Polarsteps is best for documenting a trip while you are on it: it tracks your route with your phone’s location, lets you post steps with photos for followers, and can turn trips into printed travel books. flew.world is best for your flights over the years: it builds trips from the flights you add or import, including trips from long ago, and turns them into trip pages, a year in review and videos to post. Both are free to start. Many travellers would happily use both.
Polarsteps and flew.world both end in the same place, a map of where you have been and a recap to share, but they get there in opposite ways. Polarsteps records a trip as it happens. flew.world reconstructs your travels from your flights, whenever you add them. That one difference explains almost everything else in this comparison.
We make flew.world. Facts about Polarsteps come from its own pages and app listing, and from the reviews listed at the end, checked in November 2026.
At a glance
| Polarsteps | flew.world | |
|---|---|---|
| How trips are recorded | Your phone’s location while you travel, plus steps you add | From your flights: added by number, boarding pass or import |
| Past trips | Can be added by hand | Yes, any year; import years of history from other apps |
| Ground travel | Yes: road trips, trains, walking routes | Flights only |
| Photos and notes | Steps with photos and stories | Photos per trip; trip pages with notes |
| Followers | Friends and family can follow a trip live | Optional public map and trip pages; travel companions can be invited |
| Year recap | Polarsteps Unpacked, a set of slides in the app | Year in review page, passport card, Wrapped story and three videos to save as MP4 |
| Videos | Route animation mode with Plus | A short video for every trip, three styles for the year |
| Printed books | Yes, Travel Books (paid) | No |
| Price | Free; Plus about €29.99 a year | Free |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android apps | Any browser; installable |
How Polarsteps works
Polarsteps is a travel tracker. Start a trip and the app follows your route in the background while it runs, drawing the line you travel on a map. Along the way you add steps: a place, photos, a few lines about the day. Friends and family can follow the trip as it unfolds. When you get home, the trip can be printed as a Travel Book, which is how Polarsteps makes money; the app itself is free to use.
Polarsteps Plus, listed at €8.99 a month or €29.99 a year on its German page (prices vary by country), adds 3D maps, more map styles, step statistics, elevation profiles and an animation mode that replays your route, plus a discount on Travel Books for yearly members.
Since December 2025 Polarsteps has also had a yearly recap, Polarsteps Unpacked. It shows the days you spent travelling, how far you went from home, the most unusual place you visited, countries and your furthest point, and a “travel personality” generated with AI, as a series of slides.
How flew.world works
flew.world is a flight log that turns trips into stories. You add flights, by flight number and date, by scanning a boarding pass, or by importing your history from Flighty, myFlightradar24, OpenFlights, App in the Air or a CSV file. flew.world then groups them into trips, telling a two-hour connection from a four-night stay, and gives each trip a page with the route, your photos and a short video.
Every year gets a year in review: a passport card, your totals compared with last year, your records and firsts, and three videos on a satellite globe that you save as vertical MP4 files for Reels, TikTok or Stories. Everything is free.
Where Polarsteps is better
- Ground travel. Road trips, rail journeys, hikes and island-hopping by ferry all show up on your Polarsteps map. flew.world only knows about flights.
- Live following. Polarsteps is built for sharing a trip while it happens, with followers seeing each new step.
- Day-by-day storytelling. Steps with photos and notes make a rich travel diary, more detailed than one page per trip.
- Printed books. If you want a physical photo book of a trip, Polarsteps makes that easy.
- Native apps on iPhone and Android.
Where flew.world is better
- Your past. Polarsteps works best for trips you record as they happen. flew.world can rebuild trips from years ago: import a CSV from another app, or add old flights by number and date, and every past year gets its own page.
- Nothing running in the background. There is no tracking while you travel, so no location history is collected and nothing to remember to switch on.
- Flying in detail. Distances, time in the air, airports, airlines, aircraft, connections and records. Polarsteps measures distance travelled; flew.world tells the story of your flights.
- Videos you can post. Every trip gets a short video, and the year gets three styles to save as MP4s, made for Reels and TikTok rather than in-app slides. See how to make a travel year-in-review video.
- Free, with everything. No paid tier for maps, statistics or videos.
- Export. Your flights export to CSV, OpenFlights CSV, KML and GPX.
Using both
They overlap less than it seems. A sensible split:
- Use Polarsteps on the trip if you like sharing day by day, especially for long trips with lots of ground travel.
- Use flew.world for the flights, all of them, including the business trips and weekends you would never start a Polarsteps trip for.
- Post the flew.world year video in December, and order the Polarsteps book of your big trip.
Which one should you choose?
- You are setting off on a long trip and want family to follow along: Polarsteps.
- You want a record of every flight you have ever taken: flew.world.
- You travel mostly by plane, often for short trips: flew.world.
- You travel overland a lot: Polarsteps, possibly with flew.world for the flights.
- You want a video of your year to post on Reels or TikTok: flew.world.
- You want a printed book: Polarsteps.
Questions
Is Polarsteps free?
Yes, the Polarsteps app is free to use. Polarsteps Plus is an optional subscription, and printed Travel Books are paid.
Does flew.world track my location?
No. flew.world builds your trips from the flights you add or import. Nothing runs in the background while you travel.
Can flew.world show road trips or train journeys?
No, flew.world covers flights only. Polarsteps records ground travel.
Which one has a year in review?
Both. Polarsteps Unpacked is a set of slides in the app, available since December 2025. flew.world has a year in review page, a Wrapped story from 1 December, and three videos you can save and post.
Can I import Polarsteps trips into flew.world?
Not directly. flew.world imports flight logs from Flighty, myFlightradar24, OpenFlights, App in the Air, TripIt calendars and CSV files. You can add flights from your Polarsteps trips by flight number and date.
Sources
- Polarsteps Plus Polarsteps, prices and features, checked November 2026
- Polarsteps is the free app that tracks your travels TechRadar
- Polarsteps Unpacked, your year in travel IKON London Magazine
- Polarsteps on the App Store Apple
Updated 2 November 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us at hello@flew.world.
