Best Mileage Tracker Apps in 2024: Tested and Compared
Samson Kiarie
Last update on:
October 24, 2024 5:07 AM
Published on:
If you're looking for the best mileage-tracking app to streamline expense tracking, reimbursement, and tax deductions, we've got you covered. We put various apps through the wringer and narrowed down our list to five mileage trackers built for accuracy, accountability, and top-notch employee privacy.
In this guide, we'll reveal each app's mileage tracking modes and describe how they worked during our hands-on testing. We'll also discuss additional features included with each app as well as pricing. This article will give you the information you need to pick a mileage tracker that best suits your company's needs and preferences.
Timeero solves the unique tracking challenges your business is grappling with.
Book a call today to learn how the Timeero mileage tracker works.
We took each app to the field on an identical route during our rigorous testing. We tested every tracking mode and switched off the internet mid-trip to try offline mode.
Hands-on testing enabled us to examine usability and determine if the app was easy or challenging for employees to use. During the testing, we subjected the apps to the same series of rigorous tests, pushing them to the limits to reveal their strengths and weaknesses. We picked the top five mileage tracking apps based on performance:
Timeero — Best Mileage Tracker with Segmented Tracking
TripLog — Mileage tracking with Expense Tracker
Everlance — Mileage Tracker for Self-Employed Users
Driversnote — Mileage Tracking with iBeacon
MileIQ — Easy-to-Use Mileage Tracker
If you're just getting started with mileage tracking, read our mileage tracking guide to learn how to maximize your company benefits.
Top 5 Mileage Tracking Apps
It can be time consuming to keep a manual tally of business miles, dates, gas receipts, and credit card statements to get mileage deductions. The inaccuracies and inconsistencies, which are born out of human error, contribute to discrepancies and complicate the tax deduction process.
Thankfully, the following mileage trackers peel off these layers of intricacies, allowing you to track mileage and reimburse employees with ease and accuracy. Let's dive straight into the strengths and weaknesses of each app, starting with Timeero — the best mileage tracker.
Timeero — Best Mileage Tracker with Segmented Tracking
Timeero offers an intuitive mobile app that is easy to download from Google Play or Apple's app store.
Pros:
Easy to use
Automatic mileage tracking
Minimum tracking speed threshold
Segmented tracking
Easy to generate timesheet reports and IRS-compliant mileage logs
Offline mode
Cons:
Advanced tools come as paid add-ons
Timeero tops our list, thanks to its ease of use and the effectiveness with which it tracks mileage. You don't need to invest in expensive gadgets. Just request employees to install the mobile app on their iOS or Android smartphones — and that's it.
To track miles, an employee will need to clock in, which is as easy as selecting the assigned task/job and hitting "clock in." Before the employees are on the move, allow mileage tracking for their respective tasks and set the minimum speed threshold.
Allowing tracking for select tasks is an indispensable feature as it enables you to track mileage for your mobile workforce or a select group of employees. Setting the minimum speed threshold improves the accuracy of mileage logs as it prevents tracking when the employee is walking or stuck in traffic.
Mileage Tracking Modes
Segmented tracking lets you compute miles covered between locations and time spent at each address.
Timeero uses drive detection technology to track employee mileage. The employee doesn't have to lift a finger. As long as they are clocked in and have reached the speed threshold, Timeero will log their miles automatically. The automatic tracking mode removes the human touch from the equation, increasing accuracy.
However, tracking every mile an employee travels, including their daily commute, doesn't amount to accuracy, at least in the eyes of the IRS. Remember, employee commute doesn't qualify for tax deductions or write-offs. The Timeero commute mileage feature removes an employee’s commute from the logs, so they are IRS-compliant.
Timeero has a unique tracking feature called segmented tracking, which is ideal for sales representatives, real estate agents, and other mobile employees who make multiple stops. Previously, these employees would have to start and stop mileage tracking every time they arrived at a customer location to continue tracking mileage between customer addresses.
Segmented tracking eliminates the hassle one encountered, by automating the mile tracking process. The employee clocks in once at the start of their workday and leaves the rest up to Timeero’s mileage tracking. The app tracks every movement and segments an employee's trip based on the stops. This way, you can calculate the mileage between locations and time spent with each customer.
Trip Classification
The IRS requires employers to define the purpose of every trip, as you can read in the IRS reimbursement rules guide. Timeero classifies employees' trips before they begin their work day.
Before the employee clocks in, Timeero requires them to pick their assigned task. Once they do so, every mile they log will be attributed to that task. In other words, Timeero tracks business miles only. You won't have to deal with personal mileage sneaking into your business logs.
Route & Breadcrumbs
The route shows you where the employee has been, and you can click on the breadcrumbs to get finer details such as vehicle speed.
Mileage tracking isn't just about logging miles for reimbursement. It should also serve as a cost-control measure for your company. One way to achieve that goal is to instill accountability and ensure employees take the shortest route to each destination.
Timeero has features to help you achieve just that. First, each mile log has an accompanying map showing your employee's turn-by-turn route. The route has breadcrumbs, which you can click to zoom in on details like the speed at which they traveled.
If cutting down on fuel costs is a company goal, the suggested mileage feature recommends the shortest distance to your destination based on previous trips. It's ideal for sales representatives and delivery or rideshare drivers who have to visit one location multiple times.
Employee Privacy Guarantee
Today's employees are more conscious about their privacy than ever before. Using an app that potentially intrudes on their privacy can lead to a lawsuit or mass action, and the consequences can be dire.
Timeero puts employee privacy in your workers’ hands to avert any legal friction. Remember, the app only tracks mileage when the employee is clocked in. When they clock out, tracking ceases, and there's no way a manager can know the employee's whereabouts. In the event an employee forgets to clock out, the app will send them a clock-out reminder.
Customer Support
Although Timeero is easy to set up and use, that doesn't mean we've put customer support on the back burner. Our customer support is fast and responsive and can be reached by phone or email. A look at Apple apps or Google Play store comments reveals floods of positive customer reviews regarding our customer support.
Timeero support agents are fast and responsive.
Additional Features
GPS location tracking
Time tracking with geofencing and facial recognition
Timeero pricing: 14-day free trial; paid pricing starts at $4 per user each month
TripLog — Mileage Tracking with Expense Tracker
Employees can create fuel expense reports for accurate invoicing.
Pros:
Numerous mileage tracking modes
Automatic mileage tracking
Minimum tracking speed threshold
Cons:
Privacy concerns with MagicTrip mode
TripLog’s mobile UI isn't as clean and clutter-free as Timeero. It has a lot going on and that makes the learning curve for newbies and non-tech-savvy employees a bit steep: experienced users won’t struggle to find their way around. That minor issue aside, TripLog sets itself apart from the rest with numerous mileage tracking modes.
Mileage Tracking Modes
TripLog spoils you for choice with five mileage tracking modes. You can use manual, MagicTrip, Plug-N-Go, Car Bluetooth, or Gig App drivers mode. We tested these modes and found that they work just as described. Learn more in our full TripLog review.
The MagicTrip is particularly helpful if you prefer automatic mileage tracking. All you have to do is set the minimum speed threshold and start driving. The app tracks mileage when you exceed the predefined speed, just like Timeero.
Additionally, you can use TripLog Drive or TripLog Beacon to track mileage, but these modes require purchased hardware.
TripLog doesn't offer segmented tracking, but you can set it to deduct employee commutes from their business mileage. The commuter mileage feature lets you remove miles traveled from the:
Total mileage for the day
First trip of the day
Last trip of the day
Both the first and last trip of the day
Trip Classification
Triplog lets you use the standard mileage rates to automatically create expense reports.
With TripLog you can categorize trips manually or set up a frequent trip rule to auto-classify them. For example, you can set TripLog to classify every trip from point A to destination B as work-related. This way, every trip you make between A and B will be classified as a business trip.
The problem with this rule is that it's based on exact location entries. As a result, if you make a trip to destination B from a different origin, TripLog won't classify that as business. If that sounds off-putting, you'll have to resort to manual classification or use work schedules.
When classifying trips within the working hours window, TripLog classifies every trip as business and anything outside an employee’s shift as personal.
With manual classification, you click the B (business) or P (personal) icons to categorize your trip accordingly.
Route & Breadcrumbs
Triplog does an excellent job showing maps with turn-by-turn routes. Additionally, you can hover over the breadcrumbs (GPS points) to monitor employee's speed at any point during their trip.
Employee Privacy Guarantee
With TripLog's manual tracking mode, you don't have to worry about violating employee privacy. Employees can start and end their trips as they see fit and are in charge of their privacy.
However, you have to tread carefully when using the automatic mileage tracker. Take the MagicTrip mode, for instance. As long as this mode is on, TripLog will track employee mileage outside of working hours, which can intrude on worker privacy. If you opt to use this mode, create a proper tracking policy to safeguard employee privacy.
Customer Support
TripLog has three customer support options: Live chat, email, and ticket support. Overall, the customer support is excellent, thanks to its responsive agents. Live chat is ideal if you want an immediate solution to your problems. Although chat is not instant — agents respond within 20 minutes — it's great to have it as an option.
Additional Features
Expense tracking
Route planning
Time tracking
Employee scheduling
ACH reimbursement
Link bank account for efficient bookkeeping
Integrations: ADP, Xero, QuickBooks, SAP Concur, PayChex, Emburse, Salesforce, and Sage
TripLog Pricing: Free plan, premium plan pricing start at $5.99 per month
Everlance — Mileage Tracker for Self-Employed Users
Besides mileage tracking, Everlance offers an expense-tracking app to simplify invoicing.
Pros:
Automatic tracking mode
Easy trip classification
Support FAVR and CPM reimbursement
Cons:
No minimum tracking speed threshold
No breadcrumbs
At first glance we see that the Everlance home UI has a lot going on. You see the mode you're on, trips made, and a pie chart showing an overview of the mileage you have logged in the current year. The amount of information given is excellent as it loops you in on mileage and travel expenses, but it does make the UI a little cluttered and confusing for first-time users.
Mileage Tracking Modes
Like our top two picks, Everlance uses automatic drive detection, albeit with a strange tweak. There's no minimum speed threshold, which explains why the app tends to track every mile. During our testing, Everlance recorded more miles than the rest of the apps, including MileIQ and Driversnote, which also don't use a speed threshold.
The problem with this tracking mode is that Everlance tracks mileage even when the employee is walking or caught in traffic. From a business point of view, this inflates mileage logs, meaning yo spend unnecessary funds on employee reimbursement.
However, freelancers, self-employed, independent contractors, and rideshare (Lyft or Uber) drivers looking to track every mile to document fuel consumption won't go wrong using Everlance. Learn more in our full Everlance review.
Everlance does have a commute feature geared towards restoring some accuracy to business miles. With this feature, simply define employee commute distance, and the app deducts it automatically from their reimbursable work mileage.
Trip Classification
Compared to TripLog, Everlance's manual classification is more straightforward. Employees can swipe right or left to classify drives as business or personal. Alternatively, you can set work hours for automatic classification or configure the app to auto-classify all drives as business.
Everlance enables you to create IRS-compliant reports to simplify computations when tax time rolls around.
Route & Breadcrumbs
Everlance doesn't match Timeero or TripLog's performance due to its lack of breadcrumbs. It also doesn't present a map showing an employee's route for the trip. Sadly, you only get the start and end GPS points, and with no breadcrumbs, you can't monitor employee behavior during the trip.
Employee Privacy Guarantee
Like the rest of the apps, manual tracking doesn't present any privacy concerns. However, using automatic trip detection is different. When turned on, this feature tracks all employee movement including locations visited outside of business hours.
If you use Everlace automatic drive detection, make sure to pair it with a solid GPS tracking policy. Ideally, you should have a guideline requiring employees to turn off automatic drive detection when they end their work-related trips.
Customer Support
Customer support is Everlance's forte. We contacted support agents via email during our testing and no complaints. They responded to our email in less than 24 hours, which is excellent by email support standards. You can also use phone support if an issue requires immediate attention.
Online customer reviews back up our sentiments. Many reviews rave about the responsive and helpful support agents, who are well-conversant with every issue you throw at them.
Additional Features
Business expenses tracking
Deductions finder
Supports FAVR and CPM reimbursement programs
Driver checkup
Integrations: Accounting software such as Freshbooks and Xero
Everlance pricing: Free, Premium version pricing starts at $10 per user each month
Driversnote — Mileage Tracking with iBeacon
Driversnote mobile app is easy to use.
Pros:
Automatic mileage tracking
Easy trip classification
Improve accuracy with iBeacon
Cons:
No minimum tracking speed detection
Limited integrations
The Driversnote mileage tracking app adopts a design similar to that of MileIQ. The home UI on mobiledevices is a hub for all your unclassified drives, but the ribbon at the bottom of the screen keeps vital settings within arm's reach.
Mileage Tracking Modes
Driversnote drive detection technology doesn't track mileage based on a predefined speed threshold.
Instead, it uses a smartphone's GPS and accelerometer data to detect a new trip. This method works depending on how fast your phone receives GPS signal, so it's no surprise it missed part of our trip, especially when we traversed a low-network zone.
Beyond automatic drive detection, you can use Driversnote iBeacon to track mileage. This mode requires additional investment in iBeacon gadgets but might be well worth it for teams working in remote regions or if you need to enhance employee privacy.
Essentially, you mount the iBeacon Bluetooth device in the car and link it to the driver's smartphone. When the driver enters the vehicle, iBeacon sends signals to the smartphone, prompting it to track mileage as soon as the driver starts driving. Learn about iBeacon in our full Driversnote review.
Trip Classification
Classifying trips on Driversnote is simple.
Driversnote doesn't support one-swipe drive classification, but the process is still easy. You only need to open the drive card and tap "personal" or "business" to classify the trip.
But if you want to sidestep manual classification, you have four auto-classification options:
Based on the previous trip
Always as a business
Always as personal
Based on work hours
Route & Breadcrumbs
Driversnote shows you the route an employee took during the trip. While no breadcrumbs exist, monitoring your employees' route encourages them to adhere to the company driving policy. Employees are discouraged to take longer routes for scenic purposes when they know you have evidence to catch them in the act.
Employee Privacy Guarantee
Using the manual tracking mode is ideal if employee privacy is a top priority. Driversnote iBeacon is also excellent if employees leave the car at company premises. In both instances, Driversnote won't track employee movement as they run personal errands outside of work hours.
However, if you prefer the auto-track mode, make sure to accompany it with a solid tracking policy. The tracking guideline should require employees to turn off auto-track at the end of their business trip. This way, Driversnote won't track their movement outside of business hours.
Customer Support
Driversnote offers live chat, email, and phone support — a great selection of support options.
The agents on live chat respond within a few hours. It's not instantaneous like you'd expect of live chat support, but the agents are well-conversant with Driversnote issues.
The only drawback is that phone support isn't directly available to everyone. You have to submit a request via email to explain your issue. Driversnote will evaluate your case, and if they deem it worth a chat over the phone, you'll get a link to book a call. Obviously, that means phone support may take longer than usual.
Additional Features
Custom mileage rates
Employee work schedule
Odometer log
Team management
Integrations: Microsoft Excel
Driversnote pricing: Free version (up to 15 trips per month), Paid plans start at $11 per month
MileIQ — Easy-to-Use Mileage Tracker
MileIQ is easy to use partly because it doesn’t offer many features.
Pros:
Automatic mileage tracking
Easy to turn off drive detection
Easy to navigate interface
Cons:
No offline mode
Omits trips shorter than one mile
No commuter mileage feature
MileIQ is another mileage tracker that adopts a unique UI design. The mobile app is designed to serve all your drives on the home UI. While that makes it look a little more cluttered, it goes a long way towards aiding trip classification — more on this in a bit.
The mileage tracker targets small business owners in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The app might not be available on Apple's App and Google Play store if you're located outside of these countries.
Mileage Tracking Modes
Like Driversnote, MileIQ doesn't have a minimum speed threshold. To make matters worse, it doesn't track every mile you drive. The app detects a new trip when you travel at least half a mile. Sometimes, depending on cell towers and Wi-Fi signals, MileIQ can take up to a mile to spot a new drive.
During our testing, the app disregarded many trips that were less than one mile. This may not seem like a big deal but, the numbers can add up quickly, eating away at your rightful mileage deductions and tax write-offs.
That's not the only issue we encountered. MileIQ ends a trip when you stop for more than 15 minutes, and that's a strike against its capability as a mileage tracker for door-to-door reps. Since it doesn't offer a segmented tracking tool, it won't be easy to compute the distance between client locations or the time a rep spends with each customer.
Another downfall is that MileIQ doesn't offer a commuter mileage feature. The only way to deduct an employee’s commute would be to set their distance from office to home as a frequent drive — and configure MileIQ to classify that as a personal trip. This way, it won't end up on your business mileage log.
MileIQ fails to track trips shorter than one mile.
Trip Classification
Trip classification is one of the few things MileIQ excels at. Trip classification is relatively simple — swipe right to classify business trips or left to categorize personal trips. There are two auto-classify options.
First, you can configure frequent drives so that MileIQ classifies them as either business or personal. Second, turn on work hours so the app classifies drives within the predefined windows as business.
Route & Breadcrumbs
If you're already grappling with accountability, you're better off using another mileage tracker. Why? As elegant as MileIQ may appear, it doesn't show the route your employee traveled, rather it only shows where they began and ended their trip.
You'll see the total miles clocked, but you can't tell whether the employee took route A or B. That might not be appealing if you want to enhance accountability.
Employee Privacy Guarantee
The same as other mileage trackers, there's no privacy concern with MileIQ's manual mileage tracking. This means employees stay on top of their privacy, and any intrusion would be negligence on their part.
However, the automatic tracking mode can be a privacy risk. The tracker will document an employee's trail even after business hours. The good thing about MileIQ is that it's easy for employees to turn off drive detection to enhance their privacy.
We still recommend creating a solid tracking policy to ensure employees are using this feature in a way that will enhance their privacy and safeguard your company from potential litigation.
Customer Support
MileIQ's customer support options are limited to ticket-based support only. The provider usually responds within 24 hours, from Monday through Friday. Sadly, responses for tickets submitted on weekends may take longer to arrive.
Additional Features
Location tracking
Driver management
Integrations: Xero, SAP Concur, Sage, Route4Me, and Bookkeeper360
MileIQ pricing: Free for individuals, paid plans for teams start at $5 per user each month.
Pick The Best Mileage Tracking For Your Company
For improved accuracy, choose a mileage tracker with a minimum speed threshold. Timeero and Triplog are the standouts in this regard. However, Timeero has a leg-up, thanks to advanced features such as segmented tracking and suggested mileage.
Want to learn more about Timeero’s mileage tracking capability? Start a free14-day trial today to experience all that Timeero has to offer. Alternatively, book a consultation call and our knowledgeable support agents will walk you through Timeero’s feature — your call.
FAQs: Best Mileage Tracker
What Is the Best Way to Keep Track of Business Miles?
The best way to track business miles is to use an automatic mileage tracker with a commuter mileage feature.
What Is the Best Mileage Tracking App?
Timeero is the best mileage tracking app, thanks to its automatic tracking mode and its unique segmented tracking feature.
Want to learn how the Timeero mileage tracker works?
Start a free trial today and get a first-hand feel for all the features for 14 days — no credit card required.
Samson is a mathematician turned content marketer specializing in SaaS and Tech content. He focuses on the practical aspects of software systems while keeping abreast of the industry’s cutting-edge principles to create informative and engaging content. When he’s not writing, Samson spends time playing or watching soccer.
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