DietPower vs. the Competition

To be reviewed in this chart, a program must 1) function as a personal electronic diary that helps you manage your eating and exercise to reach specific weight and nutrition goals, and 2) be well known (we rule out products of Google rank three or lower).

To minimize bias, we report only verifiable facts except in "Best Feature," "Worst Flaw," star ratings, and good/bad color codes.

To open a bigger chart reviewing these and 16 other contenders, click the See More Competitors button. (Comments? .)

Top 7 Personal Weight and Nutrition Software Programs

(To read details, point to cells with red triangles in their corners.)


 
Diet Power 4.4 CalorieKing 4.0 FitDay PC 1.0 Perfect Diet Tracker 1.4 Self Diet Club SparkPeople Weight-By-Date 2.95
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OVERALL RATING
VERSATILE?
ACCURATE?
EASY TO USE?
ONBOARD HELP
EMAIL SUPPORT
PHONE SUPPORT
COMPANY ATTITUDE
BEST FEATURE Personalization Food variety User interface User interface Ease Nutrients Calorie graph
WORST FLAW First 5 minutes Nutrient data Nutrient data Nutrient history Portioning Support Trust
Price ($US) $49.99 $45.00 $29.95 $29.95 $16/yr FREE $37.00
# Buyers/Members Undisclosed ? ? Undisclosed ? 250,000? Undisclosed
Current Release (Year) 2008 2004 2004 2007 ~2007 ~2007 2006
First Release (Year) 1992 ? ? 2007 ? 2002 2000
Operating Systems Windows Windows/Mac Windows Windows/Mac Web-based Web-based Windows
Vista? YES no no YES n/a n/a YES
Download Size 7-64 MB 12 MB 5 MB 3 MB n/a n/a 9 MB
Drive Space Needed 1000 MB 30 MB 20 MB 6 MB n/a n/a 20 MB
RAM Needed 256 MB 64 MB 64 MB 256 MB n/a n/a 16 MB
Free Updates? YES no no YES n/a n/a YES
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Free Trial? 15 days 7 days no 7 days no n/a 15 days
$$$-Back Guarantee? 1 year no 30 days no no n/a 30 days
Who Can Use? Anyone 14+ Non-preg 13+ ? Non-preg 18+ Anyone Non-preg 18+ Anyone
Installations Allowed 1 1 2 n/a n/a
Users per Installation 4 5 1 1 10
Portable? Travel Bag PDA sync no no n/a n/a PDA sync ($)
# Foods 11,000 50,000 9,000 7,000 12,000 10,000 11,000
# Nutrients in Foods 33 10 ? 6 24 31 28
# Your Nutrients Tracked 33 5 31 6 4 75 10
Foods x Nutrients Tracked 363,000 250,000 279,000 42,000 48,000 750,000 110,000
Trans Fat? YES no no no no no no
Nutrients Updated (Year) 2006-2007 2007 ? 2006 ? 2008 2006
# Recipes 101 0 0 0 0? 0 0
Add/Analyze Your Recipes? YES no no no ? no YES
# Exercises 1000 120 507 250 145 200 130
Calorie Budget Personalized? YES YES ? YES YES YES YES
Budget Tracks Metabolism? YES no no no no no no
Budget Corrects for Sodium? YES no no no no no no
Corrects for Menstruation? YES no no no no no no
Nutrition Quotient? YES no no no no no no
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Real-Time Food Coach? YES no no no no no no
Logging Time (min/day) 5 6 7 6 7 8 7
Ideal Weight? YES YES YES no no no no
Meal Plans? no $ YES no no YES YES
Meal Planner? YES YES YES no YES YES YES
Track Your Key Ratio? da/wk/mo/qtr/yr ml/da/wk YES YES YES da no
Track Your Other Nutrients? da/wk/mo/qtr/yr da/ft/mo da-∞ no wk/mo/∞ da/wk/mo/yr da-∞
Allowances Personalized? YES no ? YES YES ? YES
Allowances Editable? YES YES ? YES ? YES YES
Track Actual Water Intake? YES no no no no no ?
Create Custom Variables? YES no YES no no YES YES
Portion Estimator? YES no no no no no no
Allow Metric Entries? Usually YES YES YES no YES YES
Animated Tutorials? YES no no no no YES YES
Personalized Tips? YES no no no no no no
User Forums? YES $ YES no YES YES no
Daily News? YES no no no no YES no
Newsletters? YES no no no YES YES no
Feature Articles? YES YES no no YES YES no
Make Money? YES no YES no no no YES
Special Editions? YES YES no no no no YES
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