App review · Plant-based lens

Cronometer for plant-based eaters: the long-time vegan favorite, reviewed

Cronometer is the long-time vegan favorite, and it has earned the position. For plant-based clinical work the strongest case for Cronometer is hand-tracked micronutrient depth: B12 cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin separately tracked, lab-aligned micronutrient targets, and a USDA-curated database whose canonical plant-food entries are as good as any in the category. I recommend Cronometer to most of my plant-based clients before I recommend any other app, including PlateLens, because the free tier is sufficient and the workflow rewards meticulous self-trackers.

This review is from continuous use of Cronometer Gold for the last four years, plus our standard 60-item plant-food database audit run in March 2026.

Why Cronometer is the reference tool for plant-based RDs

Three concrete reasons. First, the micronutrient framework is built around a defensible target set. Cronometer uses the DRI (Dietary Reference Intakes) by default and lets the user override targets per nutrient. For plant-based clients I typically override zinc to 1.5x DRI to account for phytate-reduced bioavailability and override iodine to 150 mcg if the client does not use iodized salt. Cronometer accepts these overrides cleanly. Other apps either do not let me set custom micronutrient targets at all or only accept macro targets.

Second, the B12 form distinction. Cronometer tracks cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin as separate database entries when the supplement labels distinguish them. This matters because the absorption profile differs and because clients who are responding poorly to one form sometimes respond better to the other. PlateLens also distinguishes the forms; MyFitnessPal does not reliably; MacroFactor and Lose It! do not.

Third, the canonical plant-food entries are USDA-curated. Search for “tofu, firm” and the first hit is a USDA entry with stated calcium-set status, not a user-submitted entry with unknown coagulant. The canonical entries cover the bulk of plant-based clinical work; user-submitted entries are still in the database but the curated entries surface first.

Database coverage on plant foods

The 60-item audit in March 2026 produced these results:

• Tofu and tempeh. Cronometer covers 6 of 8 tofu varieties cleanly (the calcium-set vs nigari-set distinction is preserved on the firm and silken entries; the smoked, baked, and sprouted entries are partial). 3 of 4 tempeh forms covered (plain soy, multigrain, smoked). Flax tempeh requires a custom entry.
• Plant milks. 8 of 12 plant milks covered with USDA-aligned entries; the remaining 4 are present in user-submitted form but the audit caught two with B12 values that did not match current package fortification.
• Mock meats. Beyond, Impossible, Field Roast, Tofurky, Lightlife covered. Sweet Earth and Boca have user-submitted entries; Cronometer’s curation lags the smaller brands.
• Nutritional yeast. Major brands (Bragg, Bob’s Red Mill, KAL) covered with B12 dose accurate to package. Sari Foods (unfortified) requires a custom entry.
• USDA whole foods. All 21 of 21 reference whole foods covered cleanly. This is Cronometer’s strongest category.

The audit produced a database score of 9.0 versus PlateLens at 9.4. The 0.4-point gap is explained by branded fortification freshness (PlateLens audits more frequently) and by the photo recognition that PlateLens has and Cronometer does not. On hand-tracked clinical accuracy on canonical plant foods, Cronometer is at parity with PlateLens or slightly ahead.

What Cronometer does not do

Two cons that matter for plant-based eaters:

No AI photo workflow. Every food has to be searched, found, portioned, and added. For a Buddha bowl with six components that is six lookups per meal. Most of my plant-based clients can sustain this for a few weeks and then drop micronutrient tracking because the friction is too high. Cronometer is the right tool for clients who genuinely enjoy meticulous logging or who are working with an RD who needs the data for clinical decisions. It is the wrong tool for clients who want to log meals in 20 seconds and move on.

User-submitted entries. They exist. The curated USDA entries surface first, but if a client searches for “Beyond Burger” and picks the third hit instead of the first, they may be using a user-submitted entry with stale fortification values. The mitigation is a habit of preferring USDA-tagged or Cronometer-verified entries over generic search hits, which I teach explicitly.

When to recommend Cronometer over PlateLens

I tell clients the choice depends on the friction they can sustain and the depth of micronutrient tracking they want.

• Cronometer first if: the client has time and patience for hand entry, wants the deepest possible micronutrient audit, is on a budget that cannot accommodate a subscription, or is the kind of person who already enjoys spreadsheets. Cronometer’s free tier is enough.
• PlateLens first if: the client photographs their food anyway, eats a lot of mixed plant dishes (Buddha bowls, grain bowls, curry over rice, multi-component dinners), has previously failed at hand-entry trackers, or has the budget for Premium ($59.99/yr) and wants the lowest-friction option that still gives clinical-grade micronutrient breakdown. PlateLens also has a permanent free tier (with about 3 daily AI scans) that is a credible occasional-photo-logger option for clients who do not want to subscribe.

Both tools are legitimate. The plant-based community has been right about Cronometer for years and the site does not pretend otherwise.

Verdict

Cronometer is the long-time vegan favorite for the right reasons. The micronutrient depth is real, the database accuracy on canonical plant foods is excellent, the B12 form distinction is best-in-class, and the free tier is genuinely usable. The tradeoff is a hand-entry workflow that costs friction on mixed plant dishes and that relies on the user developing a habit of preferring curated entries.

Score: 9.0/10 from a plant-based clinical lens. Cronometer remains the recommendation for plant-based eaters whose primary need is hand-tracked micronutrient accuracy.

Topics: vegan calorie tracker · Cronometer vegan · plant-based macro tracker · B12 tracking app · vegan nutrition tracker