Why We Built 12 Carbs
A small, independent project born from sheer frustration with overly complex, bloated tracking apps.
The Frustration Behind the App
Whether you are calculating insulin doses for Type 1 diabetes, managing gestational diabetes, or following a ketogenic lifestyle, carb counting is not something you do once a week. You do it 3 to 6 times every single day.
Yet conventional tracking apps have become bloated monoliths. They force you to create accounts, remember passwords, navigate past coaching upsells, endure slow splash screens, and fight confusing calorie burn calculations when all you need is a simple, honest question answered:
"How many carbs are in this meal right now?"
We realized nobody was building a simple, clean, lightning-fast utility dedicated strictly to carbs with zero bloat. So we decided to build it ourselves.
Our Core Principles
Speed Above All Else
Every millisecond matters. We designed the app architecture (Flutter + Hive NoSQL) so that the app opens in under 300 milliseconds. No loading spinners, no mandatory network handshakes. You type, you scan, you're done.
Your Health Data Stays Yours
We do not want your personal health logs, and we don't store them on our servers. Your food history and custom foods live on your device. You can export your data to standard files anytime.
Open Data & Free Barcodes
Nutritional transparency is a public good. We support and integrate with OpenFoodFacts, an open-source, community-driven database containing over 4 million food products worldwide.
Honest, Human Monetization
No aggressive subscription traps with automatic recurring credit card renewals. We offer transparent prepaid access and lifetime purchases. If you prefer free, the app remains fully functional supported by unobtrusive native ads placed naturally among the content.
We Want Your Direct Feedback
12 Carbs is actively maintained and improved. If there is a feature that would make your daily carbohydrate logging easier, faster, or more accessible, tell us directly.