·8 lecture min.
Free fitness apps in 2026 — honest comparison (MyFitnessPal vs Noom vs Volya vs Fitbod)
Most 'free' fitness apps either lock the good features behind $69/yr or sell your data. We tested the four leaders for what's actually free and what's not.
"Free" is a marketing word now. Here's what each app actually gives you without paying.
The four leaders
MyFitnessPal (free tier)
- Food log: ✅ (with ads)
- Barcode scan: ✅
- Macro tracking: ❌ (premium only — $19.99/mo)
- Recipe importer: ❌
- AI insights: ❌
Verdict: barcode-scanner for free. Anything more = pay.
Noom (free tier)
- 14-day trial then $69/mo
- Coach: scripted bot, not AI
- Big behavioural psychology angle
- No free tier beyond trial
Verdict: not actually free.
Fitbod (free tier)
- 3 free workouts then $13/mo
- Strong gym-equipment auto-substitution
- No nutrition
- No coach
Verdict: 3 workouts = trial in disguise.
Volya (current, free)
- Food log: ✅
- Photo plate scan: ✅ (AI-powered)
- Barcode: 🔜 (Q2 2026)
- AI coach with memory: ✅
- Workout planner with 157 exercises: ✅
- Vegan-first nutrition: ✅
- Hotel/travel mode: ✅
- Pantry-to-recipe: ✅
- Card required: ❌
Verdict: actually free during beta. Funded by future paid tier (~$5/mo planned), not by selling data.
The data question
We checked privacy policies:
- MFP: shares with advertisers + parent company (Under Armour).
- Noom: extensive data sharing including health insights.
- Fitbod: minimal sharing, well-rated.
- Volya: never sold to third parties. Gemini API is the only AI processor (Google's Generative AI Terms forbid training on customer data). See Privacy Policy.
Bottom line
If you only want barcode-scan logging: MyFitnessPal works. If you want everything (logging + AI plans + coaching + cooking + memory) without a paywall: Volya, while in beta.