FindPenguins vs Polarsteps vs Pebbls in 2026

Simon · October 5, 2026

FindPenguins and Polarsteps are the two apps most people look at when they want a map of their trip. They do a similar job: put your phone in your pocket, travel, and your route appears on a map with your photos along it. I make a third one, Pebbls, so I'm not neutral. I've tried to be fair anyway, and I've only used what each company says about itself on its own website and app store pages.

The short version

• FindPenguins is completely free, with no subscription. You pay only if you order a printed book. Pick it if you want everything without paying, a book at the end, or a trip planner.
• Polarsteps is the most widely used of the three: it says more than 10 million travellers use it. The free version covers tracking, sharing and planning, and Plus adds 3D maps and a replay of your route. Pick it for holidays and city-to-city trips, especially if you'd like a Travel Book.
• Pebbls is made for slow journeys where the route is the story: a cycle tour, a long walk, a sailing passage, months in a van. Pick it if you want the trip split into chapters, a free flyby film of each one, and family reading along without installing anything.

Side by side

App Store prices for the US, checked October 2026. In Germany Polarsteps Plus is €29.99 a year and Pebbls Explorer is €22.99 in the App Store. FindPenguins' book price is its smallest hardcover. Prices change, so check before you pay.

Where FindPenguins is the better choice

It costs nothing. FindPenguins says it plainly: "No subscriptions, no hidden costs, everything included." Tracking, footprints, flyover videos and the planner are all free. The company earns its money from printed books. If you don't want to pay anything, ever, FindPenguins is the one.

You want a book on the shelf. FindPenguins lays out your texts, maps, photos and statistics as a hardcover book. A 21 × 21 cm hardcover runs from $41.99 to $147.99 depending on length. Polarsteps does the same with its Travel Book. Pebbls doesn't print anything: your journal stays online.

You like to plan. FindPenguins lets you put an itinerary together, store travel documents and browse routes other travellers have taken. Polarsteps has a trip planner and guides too. Pebbls has none of that. It starts when you start moving.

You want a bigger crowd. FindPenguins has over a million downloads on Google Play, and Polarsteps says more than 10 million people use it. Pebbls is much smaller, so there are fewer people to find and follow.

FindPenguins also lets you share your live position with a delay, has a group tracking service for rallies and organised trips, and fills gaps in your route if your phone battery dies.

Where Polarsteps is the better choice

Polarsteps adds a step automatically when you arrive somewhere new, so the trip page builds itself as you go. The free version covers tracking, sharing and planning, with guides for many destinations, and family can follow along for free. Plus adds 3D maps, more map styles, stats for each step, a play mode that replays your route, and 20% off Travel Books with the yearly plan. It suits trips built around places: a fortnight between cities, a rail trip, a road trip with a new town each night.

Where Pebbls is different

I built the first version of Pebbls a few days before Lucy and I got married and cycled to Gibraltar. We wanted our families to see where we were without us answering WhatsApps every evening. A lot of how Pebbls works comes from that.

The route is the trip. Pebbls records a point roughly every 15 metres you move, with the phone in your pocket or bar bag. On a ride over a pass you see every switchback, not just the town at the bottom. It keeps recording with no signal and sends the route when you're back in coverage, and a whole day of tracking uses less data than one photo.

Long trips come in chapters. One per day, stage or country. Our ride from the UK to Georgia went through 11 countries, and splitting it into chapters is what keeps it readable months later. Our Hebridean Way ride is 764 km in 9 chapters.

A flyby film for every chapter. Each chapter with a few pebbls and photos gets its own 3D flight along the route, with your photos appearing where you took them. It's made for you and it's free. Watch some flyby films.

Family read along in a browser. Send them your journey link. They don't need the app or an account to read it. If they'd like to hear when you post, they tap Follow along and give an email address and a name, which takes about a minute.

Privacy for where you sleep. You can hide the start and end of a chapter, so your house or tonight's camp isn't on the map, and make any single pebbl private. Both are free. With Explorer you can also keep a journey private, put a password on it, or hold back your live position until you've moved on.

Your map on your own site. If you write a blog or run a site for a charity ride or an expedition, you can put your map on it with an embed code or the free WordPress plugin.

A film from any route. Route to video turns a ride from Strava, a walk from Komoot or a route you draw on the map into a 3D video. You don't need to have recorded it with Pebbls, and it's free up to 200 km with no account.

Pebbls is free to use, with no adverts. Explorer, at $20 a year, adds faster map updates, private and password-protected journeys, tracking privacy, videos in your pebbls, route downloads (the route file, called a GPX), more offline maps, journey analytics and Premium Route to video films. See what's free and what isn't.

What Pebbls doesn't do

To be clear, so you don't find out halfway through a trip:

• No printed book.
• No trip planner, guides or travel documents.
• No direct import from FindPenguins or Polarsteps. If you have the route file (GPX) of an older trip, you can import that.
• A smaller community. The communities that are there are mostly cycle tourers, bikepackers, sailors, walkers, paddlers and van travellers.

Which one for which trip

• A free app for a backpacking trip, then a book: FindPenguins.
• A holiday hopping between cities, with a Travel Book at the end: Polarsteps.
• Planning the route before you go: FindPenguins or Polarsteps.
• A cycle tour, a long-distance walk, a sailing passage or months in a van, with family following on the web: Pebbls.
• A live map on your own blog or expedition site: Pebbls.

If you're happy with FindPenguins or Polarsteps, you don't have to switch to get a film of a ride or a walk. Download the route file from Strava, Garmin or Komoot and put it through Route to video.

Questions people ask

Is FindPenguins really free?

Yes. The app has no subscription and no in-app purchases on the App Store. You pay only for a printed book.

Is FindPenguins or Polarsteps better?

They're close. FindPenguins is free and has a planner, flyover videos and books. Polarsteps is bigger, the free version is generous, and Plus adds 3D maps and replays. If you won't pay a subscription, FindPenguins. If you want the most widely used app and a Travel Book, Polarsteps.

Do people following me need the app?

Polarsteps says family can follow along for free, and FindPenguins can share a private link that works without an account. With Pebbls they read your journey in a browser with no app or account, and if they leave an email address they get a message when you post.

Does Pebbls work in German?

Yes. The app and website are in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, and journals are translated for your readers.

There's a longer Pebbls vs Polarsteps comparison if that's the choice you're making, and a round-up of six travel journal apps.

The best test is a short ride or walk from your front door before the trip. Pebbls is free on iPhone and Android. Get the app.