Driftlog › Compare travel trackers › Polarsteps alternatives
The closest alternative to Polarsteps is FindPenguins: automatic route tracking, a journal and printed books, and no in-app purchases on its US App Store page. If you want a journal made from your photos, Journi. If you want the places without the route or the feed, Driftlog or Rond. If you only want a map to tick, been or Visited. If you want the route and nothing social, Arc Timeline or Fog of World.
Where I stand. I make Driftlog, one of the apps on this page, so weigh what follows accordingly. I have tried to say where the other apps are the better choice.
Polarsteps tracks your route automatically, lets you add photos, videos and stories to each step, plans itineraries, and prints the result as a book. It has 4.9 stars from 9,691 US ratings and is on Android. If you want friends and family to follow a trip as it happens, nothing on this page does that better, including mine. Its Plus plan is $9.99 a month or $34.99 a year in the US.
People look for an alternative for three reasons: they do not want a route recorded, they do not want an account and a feed, or they do not want a subscription. Each has a different answer.
| If you want | App | How it differs from Polarsteps | Listed price (US App Store) | Android | App Store privacy label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The same thing from someone else | FindPenguins | The same kind of app: automatic route tracking, posts, trip planning, printed books | No in-app purchases listed | Yes | Data Linked to You |
| A journal from photos | Journi Blog | Builds the journal from your photos, grouped by time and place. No route tracking in its description | Journi Premium Membership, several plans from $4.99 to $53.99 | Yes | Data Linked to You |
| The places, not the route | Driftlog (mine) | Records countries, regions, cities and dates by itself. No route, no feed, no account. Rebuilds earlier trips from photos | Free to download. Driftlog Premium $6.99, once | Yes | Data Not Collected |
| The places, not the route | Rond | Logs the places you visit in the background as a timeline and journal. No sign-in | Premium $1.99 and $9.99 (period not shown) · Lifetime Premium $24.99–$29.99 | No listing found | Data Not Collected |
| Old trips, from photos | Mapsake | Builds a map from your photo library. Its description says it also imports a Polarsteps export | Free. No in-app purchases listed | No listing found | Data Not Collected |
| Only a map to tick | been | You tick countries and US states. Nothing is recorded for you | Weekly $4.99 · Yearly $19.99 · Premium Features $2.29 | Yes | Data Used to Track You · Data Linked to You |
| Only a map to tick | Visited | You mark countries, regions and cities, with lists and itineraries | Monthly $9.99 · Yearly $34.99 · Visited Pro $59.99 | Yes | Data Linked to You |
| The route, nothing social | Arc Timeline 4 | Records where you go and how you get there. No accounts. Needs iOS 26 | Monthly $4.99 · Yearly $44.99 · Lifetime $179.99 | No listing found | Data Not Linked to You |
| The route, nothing social | Fog of World | Records your tracks and clears fog from a world map. No account | $30.00 to buy. No in-app purchases | Yes | Data Not Collected |
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FindPenguins is the closest in kind: automatic route tracking, a journal and printed books, and no in-app purchases listed on its US App Store page. If you do not want a route or a feed, Driftlog and Rond record the places you visit by themselves. If you only want a map, been and Visited are filled in by hand.
FindPenguins lists no in-app purchases on its US App Store page. Mapsake is free and builds a map from your photos. Google Maps Timeline is free and records visits and routes once you turn it on.
Yes. Driftlog records countries, regions, cities and dates without a route, and Rond logs the places you visit. Manual maps such as been and Visited record nothing by themselves.
Driftlog, Rond, Mapsake, Fog of World and Arc Timeline 4 all say in their App Store descriptions that they need no account.
On the US App Store on 4 October 2026, Polarsteps lists Plus Monthly at $9.99 and Plus Yearly at $34.99. The app itself is free to download.
Mapsake's App Store description lists Polarsteps among the exports it can import. I have not tested it. Driftlog does not import from Polarsteps; it rebuilds earlier trips from the location saved in your photos.
How this page was made. I make Driftlog, one of the apps on this page. Prices, privacy labels and ratings were read from each app's own US App Store page on 4 October 2026, and Android availability from Google Play. I have not tested every app here; what I say about other people's apps is what their store pages say. A store page shows at most ten in-app purchases, and prices change, so follow the link before you decide. Nobody paid to be on this page. If something is wrong or out of date, email me at shiori.sutudio@gmail.com and I will fix it. The full table of twenty apps is on the comparison page.