Triggerbites vs mySymptoms: which food & symptom diary is right for you?
Finding your food triggers shouldn't feel like a second job.
If you've been searching for a food and symptom tracking app, you've probably come across mySymptoms. It's been around since 2011, has hundreds of thousands of users, and is often recommended in IBS and food intolerance communities.
mySymptoms has built a solid foundation in this space. They were early pioneers, and they've helped many people connect their symptoms to what they eat.
But tracking has evolved. And so have the needs of people dealing with mystery symptoms, delayed food reactions, and the frustration of logging every single ingredient by hand.
So let's break down how Triggerbites and mySymptoms compare – honestly and fairly – so you can decide which one fits your life.
The Quick Overview
| Triggerbites | mySymptoms | |
|---|---|---|
| Logging Style | Write like in a notepad (voice & pictures allowed as well), also manual entry | Structured search + manual entry |
| Ingredient Extraction | Automatic (AI-powered) | Manual (you enter each one) |
| Compound Tagging | 20+ categories (FODMAPs, histamine, salicylates, oxalates, etc.) | No |
| Delayed Reaction Analysis | Multi-window (same-day, next-day, 48hr+) | 1-72 hour configurable |
| Import Existing Notes | Yes (PDFs, photos, CSVs, copy/paste) | No |
| Price (Monthly) | $8.99 | $9.99 |
| Price (Yearly) | $39.99 | $49.99 |
| Free Trial | 7 days | 7 days |
1. How You Actually Log Your Food
This is where the experience differs most.
mySymptoms
mySymptoms uses a traditional structured approach: search their database, scan a barcode, or manually add foods. You can log ingredients individually, but you need to do the work of breaking down every meal yourself.
The app does learn your favorites over time, which helps speed things up. And you can add free-text notes alongside entries for your PDF reports.
But here's what users often say:
Almost every food I've scanned, I've had to create my own instance of... It's ended up really time consuming to log every food.
It asks for a lot of detail when you log anything which is time consuming and not something you can do super quick.
For people with the patience and time to meticulously log each ingredient, mySymptoms works. But if your life is already complicated by symptoms, adding 15+ taps per meal can feel like too much.
Triggerbites
Triggerbites works around one simple idea: log like you're writing in a notepad, not filling out a form.
If you want to log a meal or symptoms just type (or voice record, or snap a photo):
Had leftover pasta with tomato sauce, some parmesan, and a glass of red wine. Headache started around 8pm.
That's it. Triggerbites automatically extracts the ingredients (pasta → wheat, tomato sauce → tomatoes/garlic/onion, parmesan → aged cheese, red wine), identifies potential compounds (histamine, FODMAPs), and links them to your symptoms.
There are several advantages of this, but to keep it short it lets you keep consistent and your diary notes are always there as your source of truth. If the automatic extraction isn't to your liking initially you can always edit the results or add manually. It also offers a quick check in feature for symptom logging if you don't want to type. Winner: Triggerbites – If you want logging that fits into your life instead of taking it over.
2. Ingredient-Level Tracking
Here's a truth about food tracking: logging "pizza" doesn't help you find triggers. Was it the wheat in the crust? The lactose in the cheese? The garlic in the sauce? The preservatives in the pepperoni?
Research shows that identifying a true food trigger requires tracking an average of 243 different ingredients per person. That's not realistic with manual entry.
mySymptoms
mySymptoms can track at the ingredient level – but only if you manually input each ingredient for every meal. The database is crowd-sourced, which means inconsistent entries:
The database is all manually entered and crowd sourced, so not necessarily the most accurate for complete list of ingredients.
If I happen to choose a different example from the list than I did the last time they get counted as two separate items which messes up the analysis.
So you might log "tomato soup" one day and "tomato bisque" another – and the app treats them as completely different foods, even though you're trying to track tomatoes.
Triggerbites
Triggerbites automatically breaks down whatever you write into individual ingredients. The engine parses your natural language and extracts components without you having to think about it.
Write "chicken stir-fry": chicken, soy sauce (which contains wheat), garlic, onion, ginger, sesame oil.
You don't need to know what's in soy sauce. You don't need to search a database. You just write what you ate, and Triggerbites does the detective work. Again, manual entries are also supported.
Winner: Triggerbites – Automatic ingredient extraction vs. manual entry for every meal.
3. Compound & Sensitivity Tagging
This is a big one for anyone tracking FODMAPs, histamine intolerance, salicylate sensitivity, or oxalates.
mySymptoms
Despite marketing to FODMAP diet users, mySymptoms does not automatically tag foods with compound information. There's no built-in FODMAP database, no histamine flagging, no salicylate or oxalate alerts.
You'd need to research each food yourself and manually categorize it – which is exactly what makes tracking so exhausting.
Triggerbites
Every food you log is automatically tagged with relevant compound information:
- FODMAPs (fructose, lactose, fructans, GOS, polyols)
- Histamine (high-histamine foods, histamine liberators)
- Salicylates
- Oxalates
- And more (nightshades, sulfites, etc.)
So when your analysis shows "your headaches correlate with high-histamine days," you don't have to go back and figure out which foods are high in histamine. Triggerbites has already done that.
This is especially valuable for people with complex sensitivities – like those managing suspected MCAS, who might react to histamine, salicylates, and certain FODMAPs. Cross-referencing all of that manually is a nightmare. Triggerbites handles it automatically.
Winner: Triggerbites – Built-in compound intelligence vs. DIY research.
4. Pattern Recognition & Delayed Reactions
Food reactions aren't always immediate. That headache you woke up with? It might be the aged cheese you had at dinner yesterday. The bloating that hit at 3pm? Could be the FODMAP-stacking from breakfast and lunch combined.
mySymptoms
mySymptoms provides configurable analysis windows (1-72 hours) and is able to catch delayed reactions, and their "Top Suspects" feature ranks potential trigger correlations.
Users who invest time in detailed logging report good results:
It's amazing how you can start seeing patterns in symptoms after only a few days.
However, some long-term users express skepticism about the algorithm:
The 'analysis' provided is not explained or documented, but implementation seems wrong, undermining general credibility.
Do note that this identifies correlations between 'events' where events may be medications, foods & symptoms. Note that if you are looking for compound level correlations i.e. Histamine bothering you this service does not provide that but their core pattern recognition analysis is great.
Triggerbites
Triggerbites also analyzes across multiple time windows – same-day, next-day, and multi-day patterns. But because it works with ingredient-level and compound-level data (not just "meal A" and "meal B"), it can surface insights like:
"73% of your headache days followed a high-histamine day"
rather than just:
"You ate aged cheese 4 times when you had headaches."
If you are uncertain on what it might be and given that you may be eating a more varied diet, compound level analysis might prove more useful for your use case.
Winner: Tie – Both offer delayed reaction analysis. mySymptoms has longer track record; Triggerbites offers deeper ingredient-level correlation.
5. Importing Your Existing Data
If you've already been tracking – in a notebook, spreadsheet, another app, or random notes on your phone – starting over from scratch is demoralizing.
mySymptoms
No import functionality. If you have months of food diary entries elsewhere, you'd need to manually re-enter each one.
Triggerbites
Triggerbites supports users who have tracked before but don't want to start from scratch. Your history matters. Why throw it away?
Users can simply copy paste their journal notes, import CSVs (i.e. exported from other apps), upload PDFs and more in order to import into your history. As in essence it's all diary entries it's easy to import from multiple sources while keeping your history.
Winner: Triggerbites – Allows you to import your existing data
6. Keeping Your Story, Not Just Your Data
This might sound abstract, but it matters more than you'd think.
When you're tracking symptoms over weeks or months, you're not just collecting data – you're documenting a chapter of your life. The day you felt terrible and couldn't figure out why. The week you finally felt okay. The meal where you knew something was off.
mySymptoms
mySymptoms stores structured entries and can attach notes. But the primary interface is data-first: categories, severity sliders, timestamp fields.
When you generate a report, you see tables and graphs – which is useful for doctors, but can feel disconnected from the lived experience you actually remember.
Triggerbites
Your diary entries stay intact. When you look back or generate a report, you see your actual words alongside the extracted data:
Thursday was rough. Had the lamb curry from that new place and felt off all evening. Bloating, brain fog, couldn't sleep until 2am.
That context matters – for you, and for any healthcare provider trying to understand your situation. You're not handing them a spreadsheet; you're handing them your story, backed by data.
Winner: Triggerbites – Your diary stays yours.
7. Pricing
| Triggerbites | mySymptoms | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $8.99 | $9.99 |
| Yearly | $39.99 | $49.99 |
| Free Trial | 7 days | 7 days |
Both apps offer 7-day free trials. Triggerbites comes in at $10/year cheaper on the annual plan – not a massive difference, but worth noting.
Winner: Triggerbites – Slightly more affordable, especially annually.
So, Which One Should You Choose?
mySymptoms might be better for you if:
- You prefer structured, manual data entry
- You have the time and patience to log every ingredient by hand
- You're comfortable researching FODMAP/histamine content yourself
- You've already been using it and have data there (switching to Triggerbites is easy but switching back to apps that don't allow imports is harder)
Triggerbites is probably better for you if:
- You want to log quickly, in your own words
- You're tired of tapping through endless forms
- You need automatic ingredient breakdown and compound tagging
- You have existing notes or journals you want to import
- You want to keep your personal diary alongside the data
- You're tracking multiple sensitivities (FODMAPs + histamine + salicylates, etc.)
The Bottom Line
mySymptoms pioneered food and symptom tracking, and for users who thrive on structured manual entry, it's a solid choice.
But if you've ever thought "I know tracking would help, but it's just too much work" – that's exactly the problem Triggerbites solves.
Log like you're journaling. Discover like a detective.
You shouldn't have to choose between consistency and precision. With Triggerbites, you get both.
Live, love, log.
Have questions about switching from mySymptoms or other apps? Reach out at – the team is happy to help.