Longist vs Yuka: Making Healthier Choices with Longevity Scores and Product Ratings
Introduction
Staying healthy can feel overwhelming with so much nutrition and wellness information out there. Apps like Longist and Yuka aim to simplify decisions by giving you easy-to-understand scores for your choices. Longist focuses on longevity scoring – it literally tells you how many minutes of life you gain or lose from meals and habits. Yuka, on the other hand, rates food and cosmetic products on a 100-point scale based on their impact on health. In this article, we’ll explain how each app works, compare their approaches, and see which one is more actionable and motivating for daily health decisions. We’ll also look at the pros and cons of each, their pricing models as of mid-2025, and include a handy feature comparison table. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of which app might help you make healthier choices – and why we ultimately recommend Longist (fairly and factually, of course!).
Longist – Tracking Your Life in Minutes
Longist is an AI-powered longevity coach that helps you understand how your daily lifestyle affects your lifespan. The slogan “Count Minutes, Not Calories” sums up its approach. Instead of just counting steps or carbs, Longist calculates “healthy minutes” added or subtracted from your life with each decision. For example, eating a nutrient-packed salad might add a few minutes to your projected lifespan, while skimping on sleep could subtract minutes. Every meal, workout, or even late-night TV binge is translated into an impact on your longevity, so you can see in real time how each choice matters.
How does it work? Longist builds a holistic health profile by integrating with Apple Health on iPhone (bringing in your exercise, heart rate, and sleep data) and by tracking your nutrition. Logging food is as simple as snapping a photo or scanning a barcode – the app’s AI recognizes what you’re eating and instantly estimates the effect on your lifespan in minutes. It looks at factors like the nutrients in your meal (e.g. calories, fats, sugars) and compares them against the latest longevity research. In fact, Longist’s scoring is science-backed by a large nutritional study (published in Nature Food) that quantifies health impact in minutes for different foods. The app covers over 5,800 foods from this research, and it continually updates as new studies come out, so the longevity estimates are rooted in evidence, not guesswork.
Once Longist has your data, it acts like a personal coach. Its AI analyzes patterns and gives actionable tips to improve your healthspan. If your sleep data shows you’ve been short on rest, it might nudge you to swap that late-night snack for herbal tea to help you sleep better. If an extra morning walk added 10 minutes to your tally, Longist will celebrate that win with you. The feedback is personalized to you – your goals, your routines – rather than one-size-fits-all advice. Over time, you can track your longevity score trends and see your healthy minutes add up week by week. It’s a long-term, holistic view of health: not just one meal or one day, but how all your small choices aggregate into potentially extra years of healthy life.
Key features:
Longist includes a meal photo analyzer, a restaurant menu scanner (just point your camera at a menu to see which dish would add the most life minutes), a barcode scanner for groceries, and an AI Longevity Coach chat for premium users. It also syncs with wearables/Apple Health to incorporate your steps, heart rate, and sleep automatically. A fun aspect is the Longevity Leaderboard, where you can see how many healthy minutes you’ve earned versus other users, making it a bit of a friendly competition. This gamification element keeps things motivating – it’s surprisingly satisfying to watch your “life minutes” total grow and even compete with friends on who can gain more. Longist essentially turns healthy living into a game where the score is your future lifespan.
Pricing (2025):
Longist offers a free download with a trial period, but to unlock its full potential you’ll need a subscription. The Pro plan costs $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. This subscription gives you unlimited access to features like the AI coach, full meal analysis, and all integrations. While the app is currently only available for iOS (iPhone) users, the integration with Apple Health is a major plus for iPhone owners. The developers are longevity enthusiasts themselves, and their mission is literally to help users gain up to 13 healthy years of life through smarter daily choices. Longist isn’t just a calorie counter or a diet tracker – it’s framed as a “biohacker’s longevity toolkit” aiming to extend your lifespan, which is a fresh and motivating twist for anyone passionate about health and longevity.
Yuka – Scanning Products for Health Ratings
Yuka takes a different approach: it helps you make healthier choices one product at a time. Yuka is a hugely popular mobile app (over 70 million users worldwide as of 2025) that lets you scan the barcode of food or cosmetic products and instantly see how healthy (or not) they are. When you scan an item, Yuka displays a score out of 100 alongside a simple color code: green for excellent, orange for mediocre, red for poor. This score is designed to tell you at a glance whether that granola bar or shampoo is a good choice for your health.
How is the score calculated?
For foods, Yuka’s rating is based on three weighted criteria: nutritional quality (60%), additives (30%), and whether it’s organic (10%). In practice, this means Yuka is largely built on the Nutri-Score system used in Europe (which grades the nutrition of a product from A to E based on sugar, salt, fat, protein, fiber, etc.). Yuka converts the Nutri-Score into a 0–100 score for nutrition, then penalizes the product for any additives that research deems risky. For instance, if a food contains a high-risk artificial color or preservative, the app will severely cap the score (any product with a “red flag” additive can’t score above 49/100). Yuka also gives a small bonus if a food is certified organic, since organic products avoid synthetic pesticides. The result is a single score that balances a food’s pros and cons health-wise.
For cosmetics and personal care products, Yuka uses a similar principle but focuses entirely on ingredients. The app analyzes every ingredient listed (like parabens, fragrances, sulfates, etc.) and rates their risk level based on scientific research. If your lotion has known endocrine disruptors or allergens, Yuka will flag those and reflect it in the product’s score. A product with mostly safe ingredients might score green/excellent, whereas one with several questionable chemicals might score red/poor, even if it’s a luxury brand. This empowers users to see through marketing – you can scan a fancy shampoo and find out in seconds if it contains any hidden harmful substances.
One of Yuka’s strengths is how it presents the information. After scanning, you don’t just get a number – you also get a breakdown of why. Yuka will list the product’s positives and negatives (e.g. “High in fiber” or “Too much sugar” for a cereal, or “Contains 2 allergenic additives” for a candy) along with an explanation of each ingredient’s risk. It even provides the scientific sources behind those evaluations if you want to dig deeper. For example, a scanned breakfast bar might show “Score: 45/100 (Poor)” with notes like “Too sweet” and “Contains Sodium Benzoate (high-risk preservative)” – Yuka will explain what Sodium Benzoate is and why it’s considered risky according to health agencies. This level of detail turns label reading into an easy, educational experience, which is great for consumers who want to learn why something is unhealthy.
Another handy feature:
If a product scores poorly, Yuka suggests healthier alternatives. For instance, scan a bag of potato chips that scores 20/100 and the app might recommend a similar product (maybe a low-sodium or baked version) that scores 70/100 instead. This makes Yuka very actionable – you’re not left thinking “oh no, this is bad” with no solution. The app actively helps you find a swap. Many users find this feature helpful in gradually upgrading their pantry: over time you discover which brands or items are “Yuka-approved” and which to avoid. Yuka maintains a huge database (around 5 million products total, including ~3 million foods and 2 million cosmetics), so it’s likely to recognize most items in your grocery store or bathroom cabinet. If it doesn’t, users can suggest additions to continually grow the database.
Independence and transparency:
Yuka prides itself on being 100% independent – no ads, no sponsorships, and no influence from manufacturers. The scores and recommendations aren’t skewed by any company; the app even has a policy of not allowing brands to use its name for marketing. Yuka’s business model is based on user contributions, not selling product placements, which adds to its credibility. In fact, a survey on their site claims 95% of users report eating healthier after using Yuka, showing how effective knowledge can be when it’s delivered in a simple way (just scan and see).
Platforms and pricing:
Yuka is available on both iPhone and Android. The core app – scanning and viewing product info – is free to use. To support the project, Yuka offers an optional Premium membership which unlocks a few extra features: an advanced search bar, offline scanning (great in low-signal grocery stores), dietary alerts (e.g., “not vegan” or “high in salt”), and scan history.
Uniquely, Yuka’s premium is on a sliding price scale – you can pay $10, $15, or $20 per year (your choice), with the idea that those who love the app and can afford a bit more will support its development. The features are the same regardless of what you pay. At around $15/year, Yuka Premium is quite affordable, but many casual users stick with the free version which covers the essentials. There are no ads in either version.
Longist vs Yuka: Different Approaches to Healthy Choices
Despite sharing a common goal of healthier living, Longist and Yuka differ dramatically in their approach. Longist takes a personalized, holistic route, whereas Yuka zeroes in on specific products. These differences affect how you use the apps and the kind of motivation you get from them.
• Scope of guidance:
Longist is like a 24/7 health coach looking at your entire lifestyle – it monitors your meals, exercise, and sleep together and gives you a cohesive longevity score. Yuka is more of a targeted tool – it answers “Is this particular item healthy for me?” The focus is narrow and doesn’t account for your context. If you’re looking for a broad view of health habits, Longist provides that panorama. If you mainly want to clean up your shopping list, Yuka zooms in effectively on each item.
• Personalization:
Longist’s feedback is highly personalized to you. It uses your own health data and tailors suggestions to your habits. Yuka’s ratings are one-size-fits-all – the score for a can of soda is the same for everyone. Yuka Premium allows dietary preferences, but doesn’t know your health metrics or goals.
• Actionability and decisions:
Yuka shines at the point-of-purchase – in the grocery aisle or pharmacy. A quick scan helps you swap to a better item. Longist, meanwhile, helps you adjust your habits over time. It might not recommend which cereal brand to buy, but it will show if your breakfast routine is gaining or losing minutes of life. Yuka = better products. Longist = better lifestyle.
• Gamification and motivation:
Longist features a leaderboard and social competition around “healthy minutes.” This can be highly motivating for some users. Yuka, by contrast, is purely informational. Some users love that it’s pressure-free, while others prefer the challenge-driven engagement of Longist.
• Psychological framing:
Longist’s use of time (“+30 minutes” or “–10 minutes”) hits deeply for many users—it makes health consequences tangible. Yuka’s ratings are helpful but less emotionally charged. It’s a green/yellow/red system without a visible “cost” or benefit to your actual life.
Motivation and Psychology
Longist’s longevity scoring taps into a very personal motivator – time alive. Seeing “+30 minutes” for a good choice or “–10 minutes” for an indulgence can make the consequences feel concrete and immediate. It essentially translates abstract health advice into time you gain or lose, which many users find eye-opening (“I never thought about food this way before. Seeing how my lunch adds +32 minutes to my life? Mind blown.”). This framing can encourage you to view each decision as part of a bigger mission to extend your healthy life.
Yuka’s scores, being less personal, might not hit emotionally in the same way – a “20/100 poor” is a warning, but it doesn’t explicitly say what it means for you. In fact, some nutritionists note that apps like Yuka can sometimes scare users with red labels without context, which might lead to anxiety. The Yuka app itself advises using it as a guide, not to obsess over every single ingredient.
So in terms of motivation, Longist often uses positive reinforcement (“You earned +X minutes by choosing this!” or a celebratory vibe when you improve), whereas Yuka can feel a bit like a traffic light – green is good, red is bad, stop and rethink. Both can prompt healthier behavior, but Longist’s method might be more encouraging for sustained habit-building, while Yuka’s method is great for learning and quick decision-making.
Scientific Nuance
It’s worth noting that neither app is a perfect oracle of health – they simplify complex science into user-friendly scores.
Longist’s “minutes of life” are estimates based on population studies – in reality, many factors affect an individual’s lifespan. Yuka’s 100-point grades likewise don’t capture everything (for example, some users complain Yuka penalizes natural but salty foods like artisanal jerky as “poor” just because of sodium).
The key difference is how the user is guided to respond:
Yuka provides alternatives and leaves the judgment to you (“maybe eat this, not that”).
Longist provides an ongoing narrative about your health, encouraging you to make choices that keep your personal longevity score on track.
Depending on your personality, you might find one approach more motivating:
Do you prefer a helpful scanner to improve your grocery basket?
Or a smart coach that treats your life like a game where you’re scoring health points?
Feature Comparison: Longist vs Yuka
Here’s a summary of the core differences between the two apps:
| Feature | Longist (Longevity Scoring) | Yuka (Product Health Ratings) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Holistic longevity coaching – tracks overall lifestyle (diet, activity, sleep) to maximize healthy lifespan | Product-based health analysis – scans food & cosmetics to rate their impact on health. Focused on individual item quality. |
| Scoring System | Minutes of life gained or lost for each choice. Provides an overall Longevity Score aggregating your daily habits. | 0–100 score for each product scanned. Color-coded (green = excellent, yellow = good, orange = mediocre, red = poor). Same score for all users. |
| Data Input & Tracking | Log meals via photo or barcode; auto-import activity & sleep from Apple Health. Tracks everything (meals, steps, sleep). | Scan product barcodes using your phone camera. Search by name (Premium). Tracks each scanned item; no tracking beyond that. |
| Health Factors | Combines nutrition, activity, sleep, and stress/recovery into one longevity score. Uses research-backed modeling. | Food: nutrition (60%), additives (30%), organic bonus (10%). Cosmetics: risk level per ingredient. Based on official health guidelines. |
| Feedback & Guidance | Instant per-meal feedback (“+25 min” or “–10 min”), plus personalized AI coaching suggestions (Premium). | Product rating (“Bad – 30/100”) with a pros/cons list, ingredient breakdown, and alternative suggestions. |
| Personalization | High – adapts to your personal health data, goals, and behavior patterns. Your score is unique to you. | Limited – same rating for all users. Premium lets you set dietary filters but does not personalize scores. |
| Social/Gamification | Yes – leaderboard, challenges, and shared “healthy minutes.” | No – Yuka is a solo tool with no friend lists, scoreboards, or community features. |
| Platforms | iOS only (as of mid-2025). Deep integration with Apple HealthKit. | iOS and Android. Broad accessibility across most smartphones. |
| Pricing | Free 3-day trial. Then $9.99/month or $59.99/year for full access. | Free core app. Premium optional (~$15/year), adds search, offline mode, and dietary alerts. No ads. |
| Ideal For | Health enthusiasts, biohackers, or anyone wanting a daily longevity coach to guide and motivate lifestyle improvements. | General consumers and families looking for an easy tool to shop smarter and decode food & cosmetics labels. |
Pros and Cons of Longist
Pros:
Holistic Longevity Focus
Longist looks beyond calories and weight, aiming to improve your healthspan. It translates every choice into tangible time gained or lost, which can be a powerful motivator. This big-picture approach helps you understand the cumulative impact of your diet, sleep, and exercise—not just isolated metrics.Personalized Coaching
The app integrates with your personal health data and uses AI to give tailored advice. It’s like having a friendly coach or “biohacker buddy” in your pocket, suggesting tweaks suited to your lifestyle (e.g., go to bed earlier tonight, or add berries to your oatmeal for an antioxidant boost). Users appreciate that the guidance evolves with their habits, rather than providing generic tips.Immediate Feedback & Gamification
You get instant gratification (or gentle guilt) from the minute-by-minute feedback. Making healthy choices feels rewarding when you see your life minutes increase. The optional leaderboard and challenges add a fun, competitive element to staying healthy, which can encourage consistency. It basically turns healthy living into a game—and you’re competing to extend your own life!Science-Backed and Cutting-Edge
Longist’s scoring is grounded in reputable research (including a study from Nature Food linking foods to longevity), and the app updates as new science emerges. This gives confidence that the recommendations aren’t fads. Also, by combining data from multiple domains (nutrition, sleep, fitness), Longist provides insights that are more integrated and nuanced than a basic calorie tracker.Innovative & Comprehensive Feature Set
From meal photo recognition to menu scanning at restaurants, Longist is packed with tech-forward features. It can recognize what’s on your plate and break down the pros and cons for your longevity. It also tracks trends over time, so you can see progress (for example, an upward trend in weekly minutes). It’s both a logger and a coach, reducing the need for multiple separate health apps.
Cons:
Requires Consistent Input
To get the most out of Longist, you have to log your meals (by photo or scan) and be fairly engaged. This is more effort than a passive app—if you forget to log your lunch, that day’s score won’t reflect reality. Some users might find the constant tracking tedious, especially if they prepare complex meals that the photo scanner might not perfectly recognize. It’s not as quick as simply scanning a barcode like Yuka; a bit of diligence is needed to maintain accuracy.New and iOS-Only
Longist is a relatively new app (launched in 2025) and is currently only available on iOS (iPhone). The user community is smaller compared to an established app like Yuka. If you don’t use an iPhone or Apple Watch, you’re out of luck for now. Android users would have to wait for a future release. Being new, the app is still evolving—there could be occasional bugs or less polish compared to more mature apps, though it’s actively updated.Subscription Cost
While Longist offers a free trial, meaningful use requires a paid subscription (~$9.99 a month or $60 annually). This price point is considerably higher than Yuka’s premium (which is $10–$20 per year), and may be a barrier for some. If you’re not deeply committed to using it daily, you might question the value. The flip side is that Longist offers a highly personalized service, which may justify the cost for active users.Quantifying Health Can Be Intense
For some people, turning every meal or habit into a “minutes of life” statistic might become stressful or overly gamified. Health is complex, and one might fixate on the score and potentially take it to extremes (e.g., feeling guilty about the occasional treat because it “cost” 5 minutes). While the app’s intent is to educate and motivate, individuals prone to anxiety around health data should use it with balance in mind.Not a Medical Advisor
Like Yuka, Longist is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Its recommendations are general. For instance, it might suggest more protein or less sugar based on longevity data, but it doesn’t account for specific medical conditions. If someone has a chronic illness or a condition like diabetes, they should follow their doctor’s guidance over any app.
Pros and Cons of Yuka
Pros:
Extremely User-Friendly
Yuka is very easy to use—just scan a barcode and instantly get a clear verdict on the product’s health quality. There’s no complicated setup or learning curve. This simplicity makes it accessible to all ages, from kids to seniors.Vast Database and Coverage
With millions of products in its database, Yuka likely recognizes whatever you scan—be it a popular cereal, a niche organic brand, or your brand of hand cream. It’s continually updated with new products and user contributions.Educational and Transparent
Yuka doesn’t just score products; it educates you on why a product got that score. It highlights the good and bad points of each item in plain language, often with scientific backing. Over time, you learn patterns and get better at reading labels yourself. The fact that it’s based on Nutri-Score and evidence-backed guidelines builds trust.Helps You Improve Shopping Habits
The app’s alternative recommendations make it easy to switch to healthier choices. For example, if you scan a tomato sauce that scores poorly due to high sugar, Yuka might suggest another brand of sauce with no added sugar. Many users report gradually upgrading their diet or skincare routine through these suggestions.Community-Driven and Unbiased
Yuka’s funding model is user-supported with no ads or corporate influence. It won’t go easy on a brand just because it’s popular or pays for promotion. This objectivity and independence have earned Yuka strong user trust.
Cons:
Can Induce Anxiety or Obsession
For some users, scanning their kitchen and seeing lots of red-rated items can feel overwhelming. It can lead to guilt or the urge to throw everything out, which isn’t always practical. While Yuka suggests balance, it can still feel like a guilt-trip generator for some.Not All Scores Fit Individual Needs
Yuka’s algorithm is general and doesn’t always match personal dietary goals. For example, it might rate a high-fat cheese poorly for saturated fat, even if it fits within a ketogenic diet. Natural foods like peanut butter might get penalized for calories despite being healthy in context. The red/yellow/green system doesn’t capture nuance, which may frustrate advanced users.Database Gaps and Scan Issues
Although rare, some niche or newly launched products might not be in the database. Also, scanning issues can occur with multi-pack barcodes or international items. These hiccups are minor but can be frustrating in the moment.Limited Scope – Only Products
Yuka does not track what you eat, how often you exercise, or your sleep. It’s a scanner, not a lifestyle app. If you want to log meals, monitor progress, or get coaching, you’ll need another app alongside it. It serves a narrow but valuable purpose.Premium Features Paywalled
While the free version is highly functional, some helpful tools—like search, offline scanning, and dietary alerts—are Premium-only. This isn’t a big downside considering the low cost, but some feel that health-related alerts (e.g., for allergens or celiac disease) should be available for free.
Conclusion: Which App Is More Effective for Healthier Decisions?
Both Longist and Yuka are valuable tools, but they serve different purposes.
Yuka is like a smart magnifying glass – it zooms in on products to help you eliminate the baddies (unhealthy ingredients, junk foods) from your life. It’s fantastic for building awareness about what you’re consuming. By using Yuka, you might gradually fill your cart with more “green-rated” items and fewer “red-rated” ones, leading to a cleaner diet and cleaner bathroom shelf. It’s straightforward, informative, and requires minimal effort beyond scanning. For many people, that’s a game-changer in itself – Yuka essentially empowers you to make informed choices in seconds, cutting through marketing claims on labels. If your main struggle is not knowing whether Product A or Product B is healthier, Yuka is the go-to app.
Longist, on the other hand, takes a wider view and asks a deeper question:
“How do all my daily choices add up to affect my lifespan and well-being?”
In doing so, it creates a more personal and motivating narrative for your health. Instead of just telling you “this cereal is a 20/100,” Longist will show you how that cereal (and everything else you did today) either added or deducted minutes from your life. This kind of feedback can be eye-opening and habit-forming – it turns health into a visible metric that you can improve day by day.
For someone looking to not only eat better but also sleep better, move more, and manage stress, Longist provides an integrated coaching solution. It’s like comparing a single tool (Yuka’s microscope on products) to an entire toolkit (Longist’s multifaceted lifestyle approach).
So which is more actionable or motivating?
It depends on your goals – but for making broad daily health decisions and sustaining motivation, we give the edge to Longist.
Longist’s longevity score and “minutes gained” concept make the consequences of your choices feel tangible and immediate, which in psychology is known to drive behavior change (it’s like earning rewards rather than just avoiding negatives). The app not only informs you but also guides and encourages you to do better, almost in real time. Users report that it changed how they view food: instead of just calories, they see “minutes of life,” which inspired them to swap junk for fruits or take the stairs more often because it literally counts toward extra lifetime.
Sustainability Matters Too
It’s one thing to eat a healthy product, but another to maintain a healthy lifestyle consistently.
Longist’s comprehensive tracking and positive reinforcement (with celebrations for gains and progress charts) create a reinforcing loop that can help healthy choices stick. Plus, the gamification and social features add accountability and fun. Yuka might be used intensely at first (cue scanning everything in your pantry) but some users may use it less over time once they’ve learned what to buy or avoid. Longist, by being intertwined with daily routine and offering dynamic coaching, is designed to be a long-term companion.
Best of Both Worlds?
These apps aren’t mutually exclusive.
In fact, an ideal scenario could be using Yuka as a companion to Longist:
Yuka helps you pick higher-quality foods,
Longist tells you how that choice benefited you in minutes.
Together, they tackle healthy living from both ends – micro (product) and macro (lifestyle).
Final Word
If we’re making a final recommendation between the two, Longist comes out on top for its holistic, motivating approach to daily health decisions.
It makes healthy living feel like an investment in time you can actually see, which is a powerful motivator for most of us. Longist not only tells you what’s good or bad but also keeps you actively engaged in improving, which can lead to more sustained positive changes.
In conclusion:
Yuka is an excellent app for informed choices on what you buy and consume.
Longist is the better choice for building lasting healthy habits, staying motivated, and optimizing your life in a measurable, engaging way.
With Longist’s help, you’re not just avoiding certain foods; you’re optimizing your entire lifestyle—potentially adding healthy years to your life.
Live longer, live better – and let these smart apps assist you on that journey, with Longist leading the way.
