Best Mileage Tracker Apps for Self-Employed Drivers
A mileage tracker earns its keep by capturing the miles you would otherwise forget — the drive to a pickup, the repositioning between jobs, the supply run. Those miles are deductible, and at 2026 rates each one is worth about 19 cents in tax to a self-employed driver in the 12% bracket.
That makes the decision arithmetic rather than opinion. A $69.99 annual subscription pays for itself at roughly 360 extra miles captured. We compared six apps on their free-tier limits, automatic tracking, and what they actually cost.
How we ranked these mileage tracker apps
We scored each app on four things that decide whether it produces a deduction that survives scrutiny. First, does it track automatically? A tracker you have to remember to start is a tracker that misses trips. Second, what does the free tier actually allow — a 30 or 40 trip monthly cap is generous for a weekend side hustle and useless for a full-time driver. Third, does it export an IRS-compliant report with the date, mileage, destination, and purpose the IRS requires? Fourth, price against the break-even mileage that justifies it.
We did not weight app-store ratings or the headline "average savings" figures vendors publish, which are marketing rather than measurement. We did penalise apps whose free tier is tight enough that a real driver hits the cap in the first week of the month, since that turns a free plan into a trial.
Prices below are the regular list prices published on each vendor's own pricing page at the time of writing, not promotional or first-year rates. Software pricing changes frequently, so check the current figure before subscribing.
#1 TripLog
Best for: Drivers who want unlimited automatic tracking without paying
TripLog's free Basic plan includes unlimited automatic GPS mileage tracking, which is unusual — most competitors cap the free tier by trip count. For a full-time delivery or rideshare driver that alone makes it the default starting point, since the thing that costs money elsewhere is exactly the thing a high-mileage driver needs most.
Strengths
- Unlimited automatic mileage tracking on the free plan, where rivals cap at 30 to 40 trips a month
- Free tier also covers expense tracking, parking and tolls, and tax-compliant reports
- Premium adds OCR receipt capture, bank integration, and QuickBooks Online sync
- Optional hardware (a GPS device or Bluetooth beacon) for drivers who want tracking independent of the phone
Limitations
- The free plan's reporting is more limited than Premium's, which matters at filing time
- The interface is denser than the simplest competitors, with more settings to work through
- Hardware add-ons are a separate one-off cost
Pricing: Free plan with unlimited auto-tracking. Premium $59.99/year (about $4.99/month). Hardware add-ons $19.99–$79.99.
#2 MileIQ
Best for: Drivers who want the simplest possible experience
MileIQ is the most stripped-back of the major trackers: it logs drives in the background and you classify each one as business or personal with a swipe. That simplicity is the product.
It does less than the others by design, which for someone who only wants a defensible mileage log is a feature rather than a gap.
Strengths
- Automatic background tracking with a one-swipe business or personal classification
- Free tier covers 40 drives a month, enough for a light side hustle
- Auto-generated reports suitable for tax filing and reimbursement claims
- Long track record and a stable, uncluttered app
Limitations
- The 40-drive free cap is consumed in days by a full-time delivery driver
- Does not track expenses or income, so it is a mileage tool only
- The most expensive per-month option here on monthly billing
Pricing: Free for 40 drives a month. Unlimited $13.99/month, or $11.66/month billed annually.
#3 Everlance
Best for: Drivers who want mileage, expenses, and filing in one place
Everlance sits between a mileage tracker and a full tax product. The Starter plan covers unlimited automatic tracking; the Professional tier adds automatic expense categorisation and 1099 tax filing, which folds a separate annual purchase into the subscription for drivers who would otherwise pay for both.
Strengths
- Unlimited automatic tracking plus expense tracking with receipt uploads
- Professional tier bundles 1099 tax filing, which is otherwise a separate cost
- Custom IRS-compliant reporting
- Free tier includes unlimited manual trips alongside the 30 automatic ones
Limitations
- The free plan caps automatic detection at 30 trips per month — the tightest cap here
- Bundled filing is only worth paying for if you would have paid to file anyway
- Two paid tiers means the cheaper one omits the expense automation many people are buying it for
Pricing: Free for 30 auto-detected trips a month. Starter $69.99/year ($8.99/month). Professional $99.99/year.
#4 Hurdlr
Best for: Gig workers who want real-time tax estimates alongside mileage
Hurdlr's distinguishing feature is that it estimates your tax liability as you earn rather than only tracking the inputs. For a gig worker whose main failure mode is reaching April with nothing set aside, a running estimate of what is owed is arguably more valuable than a marginally better mileage log.
Strengths
- Real-time tax estimates as income and expenses are recorded
- Free tier covers mileage, expense, and income tracking
- Integrates with common gig platforms and payment accounts
- Pro tier adds invoicing and fuller accounting reports
Limitations
- Paid pricing is not published on the pricing page, so you have to start a signup to see it
- Tax estimates are approximations and should be checked against a proper calculation
- The free tier's automatic tracking is more limited than TripLog's
Pricing: Free tier available. Premium and Pro pricing is not published on the public pricing page.
#5 QuickBooks Solopreneur
Best for: Freelancers who want bookkeeping and mileage together
QuickBooks Solopreneur is a bookkeeping product with mileage tracking built in, rather than a mileage app with extras. That makes it the wrong purchase for a driver who only needs a log, and the right one for a freelancer who was going to pay for bookkeeping regardless and would rather not run two subscriptions.
Strengths
- Mileage tracking bundled into an actual bookkeeping product
- Expense capture and categorisation with deduction tracking
- Connects to the wider Intuit ecosystem, including tax filing
- One subscription instead of separate bookkeeping and mileage tools
Limitations
- Listed at $20/month, the most expensive option here for someone who only needs mileage
- Bookkeeping features are overkill for a driver with one income source and few expenses
- Migrating out of the Intuit ecosystem later is more work than leaving a standalone tracker
Pricing: Listed at $20/month, or $120/year.
#6 Stride
Best for: Occasional gig workers who want something free
Stride is a free app aimed squarely at gig workers, covering mileage and expense tracking without a paid tier. For someone earning a few thousand dollars a year on a platform, where the whole deduction might be a few hundred dollars of tax, paying a subscription is hard to justify and free is the correct answer.
Strengths
- Free, with no paid tier to upgrade to
- Built specifically around gig-platform work
- Covers expense tracking as well as mileage
Limitations
- Fewer features than the paid competitors, as you would expect
- No bank integration or advanced reporting
- Best suited to lower-mileage, part-time work
Pricing: Free.
Comparison: 6 mileage tracker apps at a glance
| Option | App | Free tier | Paid price | Automatic tracking | Beyond mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TripLog | Unlimited auto-tracking | $59.99/yr | Yes | Expenses, tolls, fuel | |
| MileIQ | 40 drives/month | $11.66–$13.99/mo | Yes | Mileage only | |
| Everlance | 30 auto trips/month | $69.99–$99.99/yr | Yes | Expenses, 1099 filing | |
| Hurdlr | Yes, limited | Not published | Yes | Tax estimates, invoicing | |
| QuickBooks Solopreneur | 30-day trial | $20/mo | Yes | Full bookkeeping | |
| Stride | Entirely free | None | Yes | Expenses |
Our verdict: which should you choose?
For a full-time delivery or rideshare driver, TripLog's free plan is the strongest starting point, because unlimited automatic tracking is the one feature that actually determines the size of your deduction and it is the feature everyone else charges for. Upgrade only when you want the reporting and receipt capture.
For a light side hustle, Stride or a free tier is enough — at a few thousand miles a year the tax saved does not justify a subscription. For a freelancer already paying for bookkeeping, QuickBooks Solopreneur avoids a second subscription. And for anyone weighing a paid plan, run the break-even: at roughly 19 cents of tax saved per captured mile, a $60 subscription needs to find about 310 extra miles a year to pay for itself, and a $70 one about 360.
How much is a tracked mile actually worth?
About 19 cents in tax for a self-employed driver in the 12% bracket, and about 27 cents in the 22% bracket. The arithmetic: the 2026 business standard mileage rate blends to roughly 74.4 cents per mile across the year's two rates, and a Schedule C deduction reduces both income tax and self-employment tax, for a combined saving of 26.13% in the 12% bracket.
That number is what turns "should I pay for a mileage app" into a calculation. A $59.99 subscription needs to capture roughly 310 miles a year that you would otherwise have missed. Anyone driving daily will clear that in a fortnight of forgotten repositioning miles. Anyone driving occasionally may not clear it at all, which is the honest case for staying on a free tier. Our mileage deduction calculator prices your own miles at both 2026 rates.
Why 2026 makes automatic tracking more valuable
The IRS changed the business standard mileage rate mid-year in 2026: 72.5 cents through June 30, then 76 cents from July 1. That means a deduction can no longer be computed from an annual odometer difference — miles have to be assigned to the half of the year they were driven in.
An app that logs trips with dates handles this automatically. A notebook total, or a reconstruction at filing time, does not, and the difference is real money: 12,000 miles deducted at the correct split rates is $8,910 rather than the $8,700 a flat January-rate calculation produces. See the 2026 IRS mileage rate for the full breakdown.
What the IRS actually requires from a mileage log
A contemporaneous record showing the date, the business miles, the destination, and the business purpose of each trip, plus the vehicle's total annual mileage. "Contemporaneous" is the operative word — a log recorded at or near the time of the trip. A figure assembled in April from memory and bank statements is the classic disallowed deduction.
This is the real argument for an automatic tracker over a spreadsheet, and it is about evidence rather than convenience. Every app here produces an exportable report that meets the requirement; what varies is whether the free tier lets you capture all your trips in the first place.
Do you still need one if your platform reports mileage?
Usually yes, because platform figures are a floor rather than a ceiling. Uber's driver tax summary reports online miles, and DoorDash shows an in-app estimate, but these generally reflect the paid or on-trip legs and omit miles you are equally entitled to claim — driving to a first pickup, repositioning between jobs while available, waiting in a delivery zone.
Use the platform figure as a cross-check on your own log rather than as the log itself. If your tracker consistently reports fewer miles than the platform, something is switched off; if it reports more, that is the expected result and the reason it is worth running.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free mileage tracker app?
TripLog, because its free Basic plan includes unlimited automatic GPS tracking, where MileIQ caps the free tier at 40 drives a month and Everlance at 30 auto-detected trips. For a full-time driver that distinction matters more than any other feature, since a cap reached mid-month means untracked miles. Stride is a reasonable alternative for lighter gig work.
Is a paid mileage tracker worth it?
It depends on how many extra miles it captures. Each tracked mile is worth roughly 19 cents in tax to a self-employed driver in the 12% bracket, so a $59.99 annual subscription breaks even at about 310 additional miles a year and a $69.99 one at about 360. A daily driver clears that easily on forgotten repositioning miles alone. An occasional gig worker may not, and should stay on a free tier.
Do mileage tracker apps work automatically?
All the apps here offer automatic background tracking, which detects drives without you starting a timer. That matters because the most common cause of an undersized deduction is simply forgetting to log trips. Where they differ is whether automatic tracking is available on the free tier: TripLog and Stride include it without a cap, while MileIQ and Everlance limit free automatic tracking by trip count.
Can I use a spreadsheet instead of an app?
Yes, if you fill it in contemporaneously with the date, miles, destination, and business purpose of each trip. The IRS does not require an app. The practical problem is that spreadsheets get updated in batches or at filing time, which is exactly the reconstruction that gets disallowed. For 2026 there is an extra wrinkle: the mid-year rate change means your records must be dated well enough to split miles between the 72.5-cent and 76-cent periods.
Does a mileage deduction reduce self-employment tax?
Yes, and this is where most of its value comes from. A business mileage deduction reduces Schedule C net profit, which is the base for both income tax and self-employment tax. So the deduction saves your marginal income-tax rate plus the 14.13% effective self-employment rate — 26.13% combined in the 12% bracket, roughly double what an income-tax-only estimate suggests.
Free calculators to help you decide
Sources
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