Fig vs ClearaScan: Diet Patterns vs Your Trigger List

Fig is built around dietary patterns and is excellent for food; ClearaScan checks any label, food or not, against your personal triggers. A fair, plain-English comparison of how they differ and who each suits.

The core difference

Both Fig and ClearaScan let you scan a product and check it against your needs, but they are built around different jobs. Fig is organised around dietary patterns and restrictions, such as low-FODMAP, low-histamine, vegan and common food allergies, and it is genuinely good at groceries. ClearaScan is organised around your own personal trigger list, and it works across food, medication and personal care, not just food. In other words, Fig starts from a recognised diet and matches products to it; ClearaScan starts from the specific things you react to and looks for them wherever they appear.

Where Fig is strong

For food specifically, Fig is excellent, and it deserves credit for that. It understands established dietary patterns in depth, it has a large and well-maintained food database, and it is a natural fit if your concern is a recognised eating plan or a set of common food allergens. If you are following a low-FODMAP trial, keeping to a vegan diet, or avoiding one of the major food allergens, Fig makes the weekly shop far easier by matching products to your chosen pattern. If groceries and diet patterns are your whole focus, it is a strong place to start.

Where it stops

Fig stays in the kitchen, and that is its honest boundary. Because it is built for food, it does not help with the shampoo, cosmetic or medication side of sensitive skin, where many of the same triggers appear. Fragrance chemicals, preservatives such as BHA and BHT, and sulphites that turn up in some medicines all sit outside Fig’s food-only remit. If your reactions are confined to food, this does not matter. But if the same trigger flares your skin from both your plate and your bathroom shelf, Fig can only cover half the picture. A named-diet model is also less flexible than a free-form personal list when your triggers do not line up with a recognised pattern.

Where ClearaScan fits

ClearaScan starts from the specific ingredients you react to rather than a named diet, and it scans any product, food, medication or cosmetic, against that one personal guard list, flagging only your triggers. For someone whose skin reacts to things that span their plate and their bathroom shelf, that single cross-category list is the whole point. It also keeps a Reaction Journal, a shared Care Circle so family can scan for you, and a Trusted Products list. Its honest limitations belong here too: it is currently in early access and still maturing, it does not offer Fig’s depth of ready-made dietary patterns, and it only flags what you have added to your list, so you have to know and enter your triggers first. Disclosure: our editor co-founded ClearaScan, and we are not paid to mention Fig.

A fair comparison

What it is built around. Fig is built around recognised diets; ClearaScan is built around your own list.

Breadth. Fig covers food only; ClearaScan covers food, medicine and cosmetics.

Depth on diets. Fig has strong ready-made dietary patterns; ClearaScan expects you to define your triggers yourself.

Maturity. Fig is established with a large food database; ClearaScan is newer and in early access.

Where each falls short. Fig cannot leave the kitchen; ClearaScan is only as complete as the list you build and lacks Fig’s diet presets.

Who each suits best

Choose Fig if your issue is purely food and fits a known dietary pattern, and you want the ease of matching groceries to that plan. Choose ClearaScan if your triggers are personal and turn up across food, medicines and skincare, and you want one list that follows you across all three.

An honest recommendation

Think of these two as covering different aisles. If your issue is purely food and maps onto a recognised diet, Fig is a great choice and hard to beat for groceries. If your triggers are personal and cross food, medicine and skincare, ClearaScan is built for exactly that spread. Many people could happily use both, letting Fig handle the diet-led food shopping and ClearaScan handle the cross-category personal check. Whichever you choose, both assume you already know your triggers, so identifying them, and deciding whether to restrict your diet at all, remains a job for a healthcare professional.

Written and reviewed by the Sensitive Skin Lab editorial team.