Tracking states is a different problem from tracking countries, and most of this category was built for the second one.

A country map is a coarse instrument pointed outward. A state map is domestic, higher resolution, and for a lot of Americans it is the map that actually reflects their life — thirty-one states and four countries is a normal shape for a travel history, and only one of those numbers is interesting to look at.

The apps below split into two groups: single-purpose state trackers that do one job cleanly and stop there, and general travel trackers that handle states as part of a wider map. Which group you want depends almost entirely on whether your travel ends at the border.

Quick comparison

Ratings and features checked September 2026 on the US App Store. Pricing varies by region on most of these — confirm in your own store.

1. Pin Traveler

What it is: a permanent map you build by pinning destinations — U.S. states, cities anywhere in the world, and countries — that keeps accumulating rather than resetting per trip.

States work the way you would expect: tap the ones you have been to and the map fills in. What separates it from the single-purpose apps is that the same map keeps going once you leave the country, and that it works at city level underneath the state layer.

That last part matters more than it sounds. "I have been to California" is true whether you spent a summer driving Highway 1 or changed planes at LAX. Pinning the cities underneath — San Diego, Monterey, Sacramento — is what turns a coloured-in state into an actual record. We explore why urban granularity matters in our guide to the best apps to track cities you've visited. Most state trackers cannot do this at all, because the state is the smallest unit they know about.

Free tier: unlimited pins across states, cities and countries, the colour-coded map, and travel statistics — most-visited destination, furthest distance travelled, continent coverage. It is a usable product rather than a preview.

Premium adds: photo uploads on your destinations, custom pin colours and styles, and saved locations. Monthly, yearly, or a one-time purchase via Pin Traveler Premium or directly via download.

What it does not do: counties. If your project is the 3,144-county map rather than the 50-state one, see USA Travel below. There is also no automatic GPS tracking — you add destinations yourself, which is a deliberate trade covered further down.

Platforms: iOS, Android, iPad, Mac with Apple silicon, Vision Pro. Six languages.

Rating: 4.73 from 8,453 US App Store ratings.

2. Visited

Built around curated lists rather than a single map. Beyond U.S. states it carries regional maps for more than 20 countries and over 150 list categories — national parks, heritage sites, food destinations — which you tick off as you go.

If your relationship with a state map is completionist — all 50, then all the national parks, then the territories — this model is designed for exactly that impulse and will keep you engaged longer than a plain map. We broke down the exact trade-offs in Pin Traveler vs Visited: A Practical Comparison.

The cost of that breadth is clutter. When every category is a list, the map becomes a dashboard for a dozen parallel scoreboards. Plenty of people arrive wanting a state map and spend their first session navigating categories they did not ask for.

Rating: 4.65 from 13,762 ratings — the largest installed base in this comparison.

3. Been

The minimalist end of the category. Countries and U.S. states, a world map, a percentage, and continent ratios. Open it, tap, done.

States are included free, which makes it a reasonable pick if the 50-state map is genuinely all you want and you would like a country map alongside it at no cost.

Cities sit behind Premium Mode, along with regions in 25+ countries, extra globe filters, a chronological map and a shareable timeline video. So the free version answers "which states" but not "where in them". Read our detailed comparison in Pin Traveler vs Been: A Practical Comparison.

Rating: 4.7 from 9,042 ratings.

4. USA Travel: I've Been in US

The one on this list that goes below state level in the United States: it maps counties as well as states, which is the deepest domestic granularity available in a consumer app.

County tracking is a niche pursuit with a devoted following — the county map is the serious version of the 50-state map, and if you have ever looked at a state you have "visited" and felt the claim was thin, this is the app that fixes it. It also handles categories (visited, want to visit), world heritage sites, photos and notes, and syncs via iCloud or Dropbox.

The trade is scope: it is a United States app. Travel outside the country does not have a home here, so most users end up running it alongside something else.

Rating: 4.76 from 2,158 ratings. Last updated December 2025, which is slower than most of this list.

5. USA States – Map Tracker

States plus national parks, with colour and marker customisation and straightforward sharing. It sits between the bare state tracker and the full checklist app — enough structure to give you a second goal after the 50 states, without Visited's 150 categories.

Focused and unfussy. Also US-only, and with a smaller user base than the general trackers.

Rating: 4.42 from 285 ratings.

6. States Visited USA

The most stripped-back option here: an interactive US map, tap to mark, a total and a percentage toward all 50. No countries, no cities, no lists, no accounts to think about.

There is a real argument for this. If you have tried general travel apps and abandoned them because setup felt like data entry, a single-screen tracker you can finish in two minutes has a much better chance of surviving on your phone.

The ceiling is low by design. Nothing to expand into, and no answer for travel abroad.

Rating: 4.73 from 299 ratings. Released February 2025, so it is the newest app on this list.

7. Skratch

A scratch-map product: mark countries, cities, states, regions and attractions and get an aesthetic map to share, with bucket-list features and curated destination lists alongside. It also sells travel eSIMs, which is unusual in this category and either useful or beside the point depending on how you travel.

States are supported but are not the centre of gravity — the design is oriented toward the world map and the visual. Choose it if what you want is a good-looking artefact rather than a precise record.

Rating: 4.6 from 2,106 ratings.

8. Places Been

A straightforward tracker covering countries and states, without the list machinery of Visited or the visual ambitions of Skratch. Smaller and simpler; worth a look if the bigger apps feel heavy but you still want countries and states in one place.

Rating: 4.57 from 1,190 ratings.

9. Google Maps Timeline

Included because people still reach for it, and because the situation changed.

Timeline records where your phone has been, automatically, and that is genuinely useful raw material. But it is location history, not a state map — there is no "42 of 50" view, no coloured map of states, and no way to mark a state you visited before you carried the phone.

It is also no longer the safe archive it was assumed to be. The web version was retired, history moved to on-device storage with a default retention window that discarded older data, and a March 2025 fault deleted years of history for users without a backup. Google acknowledged it. Anything you want to keep should live somewhere you control.

We covered what changed and what to do about it in Google Maps Timeline is gone.

Choose between a state map and a wider travel map

Everything above hinges on a single question: does your travel history end at the US border?

If it does, a single-purpose state tracker is genuinely the better tool. It is faster, simpler, and does not ask you to care about a world map you will never fill in.

If it does not — and for most people it does not, even if it is only a handful of countries — then a state-only app quietly splits your travel record in two. You end up with a good state map and a country map somewhere else, and neither one is the whole picture.

That is the case for a general tracker, and it is why the state layer being part of a larger map matters more than any individual feature in this comparison.

Which state tracker fits your needs

• You want states as part of one lifetime map, down to city level — Pin Traveler

• You want to complete curated sets, states included — Visited

• You want the fewest possible taps and a percentage — Been, or States Visited USA if it is states only

• You want counties, not just states — USA Travel: I've Been in US

• You want states plus national parks — USA States – Map Tracker

• You want a map to post rather than a record to keep — Skratch

• You want automatic location history — Timeline, with the caveats above

Frequently asked questions

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

It depends on whether you travel outside the US. For states as part of a wider travel map — with cities underneath the state layer — Pin Traveler covers states, cities and countries with unlimited pins on the free tier. For a US-only map with nothing else in it, States Visited USA or USA States – Map Tracker do that one job cleanly. For counties, USA Travel: I've Been in US is the only real option here.

Is there a free app to track states visited?

Several. Pin Traveler includes unlimited state, city and country pins free. Been includes countries and states free, with cities as a paid feature. The single-purpose US apps are free to start with in-app purchases above that. For a full comparison of zero-cost options, see our guide to the best free travel tracker apps in 2026.

Can any app track counties as well as states?

USA Travel: I've Been in US maps counties as well as states. Most apps in this category treat the state as the smallest domestic unit. The alternative approach is to pin cities you've visited, which gives you resolution within a state without the county framework.

How many states has the average American visited?

Around 16 of the 50. The number varies with age and region, and how you count matters — whether an airport connection or a drive-through counts is the argument every state map eventually starts.

Does tracking states work outside the United States?

The US-specific apps do not go further. General trackers handle sub-national units differently: Visited builds regional maps for 20+ countries, Been offers regions with Premium, and Pin Traveler covers cities in every country rather than regions in selected ones.

Do these apps track my location automatically?

Most do not, and that is intentional — they are manual records, so no background location access is needed and you can enter travel from decades ago. Google Maps Timeline is the automatic option, with the reliability caveats above.