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Spoonful vs Fig: Which Scanner Fits Your Gut?
Disclosure: this guide is published by FODMAP Score, which appears in the comparison. We've kept it factual and note our own limits where they exist.
You're standing in a grocery aisle turning a granola bar over in your hand, wondering if "natural flavors" is hiding chicory root. Two apps dominate this moment for people managing IBS: Spoonful, the FODMAP specialist, and Fig, the everything-scanner. Both read barcodes and hand you a verdict in seconds — but they're built on different philosophies, and the right pick depends on how you actually shop and where you are in the diet. Here's an honest look at both as of mid-2026.
Spoonful: the FODMAP specialist
Spoonful was built around one job: telling you whether a packaged product fits a low-FODMAP diet. Its catalog of 700,000+ products is reviewed by specialist dietitians who work with IBS patients, and results come back as a simple green/yellow/red light — including analysis of vague label terms where FODMAPs like to hide.
Its depth shows in phase support. During reintroduction and personalization you can tell the app which FODMAP groups you tolerate, and every future scan re-colors itself to your profile. When a product fails, it suggests popular substitutes. The catch: coverage is US-strong. Spoonful reports around a 90% barcode match rate in the US but roughly 75% in Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand — and some Australian users report closer to half their scans coming up empty. Pricing is around $25/year or $4/month after a 7-day trial.
Fig: breadth over depth
Fig's pitch is different: one scanner for 2,800+ diets and ingredient avoidances — low FODMAP sits alongside gluten-free, low histamine, alpha-gal, dairy-free, and stacked combinations of all of them. If your IBS coexists with celiac disease or a nut allergy, Fig is the only app here that checks everything in one scan. It also has a genuinely useful grocery-discovery mode that surfaces compliant products across 50+ US store chains.
The FODMAP layer is shallower, though. Fig's GI dietitians rated 2,500+ ingredients for likely FODMAP content, and dose-dependent ingredients get flagged yellow — but the app is reading ingredient lists for likelihood, not telling you a tested safe portion of that exact product. After reintroduction you can update your settings to un-restrict FODMAP groups, but there's no guided phase structure the way Spoonful offers. A limited free tier exists; Fig+ runs around $6/month or $60/year.
Pricing and billing: what to watch
Both apps are honest businesses, but both use the auto-renewing trial model, and app-store reviews across this whole category repeat the same story: a forgotten day-7 trial quietly becomes a yearly charge, and refunds through the app stores are hit-or-miss.
- •Spoonful: around $25/year or $4/month, 7-day free trial, no permanent free tier
- •Fig: limited free tier (fine for occasional checks), Fig+ around $6/month or $60/year
- •Set a calendar reminder for day 5 of any trial, before it converts
- •Screenshot your cancellation confirmation — support response times in this category are frequently criticized in reviews
Where reviewers push back
Spoonful holds a strong rating (around 4.6 stars), but recurring complaints include products marked green that still triggered symptoms for some users, and thin coverage outside the US. Fig's critics point at the FODMAP nuance problem — a yellow flag tells you an ingredient might be fine at some portion, then leaves the math to you — and at the free tier's limits.
One caveat applies to both: FODMAP content isn't printed on any label, so every scanner is inferring from ingredient lists. Neither app can know that this brand's tomato sauce used more onion than that one's. Treat any green light as a well-educated guess, not a guarantee.
The verdict, by use-case
- •IBS is your only restriction and you shop in the US: Spoonful — deeper FODMAP logic, better US catalog, real phase support
- •You juggle multiple restrictions (FODMAP plus gluten, histamine, allergens): Fig — one scan checks everything
- •You're mid-reintroduction: Spoonful's tolerated-groups settings make it the stronger companion
- •Budget is tight: Fig's free tier covers occasional label checks; Spoonful has no free lane
- •You're outside the US: run both free trials against your own pantry before paying — match rates vary a lot by country
The gap neither one covers
Both apps go quiet the moment there's no barcode to scan — a restaurant menu, a deli counter, a dish a friend cooked. That's arguably where IBS anxiety peaks, and it's the gap FODMAP Score was built for: photograph a restaurant menu and it flags likely trigger dishes and safer orders, with the reasoning shown so you can judge it yourself. Being fair in the other direction: it's estimating from dish names and descriptions, it can't see what the kitchen actually puts in the pan, and its packaged-goods coverage doesn't rival either barcode catalog. Keep Spoonful or Fig for the grocery aisle; menus are where it earns its place.
Foods in this guide, scored
Neither helps at a restaurant table:
Photograph any menu — freeInformational only — not medical advice. FODMAP tolerance is individual; work with a dietitian for elimination and reintroduction.