Ask this question anywhere and the answer comes back "Wanderlog," which is fair, because Wanderlog does more of the job in one place than anything else. It is also the wrong shape of answer. Organising a trip is six separate jobs, and no app is best at all six. Most people who feel disorganised are running one app that does two of the jobs and doing the other four in their head.
Which apps should you actually run together?
Nobody organises a trip with one app. These are the combinations that cover all six jobs.
The common shape is one app that holds the plan and one that holds the bookings. Anything past that is trip-specific.
What does organising a trip actually involve?
Six jobs, and you can name which ones you are failing at in about ten seconds.
Building the plan. Deciding what happens on which day, in what order.
Collecting the bookings. Getting flights, hotels, and rail out of your inbox and into the plan.
Seeing it on a map. Knowing whether tomorrow's four stops are near each other or across the city.
Planning with other people. Everyone seeing the same version, and being able to change it.
Tracking who paid. Splitting costs without a spreadsheet and an argument.
Using it on the ground. Finding the place, with a dead signal, while standing on a street corner.
Nothing on that list is optional on a two-week trip with other people. The apps below each own one or two of them.
Which app builds the day-by-day plan?
Stardrift generates the plan and Wanderlog gives you the tools to build one, which is the fork in the road on this job.
Stardrift writes the days for you. It reads your calendar and your preferences, then sequences the plan around your fixed bookings. A 4:15 PM landing against a 3 PM check-in changes what fits into day one.
Wanderlog gives you a canvas. Add places, drag them into days, and it handles the structure. Nothing decides anything for you.
The practical difference is where you start. With Stardrift you start from a draft and edit. With Wanderlog you start from an empty trip.
Stardrift remembers you. Base city, dietary needs, pace, preferred airlines, budget tier. Wanderlog does not carry preferences between trips.
Cost: Stardrift is free with Pro at $9.99 a month. Wanderlog is free with Pro at $39.99 a year.
Pick Wanderlog if the planning is the fun part. Pick Stardrift if the empty trip is where you stall.
Which app collects your bookings without retyping them?
TripIt collects the widest range of bookings and scans your inbox free, which no other app in this guide matches.
Inbox Sync is free and covers Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook.com.
It parses more types than anything else here: flights, hotels, car rentals, rail, cruises, restaurant reservations, and event tickets.
Stardrift pulls bookings in through calendar sync and Gmail detection, then plans the days around them, which is the part TripIt never attempts.
Forwarding to plans@tripit.com is the backstop for providers the scan does not recognise.
It does not plan anything. TripIt gives you an accurate timeline of what you already bought and stops there.
Wanderlog imports too, through a per-trip forwarding address, with automatic Gmail scanning held back for Pro.
We compared the import mechanics across eight apps in travel apps that pull existing bookings into one itinerary, including what each one silently fails to parse.
Which app puts the trip on a map?
Stardrift draws the map as it builds the plan, Wanderlog has the strongest map inside a manual planner, and Google Maps is still where the saved pins live for most people.
Stardrift shows a live map while planning, which matters when you are judging a suggested day rather than building one.
Wanderlog pins every item in the itinerary, so you can see whether a day is walkable before you commit to it.
Route optimisation is a Wanderlog Pro feature, which reorders a day's stops to cut the walking.
Google Maps lists are where most travel research already sits. Saved restaurants, saved sights, shared with whoever is coming.
Getting lists out of Google Maps is the friction point. Mindtrip imports saved places directly. Wanderlog Pro exports to Google Maps rather than pulling from it.
Which app is best for planning with other people?
Stardrift and Wanderlog both do real collaboration, and the difference is what happens between edits.
Stardrift has trip members, @mentions, and a morning digest that tells everyone what changed overnight without anyone opening the app.
Wanderlog is the established option. Live collaborative editing, comments, and votes on places, all free.
Neither requires the other person to pay. Collaboration sits on the free tier in both.
TripIt shares but does not collaborate. You can send someone your itinerary. They cannot change it.
Group chat is not a planning tool. A WhatsApp thread with 200 messages and three conflicting hotel links is the problem these apps exist to solve.
Which app tracks who paid for what?
Splitwise is the default for splitting costs, and both planners cover the lighter version inside the trip itself.
Splitwise handles the awkward maths. Uneven splits, multiple currencies, and who owes whom at the end.
The free tier caps how many expenses you can log per day, which a real trip hits by lunchtime on day one. Splitwise's own Pro page sells unlimited expenses as the fix.
Stardrift holds the plan and Splitwise holds the ledger, which is the split most groups settle into.
Wanderlog has budgeting built into the trip, which is enough if you mostly want a running total rather than a settlement.
Keeping costs where the plan is beats a second app, right up until the group is large enough that people actually owe each other money.
Which app works when you are standing on the street?
Google Maps offline is the honest answer, and the paid tiers of the planners are patchier than their marketing suggests.
Download the area in Google Maps before you go. Offline navigation, no signal needed, free.
Wanderlog's offline access is a Pro feature.
Roadtrippers puts offline maps on its top tier only, at $59.99 a year.
Stardrift has no offline mode, so download your map area before you land.
TripIt works offline for the itinerary you already imported, on the free tier.
Which app is best for a road trip?
Roadtrippers is built for driving and its free tier is more limited than most roundups admit.
The free plan allows one saved trip with three stops. That is not a road trip, that is an errand.
Paid tiers run $35.99, $49.99, and $59.99 a year, for 20, 50, and 150 stops respectively.
Offline maps, navigation, RV routing, and live traffic are Premium only, the $59.99 tier.
Stardrift builds the route and the stops in one pass, which is the faster start if you have not decided the shape of the drive yet.
Wanderlog handles road trips free, with route optimisation held back for Pro at $39.99 a year.
Roadtrippers earns its price on discovery, finding the strange roadside stop you would never have searched for.
We put it against four other route builders in a guide to planning the drive itself.
What organising apps still get wrong
Four things break across all of them.
Free tiers are advertised, then metered. Roadtrippers at three stops and Splitwise at a handful of expenses a day are the sharp examples.
Offline is nearly always paid. The one job you need when everything else has failed is the one behind the paywall.
Import coverage is narrower than claimed. Rail tickets and restaurant bookings fall out of most automatic parsers.
Collaboration assumes everyone installs the app. One holdout in the group and you are back to screenshots.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to organise a whole trip?
Stardrift if you want the days planned for you, Wanderlog if you would rather build them by hand. Wanderlog covers the most jobs in one app, including itinerary, map, reservations, budgeting, and collaboration.
Do I need more than one travel app to organise a trip?
Usually two. One app holds the plan, another collects the bookings. A common pairing is Stardrift or Wanderlog for the itinerary with TripIt scanning your inbox for confirmations.
Which travel organising apps are free?
Wanderlog, TripIt, Stardrift, and Google Maps all have working free tiers. Roadtrippers limits free accounts to one trip with three stops, and Splitwise caps how many expenses you can log per day.
What is the best app for organising a group trip?
Stardrift or Wanderlog for the plan, since both put collaboration on the free tier, and Splitwise for costs once the group is large enough that people owe each other money.
Which trip app works offline?
Google Maps with the area downloaded in advance, and TripIt for an itinerary already imported. Wanderlog and Roadtrippers both put offline access behind their paid tiers, and Stardrift has no offline mode.
Is Wanderlog or TripIt better?
They do different jobs. TripIt turns confirmation emails into an accurate timeline and plans nothing. Wanderlog builds a day-by-day plan with maps and collaboration, and imports a narrower set of bookings.