Travel Life vs TripIt: which is better for a trip with friends?

TripIt and Travel Life both keep your travel plans in one place, but they start from different ends. One starts from the bookings you have already made. The other starts from the group that is deciding what to do. Which one suits you depends on what is hardest about your trip.

Everything said about TripIt here comes from its own website and its App Store and Google Play listings, as of November 2026. Check its pages for the latest before you choose.

What TripIt is good at

TripIt's idea is simple, and its site puts it plainly: forward your confirmation emails to a TripIt address and it builds the itinerary for you. As of November 2026, its site says this works no matter where you book. For a traveller whose trip is mostly flights, hotels and car hire, that is a real saving of effort.

A few other things its site and help pages describe:

• Alerts and reminders. TripIt says it gives a heads-up as things change during a trip, with reminders such as when to leave for the airport.
• A paid plan with flight alerts. Its site describes TripIt Pro as adding real-time flight alerts and travel reminders, and guidance on requirements for international travel. TripIt is free to sign up for, with Pro as a separate paid offering.
• Sharing a trip. Its help pages say you can invite people by email and choose a permission for each: view, edit, or edit and traveling. There are also read-only options, such as sharing by text or a link.
• A mobile app and a website. You can use your trip in the app or sign in on the web.

If your trips are about getting to places on time, with plenty of bookings to keep straight, TripIt is built around exactly that.

What Travel Life does differently

Travel Life is built for the planning that comes before and around the bookings, and it puts the group at the centre.

A shared itinerary. Invite friends to the trip and everyone sees the same day-by-day plan. Ideas live in a list until you drag them onto a day, and each day has a map of the route. Trips and people are unlimited.

Gaps called out. The trip tells you when something is missing: "No way there yet" or "Nowhere to stay". Those are the holes that appear when five people each assume someone else has sorted it.

Splitting costs. Add an expense in any currency and it is converted at the day's rate. Split it 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. A list for your own bag, and a shared list for things the group only needs one of. Pro adds AI packing lists.

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

Offline. The trip works without a connection, and a widget on your home screen counts down to the trip.

Travel Life is for iPhone and Android only. TripIt has a website too, and Travel Life does not have a web app.

Side by side

Building the trip

• TripIt: forward confirmation emails and the itinerary is built from them.
• Travel Life: build the plan together, from ideas to days, with the bookings saved alongside; Pro can import confirmations.

Sharing with others

• TripIt: invite by email with view, edit or edit-and-traveling permissions, as its help pages describe.
• Travel Life: invite friends to the trip, with unlimited people on every trip, all working on one shared itinerary.

Staying on top of travel day

• TripIt: alerts and reminders, with real-time flight alerts in Pro.
• Travel Life: today's plan with what is next and how to get there, and the trip works offline.

Money

• TripIt: its site does not describe expense splitting, so we say nothing more.
• Travel Life: expenses in any currency at the day's rate, split evenly, by share or by exact amounts, settled with the fewest payments.

Packing

• TripIt: not something its site describes.
• Travel Life: a list for your bag and a shared one for the group.

Where you can use it

• TripIt: a mobile app and a website.
• Travel Life: iPhone and Android only.

When TripIt is the better choice

TripIt is the better choice if the work of your trip is the bookings. If you travel a lot, book through many different sites and want everything gathered from your inbox without typing it in, TripIt is built for that and Travel Life is not.

It is also the better choice if you value flight alerts and timely reminders as you move through airports and connections, and if you want to use a website as well as a phone. And if you are travelling alone or for work and mostly want your plans to appear in one tidy list, you may not need what Travel Life adds for groups.

When Travel Life is the better choice

Travel Life is the better choice when the trip is something a group makes together. If you are deciding where to go, who stays where and how to divide the cost of a villa, you want a plan the whole group can shape, not only a record of what has been booked.

It is also the better choice if money is part of the trip. Sharing costs as you go, in whatever currency you are spending, is much easier than trying to remember at the end. You might read how to split a villa fairly and how to track travel expenses for the thinking behind it.

For the planning side, how to make a travel itinerary is a good place to start, whichever app you use.

Can you use both?

You can, and plenty of people might. Use whichever tool you like to gather your own flight and hotel emails, and use Travel Life for the shared plan, the costs and the packing. The point is that your group looks at one plan. Try Travel Life on a small trip first and see whether your friends use it.