Apps Like Yuka But Free: What Is Actually Free in 2026
Apps Like Yuka But Free: What Is Actually Free in 2026
“Free” in an app store means several different things: free with advertising, free up to a weekly scan limit, free until you want offline mode, or genuinely free because volunteers and donations pay for it. A shopper looking for apps like Yuka but free needs to know which one they are installing before the paywall appears mid-aisle.
Every price and limit below comes from the developer’s own App Store listing, pricing page or help documentation, reviewed on 2026-09-24. No app was installed or tested first hand for this post.
Key Takeaways
- Yuka’s free tier is genuine: scanning and scores cost nothing, and Premium is 15 euros a year.
- Open Food Facts and Bobby Approved have no published scan cap and no paywall.
- Soosee’s free tier has no ads; Supporter removes the group limits.
- CodeCheck gives 5 free scans a week with advertising, then sells subscriptions or scan packs.
- Verify Veg gives unlimited barcode scans free and 10 AI text scans a month; its Pro price is not stated.
TL;DR: Yuka’s free tier does most of what people want, and the paid extras are offline mode, search, unlimited history and diet alerts at 15 euros a year. If you want free with no paywall at all, Open Food Facts is a non-profit open database and Bobby Approved’s listing shows no in-app purchases. Everything else is free with a catch: a scan cap, a group limit, or ads.
Why “free” needs unpacking
Food scanner apps are funded in five ways, and each shapes what you get for nothing.
- Advertising. The free tier is usable and you pay with attention. CodeCheck works this way.
- A scan cap. A fixed number of free scans, then a wait or a purchase. CodeCheck again, at 5 a week.
- A subscription for history or offline use. Scanning stays free and convenience moves behind the paywall. That is Yuka.
- A one-time purchase. Pay once, no recurring charge. Soosee sells a lifetime option beside its subscriptions.
- Donations and open data. A non-profit builds the database and volunteers fill it.
What each app actually gives away
| App | What is free | What is paid | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yuka | Barcode scanning and product scores | Premium at 15 euros a year: offline mode, search, unlimited history, diet alerts | Diet alerts and offline use are Premium only |
| Verify Veg | Unlimited barcode scans; 10 AI text scans a month; offline scan history | Pro for unlimited AI label scans and 200 custom ingredients; price not stated | 10 AI label scans a month on the free tier |
| Open Food Facts | The whole app: scanning, Nutri-Score, NOVA, Eco-Score, allergen screening | Nothing in the listing; the project asks for donations | Verdicts come from open data, which it warns may not be 100% accurate |
| Bobby Approved | Barcode scanning, 100+ flagged ingredients, healthier alternatives | None shown on the listing | The listing describes a health filter, not diet modes |
| Soosee | Word highlighting, 30+ categories, custom categories, offline, no ads | Supporter: monthly, yearly or one-time lifetime | Unlimited groups sit behind Supporter; the free cap is not stated |
| CodeCheck | 5 scans a week with advertising | Plus at 1.99 EUR a month or 11.99 EUR a year; scan packs from 0.49 EUR | The free tier is capped and ad-supported |
The two genuinely free options
Open Food Facts describes itself as a non-profit project built by thousands of volunteers, and its listing says it is independent and ad-free. The database is open data anyone can reuse. Its allergen screening carries a warning: “the info and the detection may not be 100% accurate.”
Bobby Approved shows “Free” on its listing with no in-app purchases attached. It scans a barcode, flags more than 100 ingredients it considers harmful, and suggests alternatives. Its listing describes a health filter rather than diet modes such as halal or vegan. It recorded 4.9 stars from 162,000 ratings on 2026-09-24.
The free tiers with a documented limit
Yuka is free to download and scan. Premium adds offline mode, a search bar, unlimited history and the diet alerts at 15 euros a year (Yuka, retrieved 2026-09-24). If you only need scores in a shop with signal, the free tier is enough. Our Yuka alternatives list covers what Premium adds.
Verify Veg keeps barcode scans unlimited and free, and gives 10 AI label scans a month, the feature that reads a printed ingredient list from a photo. Pro adds unlimited AI scans and up to 200 custom ingredients. The Pro price is not stated on the listing.
Soosee is free with no ads and no tracking, and highlights the words you switch on across 30+ categories. It advertises 18 languages, though the list underneath names 17, so check yours is covered. Supporter, sold monthly, yearly or as a one-time lifetime purchase, adds unlimited active and custom groups. The free group limit is not stated.
CodeCheck is the clearest ad-supported example. Its pricing page says the basic version stays free and contains advertising, with 5 scans a week, and that Plus removes the ads and the limit for 1.99 EUR a month or 11.99 EUR a year. Scan packs cost 0.49 EUR for 5, 0.79 EUR for 10 and 2.49 EUR for 50 (CodeCheck, retrieved 2026-09-24). Our CodeCheck comparison covers how its ratings differ.
What “free” usually does not include
Check these five things before you commit:
- Offline scanning. Usually paid, since the database has to be downloaded. See scanning without a signal.
- History. Free tiers often keep recent scans only.
- Search without scanning. Looking up a product you have not bought is a common paid extra.
- Diet filters. Vegan, halal or allergen alerts often sit in the paid tier, as in Yuka Premium.
- No ads. Ad-free is the standard first upgrade.
Which one to install
- Widest free tier with no paywall: Open Food Facts, and donate if it earns it.
- Free nutrition scanning, paying for offline later: Yuka’s free tier, then Premium if you travel.
- Free diet checks: Verify Veg, since barcode scans are unlimited and free, and its 10 monthly AI scans cover labels a barcode misses.
- Free allergen word-spotting in another language: Soosee.
- One free health filter with no purchases at all: Bobby Approved.
Whatever you install, check the label before you buy. A free app is an opinion about a database entry, not a guarantee about the packet in your hand.
The bottom line
The split is simple. Open Food Facts is free because it is a non-profit open database, and Bobby Approved currently shows no in-app purchases. Yuka, Verify Veg, Soosee and CodeCheck all run free tiers with a defined limit: history, offline mode, a weekly scan cap, a group cap or a monthly AI cap. Read that limit before you install, because it decides whether the app still works on the day you need it.
Check before you eat. The Verify Veg app scans a barcode or reads an ingredient list from a photo and flags ingredients against your diet (vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, Jain and more). Download on the App Store - Android is coming soon.
Written by Samir Narain, founder of Verify Veg. Verify Veg helps people check packaged food against their diet by scanning barcodes and reading ingredient lists from photos.
Note: Verify Veg provides ingredient-based compatibility checks, not certification. Additive sources can vary by manufacturer, and halal rulings vary by certifier and region: always confirm with the brand, the vendor or your certifier.