The best free travel planning apps in 2026 are Plotline (for saving places from social media), Wanderlog (for collaborative trip planning), and Google Maps (for navigation and local discovery). But "free" means different things — some apps are generous, others lock core features behind a paywall after a few uses. Here's what you actually get for free.
Every travel app in the App Store says it's free to download. Technically, that's true. But there's a big difference between "free to download" and "free to use." Some apps let you save three places before hitting a paywall. Others give you full access to the core experience and only charge for premium extras. If you've ever been excited about a new travel app only to hit a subscription prompt five minutes in, you know the frustration.
We downloaded and tested the most popular travel planning apps to find out what you actually get without paying. Not what the marketing page says — what happens when you open the app and try to plan a real trip on the free tier.
Most travel apps say they're free. Few actually let you do anything useful without paying. Here's what you really get.
At a Glance
| Feature | Plotline | Google Maps | Wanderlog | TripIt | Roamy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's free | Unlimited saves, map, chapters, social import | Everything | Trip planner, basic collab, day planner | Booking timeline, basic alerts | Very limited saves |
| What's paid | Itinerary generation (coming soon) | Nothing | Offline maps, flight deals, advanced features | Seat tracking, fare alerts, real-time updates ($49/yr) | Most extraction and save features |
| Social media import | Yes (share sheet) | No | No | No | Yes (limited on free) |
| Map view | Map-first | Map-first | Secondary | No | Secondary |
| Itinerary | Coming soon | No | Manual day planner | Auto from bookings | Limited on free |
| Platforms | iOS | iOS, Android, Web | iOS, Android, Web | iOS, Android, Web | iOS |
| Verdict | Most generous free tier | Best baseline tool | Best free planner | Best for business travel | Free tier too limited |
Keep reading for honest breakdowns of each app's free tier, or download our top pick now.
What "Free" Should Actually Mean
Before we get into the apps, let's set the bar. A genuinely free travel app should let you do the core thing it advertises without a time limit or save limit. If an app's whole pitch is "save places from social media," you shouldn't hit a paywall after saving five places. If an app is a trip planner, you should be able to plan at least one trip without paying.
Premium features — offline access, advanced collaboration, integrations — those are reasonable things to charge for. But the basic workflow should work. With that standard in mind, here's how each app stacks up.
The Apps, Ranked by Free Tier
1. Plotline — Best Free Tier for Social Media Travelers
Plotline is designed for people who find travel inspiration on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The core interaction is sharing a link from any app to Plotline via the iOS share sheet. The app processes the content and extracts every place mentioned — names, locations, categories — and drops them as pins on your personal travel map.
What's free: Unlimited place saves. Unlimited social media imports. Full map view with all your pins. Chapters (collections) for organizing places into groups like "Tokyo Coffee" or "Barcelona Must-Sees." Auto extraction from TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube videos, and websites. There is no save limit, no trial period, and no feature gating on the core experience. You can save hundreds of places across dozens of cities and never see a paywall.
What's paid: Itinerary generation is coming soon and will be a premium feature. Right now, the entire app is free because the premium tier hasn't launched yet. That makes this a good time to start building your collection.
The catch: iOS only — no Android or web version yet. No collaborative features at this point. If you need to plan a trip with friends or share an itinerary, you'll want a companion tool. But for the specific job of capturing places from social media and organizing them on a map, the free tier is as good as it gets.
2. Google Maps — The Free Baseline
Google Maps is completely free, and it always has been. Saved lists, turn-by-turn navigation, reviews, photos, directions, transit info — all of it, on every platform, with no subscription tier at all. For many travelers, this is the default tool and the one everything else gets compared to.
What's free: Everything. Create unlimited saved lists. Star any place. Get directions. Read reviews. Check hours and menus. Share lists with friends. Access it on iOS, Android, and the web. There are no premium features because there's no premium tier.
What's paid: Nothing.
The catch: Google Maps is a navigation tool, not a trip planning tool. There's no way to import places from social media — every place needs to be searched and saved manually. There's no day-by-day planner, no itinerary generation, no way to organize saves beyond basic lists. If someone mentions a cafe in a TikTok without giving the name, you're stuck trying to figure it out on your own. It's the tool everyone already has, and it does what it does well, but it's not going to help you turn your saved Reels into a trip.
3. Wanderlog — Best Free Trip Planner
Wanderlog is a full-featured trip planning app with a genuinely useful free tier. You can create trips, add places, organize them into a day-by-day planner, and invite collaborators. The interface is clean, the planning tools are thoughtful, and the web version means you can plan on your laptop and access everything on your phone.
What's free: Create trips with a day-by-day planner. Add places by searching or pasting from Google Maps. Basic collaboration — invite friends to view and edit. Map view within trips. Budget tracking. Available on iOS, Android, and web. The free tier covers the core planning workflow end to end.
What's paid: Wanderlog Pro unlocks offline maps, flight and hotel deal searches, advanced collaboration controls, and the ability to export trips. The premium features are nice-to-haves, but the free tier handles the planning basics well.
The catch: No social media import at all. You can't share a TikTok to Wanderlog — every place needs to be searched manually or added via a web clipper from blog articles. The app also requires you to create a trip before saving anything, which doesn't work well for casual "save now, plan later" behavior. If you already know where you're going and want to organize the logistics, it's excellent. If you're still in the inspiration phase, it's the wrong tool for that stage.
4. TripIt — Best Free Tier for Business Travelers
TripIt takes a different approach. Instead of saving places, you forward your booking confirmation emails to the app and it automatically builds a timeline for your trip. Flights, hotels, car rentals, restaurant reservations — it pulls the details from your email and organizes them chronologically.
What's free: Forward booking confirmations and get an automatic trip timeline. Basic travel alerts. Share your itinerary with others. Access on all platforms. If you book everything by email (flights, hotels, activities), TripIt assembles the puzzle for you.
What's paid: TripIt Pro ($49/year) adds real-time flight alerts, seat tracking, alternate flight suggestions when things go wrong, fare refund notifications, and neighborhood safety scores. The premium tier is aimed squarely at frequent business travelers who fly every week.
The catch: TripIt doesn't help you discover or plan — it helps you organize things you've already booked. No place discovery, no social media import, no map-based exploration. The free tier is functional but narrow. If you're a frequent flyer who wants all their confirmations in one place, it works. For everyone else, it solves a different problem than most people have when they think about "travel planning."
5. Roamy — Free Tier Too Limited to Be Useful
Roamy positions itself as a social media travel app, similar to Plotline. The concept is the same: share a TikTok or Instagram link, and the app tries to extract the places mentioned. It has a modern design and the team is clearly building toward the right vision.
What's free: A handful of saves before you hit the limit. Basic place extraction. Limited map view.
What's paid: Core extraction features, additional saves, and most of the useful functionality. The paywall appears quickly — within the first few uses for most people.
The catch: The free tier is too restrictive to be practical. You hit the save limit before you can build a meaningful collection of places. If the app's core value is saving places from social media, gating that behind a paywall after a few saves defeats the purpose. Extraction accuracy was also inconsistent in our testing — some posts worked perfectly, others missed places or pulled incorrect locations. iOS only. Roamy has potential, but the free tier doesn't give you enough room to experience it.
How We'd Use These Together
No single app does everything, and that's fine. Here's how the free tiers complement each other:
- Inspiration phase: Plotline. Save every place you see on TikTok and Instagram. Build your collection over weeks and months without worrying about limits.
- Planning phase: Wanderlog. When you've decided on a destination, create a trip and organize your days. Add the places you found in Plotline by searching for them.
- Booking phase: TripIt. Forward your flight and hotel confirmations to build a timeline.
- On the ground: Google Maps. Navigate to the places you planned, check hours, find nearby alternatives.
Each tool is free for the part of the journey it's best at. The mistake most people make is expecting one app to cover everything — that's where frustration (and unnecessary subscriptions) creep in.
The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a genuinely free travel planning app, the answer depends on what you need it for. Google Maps is the safest bet — it's free, it's everywhere, and it works. But it won't help you capture inspiration or plan a trip.
For the growing number of travelers who discover places on social media, Plotline offers the most generous free tier of any app in the category. Unlimited saves, full social media import, map view, and organizational tools — all without paying. The premium tier (itinerary generation) is coming, but the free experience stands on its own.
Wanderlog is the best free option once you're ready to plan logistics. TripIt fills a niche for booking organization. And Roamy, while promising, doesn't give you enough on the free tier to recommend right now.
Download the ones that match your stage. Use them for what they're good at. And stop paying for features you can get for free somewhere else.