GigOdo vs TripLog: tracking is free - your own data isn't
Credit where due: TripLog's Basic plan (relaunched in early 2025) made unlimited automatic mileage tracking free, killing its old 40-trip cap. But read the fine print in TripLog's own help center: free users can pull only the last 7 days in an emailed report, plus a single 7-day Premium Pass a year that TripLog suggests saving for tax season. Your miles are tracked free; your records live behind Premium. GigOdo doesn't play that game - reports, CSV export, and full history are free, and it adds the thing TripLog never computes: your net $/hour per platform after gas.
| What matters | GigOdo | TripLog |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic tracking, free | ✓unlimited | ✓unlimited since the 2025 Basic relaunch |
| Tax reports & CSV export, free | ✓full history, any time | ✗free = last 7 days only + one 7-day pass/year |
| Price to unlock everything | Pro $2.99/mo$24.99/yr founding; $4.99/$39.99 after | Premium ~$4.99-5.99/mo$59.99/yr; hardware $19.99-$79.99 extra |
| Net $/hour per platform (after gas) | ✓ranked from your own trips | ✗generic income entries, no per-platform math |
| Tips tracked separately | ✓matters for the tips deduction | ✗ |
| Fuel log | ✓real $/mile from fill-ups feeds net math | ✓fuel purchases + MPG |
| GPS routes stay on your phone | ✓coordinates discarded, only totals kept | ✗route points stored in cloud; geolocation treated as non-PII |
| Battery use shown, measured | ✓Battery panel | ✗own docs note MagicTrip's "higher battery consumption" |
| Hardware triggers (beacon, GPS device) | ✗deep sleep + motion sensor instead, no purchase | ✓$19.99 Beacon, $79.99 Drive |
| Fleet / accounting integrations | ✗ | ✓QuickBooks, Concur, ADP; Teams/Enterprise tiers |
| Asks for gig platform logins | Never | Neverbank feeds optional, Premium |
TripLog details from triplog.net's pricing page and help center, checked July 2026. Check current prices before deciding.
The 7-day report window, explained
TripLog's free Basic plan tracks everything - and then meters your access to what it tracked. Per TripLog's own help article, Basic users get emailed reports covering only the last 7 days, no web app, and one 7-day Premium Pass per calendar year (it doesn't roll over; TripLog suggests saving it for tax season). Miss a receipt in March and want to check your February miles in April? That's a subscription. GigOdo's position: they're your miles. Deduction totals, full trip history, CSV export, and JSON backup are free, all year, forever - Pro exists for cloud sync and CPA extras, not for holding your own records.
Your routes: discarded vs mapped and stored
TripLog shows pretty route maps because it stores your GPS points in its cloud - a point every 2 to 10 minutes, hosted on Amazon EC2. Its privacy policy says it doesn't sell personally identifiable information, but it classifies geolocation as non-personal information that may be shared with affiliates and partners. Read that twice if your workday is a map of your life. GigOdo can't show you a route map, on purpose: coordinates are discarded on your phone the moment they become distance. The IRS wants miles, dates, and purpose - not breadcrumbs - and what doesn't exist can't be shared, leaked, or subpoenaed.
Battery: hardware fixes vs software honesty
TripLog's docs are upfront that MagicTrip auto-tracking has "higher battery consumption," and its answer is an accessories catalog: a $19.99 beacon, a $79.99 GPS device, or plug-in triggers. GigOdo's answer is engineering plus receipts: full GPS only during trips, low-power watching between them, motion-sensor deep sleep at home - and a Battery panel that shows the measured %/hr on your phone, so you don't have to take anyone's word for it. No purchase required.
The driver math TripLog doesn't do
TripLog logs income as generic entries and computes your MPG from fuel purchases - useful bookkeeping, and its gig-app auto-start trigger is a nice touch. But it never answers the question that decides your Friday night: DoorDash or Uber Eats? GigOdo tracks pay, tips, and hours per platform, prices your miles from your own fill-ups, and ranks your apps by net $/hour. Tips tracked separately also matter now - the qualified-tips deduction (through 2028) needs records that split tips from base pay.
Where TripLog genuinely wins
TripLog is the most built-out ecosystem in the mileage business: six tracking methods including Bluetooth and dedicated hardware, OCR receipt capture, bank feeds, and QuickBooks/Concur/ADP integrations feeding real Teams and Enterprise tiers. If you manage a fleet, need company mileage reimbursement workflows, or want a hardware-triggered tracker that never touches your phone's GPS, TripLog is the serious tool and its 4.5-star App Store rating is earned. GigOdo doesn't compete for fleets - it competes for the solo driver whose office is a car and whose records shouldn't cost rent.
Bring your TripLog history with you
TripLog exports trip CSVs (on the free tier you may need your annual Premium Pass - or one month of Premium - to pull a full year's history; grab everything while the window is open). Then in GigOdo open Trips > Import CSV - the column mapper guesses date, distance, and purpose fields, previews every row before saving, and skips duplicates. Files are parsed on your phone and never uploaded, and your deduction log stays continuous for tax time.
Verdict
Fleet manager or hardware-tracker fan? TripLog's ecosystem is real - stay. Solo gig driver? TripLog tracks your miles free but meters access to your own records at 7 days; GigOdo gives you the records free, keeps the routes off the cloud entirely, and computes the net-per-platform number TripLog never will. Your TripLog history imports through the CSV mapper in minutes.
Your miles. Your records. Free.
Full history, reports, and export - no 7-day window, no card, routes never leave your phone.
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