Pebbls vs Polarsteps: an honest comparison and review for 2026

Simon · October 4, 2026

Polarsteps and Pebbls both turn your phone into a travel diary that fills itself in. Put the app in your pocket, travel, and your trip appears on a map. So which one should you use?

The honest answer is that they're made for different trips. Polarsteps is a popular all-rounder for holidays and city-hopping. Pebbls is made for slow travel: long journeys by bike, on foot, under sail, by paddle or in a van, where the route itself is the story.

Pebbls vs Polarsteps at a glance

Prices are the yearly plans on the US App Store. They vary by country and change, so check before you pay.

How each app draws your trip

Polarsteps is built around the places you stop. It adds a "step" when you arrive somewhere new, and the line on your map joins your steps and the points it tracked in between, with a "snap to roads" tool to tidy it. That gives a neat outline of a trip, which suits hopping between cities.

Pebbls records the whole route you actually travelled: every bend in the coast path, every switchback on the pass, every tack across a bay. Its GPS is tuned for long days outdoors, it keeps recording with no signal and it catches up when you're back in range. On a cycle tour, a long walk or a sailing passage, that line is the journey, and it's what friends and family want to follow.

Telling the story as you go

With Pebbls you drop pebbls along the way: a photo, a few words, a place. Each one sits on your route exactly where it happened, and together they become an adventure journal people can read chapter by chapter, like a book. See an example journal.

Polarsteps is known for its printed travel books, a lovely keepsake if you want a book on the shelf. Pebbls keeps the story online, where anyone you share it with can read it as you post and come back to it later.

Films of your trip

Every chapter you track with Pebbls that has a few pebbls and photos becomes a flyby film: a 3D flight along your route, with your photos appearing where you took them. They're made for you automatically and they're free. Watch some flyby films.

You don't even need to have tracked the trip with Pebbls. With Route to video you can turn any route into a 3D film: use a route file from Strava, Garmin, Komoot or another app, or draw the route on the map, add a few moments with photos, and Pebbls makes the film for you. It's free for routes up to 200 km, and you don't need an account. How to turn your route into a 3D video.

Family following along

Every Pebbls journey has its own map and journal on the web, so nobody needs to install anything to follow you. Send them your journey link and they can tap Follow along: they get a short message every time you post, with a link straight to the new pebbl. Other explorers can follow you, comment and react too.

If you have a blog or a website for your trip, you can put your map on it with an embed code or the free WordPress plugin. How to embed your map.

Privacy for life on the road

When you're travelling for months, where you sleep matters. Anyone on Pebbls can blur the exact spot of a pebbl. With Explorer you can also hide where you are until you've moved on, make a journey private so only people with the link can see it, and protect it with a password.

Made for long journeys

• Chapters for each stage of a long trip, from a weekend ride to a year at sea
• Import older trips from route files (GPX), so they join your map and your badges
• A track editor to tidy your route afterwards
• Communities for cycle touring, bikepacking, sailing, hiking, paddling and van life
• Badges for your distance by bike, on foot and under sail, and a map of every country and sea you've travelled through
• Pebbls in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, with journals translated for your readers

What does it cost?

Both apps are free to start. With Pebbls, tracking, photos and notes, your journal and map pages, Follow along, badges and flyby films are all free, with no adverts. Explorer ($20 a year) adds live tracking (people see where you are right now), private and password-protected journeys, tracking privacy, videos in your pebbls, route downloads (GPX), more offline maps and 6 Premium films a year in Route to video. See pricing.

Which should you choose?

Choose Polarsteps if you're city-hopping on holiday and you'd love a printed book of the trip at the end.

Choose Pebbls if you travel slowly and the route matters: a cycle tour, a long-distance walk, a sailing voyage, a paddling trip or life in a van. You get your real route, a journal people love to read, free flyby films of chapters with a few pebbls and photos, and family who hear from you every time you post.

Questions people ask

Is Pebbls free?

Yes. Tracking, photos and notes, sharing, Follow along and flyby films are free. Explorer, at $20 a year, adds live tracking, private and password-protected journeys, tracking privacy, videos, route downloads and Premium films.

Can I use Pebbls without signal?

Yes. It keeps recording your route with no signal and catches up when you're back in range, which is why sailors, hikers and cyclists in remote places use it.

Can my family follow my trip without the app?

Yes. Your journey has its own page on the web. Family open the link in any browser, and if they tap Follow along they get a message every time you post.

Can I bring my old trips over?

If you have route files (GPX) of older trips, from Strava, Garmin, Komoot or a GPS device, you can import them, and they join your map and your badges.

Is there an alternative to Polarsteps for cycling, hiking or sailing?

That's exactly what Pebbls is for. Read why slow travellers choose Pebbls, or see six travel journal apps compared.

The best way to decide is to try it on your next trip. Pebbls is free on iPhone and Android. Get the app and see your journey come to life.