Polarsteps vs WaySide

Join 23M+ travelers using Polarsteps as their all-in-one travel app. Build unique itineraries with the travel planner, let the travel tracker record your route, share the journey with friends and family, and turn it into a photo book to relive later. Whether it's a six-month trip or a weekend canoeing close to home, Polarsteps is here to capture and share your journey as it unfolds. Awards ■ Top 26 Apps — Apple App Store (2026) ■ Top 3 Travel Apps — Apple App Store (2026) ■ App of the Day — Apple App Store (2025) PLAN ■ AI itinerary planner: Create a personalized adventure based on past trips or current goals. ■ Destination snapshots: Get a quick overview of each place, why it fits your travel style, and which friends have already been there. ■ Trip details: Add notes, accommodation details, and must-see spots and activities. ■ Transport planner: Choose how you'll get from A to B for every leg of the trip. ■ Inspiration: Follow other explorers, see where they went, and get ideas for your own trips. TRACK ■ Automatic route tracking: Accurately track the route you took on a beautiful digital world map. ■ Travel Buddies: Invite friends to track trips together. ■ Capture the adventure: Add photos, videos, and stories to each step to bring your journey to life. ■ Travel stats: See how much of the world you’ve traveled, with your total of countries visited, distances covered, and more. ■ Top spots: Add your favorite places and activities so they’re part of your story. ■ Transport mode: Select how you got from place to place, whether by plane, train, or even tuk tuk. SHARE ■ Trip updates: Share your journey so friends and family can follow along from anywhere, seeing where you are and what you’ve been up to. ■ Traveler tips: Leave suggestions for other travelers on what to see and do. ■ Privacy controls: Decide who sees your adventures: everyone, followers only, or you only. RELIVE ■ Digital memories: Scroll through the places, photos, stories, and stats you’ve captured across all your trips. ■ Trip Reels: With the press of a button, transform your trip into a memorable video (also perfect to share on socials). ■ Travel Books: Turn your trip into a beautifully printed Travel Book that showcases your route and memories. WHAT OUR USERS SAY: “Love this app! It tracks me on my vacation and provides real-time notifications to friends and family of my trip. At the end, I ordered a Travel Book of my photos which is very high quality.” “The Polarsteps app is great. I am totally addicted. It is so nice to keep up with all your travels. And friends and family can follow you wherever you go. The Travel Book, which you can order afterwards, is of very good quality.” “I’ve been using this app for years now. It’s always been good and it keeps getting better.” WHAT THE PRESS ARE SAYING ABOUT POLARSTEPS “The Polarsteps app replaces your travel journal, making it easier and more beautiful.” - National Geographic “Polarsteps helps you track and share your journeys in an easy and visually appealing way” - The Next Web “Polarsteps’ resulting travel log is impressive, and is the source of a severe case of itchy feet in your correspondent.” - TechCrunch

You're the one who said "I'll plan it." WaySide is the group travel planner built for the person who organizes the trip. It handles the shared itinerary, the group expenses, the booking confirmations, all of it. One app. Leave the chaos by the WaySide. Your flight's delayed? Ask your AI assistant to reschedule your afternoon. WaySide's AI knows your actual trip, your itinerary, your group, your plans. It's not just a generic chatbot. Ask it to fill in gaps in your day when something changes, check what's coming up, or just suggest an itinerary you might enjoy based on your travel interests. It's the co-planner you didn't know you needed. Build your group trip itinerary together Share a single join link with your group. They tap it, see the trip and who's joined already, and join in one tap. If they have the app, it'll launch and they can instantly join the trip. Book what's missing, right from your itinerary See a gap in your plan and fill it on the spot. WaySide surfaces hotels for open nights, tours and experiences for empty days, car rentals, and eSIMs. Chat and plan in the app, so all your plans and details are in one place. Give family members a view-only link so they can follow along without editing anything. Give other travelers full editing access. Everyone sees the same live itinerary, updated in real time. Forward your confirmations, skip the data entry Forward your flight, hotel, restaurant, and activity confirmation emails and WaySide parses them into your shared itinerary automatically like TripIt, but collaborative and alive for your whole group. View everything in list, calendar, or map view. Never miss an uncovered night with automatic lodging gap detection. Split travel costs without the spreadsheet Log every group expense in any currency. Choose how costs are split: equally, by percentage, by shares, by custom amount, or just for yourself. WaySide tracks who paid and who owes what across every currency in your trip. At the end, it works like Splitwise but with a single repayment currency: simplified settlement transactions that clear all debts in the fewest payments possible. Set the settlement currency, confirm the exchange rate, and send your group a clear list of who pays who. Done. Keep everything else organized too - Group location sharing, so you can find your friends - Trip documents, to-do lists, and notes in one place - Flight monitoring and travel reminders - Export your itinerary as a PDF or calendar file to share with family or border crossing agents - Full offline access: view and edit your itinerary and expenses anywhere, even without signal. Changes sync automatically when you reconnect. WaySide Pro Upgrade for unlimited AI assistant access and email importing, group location sharing, flight monitoring and custom notification. One Pro member covers the whole group. Pro benefits extend across your whole trip, so your group experiences most premium features even if only one person subscribes. Plan smarter. Split costs fairly. Leave the chaos by the WaySide. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://waysideapp.com/privacy/