Pilot vs. Trip.com: feature comparison, ratings, and FAQ
A data comparison maintained by Pilot (pilotplans.com). Full comparison: https://www.pilotplans.com/compare/tripcom-alternative.
Summary
Pilot is a free trip booking and planning app: plan a whole trip in one place with a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, notes, real-time collaboration, and AI itinerary generation, and book hotels in the app at private rates across 3,000,000+ stays, with real human support. Pilot is rated 4.7 by 50,000+ travelers.
Trip.com: Global travel super-app, strongest in Asia. Owns Skyscanner.
Trip.com is built to sell you a booking. Pilot lets you book hotels too, at private rates straight from hotels, and helps you plan the whole trip around them, with no sponsored results pushed at the top.
Key facts
- Pricing
- Pilot: completely free to plan and book. Trip.com: Free to use.
- Overall rating
- Pilot: 4.7 from 50,000+ travelers. Trip.com: Trustpilot 4.4, App Store 4.7, Google Play 4.7.
- Founded
- Pilot: 2022. Trip.com: 1999.
- Books hotels in the app
- Pilot: yes, at private rates across 3,000,000+ stays. Trip.com: yes.
- Full comparison
- https://www.pilotplans.com/compare/tripcom-alternative
Feature comparison
Each row shows whether Pilot and Trip.com offer the feature: Yes, No, or Partial. A [n] marker cites the source in References.
| Feature | Pilot | Trip.com |
|---|---|---|
| Booking | ||
| Book hotels in the app | YesBook your stay at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, saved with the rest of your trip | Yes |
| Member-only hotel rates | YesPrivate 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, often below the public price; Trip.com marks up the prices it shows you | No |
| Add accommodation to itinerary | Yes | Yes |
| Transportation cost tracking | Yes | No |
| Flight deals | Yes | No |
| Files tab | Yes | No |
| Attach files to itinerary items | Yes | No |
| Instant booking confirmation | Yes | Yes |
| Checkout without upsells | Yes | Yes |
| Reviews from real travelers | Yes | Yes |
| No hidden fees or taxes | Yes | No |
| Inventory & discovery | ||
| Bookable hotel inventory | Yes | Yes |
| Hotel search filters | Yes | Yes |
| Activities to explore in-app | Yes | Yes |
| Restaurant listings in-app | Yes | No |
| Discovery filters | Yes | Yes |
| Travel requirements and eVisas | Yes | Yes |
| Flight suggestions for trip | No | Yes |
| eSIMs at checkout | Yes | Yes |
| Destination pages | Yes | Yes |
| Editorial travel guides in-app | Yes | Yes |
| Things to do per city | Yes | Yes |
| Activity detail pages | Yes | No |
| Planning | ||
| Itinerary builder | YesMap out the whole trip day by day and reshape it however you want, several stops or cities at once | No |
| Drag and drop reordering | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesSee your whole trip on a map and plot routes between your stops | No |
| Add activities, transportation, or stays from anywhere | Yes | No |
| Attach info to any item | Yes | Yes |
| Notes and checklists | YesKeep notes, lists, and links right alongside the plan, in note or list format | No |
| Note and list format toggle | Yes | No |
| Rich text formatting in notes | Yes | No |
| Undo and redo | Yes | No |
| Duplicate trips | Yes | No |
| Manual file import | Yes | No |
| Email-forwarding file import | Yes | No |
| AI parsing of imported confirmations | Yes | No |
| Export to PDF | Yes | Yes |
| iOS and Android mobile apps | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access on mobile | Yes | Yes |
| Shortlist items | Yes | No |
| Wishlist / wanderlist | Yes | No |
| Wishlist images | Yes | No |
| Fun sound effects | Yes | No |
| Structured itinerary sections | Yes | No |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Yes | No |
| Multiple transportation types | Yes | Yes |
| Flight code auto-fill | Yes | No |
| Multi-leg flight support | Yes | No |
| Consistent IATA codes on mobile | Yes | No |
| Collaboration | ||
| Invite friends | Yes | No |
| Real-time collaborative editing | YesPlan it together with your group in one shared trip, editing the same itinerary live | No |
| Edit or view-only permissions | Yes | No |
| Heart items for voting | Yes | No |
| Custom trip name and cover photo | Yes | No |
| Dedicated group chat per trip | Yes | Yes |
| Shared notes, files, and saved lists | Yes | No |
| Travel profile and stats | Yes | No |
| Edit profile details | Yes | Yes |
| Leave a trip | Yes | No |
| Trips dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Trip menu actions | Yes | Yes |
| Support | ||
| Human support | Yes | Yes |
| AI for basic support answers | Yes | Yes |
Ratings
| Source | Pilot | Trip.com |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot rating | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| App Store rating | 4.8 | 4.7 |
| Google Play rating | 4.2 | 4.7 |
Pricing
| Pilot | Trip.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Free to plan and book | Free to use[1] |
Frequently asked questions
What is Trip.com?
Trip.com is a global online travel agency. People use it to book hotels, flights, and trains worldwide, with strong inventory in Asia. It is built to complete a booking rather than plan the trip around it, and it books as a middleman rather than directly with the hotel.
What is Pilot?
Pilot is a trip booking and planning app. You plan the whole trip in one place, a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, and notes, and you book your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents. Where Trip.com completes a booking, Pilot plans the whole trip around the stay, instantly reserves your room with its hotel partners and has a real person confirm each booking with the hotel, and keeps the planner free.
Is Trip.com legit and safe to book with?
Yes, Trip.com is a real, long-running online travel agency (founded in 1999) that books hotels, flights, trains, and rental cars worldwide, with particularly deep inventory across Asia, and it rates around 4.7 in the app stores. The trade-offs are the ones common to large booking marketplaces: it marks up the prices it shows you and pushes add-ons like insurance and eSIMs at checkout, so the top result isn't always the best deal. Pilot lets you book hotels too, but at private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and it helps you plan your whole trip around the stay. For booking a hotel and planning the trip, Pilot does more, for free.
Is Trip.com free to use?
Trip.com is free to download and search; you pay when you book a hotel, flight, train, or car, and the price you see already includes Trip.com's markup, with extras like insurance and eSIMs offered at checkout. Pilot is also free, and stays free: planning, the map, group collaboration, AI itineraries, and importing your confirmations cost nothing, because Pilot earns from hotels when you book rather than charging you to plan. When you do book a hotel in Pilot, you get a private rate straight from the hotel, with no sponsored results pushed at you.
How does Trip.com make money?
Trip.com earns commissions on every booking and marks up the rates it displays, which is why its top results aren't always the cheapest option for you. It also earns on checkout add-ons like travel insurance and eSIMs. Pilot earns from hotels when you book and doesn't sell placement, so results are ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and the whole planning suite stays free.
Can you book hotels on Trip.com?
Yes. Trip.com lets you book hotels directly, along with flights, trains, buses, and rental cars, with instant confirmation and a large global inventory. Pilot also books hotels right in the app, across more than 3,000,000 stays, at private rates straight from hotels rather than marked-up public prices, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The difference: Pilot helps you plan the whole trip around the stay, reserves your room instantly with its hotel partners and works with the hotel on your behalf, with a real person confirming each booking if anything goes wrong. Pilot does not book flights, trains, or cars in-app, so if you need all of those in one place, Trip.com still has a role.
Does Trip.com have hidden fees?
Trip.com marks up the prices it shows and adds extras at checkout, like travel insurance and eSIMs, and service or booking fees can appear before you confirm, so the final total can climb above the headline price. Pilot lets you book your stay at a private rate straight from the hotel, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results pushed during checkout. Always read the final breakdown on either app before you pay.
Does Trip.com use AI to plan trips?
Trip.com has an AI assistant (TripGenie) that suggests destinations and helps organize a trip, and it offers a WeChat Mini Program with AI and a social feed. Pilot's AI also builds an itinerary in minutes and imports your confirmations, with the key difference that what you plan in Pilot you can book right in the app at private hotel rates, and you can plan it together with your group in one shared trip. Trip.com's AI helps you organize and discover, but the experience is built around selling you bookings rather than a dedicated, collaborative trip planner.
Trip.com vs Pilot: which should I use?
Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results, and your whole trip (the plans, the map, the group, and the booking) in one place, for free. Use Trip.com if you need to book flights, trains, buses, and rental cars in the same app as your hotel, or want the largest possible inventory across Asia, and you are willing to accept the markups and checkout upsells that tend to come with a global booking marketplace.
References
- trip.com (2026-06-03)