MONEY-HOME

Should I self-host MyFitnessPal Premium?

$19.99/mo · Premium · alternative: wger

RATING

KINDA

OUTLOOK

NOT ASSIGNED

RATIONALE

wger handles workouts, routines and body metrics well. The moat is MyFitnessPal's food database — decades of crowd-sourced barcodes that no self-hosted app matches. Worth it for lifters tracking training; not for calorie counters living off the barcode scanner.

WHAT YOU LOSE

The food database — this is the product, and it doesn't come with you

WHAT YOU'RE PAYING FOR

food & calorie logging · barcode scanning · macros · exercise tracking

Self-Hosting Facts

1 app per panel · MyFitnessPal Premium

Assumes 1 seat on 1 always-on box you already run

Amount per month% of sub *

Subscription$19.99

VPS share0.503%

Storage + backup0.000%

Your hours · 20 min @ $206.6733%

Self-hosted all-in7.1736%

Effective markup2.8×

Setup · 15 min measured$5.00 once

Break-even0.4 months

VERDICT

KINDA

OUTLOOK

NOT ASSIGNED

What's your hour worth? $20/h

* Percent of the subscription price. Your time is priced at the slider's rate — $0/h ("my homelab time is free and I love it") is a legitimate position. Every number is derived from the record, never hand-written. Price source, checked 2026-08-06.

Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).

ALTERNATIVES

Ranked alternatives

wgerA gym log and a food diary on one server: routines, body measurements, and a barcode lookup that asks Open Food Facts instead of a subscription.

wger-project/wger · ★ 6,634 · 0d

FitTrackeeA training log on your own server: your .gpx and .fit files, on a map, with the statistics and none of the leaderboard.

SamR1/FitTrackee · ★ 1,150 · 8d

wger running from the boot-verified compose file — wger, running from the compose file on this page — screenshot from our verified instance, not marketing material.

EVIDENCE

PROTOCOL

VERIFIED BY

zernonia

REVIEWED

10 AUG 2026

SETUP MEASURED

15 MIN

AI ASSISTANT

CLAUDE-CODE · STATED

FULL TIMED LOG

# MyFitnessPal Premium — verdict log

- **Date:** 2026-08-10
- **Verdict:** KINDA — worth it if…
- **Protocol:** v1 (2GB reference env, Docker preinstalled, AI assistant: claude-code)

## Why no compose file

- This verdict is decided by economics/capability, not setup effort — the rubric doesn't require a timed install to conclude the subscription should stay (or that the replacement's cost lives elsewhere, e.g. GPUs, egress, or an installer script).

## The call

wger handles workouts, routines and body metrics well. The moat is MyFitnessPal's food database — decades of crowd-sourced barcodes that no self-hosted app matches. Worth it for lifters tracking training; not for calorie counters living off the barcode scanner.

HISTORY

10 AUG 2026UNRATED → KINDAInitial verdict: wger handles workouts, routines and body metrics well.