Fasted vs Zero: Which Fasting App Is Better?

Quick Answer: They are no longer the same kind of product. Zero has grown into a fasting and food tracker with an Apple Watch app, Apple Health sync and meal and protein logging built in. Fasted is a timer with metabolic phases around it, a free tier you can live in, no account to start, and a one-time price. Most people choosing between them are really choosing between a food log and a timer. Decide that first and the rest follows.

Disclosure: Fasted is our app. Every claim about Zero below comes from its own App Store listing or website, checked 5 August 2026 and cited at the end. Store facts move; check before you pay.

Zero is one of the most recognized names in intermittent fasting. Backed by venture capital and led by a team with deep roots in the fasting community, it has been a go-to recommendation for years. But recognition is not the same as being the right fit for every faster — and Zero in 2026 is not the app most people remember downloading.

What Zero Is Now

This is the part worth being accurate about, because it is the reason most people go looking for something else.

The App Store listing is titled "Zero: Fasting & Food Tracker", with the subtitle "Protein & Calorie Calculator", published by Zero Longevity Science, Inc. Its own description opens with the pitch: "Most fasting and weight loss apps stop at simply tracking fasts or calories. Zero connects the full picture — fasting, protein, meals, hydration, and habits." Zero's site puts it more directly still: the app is built to "help you lose fat, protect muscle, and build healthy habits."

That is a broader product than a fasting timer, and for people who want the broader product it is a good one. It is also not what somebody who downloaded a countdown clock in 2019 signed up for, which is why "I opened it to start a 16:8 fast and it asked me to photograph lunch" is such a common complaint about an app with nothing wrong with it.

Company Background

Zero launched in 2016 and quickly became the default fasting app recommendation. The company raised significant funding, brought on scientific advisors, and built a content library that rivals standalone health blogs. In recent years, Zero introduced Zero Plus, a premium tier that added nutrition tracking and deeper insights.

Fasted is a focused fasting tracker built on the opposite bet: that the reason people stop using fasting apps is that the apps ask too much of them. The home screen is a circular timer filling through five metabolic phases, and there is nothing to log to make it work.

Feature Comparison

Compatibility and pricing rows come from each app's App Store listing, read 5 August 2026 for Zero's device rows and 16 August 2026 for its in-app purchase prices. Zero's US listing showed three Zero Plus purchases that day, at $9.99, $69.99 and $89.99; the listing does not label which is which, and prices differ by country.

Fasting Timer and Schedules

Both apps offer reliable fasting timers. You tap to start, watch it count, and get notified when your window opens. No complaints on either side for the core timer experience.

The difference shows up in how the presets are laid out. Fasted ships six daily protocols, from 12:12 through 14:10, 16:8, 18:6 and 20:4 to one meal a day, plus longer options up to a 72-hour fast. Switching between them is a tap, and the free fasting schedule quiz will tell you which one to switch to.

Neither app is built around weekly patterns like 5:2 or alternate-day fasting. Both are daily-window products. If a weekly protocol is what you run, check for it specifically before you install either one.

For people just starting out, the beginner's guide to intermittent fasting covers how to choose your first protocol.

Tracking and Insights

This is where the apps diverge most clearly.

Fasted tracks the fast itself in depth and the food not at all. Streaks, history, the metabolic phase display and start-and-end notifications are free; weight, body measurements, water, the hunger map, the history heatmap and the analytics sit in Pro. The free weight loss calculator will tell you what weight trend to expect before you start. What Fasted will never give you is a food diary — it does not log meals at any tier, and if that is what you are shopping for, this is the wrong app rather than the wrong tier.

Zero is the opposite shape. Meal logging, a protein score and hydration are core product rather than an afterthought, and weight and nutrition tracking sit in Zero Plus. If you want your window and your plate in one place, Zero is the app built for that and Fasted is not.

So "tracking depth" is the wrong axis to compare them on. Zero tracks more of your life. Fasted tracks more of your fast. Which is better depends entirely on which of those you were going to keep up with.

For more on how different apps handle tracking, see our feature comparison guide.

Design and User Experience

Zero has a clean, dark-themed design that many users love. The interface is straightforward, and navigation is intuitive. The app feels premium and well-crafted. Zero also invests heavily in content presentation, making articles and tips feel integrated rather than bolted on.

Fasted takes a minimal approach. The design prioritizes function: start your fast, check your stats, log your weight, move on. There is less visual flourish but also less clutter. For people who open their fasting app multiple times per day, this efficiency matters.

Both apps are well-designed. Zero leans more polished and content-rich. Fasted leans more functional and fast to use. Personal preference will determine which feels better in your hand.

Educational Content

This is where Zero genuinely stands out. The app features articles from researchers, doctors, and fasting experts. Topics range from the science of autophagy to practical tips for breaking a fast. If you want numbers for your own fast rather than an article, the free autophagy calculator estimates when that phase starts. If you are the type of person who wants to understand the why behind your fasting practice, Zero's content library is a real asset.

Fasted takes a lighter approach to in-app education, focusing instead on actionable stats and insights derived from your own data. The philosophy is different: Zero teaches you about fasting in general; Fasted teaches you about your fasting specifically.

Pricing and Value

Zero's free tier gives you a basic timer, some educational content, and simple tracking. Zero Plus unlocks nutrition tracking, advanced insights and the rest, and it is a subscription.

Fasted's free tier holds the timer, all six built-in protocols, the metabolic phases, streaks, history and notifications, with no account and no free trial. Fasted Pro is $6.99 monthly, $29.99 yearly, or $49.99 once for permanent access.

That last figure is the one worth pausing on if the recurring bill is what brought you here. A one-off payment for a tool you open every day is a different proposition from a yearly renewal, and Zero does not offer one. Neither model is virtuous — they suit different people — but if you are firmly in the buy-it-once camp, this is the row that decides it.

If the only thing you came here to settle is the money — is the Zero fasting app free reads the current App Store listing line by line, and shows you how to check any app's paywall before you install it.

Zero is not the only tracker people weigh against a simpler timer — Fasted against Vora covers the other one that keeps coming up. Price is rarely the only reason people leave, though, and it is rarely the one that matters most. If you have already decided to move, the six checks worth running before you switch are set out further down, after the two things Zero still does better than almost anything else.

To understand what premium features are actually worth paying for, check out our free vs paid fasting apps breakdown.

Where Zero Wins

Credit where it is due. Zero does several things we do not:

• A real Apple Watch app. Start and end a fast from your wrist. Fasted has no watch app at all — its compatibility section lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision, and nothing else.
• Apple Health sync. Zero's listing says it syncs with Apple Health. Ours does not mention it, because it does not do it.
• Food and protein logging built in. Core product, not a bolt-on.
• Hydration and habit tracking in the same place as the timer.
• Scale and track record. A decade of feedback and iteration that a newer listing has not been through.
• Educational content. The article library is the deepest in the category.

If any of those is the reason you opened Zero this morning, switching will cost you something. Read that list before you read ours.

Where Fasted Is Built Differently

Not better — differently. The differences are architectural rather than a longer feature list.

• It is a timer first. The home screen fills through five metabolic phases — fed state, catabolic, fat burning, ketosis, deep ketosis — and there is nothing to log to make it work. The fasting timer on this site runs the same phase model in a browser if you want to see it before installing anything.
• It starts without an account. Open, pick a protocol, press start. No email, and the history stays on the device.
• Streak tracking. A motivational mechanism Zero does not offer at all.
• Fast Buddy. Pair with one named person and see their live timer, phase and reactions. One partner, not a feed.
• Hunger Map. Log hunger spikes during a fast and see when your cravings actually peak. Most people are wrong about this until they see it plotted.
• A price you can pay once. $49.99 lifetime, if renting software has worn thin.

If you want the window tracked closely and nothing else asked of you, that is the trade Fasted makes.

Who Should Choose Which?

Choose Zero if:

• You want to log food and protein in the same app as the fast
• You wear an Apple Watch and want the timer on it
• You want Apple Health sync
• You value in-app educational content and science articles
• Brand trust and community reputation matter to you

Choose Fasted if:

• You want a timer and nothing you have to feed
• You would rather not create an account to time a 16-hour fast
• Streak tracking helps you stay consistent
• You want to fast alongside one specific person
• You would rather buy the paid tier once than rent it

For a broader look at how all major fasting apps compare, see our best intermittent fasting app roundup.

Switching From Zero: What You Lose and What You Keep

Most people who leave Zero are not leaving because it is bad. They are leaving because it grew into a food-logging product and they only ever wanted a timer. Six checks are worth running before you move, in either direction.

Do you want a timer, or a food log? This is the whole decision. A timer asks one thing: press start. A nutrition tracker asks you to describe every meal. If you have abandoned three food-logging apps, that is data — pick a timer. If a timer alone has never changed anything for you, the food log may be the missing part, and Zero already has it.

Does it run on the device you actually check? If you glance at a watch forty times a day, an app with a watch app is a different product from one without. Zero has one. Fasted does not, and puts a home screen widget on iOS and Android instead.

What sits behind the paywall? Not whether there is one — there always is. Whether the thing you use daily is on the free side of it. Check before you move your history, not after.

Subscription, or something you can own? Zero's paid tier is a subscription. Fasted Pro lists a $49.99 lifetime purchase alongside monthly and yearly.

Does it demand an account? Some apps want an email before they will show you a timer.

Are your protocols presets? Everything supports 16:8. If you run OMAD, 14:10 or an occasional 36-hour fast, check the app ships it rather than making you rebuild it every time.

The practical worry with any move is the streak, and it is smaller than it feels. Most fasting apps let you enter past fasts by hand, so an evening of backfill rebuilds the pattern. More usefully: your fasting record is a fact about the last few months of your life, not a number stored on somebody's server. If a change of app costs you a 90-day counter and you keep fasting, you are still someone who has fasted for 90 days.

The Bottom Line

Zero is a fasting and food product with a decade behind it, a watch app, and the best library in the category. Fasted is a timer with metabolic phases around it, a free tier you can live in, no account, and a price you can pay once. They stopped being the same kind of app some time ago, and that is useful — it means the choice is about you rather than about a feature count.

The cheapest way to settle it: run both free tiers for a week against the same fasts. The one you open without thinking about it is the answer, and no article can tell you which that will be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Zero still worth using?

For a lot of people, yes. It has an Apple Watch app, Apple Health sync, food and protein logging, hydration tracking, the deepest content library in the category and a decade of iteration behind it. The people it stops suiting are usually the ones who wanted a fasting timer and nothing else, and who now open it to find a nutrition tracker asking about lunch.

Is Zero Plus worth the price?

Zero Plus adds nutrition tracking and advanced insights, and it is one of the more expensive fasting app subscriptions. It is worth it if you will use the food side — that is what the money buys. If you only want the window tracked, you are paying for surface area you will never touch, and a cheaper tracker or a free tier will do the same job.

What is a good Zero app alternative?

That depends which half of Zero you were using. If it was the food logging, no pure fasting tracker replaces it and you should look at nutrition apps rather than fasting ones. If it was the timer, a timer-first app is a like-for-like swap — Fasted is one, and it needs no account and has a lifetime price, but it has no watch app and no food log. If it was the content, the honest answer is that nothing else in the category has a library that size.

Can I use Zero for 5:2 intermittent fasting?

Zero is designed around daily time-restricted eating windows like 16:8 and 18:6 rather than weekly patterns. So is Fasted. If you run 5:2 or alternate-day fasting, neither app is built for it and you should check for that protocol specifically before installing either.

Does Zero have a free version?

Yes. Zero's own App Store description says the app "includes a free version and an optional subscription for premium features." The free version includes the basic fasting timer and access to educational content. Which features sit on which side of the line is not published anywhere and moves as the app is updated, so the paywall screen inside the app is the only current answer.

Does Fasted have an Apple Watch app?

No. Fasted's App Store compatibility section lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision — no Apple Watch, and therefore no complication either. What it has instead is a home screen widget on iOS and Android. Zero does have a watch app, listed at watchOS 10.0 or later. If a wrist timer is a requirement for you, that row settles it.

Which app is better for beginners?

Both work well for beginners. Zero's educational content can help newcomers understand fasting principles. Fasted's schedule variety and streak tracking can help beginners build the habit. For a complete beginner's guide, see our getting started guide.

What to Read Next

• Best Intermittent Fasting App in 2026
• Fasting App Features That Actually Matter
• Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting