The short answer: on iPhone, VeganCheckr is the strongest Is It Vegan? alternative — scanning is free with no caps, and every verdict shows the flagged ingredients. On Android, Open Food Facts is the best free option. Fig, Vegan Pocket and Yuka each suit a narrower need.
Below we compare all five on price, platforms, how they reach a vegan verdict and where each one falls short. Every claim about a competitor was verified against its App Store listing or official website in August 2026 — pricing and features change, so double-check before you subscribe to anything.
Why vegans are looking for an Is It Vegan? app alternative
Is It Vegan? deserves respect. It launched back in 2012, its App Store listing claims more than a million downloads, and for years it was the first app new vegans were told to install. But its history is bumpy: long-running Reddit threads describe buggy barcode scanning and development that stalled after the app's crowdfunding campaign, and older reviews complained it had gone years without a meaningful update.
As of August 2026 the app is back — rebuilt as version 4 (last updated August 2025), with label scanning in over 100 languages. The catch: it now uses subscription pricing, from $1.99 a month up to a $19.99 lifetime unlock, and its own website advertises premium "for unlimited scans", which points to a capped free tier. Android is still listed as "coming soon".
None of that makes it a bad app. But if you have hit a scan cap, carry an Android phone, or simply want a verdict you can check against the actual ingredient list, these five alternatives are worth a look. (For our broader hands-on roundup, see the best vegan scanner apps, tested and compared.)
Is It Vegan? alternatives compared: the quick table
| App | Price | Platforms | Vegan verdicts? | Free scan cap? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VeganCheckr | Free; optional Premium | iPhone (iOS 16+), Apple Silicon Macs, Vision Pro | Vegan / vegetarian / non-vegan, with flagged ingredients shown | None | Evidence-first checking on iPhone |
| Open Food Facts | Free (non-profit) | iPhone, Android | Yes, when the product record is complete | None | Android users; open data |
| Fig | Free tier; Fig+ from $5.99/mo | iPhone | Vegan as one of 2,800+ diet filters | Fig+ unlocks unlimited scans | Vegan plus allergies (US shoppers) |
| Vegan Pocket | Free tier; Unlimited $19.99/mo or $49.99/yr | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro | Yes, community-verified | Subscription for unlimited use | Scanning cosmetics and clothing too |
| Yuka | Free; optional premium | iPhone, Android | No — health score only | None | Nutrition quality alongside a vegan app |
1. VeganCheckr — free unlimited scanning, with the evidence shown
VeganCheckr's core difference is that it never asks you to trust a verdict blind. Scan a barcode and you get a vegan, vegetarian or non-vegan result plus the exact ingredients and E-numbers that triggered it — so when a cookie fails on E471, you can see why and decide for yourself. Additives with a declared plant source (E471, E322 soy lecithin) get fewer false flags, and traditional cheeses made with animal rennet — Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, Gorgonzola — are caught even though "rennet" rarely appears on the label.
There is no cap on scanning, no account, and the App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected". When a product has no barcode or isn't in the database, the camera ingredient scan reads the printed label instead, and ingredient analysis works in 32 languages. You also get offline scan history, saved products, personal avoidance alerts, suggested alternatives and a Vegan Map of nearby vegan-friendly places. The honest limitation: it's Apple-only — iPhone (iOS 16+), Apple Silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro — so Android users should look at Open Food Facts below.
Switching from Is It Vegan? takes about a minute
There's no account to create and nothing to subscribe to:
- Download VeganCheckr and tap Scan — barcode scanning is free, with no scan caps.
- No barcode, or an unlisted product? Use ingredient scan to photograph the printed label instead.
- Read the verdict — vegan, vegetarian or non-vegan — with every flagged ingredient listed as evidence, then save the products you buy often.
2. Open Food Facts — the open-source option for Android
The Open Food Facts app is run by a non-profit, is fully open source, and sits on a collaborative database built by more than 170,000 contributors. Set your preferences and it will flag whether a scanned product is vegan, vegetarian or palm-oil free. It's free on both iPhone and Android with no scan limits — and, notably, Is It Vegan?'s own website says it draws on Open Food Facts data, so going straight to the source costs nothing.
The trade-off is inherent to crowdsourcing: a verdict is only as good as the product record, and plenty of records are incomplete, so expect "unknown vegan status" more often than you'd like. You are also part of the workforce — missing products mean photographing labels yourself. If you'd rather analyze a label than transcribe one, our vegan ingredient checker guide shows a faster route.
3. Fig — for vegans juggling other restrictions
Fig approaches scanning from the allergy world: you build a profile from 2,800+ dietary restrictions — vegan among them, alongside gluten-free, low-FODMAP and others — and every scan is checked against your whole profile at once. It's actively maintained (4.7 stars from roughly 16,000 ratings as of August 2026), though iPhone-only, and is excellent at surfacing compatible products across large US grocery chains.
Two caveats. Fig is built around US store data, so it's weaker abroad. And its free tier is limited: the Fig+ subscription (from $5.99 a month, with annual plans listed between $34.99 and $69.99) is what unlocks unlimited scans, restaurants and multiple profiles. Vegan is one filter among thousands here, not the app's specialty.
4. Vegan Pocket — food, cosmetics and clothing in one scanner
Vegan Pocket's pitch is breadth: it scans barcodes on food, cosmetics and clothing, with a community-verified product database and 4.0 stars from about 5,300 ratings. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Silicon Macs and Vision Pro.
The economics are the sticking point. Unlimited use is sold at $19.99 a month or $49.99 a year — the highest pricing in this comparison — plus separate meal-plan subscriptions, and some recent App Store reviews describe being pushed toward a trial subscription at launch. The last update shipped in April 2025 as of this writing. If cosmetics scanning is your main need it may still earn a place, but as a daily food checker the value is harder to argue.
5. Yuka — a great scanner answering a different question
Yuka is a genuinely good app: independent, ad-free, on iPhone and Android, with a claimed user base in the tens of millions. But it scores products for health — a 0–100 rating built on nutritional quality and additives — and does not tell you whether a product is vegan. A vegan protein bar can score poorly while a whey-based one scores well.
Use it as a companion for nutrition quality, not as your vegan checker. We've written up exactly where it falls short for vegans in Yuka for vegans: where it falls short and what to use instead.
How to choose your Is It Vegan? replacement
- iPhone, want free and thorough: VeganCheckr — uncapped scanning, verdicts with evidence, rennet detection.
- Android: Open Food Facts — free, open, no limits; accept some "unknown" results.
- Vegan plus allergies in the US: Fig — one profile, every restriction checked per scan.
- Cosmetics and clothing too: Vegan Pocket — if the subscription fits your budget.
- Nutrition quality: Yuka — alongside, never instead of, a vegan checker.
Whichever you pick, stress-test it before you rely on it. Scan a jar of green pesto (traditional Parmigiano Reggiano is made with animal rennet), something red (E120 carmine is made from insects), and a supermarket loaf (E471 can be animal- or plant-derived — the EU regulates these additives under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, listed on EUR-Lex). Our non-vegan E-numbers checklist covers the full set. A good scanner gets all three right and shows its reasoning.
A vegan scanner is only as good as its evidence. If an app can't show you which ingredient failed and why, you're not checking the product — you're trusting a database.
Run the three-product stress test with VeganCheckr
Each result comes with its reasoning attached:
- Scan a jar of pesto — rennet detection flags Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano as cheeses made with animal rennet.
- Scan a red candy or drink — E120 (carmine) is flagged as insect-derived, listed in the evidence.
- Type "mono- and diglycerides (E471)" into ingredient analysis — it's flagged as ambiguous unless a plant source is declared.
One last habit worth keeping regardless of the app: know how to read a label yourself. Databases lag reformulations, and "may contain" statements need human judgment — our field guide to reading food labels as a vegan covers the method. If you want the deeper principle behind all of this, The Vegan Society's definition of veganism asks us to avoid animal use "as far as is possible and practicable" — a scanner's job is to make the possible practical.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Is It Vegan? app still available?
Yes. As of August 2026 it is on the iOS App Store, rebuilt as version 4 with subscriptions running from $1.99 a month to a $19.99 lifetime unlock. Its website lists Android as coming soon and advertises premium for unlimited scans, which points to a capped free tier.
What is the best free alternative to the Is It Vegan? app?
On iPhone, VeganCheckr: scanning is free without limits, and every verdict lists the exact flagged ingredients. On Android, Open Food Facts is the strongest free choice — it is non-profit and open source, though its crowdsourced records vary in completeness.
Do these vegan scanner apps work on Android?
Open Food Facts and Yuka both offer Android apps. VeganCheckr, Fig and Vegan Pocket run on Apple platforms only, and Is It Vegan? listed Android as coming soon as of August 2026.
Can a scanner app guarantee a product is 100% vegan?
No. Recipes change, ingredients like natural flavors can hide their source, and databases lag behind reformulations. Treat any verdict as a fast first check, prefer apps that show their evidence, and read the label yourself when a result looks uncertain.
Why do vegan scanner apps disagree about the same product?
They use different databases and different rules. Some flag every ambiguous additive, such as E471, while others only flag confirmed animal ingredients. An app that lists exactly which ingredients triggered its verdict lets you see which rule fired and judge it yourself.
Check any product in seconds
VeganCheckr scans barcodes and ingredient labels, flags hidden animal ingredients and E-numbers, and shows you the evidence. Free on the App Store.
Scan with your iPhone camera