Best Fasting Tracker Apps: Monitor Your Intermittent Fasting Journey

Which is the best fasting app: a free timer, a guided plan, or a food diary with a fasting clock built in? I compared six fasting tracker apps on free tiers, protocols, and what happens once your eating window opens.

The best fasting app for most people is the one that does more than count hours: Zero if you want a free timer with streaks, Simple if you want a guided start, and MyNetDiary if you want the fasting timer inside a full food and nutrient diary. Your phone can already run a 16-hour countdown and ring an alarm when it ends. It cannot keep a history of completed fasts or show what you ate once the fast ended, and the trials below put the result in what you eat, not in the clock. I compared six fasting tracker apps, from their US listings and help pages, on what is free, which protocols they support, what the paid tier costs, and what the app knows about your meals.

Quick answer

• Best free fasting timer: Zero (custom fasts need Zero Plus)
• Best for beginners: Simple
• Best for guided plans: BodyFast
• Best for motivation and community: Fastic (buddies in Plus)
• Best for fasting plus calorie counting: Yazio (16:8 free; other plans Pro)
• Best for fasting plus full nutrition tracking: MyNetDiary (timer in Premium, $59.99 a year; diary free)

The best fasting apps in 2026 include:

• MyNetDiary - best for combining fasting with nutrition tracking: a fasting timer with popular and custom protocols on top of the best overall food tracker, with fast logging, a large verified database and 108 nutrients
• Simple - best for beginners: fast and meal logging free, the Avo AI coach at two replies a day
• BodyFast - best for guided fasting plans: 10+ plans free, a weekly personalized plan in Coach
• Fastic - best for motivation and community: a Fastic Score to beat, with buddies and challenges in Plus
• Zero - best free fasting tracker app: timers, streaks and weekly trends free; custom fasts in Zero Plus
• Yazio - strong intermittent fasting tools, with simple calorie counting; 16:8 free, the other 19 plans Pro

Why Use an App to Track Intermittent Fasting?

An app adds what an alarm cannot: a history of completed fasts, reminders tied to your plan rather than set by hand each day and, in some apps, a link between the fast and the meals logged in the window. The last is the one I weigh heaviest, because most fasting timers are not nutrition apps.

Does the window itself do the work? The trials say it helps when it makes you eat less, and it did no better than plain calorie restriction. In the 12-month Annals of Internal Medicine trial (Lin et al., 2023), adults with obesity who ate only between noon and 8 p.m. without counting calories lost about 10 pounds (4.6 kg) more than a control group; adults who cut calories by 25% lost about 12 pounds (5.4 kg) more, and the difference between the two was not statistically significant. An app that counts only hours shows half of that picture.

Consistency matters as much as the window. In August 2026, Susan Heikkinen, our registered dietitian nutritionist, and I published a study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research on 5,132 MyNetDiary users with a weight-loss goal who logged food on 21 or more days and weighed in monthly for six months. Those who tracked food 6 to 7 days a week averaged 11.33% weight loss; those tracking fewer than 2 days a week averaged 6.84%. It is observational and the cohort was an engaged 1.2% of new signups, so it shows an association, not a cause; the plain-language summary of the food tracking study covers the method and its limits.

What Should You Look for in a Fasting Tracker App?

Four things separate the best fasting app from a timer with a logo: fasting schedules and their tier, reminders and progress tracking, nutrient tracking in the window, and what recent users say. Prices are in the table below.

• Protocols and custom fasting windows. 16:8 is in every app; a custom fasting window is not. Zero puts custom fasts in Plus, Yazio puts every plan except 16:8 in Pro, BodyFast includes 10+ customizable plans free, and MyNetDiary takes a common pattern or a manual entry (Premium).
• Reminders and progress tracking. A notification at both ends of the window, a fasting status readable at a glance (MyNetDiary shows it on the Dashboard), and a history: Zero’s streaks and weekly trends are free, Simple’s streaks are Premium, MyNetDiary’s fasting calendar is Premium.
• Nutrient tracking in the window. Nutrient completeness, how many nutrient fields a logged food actually carries, decides whether the app can show that a six-hour window left you short on protein, fiber or iron. Among nutrition apps, a staff-verified database with research-grade sources gives verified nutritional data for vitamins and minerals; a protein score or plain calorie tracking cannot show what is low.
• Recent reviews. Feature lists say an app has a timer; written reviews say whether its reminders fire on time, whether the free version nags for an upgrade, and whether cancelling takes a support ticket. Our monthly Diet App Scorecard, published with its method, turns a month of written US App Store reviews of the top calorie and health apps into an average user review rating (4.45 for MyNetDiary in September 2026); the September edition does not cover the other five apps here, so read their newest reviews before paying for a year.

Quick Comparison: Best Fasting Tracker Apps

Features and prices come from each app’s US App Store listing and its help center or site, checked on October 12, 2026: what is free, which protocols it tracks, what it knows about food, and what the paid tier costs.

App	Best for	Free tier	Fasting protocols	Nutrition tracking	US pricing, checked October 12, 2026
MyNetDiary	Fasting plus full nutrition tracking	Food diary with micronutrients, barcode scanner, custom targets; no ads, no account	Common patterns or manual entry (Premium)	Yes: 2M+ staff-verified foods, vitamins and minerals per entry	Premium $59.99 a year, $8.99 a month, $179.99 Premium lifetime
Simple	Beginners	Fast, meal, water, weight and activity logs; Avo coach 2 replies a day; 1 photo scan a day	Fasting log and reminders; personalized fasting schedules in Premium	Typed or photo meal logs with a nutrition breakdown; Success Score in Premium	Premium; prices vary by plan and offer ($14.99 to $59.99 on the listing)
BodyFast	Guided fasting plans	10+ customizable plans, timer with reminders, weight, measurements, water	16:8, 5:2 and more; full plan set and own schedule in Coach	Photo scanner for calories and macros, limited free use; no food database described	Coach $69.99 a year, $16.99 a month
Fastic	Motivation and community	Timer with estimated fasting stages, steps, water, Apple Health; the food scanner and AI chat are listed as Plus features on Fastic’s site	Timer; daily plan, buddies and challenges in Plus	Calorie tracker with photo scanner (Plus per Fastic’s site)	Plus $14.99 a month, $27.99 per 3 months; other offers listed; trial
Zero	Best free fasting tracker	Timers, streaks, weekly trends, articles, challenges, 3 trial meal logs	Preset goals free; custom fasts and saved presets in Plus	Calories, macros and a Protein Score via photo, barcode and text meal logs in Plus; 3 trial logs free	Plus $69.99 a year, $9.99 a month (Zero’s regular US pricing); trial
Yazio	Fasting plus simple calorie counting	Calorie counter, barcode scanner, daily analysis, 16:8 plan; ads	16:8 free; all 20 plans in Pro	Calories and macros free; vitamins and minerals in Pro	Pro; 12-month options listed at $23.90 and $47.90, other offers vary; occasional 7-day trial on the website

The 6 Best Fasting Tracker Apps

MyNetDiary is my app, so weigh that entry accordingly.

1. MyNetDiary - Best for Combining Fasting with Nutrition Tracking

Best for: the fast and the food in one diary, with detailed tracking of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients when the window opens. Finish the fast but log less protein than your target, and the diary shows it next to the fast.

Key features:

• What does the fasting feature add? Coach tab, Intermittent Fasting, Add Fast, then a preset such as 12:12, 14:10, 16:8 or 18:6, or a manual entry (Premium), with fasting reminders in App Settings. The Dashboard shows your fasting status; the fasting calendar keeps the record.
• The free food diary tracks what you eat in the window. It has a barcode scanner, macro tracking and goal setting with custom calorie, macro and protein targets, and water intake and weight logs. Full nutrient tracking covers up to 108 nutrients per food entry, vitamins, minerals, omega fatty acids and amino acids included, from a staff-verified food database of 2M+ foods built on USDA and NCC research-grade sources, with 2,500 to 3,500 foods reviewed daily. No third-party ads, no account to start.
• Premium features beyond the timer: Advanced Autopilot, our adaptive metabolism algorithm (comparable to MacroFactor’s), which re-estimates your energy expenditure from logged food, exercise and Trending Weight as fasting days change intake; blood pressure, blood glucose and medication logging beside meals; and a dietitian-designed diet plan, meal plans and 650+ recipes.

Pros: fast logging. In our January 2026 test, 127 identical food entries took 711 actions in MyNetDiary and 997 in Yazio, 40% more. In the independent 2026 Nutrition and Health study (standardized menus logged manually against the reference records), the energy total landed within 5 calories of the reference; method and limits on our research page. 4.8 stars on 166,000+ US App Store ratings.

Cons: fasting requires Premium ($59.99 a year, $8.99 a month, $179.99 Premium lifetime), and the app is English only.

2. Simple - Best for Beginners

Best for: a first 16:8 with a chat-style coach to ask what breaks a fast; the personalized plan is Premium.

Key features:

• Why the beginner pick? The free version logs the basics and answers questions: fast, meal, water, weight and activity logs, the Avo coach at two replies a day, Avo Vision at one photo a day.
• Premium: unlimited Avo and Avo Vision, the Success Score with meal feedback, daily check-ins and streaks, Blinky, workout routines and the educational library.
• You type what you ate or photograph it with Avo Vision, and Simple returns a nutrition breakdown with Avo’s feedback; the Success Score and the detailed macro breakdown are Premium.

Pros: the coach is there from day one, in 13 languages; 408,000 US App Store ratings average 4.7 stars.

Cons: the free version limits Avo to two replies a day, streaks are Premium, and Premium pricing varies by plan and offer, with amounts from $14.99 to $59.99 on the listing and the term shown only at checkout.

3. BodyFast - Best for Guided Fasting Plans

Best for: having the app set your fasting schedule each week and adjust it to your progress.

Key features:

• Free: more than 10 customizable fasting plans, including 16:8 and 5:2, with a timer and reminders.
• Free: weight and body measurements, a water intake tracker, fasting-stage descriptions and a knowledge library.
• Coach: a new personalized plan every week, daily coaching, 100+ recipes, food facts, weekly challenges, the full plan set and your own schedule.

Pros: the widest free choice of plans and schedules in this comparison, reminders included, on iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs in six languages, with community support in a Facebook group of 220,000+ members (the listing’s figure).

Cons: calorie tracking is a photo scanner added in 2026, calories and macros only, with a limited number of free scans and a higher allowance in Coach per BodyFast’s help center, and no food database or nutrient diary described; the listing links no evidence for its claim that Coach users reach goals 30% faster; and Coach runs $16.99 a month, $34.99 per 3 months or $69.99 a year, with other offers listed.

4. Fastic - Best for Motivation and Community

Best for: people who keep a habit when there is a score to beat and someone to fast with, and who will pay for Plus, where the buddies and challenges live.

Key features:

• A fasting timer with body status (estimated fasting stages), a step counter, a water tracker with reminders and Apple Health sync; the food scanner and AI chat appear on the listing, and Fastic’s own site lists both among Plus features.
• The Fastic Score, which tracks fasting, hydration, sleep and nutrition together.
• Fastic Plus: Fasting Buddies, daily and weekly challenges, a 4,500-recipe book, the Fastic Academy’s educational content and a tailored daily plan; the listing also advertises a Protein Fasting program.

Pros: the widest habit tracking among the four dedicated fasting timers here, in 11 languages; 246,000 US App Store ratings average 4.8 stars.

Cons: the community features, in-app buddies and challenges, require Plus, the Apple version is iPhone only, and Plus runs $14.99 a month or $27.99 per 3 months, with other offers listed.

5. Zero - Best Free Fasting Tracker App

Best for: a free timer with streaks and nothing else required.

Key features:

• Free: fasting timers, streaks, weekly trends, educational articles and challenges, plus three meal logs to try photo logging.
• Zero Plus: custom fasts and saved presets, meal logging by photo, barcode or text with calories, macros and a Protein Score, water tracking, Fat-Burning Mode, a mood journal and long-range charts.
• iPhone and Apple Watch, with Siri commands to start, end or check a fast; Plus has a free trial.

Pros: the free tier covers a standard fast from start to finish, which makes Zero the best free intermittent fasting app for day one; 445,000 US App Store ratings average 4.8 stars.

Cons: a custom fasting window is paid, the meal log sits in Plus, the app is English only, and Plus is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year, which Zero calls its regular US pricing; the other amounts on the listing are past offers.

6. Yazio - Strong Intermittent Fasting Tools

Best for: a 16:8 timer inside a free calorie counter, in one of about 20 languages, with the other plans available later for a fee.

Key features:

• Free: the calorie counter with barcode scanner and daily analysis, and the 16:8 program. Yazio’s help center is plain about the rest: the other 19 plans, 12:12, 5:2 and 1:1 among them, are Pro.
• Calories and macros free; vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, fiber, sugar and salt in Pro, with AI meal logging from a photo, a food rating system (Smart Food Rating), custom meal plans and weekly and monthly analysis.
• A recipe database of more than 3,000 recipes for meal ideas, created and tested by its nutrition team, in Pro.

Pros: the 16:8 timer and the calorie counter are both free, and a 7-day Pro trial is offered at times through Yazio’s website.

Cons: the free tier shows ads (Yazio lists an ad-free experience as a Pro benefit); only a marked subset of its database carries a verified checkmark; Pro’s 12-month options are listed at $23.90 and $47.90 depending on the offer; and in our January 2026 test Yazio needed 997 actions for the 127 entries that took 711 in MyNetDiary, 40% more.

How to Choose the Right Fasting App for You

Match the app to the one thing you need most, and check whether that feature is free or paid before you commit; the best intermittent fasting app for you is the one you keep using.

• If you need the best free app for tracking fasting, with streaks and nothing more, choose Zero.
• If you are new to fasting and want one plan and a coach to ask, choose Simple.
• If you want the app to set and adjust your schedule every week, choose BodyFast.
• If a score and a buddy keep you going, and you will pay for the buddy, choose Fastic.
• If you want a free 16:8 timer inside a free calorie counter, choose Yazio.
• If you want the fast and the food in one place, with protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals tracked in the window, choose MyNetDiary.

For full food trackers, see our seven-app comparison of food tracking apps and the best free calorie tracking apps roundup.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Tracking Your Fast

The common mistakes are schedule mistakes and food mistakes: too long a fast too soon, a window treated as a free pass, and too little food variety in a short window.

• Starting at 20:4. Joanna Kriehn’s guide puts 12:12 as the flexible entry point and 16:8 as the most popular fasting schedule; start there and extend an hour at a time. The stages of intermittent fasting article explains what the body does at each hour.
• Tracking the fast and not the window. The Annals trial worked because people ate less; a window packed with the same calorie intake changes nothing. Log the meals, and plan what to eat during your eating window on days out.
• Eating less and tracking less. Short windows make protein, fiber, iron and vitamin D easy to miss; a diary that tracks vitamins and minerals shows low recorded intake the same day, and MyNetDiary’s Weekly Analysis lists the week’s Nutrition Highlights.
• Fasting when it is not for you. Joanna Kriehn, MS, RDN, CDCES, one of our dietitians, lists who should skip intermittent fasting for weight loss: people with a history of or at risk for an eating disorder, children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, adults with a BMI under 18.5, anyone who has had bariatric surgery, and anyone at high risk of low blood sugar, such as people on daily insulin or a sulfonylurea. Teens and adults over 70 should check with a doctor first.

Start Tracking Your Fast the Smart Way

Choose between a free timer, a guided plan, and fasting with nutrition tracking, and check which of those your money buys. What you eat inside the window decides the result, so the best fasting app is the one that keeps that record and that you still open in month three. Your phone already ships with a free fasting timer. It is called the clock, and it has never once written down what you ate at 8 p.m.

Track your fast and see how your meals fit your calorie and nutrient targets. Download MyNetDiary free for iPhone or Android: MyNetDiary offers accurate nutrition tracking for free, with the food diary, the barcode scanner and up to 108 nutrients per food entry, no third-party ads and no account required to start; fasting is part of MyNetDiary Premium, $59.99 a year or $8.99 a month.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best fasting app?

The best fasting app depends on what you need beyond the timer. Zero is the best free fasting tracker, Simple the easiest start, BodyFast sets a guided plan every week, Fastic adds a score with fasting buddies in Plus, Yazio pairs a free 16:8 timer with calorie counting, and MyNetDiary puts the fasting timer (Premium) inside a free food diary that tracks vitamins and minerals as well as calories.

What is the best free fasting app?

Zero is the best free fasting app for a standard fast: timers, streaks, weekly trends and challenges are free; custom fasts need Zero Plus ($69.99 a year). BodyFast includes 10+ customizable plans free. Yazio is the best free fasting tracker app for people who also count calories, with the 16:8 plan free and the other plans in Pro.

Do I really need an app for intermittent fasting?

No. A 16:8 fasting schedule needs a clock. The best app to track fasting adds reminders tied to your plan, a history of completed fasts and, in MyNetDiary, the record of what you ate in the window, nutrients included. If you plan to track food anyway, one app for both saves double entry.

Can fasting tracker apps help with weight loss?

They help you keep a schedule, and the schedule helps when it makes you eat less: in a 12-month trial in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Lin et al., 2023), an eight-hour window without counting calories produced weight loss similar to a 25% calorie cut. In the 2026 peer-reviewed study we published on 5,132 MyNetDiary users who logged food regularly and weighed in monthly, more food-tracking days per week were associated with greater loss. These are averages and associations, not guarantees; if you want to watch both the schedule and what you eat, one app for both makes that easier.

Do fasting apps track more than just fasting time?

Most do. Zero Plus logs meals by photo, barcode or text with calories, macros and a protein score, Fastic scores hydration, sleep and nutrition together, Yazio counts calories and macros free with vitamins and minerals in Pro, and MyNetDiary tracks up to 108 nutrients per food entry, including vitamins, minerals, omega fatty acids and amino acids, from a staff-verified database built on USDA and NCC research-grade sources. That depth makes MyNetDiary a top choice for nutrition tracking accuracy when the eating window is short.

Disclosure: MyNetDiary is my company and makes one of the six apps compared here. The food tracking study cited above was conducted by MyNetDiary researchers, including me, and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research; conflicts of interest are disclosed in the paper. Competitor features and prices come from each app’s US App Store listing and help center or website, checked on October 12, 2026, and can change.

All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Disclaimer: The information provided here does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit your healthcare provider or medical professional.

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