← Intelligence hub
Review Insights · Google Play

Carbon - Macro Coach & Tracker

Reform LLC · 2,826 ratings · ★ 4.6

4.6
★★★★★
2,826 ratings
5 ★
2,397 (85%)
4 ★
204 (7%)
3 ★
0 (0%)
2 ★
37 (1%)
1 ★
185 (7%)
🎯 Build a better version

Top complaints - extracted from 22 negative reviews

Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.

1
"barcode"
5 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★ "Using your latest weight and not a moving average (and not calculating it at all?) is super flawed. Over half the things you scan the barcode of are just completely wrong, and when you're making a recipe you have to exit the recipe, go to f…" - Grant Champagne
2
"foods"
5 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★ "Using your latest weight and not a moving average (and not calculating it at all?) is super flawed. Over half the things you scan the barcode of are just completely wrong, and when you're making a recipe you have to exit the recipe, go to f…" - Grant Champagne
3
"calories"
4 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app does not connect to your smart watch or allow you to track exercise. It's basing your caloric intake on your reported lifestyle not on the exercise you actually do. How scientific is that? If I say I'm sedentary I can't log exercis…" - Mary Mytting
4
"subscription"
4 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★ "Please people do your research. Pay attention to your subscriptions. Companies like them are not taking accountability for their actions. If you travel or are no longer in America. Make sure to keep an eye out on your bank accounts. Their i…" - D ALMS
5
"doesn"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app does not connect to your smart watch or allow you to track exercise. It's basing your caloric intake on your reported lifestyle not on the exercise you actually do. How scientific is that? If I say I'm sedentary I can't log exercis…" - Mary Mytting
6
"sure"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app does not connect to your smart watch or allow you to track exercise. It's basing your caloric intake on your reported lifestyle not on the exercise you actually do. How scientific is that? If I say I'm sedentary I can't log exercis…" - Mary Mytting
7
"work"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I'm sure this app works for some people, but it didn't work for me. I stayed consistent for a long time and showed absolutely no progress. When that happened, the app would decrease my calories. That makes sense, absolutely. But when the ap…" - Kaitlyn Turner
8
"food"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★ "Using your latest weight and not a moving average (and not calculating it at all?) is super flawed. Over half the things you scan the barcode of are just completely wrong, and when you're making a recipe you have to exit the recipe, go to f…" - Grant Champagne
9
"database"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★ "too expensive, low utility. the food database is sorely lacking. the same job can be done by other apps, cheaper and more effectively. there is no need for this app. it offers nothing new" - TJ Man
10
"trial"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★ "There's no even a trial period" - Gunsen Keitaro
11
"free"
3 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★ "No free trial so I can't even try the app" - Filip

📋 All 22 negative reviews

Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").

★★★★ Stephanie Bell 3/14/2026
forced to a pay screen before even trying the app.
★★★★ Grant Champagne 2/10/2026 v2.74.4731
Using your latest weight and not a moving average (and not calculating it at all?) is super flawed. Over half the things you scan the barcode of are just completely wrong, and when you're making a recipe you have to exit the recipe, go to foods, scan the wrong barcode again, then correct it, then go back into the recipe. Imagine doing that for multiple items, multiple recipes. Exhausting. Just a worse version of MacroFactor.
★★★★ TJ Man 8/3/2025
too expensive, low utility. the food database is sorely lacking. the same job can be done by other apps, cheaper and more effectively. there is no need for this app. it offers nothing new
★★★★ Avery McNeil 7/16/2025 v2.71.4133
no active calories input or exercise logging. this pretty much renders the nutrition tracking goals useless unless you're a mainly sedentary person or follow a very diligent training program where you burn the same calories on the same days every week.
★★★★ Raul Valentin Moldovan 6/16/2025
Literally useless,im doig its job while also paying for it.If you are from EU,I would never recommend it to you,the label and barcode for this app is broke in europe,so youll have to add the foods yourself.I asked for a refund and I got denied because it doesnt meet its policies.This app is not convenient at all to me.
★★★★ Lorna Sheridan 6/13/2025 v2.71.3914
I struggled to find foods through search or barcode scanner, and the nutritional label scanner did not work well. I don't have the time to manually set up all ingredients, so I will go back to myfitnesspal.
★★★★ Gunsen Keitaro 4/28/2025
There's no even a trial period
★★★★ Jennifer Bailey 4/23/2025 v2.50.1537
horrible to try and cancel
★★★★ Filip 3/5/2025 v2.70.3574
No free trial so I can't even try the app
★★★★ D ALMS 1/29/2025
Please people do your research. Pay attention to your subscriptions. Companies like them are not taking accountability for their actions. If you travel or are no longer in America. Make sure to keep an eye out on your bank accounts. Their idea of customer service is to either contact Google play store or Apple. Their should be no reason you can not cancel a subscription within the app itself. Thank you. And remember, always check your corners my friends.
★★★★ Vicki Bliss 1/16/2025
I'm not willing to pay monthly for an app that I can't even try and see if I like it better than what I am already using.
★★★★ Shawn Africk 12/15/2024 v2.69.3239
I've been using carbon for a couple years, and it has been good up until their "fraction" update. Instead of showing the number keyboard for entering the amount of food, they show the default keyboard, so you can use the / character to enter a faction and it will do the division for you. This is a pain for daily data entry and yes, I could show my number keyboard with 2 clicks, but that is adding more work. Cancelling for a competitor who uses the number keyboard ☺️
★★★★ Destiny O 11/6/2024 v2.69.3239
Requires monthly subscription to access.
★★★★ Kathleen Milonas 10/31/2024 v2.69.3239
Charged my card even though I canceled right after mistake purchase. Terrible Google assistant.
★★★★ Gifted Spider 10/15/2024
NOT FREE needs a subscription to use. don't say you're a free app if you're not
★★★★ Ronnie C 5/15/2024 v2.62.2612
Overall not impressed with the app. The android dashboard doesn't update consumed calories and doesn't provide how many I have left so I have to subtract with a calculator how many I have left based on the target. The barcode database returns no item found more often that not or displays the macro breakdown. So far two weeks in using the app and have hit target goals and yet I'm not compliant because the dashboard doesn't want to update. Basic app with a basic algorithm
★★★★★ Mary Mytting 11/14/2025 v2.74.4679
This app does not connect to your smart watch or allow you to track exercise. It's basing your caloric intake on your reported lifestyle not on the exercise you actually do. How scientific is that? If I say I'm sedentary I can't log exercise that I do. If I say I'm active and I don't exercise at all it doesn't reduce my caloric intake. I just don't understand how burned calories don't factor into the equation. Not sure why Huberman is recommending.
★★★★★ Kaitlyn Turner 9/8/2025 v2.72.4215
I'm sure this app works for some people, but it didn't work for me. I stayed consistent for a long time and showed absolutely no progress. When that happened, the app would decrease my calories. That makes sense, absolutely. But when the app takes you down to 1200 calories and requires you to still eat 120-140 grams of protein and only 100 grams of carbs and 40 grams of fat, it reaches a point of no longer being sustainable.
★★★★★ HealingSwordsman 4/26/2025 v2.70.3852
Im really starting to doubt how this app auto tracks macros, its all over the place, puts me up to 2500 one week down to 2100 again two weeks later. its not smooth at all.
★★★★★ Filipe Almeida 9/10/2024 v2.67.3069
I wanted to like it but..... They don't have the most basic foods like.... Grilled sirloin lol. They have a ton of restaurants or sirloin and mashed potatoes but not just a grilled sirloin. It's crazy....a lot of foods are only in cups or servings which make no sense. We need grams. The app itself is awesome, the food log absolutely sucks.
★★★★★ JD Mo 8/18/2024 v2.67.3016
Would give it a try but no free trial period or method. Would rate it higher and give it a shot if there was a free period or the subscription stated it refund the yearly if you subscription early
★★★★★ Bagrat Harutyunyan 5/8/2024 v2.62.2594
Disappointed : Barcode scanner is bad doesn't find foods /wrong results I'd have to manually add majority of the foods which is not user friendly at all. Compared to my fitness pal this one doesn't take the cake . I love the clean ui and the helpful features of macro counter etc but the lack of database the barcode scanner has is a deal breaker for me. If the scanner becomes like that on MFP I'll be subscribing again :)

Sentiment summary

92%
Positive (4-5★)
0%
Neutral (3★)
8%
Negative (1-2★)

✓ Strong positive sentiment - clone path is harder, users like the existing app.