Minthe vs MacroFactor
Choose MacroFactor if
- You want your calorie target to adapt week by week from what you actually eat and weigh.
- You want the fastest possible macro logging from a verified database.
- You use Android. Minthe is iPhone only.
- You want a no-shaming macro coach and your gut is fine.
- You want a habit tracker alongside your macros.
Choose Minthe if
- You bloat and want to know which food is involved, not just what you ate.
- You want gut symptoms and stool logged next to your food.
- You want each food compared against your own base rate, with delayed reactions handled.
- You want a free tier: logging, macros and barcode lookup cost nothing in Minthe.
- You want a suspect confirmed by a scheduled test before you cut it.
Where MacroFactor is genuinely better
- The expenditure algorithm and coaching. Its adaptive estimate of what you burn, with weekly check-ins that adjust your targets, is the heart of the product. Minthe measures your maintenance from logged intake and weight trend, but it has no coach and no weekly check-ins.
- Logging speed and data. AI photo, barcode, label scan, speech and recipe import, over more than 1.36 million verified foods. Minthe’s catalogue is far smaller.
- Its users rate it very highly. 22,671 US ratings averaging 4.8, on both iPhone and Android. Minthe launched in August 2026 on iPhone only.
- Home and Lock Screen widgets plus a habit tracker. Minthe has widgets too, but no habit tracker.
- A stance we share. It says you will never see warnings, red numbers or shaming. That is rare in this category and worth crediting.
What a macro coach is not built to answer
MacroFactor tells you how much you ate and what you burn. Bloating asks a different question: which of what you ate comes before your bad days more often than chance, allowing for reactions that arrive hours or a day later. That needs symptoms logged next to food and a comparison against how often you bloat anyway. MacroFactor’s listing describes neither for gut symptoms. It is not what the app was built to do.
Minthe compares every food with how you usually feel, allows for reactions that arrive hours or a day later and filters out results that could be coincidence. Then it asks you to confirm a suspect with a scheduled test. Here is how it works.
What Minthe does for macros
Minthe is not a macro tracker first, but it does track macros. Pick the nutrition and macros mode at setup and it gives you calorie and macro targets from your body metrics with per-macro overrides, sugars, saturated fat, sodium and fiber per food, alcohol as its own macro, a weight history with a trend line and maintenance calories measured from what you actually logged against how your weight moved rather than from a formula alone. Barcode lookup through Open Food Facts is free on every plan, a label scan reads the printed nutrition panel, macros on any item can be corrected by hand and homemade mixes can be built by weight. A Home Screen and Lock Screen widget shows the macros left today. The nutrition you log can be written to Apple Health. All of that is free, with AI scans limited to a few a week on the free plan. Nothing in it scolds: over target is not a failure state. Minthe is not a weight-loss app. It does not count vitamins and minerals.
Side by side
| MacroFactor | Minthe | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Macro tracker and adaptive nutrition coach | Gut symptom tracker with a statistical trigger engine, plus a nutrition mode |
| Platform | iPhone and Android. No web | iPhone only, iOS 18 or later. No Android, no web. The app is in English. |
| Food database | 1.36M+ verified foods | About 1,100 generic foods and 370 trigger foods, plus Open Food Facts barcodes |
| Free tier | None. 7-day trial | Logging, macros, barcode lookup, export, 3 AI scans a week |
| Paid price | $11.99/month, $47.99/6 months or $71.99/year | $6.99/month or $39.99/year. Elite $59.99/year for more scans. |
| Logging | Photo, barcode, label, voice, recipe import | Photo, barcode, label scan or typed |
| Expenditure | Adaptive estimate with weekly target adjustments | Maintenance measured from logged intake and weight trend, with an uncertainty range; no weekly check-ins |
| Gut symptom logging | Not described in its listing | Yes: bloating, gas, pain, reflux, stool and more |
| Food-to-symptom analysis | Not described in its listing | Yes, in plain English at /method. |
| FODMAP data | Not described in its listing | FODMAP groups counted by dose |
| Other trackers | Habits, period | Sleep, stress, cycle, water, alcohol |
| Apple Health | Yes, plus Google Fit | Reads sleep, steps, active energy, resting heart rate, weight and cycle. Can write the nutrition you log back to Health. |
| Widgets | Home and Lock Screen | Home Screen and Lock Screen: macros left today and today’s step of a running test. |
| Coach | Algorithmic weekly check-ins | No. There is no dietitian or coach in Minthe. |
| Track record | Since 2021, 22,671 US ratings averaging 4.8 | Launched August 2026. No long track record yet. |
Checked September 2026. "Not verified" means we could not confirm it from public sources, not that the feature is missing.
Keep it, switch, or run both
Keep MacroFactor if its coaching is why you use it. Minthe does not do what it does and does not try to.
Consider switching only if your gut has become the main question, fixed or measured targets are enough for you and you want one app on iPhone.
Run both if you want the coaching and the gut question answered. Log symptoms in Minthe, since that is where the analysis happens. Keep the numbers where you already trust them.
The other macro trackers: Minthe vs MyFitnessPal and Minthe vs Cronometer. Choosing a food diary for symptoms more broadly? The food diary roundup.
Minthe is a wellness and self-tracking tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose or treat any condition and isn't a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have red-flag symptoms such as blood in your stool, unintentional weight loss, difficulty swallowing, persistent vomiting or a fever alongside gut symptoms, see a clinician rather than tracking them.
Frequently asked
Can MacroFactor help with bloating or IBS?
It records what you eat very well. That record is useful to anyone. Its listing does not describe gut symptom tracking; it has a habit tracker and a period tracker, but nothing that links foods to symptoms. If you bloat and want to know which food is involved, MacroFactor gives you a clean food log and leaves the comparison to you.
Should I switch from MacroFactor to Minthe?
Not if MacroFactor’s coaching is what you pay for. Its adaptive expenditure estimate and weekly check-ins are the core of the product and Minthe does not replace them: Minthe measures your maintenance calories from logged intake and weight trend, but it has no coach and no weekly check-ins. Switch only if your gut has become the main question and macros alone are enough for you.
Can I use both?
Yes. MacroFactor for the numbers and its coaching, Minthe for the gut question. Both work with Apple Health. Minthe writes the nutrition you log to it. There is no import between the two apps, so each only analyzes what you logged in it. Double logging is the usual reason people stop, so be realistic about whether you will keep both going.
Is MacroFactor free?
No. It has a 7-day free trial and no free tier. After that it costs $11.99 a month, $47.99 for six months or $71.99 a year in the US. Minthe’s logging, macros, barcode lookup and export are free. Its pattern engine and food tests are $39.99 a year.
Do the two apps share a tone?
More than most. MacroFactor says you will never see warnings, red numbers or shaming. Minthe’s rule is the same: over target is not a failure, there are no streaks and a worse week is a datapoint. Neither is built to make you feel bad about what you ate.