind a paywall later.
| zweitaps | Lifesum | |
|---|---|---|
| Logging costs | nothing, permanently | core features free, the rest by subscription |
| Pricing model | one-time purchase for photo recognition, no subscription | subscription (monthly or yearly) |
| Streaks, diamonds, animations | none | varies by version |
| Ads in the diary | none | not in the paid tier |
| Barcode offline | yes, 40,000 products ship inside the app | no, search and scan need a connection |
| Usable without an account | yes, everything stays on the device | no, an account is required |
| Getting your data back out | yes, CSV, any time, at no cost | yes, free |
Figures for Lifesum come from the vendor's own public help pages and store listings, last checked 15 September 2026. Prices are deliberately not in this table: they differ by country and promotion and would be wrong here faster than they would be right. What is compared is the model. Found a mistake? Write to hello@zweitaps.com and we will fix it.
What Lifesum does better
This belongs on the page because it is true: a genuinely tidy interface, meal plans and recipes and solid Apple Health integration. If one of those is the thing that matters most to you, stay. Switching apps only to miss something you use daily is a bad trade.
What zweitaps cannot do
So you read it here and not after installing:
- No recipes, no plans, no coaching. zweitaps is a diary, not a programme.
- Micronutrients only roughly. Calories, protein, carbs, fat. If you want to follow iron and B12, Cronometer serves you better.
- A smaller database than MyFitnessPal. We sit on Open Food Facts plus our own selection for European retail. Unusual items are sometimes missing; you enter them once and then you have them.
- Photo recognition is not free. Logging is, permanently. A photo of your plate costs one credit, because every photo costs us compute.
Your diary comes with you
You do not have to start from zero. zweitaps reads the Lifesum export — Web: lifesum.com/account/export-data (Beta, letzte 7 Tage); volle Historie über den Support. The steps, which fields arrive and what gets lost on the way are on exporting your data from Lifesum.
Common questions
Is zweitaps free?
Logging is free, permanently and without an account. The only thing that costs money is photo recognition, as a one-time purchase: 100 photos for 2,99 €, 500 photos for 9,99 €. No subscription, no card up front.
Can I bring my data over from Lifesum?
Yes. The Lifesum export is free. zweitaps reads the file and creates your entries and foods. How the move works.
Do I need an account?
No. Without one, everything stays on the device. With one, entries, foods and goals also sit on our own server in the EU and are identical on every device.
Does the barcode scanner work offline?
Yes. 40,000 products ship inside the app. That works in a supermarket basement, where a network lookup gives up.
Which languages does it speak?
13, German first.