Travel Life vs Polarsteps: a travel diary or a planner for the group?

November 8, 2026 · 5 min read

Polarsteps and Travel Life both live on your phone and both care about your trip, but they are mostly useful at different moments. Polarsteps is known for recording and sharing a journey while it happens. Travel Life is for planning the trip with other people and running it day by day.

Everything said about Polarsteps here comes from its own website, as of November 2026. Check its pages for the latest before you decide.

What Polarsteps is good at

Polarsteps describes itself as a way to track, share and keep the story of a trip. As of November 2026, its site lists these things:

Automatic route tracking. It says it captures your route automatically, works offline and keeps tracking when you are off the grid. It describes itself as battery-efficient.
Photos, videos and notes. Add them to your trip, and see your trips and stats on a map.
Sharing with family and friends. Share step-by-step updates so people at home can follow along, and choose who sees your trip: only you, friends and family, or everyone.
Keepsakes. Track countries visited and travel stats, create a shareable video of the trip with one button, or turn the trip into a hardback Travel Book, which can also be gifted. Travel Books are sold.
Planning tools. It also describes a travel planner, with a trip overview, places to add stays and activities, an itinerary builder and a link to an AI trip planner.
No ads. Its site calls the app ad-free.

If you want a record of a long trip that looks good afterwards and keeps people at home in the loop, that is what Polarsteps is known for.

What Travel Life does differently

Travel Life is aimed at the people travelling together and the work of getting the trip organised.

A shared itinerary. Invite friends to the trip and everyone sees the same day-by-day plan. Keep ideas in a list and drag them onto a day when the plan firms up. Each day has a map of its route. There is no limit on trips or people.

Gaps called out. "No way there yet", "Nowhere to stay": the trip shows what is not sorted, so a group finds out before the day, not during it.

Splitting costs. Add expenses in any currency, converted at the day's rate. Split them evenly, by share or by exact amounts, and the app settles up with the fewest payments. Pro adds receipt scanning, itemised splits, budgets and insights.

Shared packing. One list for your bag and one for the group. Pro adds AI packing lists and copying lists from past trips.

Bookings. Stays, reservations and transit with confirmations and costs, saved in the trip. Things to do appear for every city, and tours booked through the app file themselves in. Pro can import booking confirmations.

Offline. The trip works without a connection. A home-screen widget counts down to the trip.

Travel Life is for iPhone and Android only, with no web app. Note too that it does not record your route as you travel or make a printed book; it is for the planning and the running of the trip.

Side by side

Before the trip

Polarsteps: a travel planner with a trip overview, places for stays and activities and an itinerary builder.
Travel Life: a shared itinerary for the whole group, with an ideas list, drag-onto-a-day planning and gaps called out.

During the trip

Polarsteps: automatic route tracking, with photos, videos and notes added to the map.
Travel Life: today's plan, what is next and how to get there, with the trip available offline.

Sharing

Polarsteps: share updates with family and friends and choose who can see your trip.
Travel Life: invite friends to plan and run the trip together.

Money

Polarsteps: its site does not describe splitting costs.
Travel Life: expenses in any currency at the day's rate, split evenly, by share or by exact amounts.

Packing and bookings

Polarsteps: not described on its site.
Travel Life: packing for your bag and the group; stays, reservations and transit with confirmations and costs.

After the trip

Polarsteps: a shareable video, travel stats and a hardback book.
Travel Life: the plan stays as the record of where you went; Pro adds PDF and spreadsheet exports.

When Polarsteps is the better choice

Polarsteps is the better choice when what you want most is the story. If you are travelling for weeks or months, want a map that fills in without you thinking about it, and want your family to follow along, it is built for that. The trip reel and the printed book are a nice end to a journey, and Travel Life offers neither.

It is also a good choice for a solo traveller or a couple who are not trying to coordinate with a larger group. The diary is yours. And if you are travelling somewhere remote and want your route captured without effort, automatic tracking that works offline is what you would look for.

When Travel Life is the better choice

Travel Life is the better choice when you are travelling with friends or family and the trouble is deciding and organising. Who has booked what, where everyone is sleeping, how the cost of the house is divided: those are the questions that fill a group chat, and they belong in one shared plan.

It is also better when the trip has money in it. Splitting costs in the currency you are spending in, at that day's rate, removes the maths from the last night. For ideas on keeping a group in step, see travelling with friends without falling out and how to divide jobs on a group trip. If you also enjoy writing things down afterwards, keeping a travel journal works with any app.

Can you use both?

Quite possibly. Use Travel Life to plan, book and run the trip with your group, and a diary app for the story if you like one. The two do not overlap much. Start with whichever problem is bigger for you right now.