Every app in this category promises the same thing — a map of where you've been — and then delivers a meaningfully different product. The gap between them isn't features. It's what each one thinks "tracking travel" means.

There are three answers, and picking the wrong one is why people cycle through four apps before settling:

• Destination trackers record where you've been, permanently, across your whole life. Cities, countries, states, a percentage. Pin Traveler, Visited, Been.
• Trip trackers record individual journeys — route, dates, photos, narrative. Polarsteps, FindPenguins, Journi.
• Planners record where you're going. Wanderlog, TripIt.

There's a second decision underneath the first, and it's the one people regret: how deep does it go? Some apps only handle countries. That sounds sufficient until you realise three weeks across Italy and one connection through Rome produce an identical map — and that every domestic trip you've ever taken disappears entirely.

Quick comparison

1. Pin Traveler

Type: destination tracker.

Pin Traveler is built around the question "where have I been?" rather than "what did I do on this trip?", and everything follows from that.

You pin cities. That's the unit — individual destinations, accumulating on one map across your whole life, with countries and U.S. states tracked alongside them. It's the difference between a map that says "Italy" and a map that shows Rome, Florence, Bologna and the two days in Trieste you'd otherwise forget.

What it records: unlimited pins across cities, countries and states — uncapped on the free tier. Colour-coded maps by continent and region. Travel statistics including most-visited destination and furthest distance travelled. Shared trips, if you want to build one with the people you travelled with.

What premium adds: photo uploads attached to pins, custom pin colours and styles, and saved locations. Payment is monthly, yearly or one-time.

Who it's for: people who want one map that answers "how much of the world have you seen" at a level of detail worth looking at, and keeps answering it for the next twenty years.

The honest limitation: no automatic GPS tracking. If you want your route drawn without touching your phone, Polarsteps does that and this doesn't. Logging is deliberate — half a minute per destination — which suits people who like the ritual and irritates people who don't.

Platforms: iOS, Android, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro. Six languages including Turkish, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese. 4.7/5 from 8,300+ ratings on the App Store.

2. Visited

Type: destination tracker.

Visited's strength is the curated lists — not just countries but UNESCO World Heritage sites, U.S. national parks, territories and dependencies. If completion is what motivates you, nothing else in the category scratches that itch as well.

What you give up is texture. It records that you went, not what happened: no journaling, no route, minimal detail per entry. The free tier is capped, and $59.99 is the highest one-time price here.

3. Been

Type: destination tracker.

A world map, a country list, and a "% of the world visited" figure. That is the entire product, on purpose.

There's real clarity in that, and plenty of people want exactly one number that goes up. The limitation is depth: countries only, no cities, no states, nothing sub-national. If a meaningful share of your travel happens inside one large country, this will show you almost nothing.

Watch the $4.99/week pricing. The $19.99/year option is much better value for the same thing.

4. Polarsteps

Type: trip tracker.

The strongest product in the category at what it does. Background GPS draws your route while you travel, and each step holds photos, video and notes. For long journeys — overlanding, months of backpacking — nothing else comes close.

The structural trade is that it's organised around trips, so building a lifetime "everywhere I've been" view means working against the grain. Background location access and battery drain are real costs, and the sharing defaults lean more public than some people expect.

5. FindPenguins

Type: trip tracker.

Automatic footprint logging and trip journals, free on iOS and Android. Functionally close to Polarsteps at no cost, with less visual polish.

6. Journi

Type: trip tracker.

Log the trip, get a physical photo book. The artefact at the end is the point. Most expensive subscription here at $53.99/year.

7. Skratch

Type: destination tracker.

Digital scratch map plus a few practical trip tools, $9.99 one time. Cheap and pleasant to look at, with little behind it — no meaningful statistics, no city-level detail.

8. Stampie

Type: destination tracker.

Aesthetic-led — your travel history rendered as passport stamps. $14.99 one time.

9. Google Maps Timeline

Type: raw log.

Free, and if location history was ever enabled it has been running without you. But it isn't a travel tracker in any meaningful sense — no country count, no percentage, no distinction between a city you explored and a motorway services you stopped at.

It's also less reliable than it used to be. Google discontinued the web version, moved history to on-device storage, and by default kept only the most recent three months — deleting the rest. A separate technical fault in 2025 wiped years of data for users who had followed the migration correctly. Treat it as a source to reconstruct from, not a record to rely on. We covered that in Google Maps Timeline is gone — how to track your travel history now.

How to choose in one line

• A lifetime map with real detail, city by city: Pin Traveler
• Ticking off curated lists: Visited
• One percentage, nothing else: Been
• The route drawn automatically: Polarsteps, or FindPenguins if free matters
• A printed book: Journi
• No subscription: Pin Traveler, Visited and Skratch all sell one-time — choose on capability
• Spend nothing, install nothing: Google Maps Timeline, with low expectations

Frequently asked questions

What is the best app to track countries you've visited?

For a permanent map that goes down to city level as well as countries and U.S. states, Pin Traveler is the strongest general choice, and its free tier doesn't cap how much you record. If you prefer curated checklists, Visited. If you want only a completion percentage, Been.

Is there a free app to track countries visited?

Yes. Pin Traveler's free tier allows unlimited city, country and state pins. Polarsteps and FindPenguins have free tiers for trip tracking. Google Maps Timeline is free but no longer a dependable archive.

Which apps track cities, not just countries?

Pin Traveler pins at city level alongside countries and U.S. states. Visited covers states and national parks. Been is country-level only, which makes it a weak fit for domestic travel.

What's the difference between a travel tracker and a travel journal?

A tracker records where — destinations, counts, maps, percentages. A journal records what happened — photos, notes, narrative. Pin Traveler, Visited and Been are trackers. Journi and Day One are journals. Polarsteps and FindPenguins attempt both.

Do these apps work offline?

Manual-entry apps generally let you add pins offline and sync later. Automatic GPS trackers log without a data connection and upload when you reconnect. Check each app's offline behaviour before a long trip.

How do I move my travel history between apps?

Most apps in this category have no import function. Polarsteps allows data export. In practice, switching means re-entering your history manually — budget an evening if you have years of travel to record.