What is the best app to track vegan nutrient deficiencies like iron, B12 and iodine?

How this list was made

Four questions, answered only from each app’s own website, help center, or App Store listing on October 15, 2026:

1. Do its own pages name iron, vitamin B12, and iodine, or list all three in a nutrient table?
2. Is there a live iPhone listing or a named site?
3. Is the log a verified diary, a plate photo, or both?
4. What does it cost where the provider states a price and a billing period?

Three apps meet that bar. Micron’s 29-nutrient list we read names iron and vitamin B12 and does not list iodine. SnapCalorie’s listing claims 100+ micronutrients and does not name iodine. Cal AI’s website and App Store listing name calories, protein, carbs, and fat. We did not weigh bowls or draw blood, so nothing here is an accuracy ranking or a medical ranking.

The three apps

1. Cronometer: best verified vegan diary for iron, B12, and iodine

Cronometer’s Gold page, read October 15, 2026, lists tracking up to 95 nutrients on the free tier, with a barcode scanner, custom micronutrient targets, and a database of over 1 million lab-analyzed or verified foods. Oracle Nutrient Search names iron. Cronometer staff said iodine can be turned on under Nutrient Targets, Minerals, and that primary sources have little iodine data, so tracked values may run lower than intake. Photo Log is Gold only ($10.99 a month or $59.99 a year). The photo is a search into NCCDB and CFCD. You still add oil, fortified plant milk, and nutritional yeast the camera missed. Stay here if the milligram has to come from a verified entry you will edit. NutriCam vs Cronometer. Other photo-first options if the diary is the problem: Cronometer alternatives.

2. MyNetDiary: most named nutrient fields, including iodine

MyNetDiary’s nutrient list, read October 15, 2026, names iron, vitamin B12, and iodine among 108 fields. The about page that day says the free, ad-free tier includes barcode scanning and tracking for up to 108 nutrients per entry, from USDA and NCC, on a staff-verified database of over 2 million foods. Meal Scan photo logging sits on Premium at $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year. iPhone, Android, and web. A named field is not a verified vegan diary the way Cronometer’s NCCDB entries are. Broader micro diaries: best micronutrient tracking apps.

3. NutriCam: best for “what should I eat next?” on iPhone

NutriCam is our app, and it is iPhone only. The App Store listing names iron, vitamin B12, and iodine. Photograph a meal or say what you ate, confirm the estimate, and see calories, macros, and vitamins and minerals. Then ask what to eat next from today’s log, targets, workouts, and Apple Health sleep when connected. Skip it if you need Android or a verified food database. What the app is: what is NutriCam. How the next-meal answer works: what should I eat next. Photo vitamin logs: which app tracks micronutrients from a photo.

A food log is not a blood test

An app adds the milligrams you logged. It does not know what you absorbed.

NIH ODS on iron, read October 15, 2026, says adult men need 8 mg a day and adult women 19–50 need 18 mg. Vegetarians who eat no meat, poultry, or seafood need almost twice as much, because nonheme iron from plants absorbs poorly. Vitamin C with the meal helps. Calcium can get in the way. Lentils, tofu, beans, and fortified cereal are plant sources. The log does not know the phytate in the bowl.

NIH ODS on vitamin B12, the same day, says plant foods have no B12 unless they are fortified. Adults need 2.4 mcg. Some breakfast cereals and nutritional yeasts are fortified. Vegans might not get enough from food. Manufacturers are not required to list B12 on a label when it occurs naturally.

NIH ODS on iodine, the same day, says adults need 150 mcg. Seafood, dairy, eggs, and iodized salt are the usual sources. People who follow a vegan diet, or who eat few or no dairy products, seafood, and eggs, are more likely to have trouble getting enough. Sea salt, kosher salt, and Himalayan salt are not usually iodized. Nutrition Facts labels usually list iodine only when the manufacturer added it. Seaweed varies and can be high. Cronometer’s plant-based post, by Susan Macfarlane, RD, published May 14, 2018 and read October 15, 2026, calls iodized salt the most reliable food source and says kelp can be excessive.

Cronometer staff said iodine data from primary sources is thin, so a diary total can undercount. The Data Confidence article says branded foods often carry only the roughly 15 nutrients the label reports. Pick NCCDB or generic entries when B12 or iodine is the point. Add the fortified food you actually ate.

A camera cannot see iron, B12, or iodine. Fortified oat milk, a shake of nutritional yeast, iodized salt, oil, and portion weight stay invisible. Confirm the tofu and lentil bowl before you treat the day’s iron as a record. None of these apps is a medical device. They do not diagnose a deficiency. See a clinician if you need a blood test. Iron and B12 on iPhone, without the vegan iodine job: best app to track iron and B12 on iPhone. Broader micro diaries: best micronutrient tracking apps. Kitchen tests of photo calorie apps ran low: how accurate are AI photo calorie counting apps. Logging a bowl without typing every ingredient: how to track nutrients without logging every ingredient.

Log the foods you already ate, then read iron, B12, and iodine against a verified diary entry if that number has to hold. NutriCam is an iPhone advisor: photograph a meal or say what you ate, confirm the estimate, and see vitamins and minerals such as iron, B12, and iodine. It is not a blood test, not a medical device, and not on Android.

Sources

Every fact about another app on this page comes from that app’s own site, help center, or store listing, checked October 15, 2026. Prices and features change. Check the live listing before you buy.

• Cronometer Gold
• Cronometer Photo Log
• Cronometer Data Confidence Scores
• Cronometer on the App Store
• Cronometer staff on tracking iodine
• Cronometer on eating plant-based, part 2
• MyNetDiary nutrients available for tracking
• MyNetDiary about
• MyNetDiary on the App Store
• Micron micronutrient tracker
• SnapCalorie on the App Store
• Cal AI website
• Cal AI on the App Store
• NIH ODS iron fact sheet
• NIH ODS vitamin B12 fact sheet
• NIH ODS iodine fact sheet
• NutriCam on the App Store