A free mileage log app with no trip limit

Nearly every mileage app calls itself free. Read the terms and it is free up to a certain number of journeys a month — and then the log stops in the middle of a tax year you have to be able to evidence. Here is what to check, and why a cap on journeys is a poor place to save money.

The trip cap is the usual free plan

The common model is a set number of journeys a month at no cost, often around twenty, with a subscription for the rest. For a tradesperson or consultant with several jobs a day that is half a month. What makes it worse is where the cap lands: in the middle of your evidence. You end up with a log that is complete for two weeks and empty for two.

A mileage log is evidence. Full of holes, it is weakest exactly where it needs to be strong.

What a mileage log has to show

To claim HMRC's approved mileage rate you need to be able to show the business journeys behind the figure: the date, where you went and how far. In practice it is worth recording the start and finish times, a note of the client or site, and who was driving.

An app that stops recording after twenty journeys cannot give you that for a whole year. You are back to reconstructing journeys from your calendar the week the return is due — which is the weakest kind of log there is.

Free, but what is the catch?

A fair question. This one is free because it costs us nothing beyond sitting on our server: your journeys are stored in the browser on your phone and never sent to us, so there is no per-user database to run. There is no limit on journeys, no contract and no account to get started.

There is a voluntary support button on the front page. It gives you nothing extra, and everything works the same without it.

What to check before you pick one

Is there a cap on journeys, and what happens when you reach it?
Can you export your own data, and in what format?
Can past journeys be edited without a trace?
Where is your location stored, and is it sent to the supplier?
What does it cost once the free tier or the contract ends?

The last two are the ones that tend to surprise people. A tracker box fitted to the car on a multi-year contract is still the normal offer from the larger suppliers.