An honest comparison.

§ 01 · TL;DR

Pick ProTrack AI if photographing meals is how you actually log, you want that unlimited without a subscription, and your iPhone is already on iOS 26. Its lifetime tier is $39.99 once, its scanning model runs on the phone, and it needs no account.

Pick BiteDeck if you log by searching foods and scanning barcodes, eat at chain restaurants, want your history in Apple Health and on your wrist, and want the tracker itself to cost nothing. BiteDeck runs on iOS 17, searches 151,700 foods and 282 restaurant chains on the free tier, and exports to CSV or JSON whenever you ask.

The short version: ProTrack AI sells a private photo scanner you buy once. BiteDeck gives away a complete tracker and charges for the AI.

§ 02 · The comparison

Every ProTrack AI cell was read on 2026-08-23 from useprotrack.com and its App Store listing. “Not published” means we looked and found no claim — it does not mean the feature is missing. Check their site before relying on this table.

§ 03 · Where ProTrack AI wins

Unlimited photo scanning without a subscription. ProTrack sells lifetime access for $39.99 once, and its pricing page puts it plainly: “Pay once and own it. No subscription, no renewals, ever.” BiteDeck's equivalent capability, AI Photo Scan, exists only inside Premium at $14.99/mo or $69.99/yr, and there is no one-time option. If photo logging is the job and subscriptions are the dealbreaker, $39.99 is less than three months of BiteDeck Premium and they are the better buy.

Their free tier includes photo scans. Ours includes none.ProTrack's free tier lists limited AI meal photo scans alongside manual logging. BiteDeck's free tier is broader on nearly everything else, but on this one feature theirs is not zero and ours is.

The photo AI runs on the phone.ProTrack states that “the AI model that scans meal photos runs locally on your iPhone, with no internet connection required for photo analysis, and no images are uploaded to a cloud server.” BiteDeck cannot say that. Our scan is relayed to Google Gemini, and we published exactly what leaves the phone rather than blur it. On meal-photo privacy specifically, their architecture is the stronger one. Take it at face value.

§ 04 · Where BiteDeck wins

It runs on far more iPhones. ProTrack AI requires iOS 26 or later. BiteDeck requires iOS 17. This is the most underrated line in the table: if your iPhone cannot take iOS 26, nothing else about ProTrack is a decision you get to make.

The free tier is the whole tracker. Search across 151,700 foods and 282 restaurant chains, barcode scanning, nutrition-label OCR, two-way Apple Health sync, the Apple Watch app, intermittent fasting, body-fat tracking, an on-device weight forecast, and export — none of it a trial, none of it paid. ProTrack publishes no database figure at all, which is why this is the cleanest difference on the page: one of us tells you how much food is in there.

You can leave with your data. CSV, JSON, and a full ZIP archive with photos are free, not a Premium feature, and import works too, including MyFitnessPal CSV. ProTrack publishes no export path as of 2026-08-23. A tracker you cannot export from is a tracker you cannot leave.

The log follows you to a new iPhone. BiteDeck syncs through your own iCloud private database, and the store is also carried by encrypted backup and Quick Start transfer, so a new phone picks the history back up on its own — see how the transfer works. ProTrack describes your food history as living only on your phone and publishes no transfer path. On-device is a real privacy property; it is also the thing that makes a new phone a blank slate.

§ 05 · Pricing

ProTrack AI is free to download. Its pricing page lists two paid plans, $5.99 per week and $39.99 for lifetime access, under the heading “Two plans. One full app.” Its US App Store listing shows three in-app purchases: Lifetime $39.99, Weekly plan $5.99, and an Annual plan at $29.99 that the pricing page does not mention. Both were read on 2026-08-23; we are recording what each source says and leaving it there.

BiteDeck is free to download and the free tier does not expire. Premium is $14.99/month or $69.99/year and adds exactly four AI features: Photo Scan, AI Coach, Plate Check, and voice logging. Those four bill us per use, which is the whole reason they are the paid part and everything else is not. Full detail on the pricing page.

Read the two models against your own use rather than against each other. If you scan plates daily and never search a food, ProTrack lifetime is cheaper by the end of the third month and stays cheaper forever. If you log by barcode and search and want the rest of a tracker, BiteDeck costs nothing at all.

§ 06 · Privacy

These two apps are private in different places, and the honest version helps you more than a scoreboard would. Neither asks for an account. Neither keeps your food log on the developer's server.

ProTrack is stronger on the meal photo. Their scanning model runs on the device and no image is uploaded. Their privacy policy, last updated May 1, 2026, goes further and says the app “works entirely offline” and “does not send any data outside your device”, with analytics stored locally. Their App Store privacy label declares Usage Data and Product Interaction collected for Analytics under “Data Not Linked to You”. Both statements were read on 2026-08-23; they are theirs to reconcile, and we are quoting rather than characterising.

BiteDeck is stronger on the architecture around the log. There is no BiteDeck account and no BiteDeck server holding your food diary: it lives in SwiftData on your iPhone and syncs through your own iCloud private database — your iCloud, not our server, which is why we cannot read it. The AI features are the exception that sends anything off-device, and what a photo scan sends is written down in full. Everything else — search, barcode, label OCR, freeform entry — logs a meal without a request leaving the phone. See BiteDeck's privacy policy and the privacy model in plain language.

§ 07 · FAQ

• Is ProTrack AI a subscription?

  It can be either. ProTrack AI’s pricing page lists $5.99 per week or $39.99 once for lifetime access, and its US App Store listing shows a third in-app purchase, an Annual plan at $29.99 (both read 2026-08-23). BiteDeck is the other way round: the tracker itself is free forever with no trial clock, and only the four AI features sit behind a paid tier at $14.99/month or $69.99/year. If you want unlimited AI photo scanning and refuse subscriptions, ProTrack’s $39.99 lifetime is the cheaper answer and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

• Can I run ProTrack AI on my iPhone?

  Only if your iPhone is on iOS 26 or later — that is the minimum on its App Store listing as of 2026-08-23. BiteDeck runs on iOS 17 or later, which reaches several more years of iPhones. This is the first thing to check, because no amount of feature comparison matters if the app will not install.

• Does either app upload my meal photos?

  ProTrack AI states that its scanning model runs locally on your iPhone, with no internet connection needed for photo analysis and no images uploaded to a cloud server. BiteDeck’s AI Photo Scan does send the photo off-device: it is downscaled to 1,024 pixels on the long edge, relayed through BiteDeck’s own endpoint to Google Gemini for recognition, and the item list comes straight back. The images are not retained and not used for training, and Photo Scan is an optional Premium feature — search, barcode, nutrition-label OCR and freeform entry all log a meal without sending anything anywhere. On this one feature ProTrack’s architecture is the more private of the two.

• Which one has the bigger food database?

  BiteDeck publishes its numbers: 151,700 foods and 282 restaurant chains, all searchable on the free tier. ProTrack AI publishes no database figure on its site or App Store listing as of 2026-08-23, so there is nothing to compare it against. That is a statement about what is published, not a claim that they have no database.

• Which one works better offline?

  Both keep your food log on the phone rather than on the developer’s server, so day-to-day logging works with no connection in either app. The differences are at the two ends. ProTrack’s photo scanning runs on-device, so it works in airplane mode; BiteDeck’s photo scan needs a connection. BiteDeck syncs through your own iCloud private database, which we cannot read, so the log reaches your next iPhone on its own; ProTrack describes your food history as living only on your phone.