The top 8 free mileage tracking apps for self-employed drivers

Note: This page contains affiliate links for the featured apps

➔ Skip to the Table: See the Best Mileage Tracking Apps

You track your miles, right?! If you don’t, today is the best day to start. There are so many apps for it. There are almost too many to choose from, really.

And why is it important to track your miles? So you can correctly claim the standard mileage deduction and maximize your tax savings—legally!

If you drive for Uber & Lyft or delivery apps, the standard mileage deduction is the #1 way to significantly lower your tax bill. For 2023, you can deduct 65.5 cents per mile.

To properly claim the mileage deduction, you need to record your miles. That’s where mileage tracking apps come in.

Because there are way too many apps to choose from, so we want to give you a simple table that compares all the top trackers at a glance.

Comparing the top mile tracking apps, head-to-head

	Auto or Manual Tracking?	Free or Paid?	Price for Paid Features
Stride	Manual	Free	Free
Gridwise	Manual	Free mile tracking. Other paid features	$9.99 monthly, $95.99 annual
SherpaShare	Auto	Free	Free
Hurdlr	Manual on free, auto on paid	Free manual tracking. Pay for auto	$10 monthly, $100.08 annual
Everlance	Auto. Limited on free	Limited free tracking. Pay for unlimited	$60 annual
MileIQ	Auto. Limited on free	Limited free tracking. Pay for unlimited	$5.99 monthly, $59.99 annual
TripLog	Manual on free, auto on paid	Limited free tracking. Pay for unlimited	$59.99 annual
QuickBooks Self-Employed	Auto	Paid	$15 monthly. Discounts often available

Read on for more info about each app.

Important features in mileage tracking apps

What should you look for in a tracker app? There are a lot of bells and whistles that can come with these apps, but there are only a few features that really matter for the average driver.

• Auto vs manual mileage tracking: Some apps automatically track your miles. For others, you manually turn tracking on and off
• Business expense tracking: Some apps also let you connect a bank account for other business expense tracking. That’s helpful for claiming other tax deductions
• Customizability: Want to add your own custom mileage and expense categories? Not every app has that
• IRS-ready documents: Nearly all of the apps can give you formatted documents that you can attach to your tax return

Do you prefer to manually start and stop tracking? Go with Stride. Want to go fully automatic? Try Hurdlr. That should cover most readers. The rest of you, read on.

Stride

Stride is a free app that uses manual mileage tracking. When you’re ready to go out driving for the day, you turn tracking on. Then when the day is done, you turn tracking off.

The downside to manual tracking is that you might forget to turn tracking on or off. Other apps have tracking features that use your phone GPS and motion detection to automatically track your miles, but many drivers prefer the simplicity of a manual system.

Unlike many of the other mileage tracking apps, there are no paid/premium features on Stride. Everything is available for free.

You can use Stride to track other business expenses by linking a bank account. You can classify an expense as business or personal, then export the data when it’s time to do your taxes.

Stride can also connect you with health insurance services that are geared for independent contractors. That’s why the Stride mileage tracking app is free: They use it to generate new leads for their insurance business.

Download Stride here – It’s a free app

Gridwise

Gridwise is an app for rideshare and delivery drivers that has a free mileage tracking feature, in addition to several other helpful tools.

Mileage tracking on Gridwise uses manual start/stop, so you’ll have to remember turn tracking on when you begin a day out, then turn it off at the end.

The paid version of Gridwise—Gridwise plus—costs $9.99/month or $95.99/year.

Gridwise Plus gives you access to detailed earnings estimates and heat maps, full data about the best places and times to drive, and a full set of data about flight departures and arrivals. If you’re near a busy airport, Gridwise Plus could be worth it for you.

Hurdlr

Hurdlr is an automatic mileage and expense tracker with free and paid features. The free version offers unlimited manual mileage tracking and manual expense & income tracking.

The Premium version—$10 per month or $100 per year—has fully automatic mile and expense tracking. The app automatically tracks miles when you begin and end car trips, so there’s no need to manually start and stop tracking.

The Premium version also lets you set custom rules for automatic income and expense tracking by linking your bank account with the app. A swiping system makes it easy to classify income and expenses if the automatic tracking doesn’t get it right the first time.

Hurdlr also has a Pro version with advanced tax & accounting features.

Everlance

Everlance is another automatic mileage and expense tracking app that offers some features for free, but only unlocks unlimited tracking on paid levels.

You can automatically track 30 trips for free. Free users can also take advantage of expense tracking.

The Business plan—$120 per year—unlocks unlimited automatic mileage tracking with auto trip classification. You can also link your bank accounts to automatically track & classify business expenses.

MileIQ

MileIQ is a free app that can track miles automatically or manually, with the option to upgrade for additional features.

Both the free and paid versions of the app allow you to set work hours for immediate classification as business miles when driving during those times.

Tax compliant reports are available to download and are fully customizable, with the ability to define locations, set custom millage rates and use multiple
vehicles within one app.

While the Free option includes 40 tracked drives per month, for $5.99/month or $59.99/year users can unlock unlimited drives.

There are also Team options available for easy company use and implementation from small to large businesses.

TripLog

TripLog is another mileage tracking app that allows both manual and automatic tracking, but automatic tracking is limited to paid users. Free users can only track 40 trips per month, and automatic tracking is limited to the paid tiers.

TripLog Premium—$4.99 per month or $59.99 per year—has unlimited automatic mileage tracking and expense tracking via bank and credit card integration.

Sherpashare

Sherpashare is a free mileage and expense tracking app that uses automatic mileage tracking. Unlike many other apps, SherpaShare has no premium or paid feature—everything is unlocked for free users.

In addition to automatic mileage tracking, SherpaShare also has driver tools that can help you boost your earnings. A heatmap shows you where other drivers are, a Compass analyzes profitable routes, and you can track your revenue and profit.

Quickbooks Self-Employed

Quickbooks Self-Employed is an advanced app meant to be a more comprehensive tax preparation tool for self-employed workers. Quickbooks Self-Employed has unlimited automatic mileage tracking, and expense tracking.

Quickboks Self-Employed is a paid app—there is no free version. QuickBooks Self-Employed is listed at $15 per month, but you can usually find a significant discount. The Self-Employed Tax Bundle gives you access to TurboTax Self-Employed.

If you’re serious about doing your own taxes, QuickBooks Self-Employed is an affordable option that will help you track your income and expenses, then smoothly import that information into TurboTax.

FAQs about Mileage Tracking and Vehicle Expenses

Do the rideshare and delivery apps track miles for you?

Yes, most of the apps track your miles to some degree. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and other top rideshare & delivery apps include tracked miles in the year-end tax reports that are sent to drivers. But that doesn’t mean that you can solely rely on their information.

Each of the apps may track miles in their own unique way. Some will track miles while you’re online. Others will track miles while you are ‘engaged’ in work. Generally, the apps tend to under-report your mileage. It’s in your interest to track miles yourself.

Multiapping issues: Overreporting miles if you’re signed into two apps at once

Another issue is that if you’re multiapping—signed into two or more apps at the same time—the reported mileage may contain overlapping info. In that case, you’ll actually overreport your mileage.

Let’s say you drove 50 miles while signed into Uber Eats and DoorDash. Each app may separately tell you that you drove 50 miles, so if you add up that info you’ll end up incorrectly reporting 100 miles.

Keeping up with the mileage tracking methodology for each app can be a hassle. Some apps change how they report miles from year to year. so an app simplifies your tracking and gives you one simple mileage number at tax time.

Can I deduct gas?

You can’t separately deduct gas if you choose to use the standard mileage deduction. The standard mileage deduction includes gasoline, repairs and maintenance, insurance, registration fees, and other common vehicle expenses.

• The Best Gas Rewards Program from Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Amazon Flex

I didn’t track my miles. What should I do?

If you didn’t track your miles this year, you can still use the mileage numbers provided by the various apps. They may have left out some miles you could have included, such as miles you drove commuting into your work area while signed out of apps.

You can estimate those miles and add them in, or you can play it safer and only go with the miles reported by the apps.

Track your miles!

Pick an app from this page. Any app! Tracking your miles is the best way to guarantee that your tax bill will be as low as possible. Failing to track your miles is one of the biggest tax mistakes you can make.

All the apps on this page have IRS-ready documentation that goes far beyond what most drivers could ever do with pencil and paper.

Don’t like any of the apps? Try a pencil and paper log, or use a spreadsheet. Just make sure to track your miles!