What is the best mileage tracker app in 2026?
The right app depends on one thing: how many trips you log a month, and whether you need to pay for more.
The IRS wants a contemporaneous log: date, destination, business purpose and miles for each trip. A spreadsheet rebuilt in April from memory is the first thing an auditor questions. A mileage tracker app records it as you drive.
The short answer. Driversnote is the best overall: automatic detection, a free beacon on yearly plans, $11 a month. MileIQ has the biggest capped free plan, 40 drives a month. Stride is the best free app, with no cap. Everlance adds receipts and tax filing. Zoho Expense and TripLog cover small teams and battery-conscious drivers.
One 2026 detail most guides miss: the IRS raised the business rate mid-year, from 72.5 to 76 cents a mile for the second half. Check that your app applies both.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best app for the way you drive
Automatic detection, free beacon yearly
Under 40 drives a monthBiggest capped free plan
Gig and delivery drivingFree with unlimited trips
Miles plus receiptsExpenses and tax filing in one app
Team of three or fewerGPS mileage on the free plan
Battery keeps dyingTracks only while plugged in
The 6 mileage tracker apps compared
Ranked for the most common US use: a self-employed driver or small business that needs an IRS-ready log. Prices come from each vendor's official page.
| Best for | What it does best | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Driversnote | Best overall | Automatic detection plus iBeacon | 4.4/5 | Free (15 trips/mo), Pro $11/mo | ✓ | Solo to teams of 10 | Visit → |
| 2 | MileIQ | Best set-and-forget | 40 free drives a month | 4.3/5 | Free, Unlimited $11.66/mo yearly | ✓ | Self-employed | Visit → |
| 3 | Stride | Best free for gig drivers | Unlimited automatic trips at $0 | 4.2/5 | Free | ✓ | 1099 drivers | Visit → |
| 4 | Everlance | Best mileage plus expenses | Receipts and tax filing | 4.1/5 | Free (30 auto trips), Starter $69.99 to $89.99/yr | ✓ | Freelancers, small teams | Visit → |
| 5 | Zoho Expense | Best free for a small team | GPS mileage free for 3 users | 4.0/5 | Free, Standard $3, Premium $5/user/mo | ✓ | Teams up to 3 free | Visit → |
| 6 | TripLog | Best for battery control | Plug-in mode and beacon | 3.9/5 | Free, Premium $59.99/yr | ✓ | Heavy drivers, fleets | Visit → |
Scores on five weighted criteria, explained in the methodology. Zoho Expense keeps the score from our expense software ranking. Prices checked in 2026 on official pages.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
A mileage app has three jobs: never miss a trip, apply the right rate, and produce a log that survives an audit. We read every vendor's official pricing and feature pages and user reviews, starting with the negative ones. Two problems come up everywhere: missed trips, almost always caused by phone battery settings, and capped free plans that push you to pay.
We also checked what competitor lists skip: the 2026 IRS rate changed mid-year, and an app with a single hard-coded rate will be wrong for half your miles. Check that your app applies both 2026 rates; most let you edit the rate.
- Features and depthDetection quality, reports, rates, exports.30 %
- Ease of useClassification, missed-trip prevention.25 %
- Value for moneyFree cap, real yearly cost.20 %
- Customer supportHelp with missed trips and billing.15 %
- IntegrationsAccounting and expense tools.10 %
No affiliate link changes a score or a rank.
IRS rates and app prices change. Get the updates
Driversnote
Driversnote detects when you start driving, logs the trip with your phone's GPS and lets you mark it business or personal with a swipe. At month end you export a clean log for reimbursement or your Schedule C. What sets it apart is the iBeacon: a small Bluetooth tag you stick in the car. When your phone sees it, tracking starts, whatever the motion sensor thinks. The beacon (worth $40) is free with a yearly plan.
The free plan stops at 15 trips a month. That is enough to check that detection works on your phone, not enough for real business driving. Pro is $11 a month and unlocks unlimited trips; Teams costs the same per license, with an admin view to collect and approve reports.
The complaint you will read most is missed trips. One trucker on Trustpilot says the app "did not work for me" and cost him unlogged calls. The vendor's fix is the right one: location set to Always, motion detection on, and the app excluded from battery optimization. Do that on day one.
- Automatic trip detection on iOS and Android
- Work hours: trips outside them are filed as personal
- Free iBeacon with a yearly plan
- Teams admin tools to collect and approve logs
- ✓The most dependable automatic start in this list, with the beacon
- ✓Clean, exportable logs
- ✓Simple team pricing at $11 per license
- ✗Only 15 free trips a month
- ✗Missed trips if your phone kills background apps
- ✗Beacon is extra on monthly plans
The pick if you drive daily and want logs you never have to rebuild. Go yearly: the free beacon is what keeps trips from slipping through.
MileIQ
MileIQ is the name most people know, and it earned it: drive detection runs in the background and you classify drives with a swipe. Its free plan is the largest of the capped ones, 40 drives a month, versus 15 at Driversnote and 30 automatic trips at Everlance.
The catch is price. Unlimited costs $11.66 a month on an annual bill or $13.99 month to month, and long-time users noticed. On Trustpilot (4.5 out of 5, about 1,600 reviews), the most common complaint is the increase; one reviewer writes that "when the price almost tripled, I just could not pay that amount." Detection also starts after about half a mile, so very short hops can go missing.
- Background drive detection with swipe classification
- 40 free drives a month
- Separate Teams product for employee reimbursement
- ✓Mature, reliable detection
- ✓Biggest capped free plan
- ✓Simple reports
- ✗Price has climbed sharply
- ✗Short trips under half a mile can be missed
- ✗Team pricing not public
Great if 40 drives a month covers you. Past that, compare the yearly bill with Driversnote before you subscribe.
Stride
Stride is free, with no trip cap, and that is why it shows up in every gig-driver thread. It tracks mileage automatically with GPS, builds IRS-ready logs and helps you find deductions. On the App Store it holds 4.8 out of 5 from about 99,000 ratings.
The trade-off is battery and background reliability. Stride's own help center says Android battery optimization can stop tracking, and tells you to set the app to "Don't optimize." Some drivers also run it manually and forget to press start: one quoted Reddit user lost half their trips that way. Leave it on automatic.
- Automatic GPS tracking with no cap
- IRS-ready mileage and expense reports
- Deduction finder for self-employed taxes
- ✓$0 with no trip limit
- ✓Built for 1099 workers
- ✓Huge user base
- ✗Battery drain reported by users
- ✗Android battery settings can stop tracking
- ✗No team or employer features
The best $0 option for solo drivers. Fix the battery setting first, and keep auto mode on.
Everlance
Everlance does mileage and expenses together. The free plan tracks 30 trips a month automatically, plus unlimited manual trips, and exports CSV or Excel. Starter unlocks unlimited automatic tracking, receipt uploads and approval flows. Professional adds automatic expense tracking, tax filing and audit defense.
Check the price you are shown at checkout: the pricing page serves two sets of numbers, $89.99 or $69.99 a year for Starter. Paid plans need a card for the 7-day trial, and sales are non-refundable, so cancel renewal in time if you change your mind.
- Automatic mileage plus receipt capture
- Approval flows and manager dashboard on Starter
- Tax filing and audit defense on Professional
- ✓One app for miles and expenses
- ✓Unlimited manual trips even on free
- ✓Team features from Starter
- ✗Only 30 automatic trips free
- ✗Two price sets on the same page
- ✗No refunds once billed
Worth it if you also want receipts and tax help in one place. For miles only, MileIQ or Stride cost less.
Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense is an expense tool that includes GPS mileage on its free plan, for up to three users. Live automatic capture comes with Premium at $5 per user per month on an annual bill. Rates are yours to set, so you can follow the IRS figure for each half of the year.
It makes the most sense if you already run Zoho Books or the Zoho CRM: approved mileage lands in your books with no export.
- GPS mileage on the free plan
- Live automatic tracking on Premium
- Native Zoho Books sync
- ✓Free for three users
- ✓Full expense workflow around mileage
- ✓Low paid price
- ✗Live tracking only on Premium
- ✗Support rated slow by some users
- ✗More setup than a pure mileage app
A real free plan for a tiny team. Bigger teams should look at our expense software ranking.
TripLog
TripLog's free plan includes unlimited automatic GPS tracking, which few apps give away. Its edge is how tracking starts: on motion, only while the phone is plugged in and moving, or through a $19.99 Bluetooth beacon. Plug-in mode is the battery saver. The $79.99 TripLog Drive logs trips on its own, no phone needed.
Premium, $59.99 a year, adds receipt scanning, custom rates and connections to SAP Concur and QuickBooks Online.
- Unlimited automatic tracking on free
- Plug-in mode for battery savings
- Beacon and standalone GPS logger
- SAP Concur and QuickBooks Online connections
- ✓Most generous free automatic tracking with a team path
- ✓Fine control of start conditions
- ✓Hardware for fleets
- ✗Built for US drivers, prices in dollars
- ✗Feature split between free and Premium unclear
- ✗Team pricing on a separate page
A strong free alternative to Stride, with more control over battery use.
What your log needs, and what 2026 changed
The business standard mileage rate was 72.5 cents a mile for the first half of 2026 and 76 cents for the second half. On 10,000 business miles split evenly, that is $3,625 plus $3,800, or $7,425.
Contemporaneous
Four fields per trip
The rate switch
Commuting
Employees
Keep exports
- Your app lets you set more than one rate in a year.
- Every trip has a purpose, not just miles.
- Commutes are filtered by work hours or rules.
- Battery optimization is off for the app.
- You export a yearly log and keep it.
Stop losing trips: the settings that matter
Most lost miles are not the app's fault. The phone kills it to save battery.
Exclude the app from battery optimization
AndroidAndroid's battery optimizer stops background apps. Stride's help center names it as the reason tracking stops. Set the app to "Don't optimize." On iPhone, allow location Always and keep Background App Refresh on.
- Applies to
- All automatic apps
Put a beacon in the car
ReliabilityA Bluetooth beacon starts tracking as soon as your phone sees it. Driversnote includes one with yearly plans; TripLog sells one for $19.99.
- Cost
- Free yearly at Driversnote
Track only while charging
BatteryTripLog's plug-in mode runs only when the phone is charging and moving. If you always plug in on the road, battery impact becomes minimal.
- Applies to
- TripLog
Set your work hours
Time saverDriversnote files trips outside your hours as personal, so you only review exceptions.
- Applies to
- Driversnote
Stay on automatic
HabitManual start is where trips vanish. Drivers who rely on pressing start report losing a large share of their miles.
- Applies to
- Stride, Everlance
Add the purpose the same day
AuditA short note is enough: client name, job, reason. It turns a list of miles into evidence.
- Applies to
- All
Reimbursing meals and hotels too? Mileage works best inside an expense tool
Our ranking of expense management software for small businesses compares Ramp, Expensify, Zoho Expense, Rydoo and BILL.
Mileage tracker app FAQ
What is the best free mileage tracker app?
Stride, if you want no cap: unlimited automatic trips for $0. TripLog's free plan also tracks automatically without a limit. MileIQ is free up to 40 drives a month, Everlance 30 automatic trips, Driversnote 15.
What is the IRS mileage rate for 2026?
72.5 cents a mile for business driving in the first half of 2026, then 76 cents for the second half. Make sure your app can hold two rates in one year, or split your report.
Does the IRS accept mileage app logs?
Yes, if the log is contemporaneous and each trip shows date, destination, business purpose and miles. The weak spot is usually the missing purpose, so add it the same day.
Why does my mileage app miss trips?
Usually because the phone stops it in the background. Allow location Always, disable battery optimization for the app, and consider a beacon. MileIQ also starts after about half a mile, so very short trips may not appear.
Is MileIQ worth paying for?
If you drive more than 40 trips a month and like its detection, yes, at $11.66 a month on a yearly bill. Driversnote Pro costs $11 a month and adds a free beacon with a yearly plan, so compare before you renew.
Can I track mileage for employees?
Yes. Driversnote Teams ($11 per license), MileIQ for Teams, Everlance Starter and Zoho Expense all collect and approve employee logs. Zoho Expense is free for up to three users.
Is a mileage tracker app tax deductible?
Everlance says on its pricing page that the subscription may be deductible for self-employed filers. Ask your tax preparer how it fits your return, and see our ranking of accounting software for the self-employed to keep the rest of your books.