Calorie counter without tracking, without an account and without gamification
A calorie counter knows what you eat, how much you weigh and how you move. That is health data. If you do not want to share it with ad networks, you need an app that gets by without them. Here is how to recognise such an app, and how TellerBuddy measures up.
TellerBuddy is a calorie counter for iPhone and iPad made in Göttingen: no ad network, no advertising ID, no third-party SDK, usable without an account, servers in Germany, core features free, no streaks, badges or points.
Calorie counter without tracking: how to check
- Open the App Store page and read “App Privacy”. If the entry “Data Used to Track You” appears there, the development team states tracking. These details are self-reported; Apple does not verify them.
- See whether third-party advertising is listed as a purpose. That is also in the “App Privacy” section.
- Read the app’s privacy policy and ask yourself which service providers receive data and where they are based.
Calorie counter without an advertising ID
TellerBuddy contains no ad network and no other third-party SDK. That is why there is no advertising ID request and no tracking permission the app would have to ask for. The statistics we need we collect ourselves, without personal reference: only the event is stored, for example which barcode was scanned, with no account, no device identifier and no IP address.
To be upfront about it: in exactly one place in the settings there is a recommendation, marked as advertising, for a kitchen scale with an affiliate link to Amazon. It is not loaded from elsewhere and nothing about it is analysed; Amazon opens in the browser only when you tap the link.
Calorie counter without an account
Tap “Continue without an account” at the start. Diary, barcode scanner, product search, recipes, water, steps, fasting, weight, widgets and data export then work without signing in and without a subscription, and your diary, profile and weight stay on your device. Only features that cannot work without a server need an account: photo recognition, submitting new products and backup. Signing in works only with Apple.
Calorie counter without gamification
TellerBuddy has no streaks, no badges and no points. The app shows what you ate. Reminders exist only if you switch them on, and a forgotten day is added later through the calendar. How other apps handle this is described in their own help pages; on these pages we list only what we have read at the source ourselves.
Calorie counter with servers in Germany
The data sits with a German provider in Germany. The operator is BYTEPOTATO UG (haftungsbeschränkt), based in Göttingen; German law and a German place of jurisdiction apply. The exception is photos: recognising meals and reading packaging photos when you create your own products run at Google as a processor, and only with your explicit consent.
What the well-known apps state on the App Store
Based on the privacy details each development team publishes on its product page in the Irish App Store (self-reported, not verified by Apple). “Yes” means the team states there that data may be used for this. In brackets are the data categories listed under the tracking entry. Retrieved on 27 October 2026; the source column links to the product page.
| App | Data Used to Track You (across apps and websites of other companies) | Third-Party Advertising | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| TellerBuddy | No | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| YAZIO | Yes (Identifiers) | Yes | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| MyFitnessPal | Yes (Identifiers, Usage Data) | Yes | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| Lifesum | Yes (Identifiers) | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| Fddb | Yes (Identifiers) | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| FatSecret | No | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| Noom | Yes (Financial Info, Identifiers, Location, Purchases, Sensitive Info, User Content) | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| Cronometer | Yes (Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data) | Yes | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
| MacroFactor | No | No | App Store, retrieved on 27 October 2026 |
TellerBuddy collects data too. According to its own listing in the Irish App Store, the following may be linked to your identity, each for App Functionality: Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness), Contact Info (Email Address, Name), User Content (Photos or Videos, Customer Support, Other User Content) and Identifiers (User ID). Not linked to you may be Usage Data (Product Interaction) for Analytics, and Diagnostics (Crash Data, Other Diagnostic Data) for App Functionality. TellerBuddy lists no data used to track you. Without an account, your diary, profile and weight stay on your device; the details are in the privacy policy.
What TellerBuddy cannot do
- No Android, no web version, no Apple Watch: iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later.
- Not a medical device, values are estimates, not for children and teenagers.
- Photo recognition, the Bluetooth kitchen scale and cloud backup cost €2.99 a month or €29.99 a year in the subscription (Ireland), with three days free.
More comparisons
All pages use the same data basis and give their sources with the date they were retrieved.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a calorie counter without tracking?
Yes. TellerBuddy states no tracking on the App Store. You can check this yourself on the App Store page under “App Privacy”.
Is there a calorie counter without an account?
Yes, TellerBuddy works without an account. Your diary, profile and weight then stay on your device.
Is there a free calorie counter without gamification?
TellerBuddy: the core features are free, and there are no streaks, badges or points. Only photo recognition, the Bluetooth kitchen scale and cloud backup need a subscription.
What health data does TellerBuddy store?
The data you enter sits on your device or, if you sign in and use backup, on servers in Germany. On the App Store, TellerBuddy states which data categories may be collected linked or not linked to you; they are listed above. No data is sold.