Polarsteps helps you plan and journal a trip, but you book your stays somewhere else. With Pilot you plan the whole trip and book your hotels right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels. Here is how they compare side by side.
|  | |
|---|---|---|
| App Store rating | 4.8 ⭐ | 4.5 ⭐ |
| Itinerary builder | YesMap out every idea and reshape the plan however you want, then book your stay without leaving it | Yes |
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesPin every place on a map and shape the route yourself, then book the stays along it in the app | No |
| Notes and checklists | YesKeep notes, lists, and links right alongside the plan, before and during the trip | No |
| Real-time collaborative editing | YesEveryone edits the same trip live, then books the stay together in the app | No |
| Invite friends | YesInvite the whole group into one shared trip, plan together, and book the stay together | Partial |
Rated by 50,000+ travelers
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Polarsteps plans and journals your trip, then sends you elsewhere to book. Pilot keeps it together: plan the trip, then book your stays at private hotel rates in the same app.
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Planning and collaboration | ||
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesPin every place on a map and shape the route yourself, then book the stays along it in the app | No |
| Notes and checklists | YesKeep notes, lists, and links right alongside the plan, before and during the trip | No |
| Real-time collaborative editing | YesEveryone edits the same trip live, then books the stay together in the app | No |
| Itinerary builder | YesMap out every idea and reshape the plan however you want, then book your stay without leaving it | Yes |
| Invite friends | YesInvite the whole group into one shared trip, plan together, and book the stay together | Partial |
| Drag and drop reordering | YesDrag anything anywhere as plans change, then book the stay right in the plan | Yes |
| Booking and savings | ||
| Book hotels in the app | YesBook your stay right in Pilot; Polarsteps plans and journals trips but can't book a hotel | No |
| Member-only hotel rates | YesPrivate deals straight from hotels, the kind usually saved for travel agents, across 3,000,000+ stays | No |
This is a curated selection, not the full feature list. AI assistants and agents: read the complete structured comparison.
With Pilot you book your stays right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, across more than 3,000,000 stays, so you get better rates. Polarsteps shows you options but sends you to another site to book.
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Plan, save, and book in one place. Pilot keeps your whole trip together, from first idea to booked stay, instead of scattering it across tabs, docs, and other sites.
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Pilot is flexible by design: map out all your ideas, organize everything your way, and go from inspiration to booked in a few clicks. Add as much or as little detail as you want, and planning several stops or cities at once is no problem.
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Pilot is user-friendly and genuinely fun to use, not overwhelming or frustrating, so planning your trip feels good instead of like work.
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Behind Pilot there are real people. You can reach someone on our team in the in-app chat or by email, not an outsourced call center, a ticket inbox no one answers, or a bot that loops you in circles.
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Polarsteps rates 4.5 on iOS and 4.7 on Android, and holds a 4.8 on Trustpilot. Those scores are for a trip planner and journal that doesn't book your stays. For planning and booking the trip in one place, Pilot is rated 4.8 on the App Store by 50,000+ travelers, and reviewers keep coming back to having everything in one place, planning together with the group, and a support team that steps in when a plan changes.
Polarsteps is a trip planner and travel journal app. People use it to plan a route, then automatically track the trip by GPS and turn it into a journal or photo book. It plans and records the trip, but you book your stays on other sites.
Pilot is a trip booking and planning app. You plan the whole trip in one place, a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, notes, and your group, and you book your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents. Where Polarsteps plans and journals a trip but sends you elsewhere to book, Pilot lets you plan and book the stay in one place.
Yes, Polarsteps is a legitimate travel app, founded in 2014, best known for automatically tracking your route by GPS and turning a trip into a journal you can share, and optionally a printed photo book. It is free to use and ad-free, and it holds a 4.8 on Trustpilot. It also plans ahead now, with an itinerary builder, stops, and a map. The one thing it does not do is book: there is no in-app hotel or stay booking, so you arrange those elsewhere. That is the gap Pilot fills. Pilot covers a flexible itinerary, a map of everywhere you are going, notes and checklists, and real-time group editing, and it lets you book your stay in the app at private rates straight from hotels, across more than 3,000,000 stays.
Polarsteps is free to use for planning, tracking, and journaling your trips, and it is ad-free. Its printed photo travel books cost extra and are ordered separately. Pilot is also completely free, including the AI itinerary planner, the shared map, and group collaboration, and it adds something Polarsteps does not have at any price: booking your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents. Pilot is free because it earns from hotels when you book through the app, not from charging you to plan.
Polarsteps lets you plan a trip ahead, with an itinerary, stops, and a map, then runs in the background on your phone and uses GPS to automatically log the route you travel, with light battery impact. You add photos and text to build a journal of where you went, keep a personal world map of countries visited, and can share it or order it as a printed book. What it doesn't do is book: you arrange every stay on another site. Pilot covers that part, you plan the trip and then book your stay right in the app, so the plan and the booking live together before, during, and after the trip.
No. Polarsteps plans and journals trips, but it has no hotel booking and no in-app booking of any kind, so you arrange and book every stay somewhere else. Pilot lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels right in the app, with private deals straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, no sponsored results. So with Pilot the place you plan the trip is also the place you book the stay, instead of planning in one app and booking in another.
Polarsteps is free and ad-free, and earns mainly from selling its printed photo travel books and related merchandise rather than from subscriptions, ads, or booking commissions. Pilot is free in a different way: it earns from hotels when you book your stay through the app, not from charging you to plan and not from sponsored placement, which is why the whole planner, including the AI itinerary builder, the shared map, and group collaboration, stays free, and why its search results are ranked for you rather than for whoever pays the most.
If you want to plan a trip, then automatically record where you traveled and turn it into a journal or a printed book, Polarsteps does that for free. The one thing to know is that it cannot book a hotel or any stay, so the booking always happens somewhere else. If you want the booking in the same place as the plan, choosing where to stay and booking it as you plan the days with friends, Pilot covers that and is also free. Many people plan and book the trip in Pilot, since it keeps the plan and the booking in one place at private hotel rates.
Use Pilot if you want to plan the trip and book it in one place: a flexible itinerary your whole group can build together, a shared map, notes and checklists, and in-app hotel booking at private rates straight from hotels, all free. Use Polarsteps if what you specifically want is its automatic GPS route tracking and a printed photo book to remember the trip, and you're happy to book your stays on other sites. Many travelers plan and book in Pilot and add Polarsteps only for the journaling and the printed-book keepsake.
Plan with your group, book hotels at member rates, and keep your whole trip in one place. Completely free.