Comparison
Plot a Trip vs TripIt
These are fundamentally different tools. Plot a Trip is a trip planner — build itineraries visually on a map. TripIt is a trip organizer — consolidate booking confirmations into a timeline. Here's how they compare.
TL;DR
Choose Plot a Trip if you want to plan trips on a map, track budgets with multi-currency support, collaborate with your travel group in real-time, or split costs. Choose TripIt if you primarily need to organize booking confirmations from email, get real-time flight alerts, or track loyalty points across airlines. They're complementary tools — many travelers use both.
See the Difference
Plot a Trip is a visual trip planner. TripIt is a booking organizer. The interfaces reflect that.
Plot a Trip: Full-screen interactive map
Color-coded routes, transport icons, snap-to-road routing — your whole trip at a glance
Plot a Trip: Built-in budget tracking
Multi-currency support, cost splitting, daily burn rate — features TripIt doesn't have
Fundamentally Different Tools
The most important thing to understand is that Plot a Trip and TripIt serve different phases of travel. TripIt is a post-booking organizer — forward your confirmation emails and it builds a chronological itinerary. It's excellent at this. Plot a Trip is a pre-booking (and during-booking) planner — drop pins on a map, draw routes, research activities, track budgets, and collaborate with your group. If you need to plan a trip from scratch, Plot a Trip is the tool. If you've already booked everything and want it organized in one place with flight alerts, TripIt is the tool.
Visual Planning vs Text Lists
Plot a Trip's defining feature is its map-first interface. Your trip lives on an interactive world map with pins for every destination, color-coded routes between them, transport icons, and snap-to-road routing along actual roads. TripIt has no map interface at all — it's a chronological text list of your bookings. If you're a visual thinker who wants to see the spatial relationship between destinations, Plot a Trip's approach is fundamentally different. If you just need a clean list of your hotel check-ins and flight times, TripIt's simplicity is an advantage.
Budget Tracking
TripIt has zero budget tracking features. Period. It integrates with SAP Concur for corporate expense reporting, but individual travelers get nothing. Plot a Trip includes comprehensive budget tracking: per-stop breakdowns, daily burn rate charts, spending by category, multi-currency auto-conversion with live exchange rates, cost splitting among group members, and settlement summaries. If managing trip finances matters to you, this isn't even a contest.
Collaboration
TripIt's sharing is one-directional — you share your itinerary with others, but there's no collaborative planning. No co-editing, no voting on activities, no comments, no real-time presence. Plot a Trip is built for group trip planning with real-time co-editing, live presence indicators, activity voting, threaded comments on stops, and notifications when plans change. Only the trip owner needs a Pro plan; everyone else joins free.
Where TripIt Wins
Let's be honest about TripIt's strengths. Its email-to-itinerary parsing is best-in-class — forward a confirmation email and it extracts all the details automatically. TripIt Pro's flight disruption tools (real-time alerts, alternative flight suggestions, seat tracking, gate change notifications) are genuinely valuable for frequent flyers. And its loyalty points tracker consolidates miles across airlines and hotels. These are travel-day features that Plot a Trip doesn't offer — they're different categories of tool.
Pricing
Plot a Trip Pro is $29.99/year. TripIt Pro is $49/year — that's 63% more expensive. Plot a Trip also offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. TripIt doesn't offer a Pro free trial. Both have functional free tiers, though they cover very different feature sets. Many users have noted that some TripIt Pro features (flight alerts, boarding passes) now duplicate functionality available for free in airline apps, reducing the perceived value of the $49 price tag.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Plot a Trip | TripIt |
|---|---|---|
| Core Approach | ||
| Primary purpose | Trip planning (before you book) | Trip organizing (after you book) |
| Primary interface | Interactive world map | Chronological list |
| Map visualization | Full-screen, color-coded routes | No interactive map |
| Email auto-import | — | |
| Destination discovery | Community templates | — |
| Trip Planning Features | ||
| Drop pins on map | — | |
| Route visualization | Color-coded, snap-to-road | — |
| Accommodation tracking | Auto-parsed from email | |
| Activity scheduling | Manual entry only | |
| Drag-and-drop reorder | — | |
| Timeline view | ||
| Map + Timeline split view | — | |
| Budget & Expenses | ||
| Budget tracking | — | |
| Multi-currency support | — | |
| Cost splitting | Pro | — |
| Settlement summary | Pro | — |
| Spending by category | — | |
| Daily burn rate | — | |
| Collaboration | ||
| Real-time co-editing | Pro | — |
| Live presence indicators | Pro | — |
| Activity voting | Pro | — |
| Comments on stops | Pro | — |
| Trip sharing | ||
| Travel Day Features | ||
| Flight status alerts | — | Pro |
| Seat tracker | — | Pro |
| Gate change notifications | — | Pro |
| Alternative flight suggestions | — | Pro |
| Points/miles tracking | — | Pro |
| Airport security wait times | — | Pro |
| Platform & Pricing | ||
| Web app | ||
| Mobile app | Coming soon | iOS + Android |
| Pro price (annual) | $29.99/yr | $49/yr |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | None |
| Document storage (free) | — | 3 per trip |
| Document storage (Pro) | Unlimited | 25 per trip |
Choose Plot a Trip if you...
- Want to plan trips visually on an interactive map
- Need budget tracking with multi-currency support
- Plan group trips and need cost splitting
- Want real-time collaborative planning with voting and comments
- Are in the planning phase — before or during booking
- Want a more affordable Pro plan ($29.99 vs $49/yr)
Choose TripIt if you...
- Want automatic itinerary building from confirmation emails
- Need real-time flight alerts and gate change notifications
- Track loyalty points across airlines and hotels
- Travel frequently for business and use SAP Concur
- Need a native mobile app with offline access
- Prefer a post-booking organizer over a planning tool
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Plot a Trip a good alternative to TripIt?
Does Plot a Trip have email auto-import like TripIt?
Is Plot a Trip cheaper than TripIt Pro?
Can I use both Plot a Trip and TripIt together?
Does TripIt have budget tracking?
Plan Your Trip Visually
Try the map-first approach to trip planning — free, no credit card required.