If you're a Lyft or Uber driver, you already know how important it is to track your mileage and expenses.
You'll need that information come tax time to make sure you're squeezing out every last penny in deductions.
But rideshare drivers aren't the only people eligible for mileage tax deductions. If you drive your personal vehicle for other kinds of paid work or use it for charitable, moving or medical purposes, you may also qualify for a standard mileage rate deduction.
Back in the old days, tracking mileage meant pulling a crumpled notebook out of the glove box and hoping your pen wasn't out of ink.
But now there's an app for everything â€" including mileage tracking.
Here are our favorites.
7 Mileage Tracker Apps We Love
These apps will help you stay on top of all the business miles you travel, so you can reduce your tax liability when it's time to pay Uncle Sam. And you can try out most of them for free!
1. Everlance
Everlance is a versatile app that not only tracks your mileage but also helps you keep track of all your other business expenses.
Features include:
- Automatic Tracking: Everlance detects when your car starts moving and records the miles you drive with background tracking.
- Mileage Classification: With a quick swipe of your finger, you can categorize each trip as work-related or personal. You can also set your work hours, automatically classifying drives during those hours as business trips.
- Expense Tracking: Sync your bank account or credit card to the app to keep track of other business expenses. Everlance will scan your expenses and note which ones might qualify as tax write-offs.
- Data Reports: Get Excel or PDF reports of your mileage and business spending to make everything easy when it's time to file your taxes.
- Save for Taxes: Connect Everlance to your bank and set up automatic saving withdrawals so a percentage of your income gets put aside for taxes.
Everlance has three pricing tiers for self-employed users:
- Free Plan: Pay nothing to track 30 automatic trips a month. You'll also get unlimited manual tracking for trips, receipt uploads and IRS-compliant reports.
- Premium Plan: For $60 a year or $8 a month, you'll get unlimited automatic trips a month. Premium features include the ability to sync your credit and debit cards, receive PDF and Excel reports and get a deduction finder.
- Premium Plus: For $120 a year or $12 a month, you'll get all the features of the Premium level, plus individual training with an account manager and VIP customer support.
Everlance also has three pricing tiers for business owners:
- Free Plan: You'll get 30 automatic trips a month per user, for an unlimited number of users. You'll also get unlimited receipt uploads, reimbursement and expense reports, team analytics and a central administrator dashboard.
- Business Plan: For $120 a year or $12 a month, you'll get credit card or bank account syncing, insurance verification add-ons, VIP customer service and user trainings.
- Enterprise Plan: You'll need to schedule a meeting to discuss costs for the Enterprise Plan. This service tier includes bulk management of named locations and expense categories along with a dedicated onboarding and customer success manager.
Everlance is a nice mileage tracker option for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small business owners who could benefit from extra features to help cut down their tax bill.
Download Everlance from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Stride
Stride is a free app that runs in the background, quietly logging every mile you drive, and then generates an IRS-ready report that you can use to do your taxes.
Features include:
- Automatic Tracking: Stride will automatically track your mileage without you having to manually indicate the start or stop of a trip.
- Expense Tracking: Keep tabs on other business spending by taking photos of receipts. Stride's tax experts will help identify potential tax-deductible expenses.
- Data Reports: Be ready for tax time with IRS-compliant summaries of your mileage and other deductible expenses.
Stride is a great choice for independent contractors and self employed individuals looking for a simple app to track mileage and business expenses with ease.
Download Stride from App Store or Google Play.
3. TripLog
TripLog helps individual workers and companies alike cut down on administrative work by automatically tracking miles, recording incurred business expenses, streamlining timesheets and more.
Some of its features include:
- Automatic Tracking: Record mileage multiple ways. You can track trips automatically as the app runs in the background on your phone, or you can use car bluetooth technology or a car USB device. There's also the option of tracking trips manually.
- Mileage Classification: Easily distinguish between business or personal trips. You can even set your work hours to automatically classify trips during certain hours as business trips.
- Route Planning: Prepare for the day's routes ahead of time.
- Frequent Trip Rules: Automatically categorize trips you drive frequently.
- Expense Tracking: Track expenses like gas, tolls and business dinners using this app.
- TripLog Timesheets: Your employees can use this feature to clock in and out and submit timesheets.
- Data Reports: Get tax-compliant reports to deduct mileage and other expenses when filing your tax return.
TripLog has four price tiers:
- Lite: This is TripLog's free version. It allows a single user to track up to 40 trips or expenses a month manually.
- Premium: This option is for up to 10 users and costs $4.99 per user per month, or $59.99 if billed annually. It automatically tracks mileage. You can also record expenses like fuel and meals.
- Premium + Time: This option is for up to 10 users and costs $8.33 per user each month, or $99.99 billed annually. In addition to the features of the Premium plan, it includes time tracking, a clock-in/clock-out timesheet and more.
- Enterprise: This option is available for 11 or more users. You'll need to contact TripLog to discuss pricing. With this version, you'll get extras like an administrator console and integration with popular tax and accounting software like QuickBooks and ADP.
TripLog is a good app for owners of small businesses who have mobile employees, in addition to self-employed individuals looking to keep tabs on mileage and other expenses. Its many features that help business owners cut down on administrative work makes TripLog stand out from other apps.
Download TripLog from the App Store or Google Play.
4. Hurdlr
Hurdlr automatically tracks mileage and identifies tax deductions. You can connect this app to your financial institution to keep up with your income and expenses.
Features include:
- Automatic Tracking: Hurdlr detects when your vehicle starts and stops automatically.
- Mileage Classification: Designate which trips are business and which are personal.
- Expense Tracking: Keep tabs on business spending by syncing to your bank and having the app automatically categorize certain recurring expenses (like tolls and car washes if you're a rideshare driver) as business expenses and tag them as potential deductions.
- Tax Estimator: This feature helps you estimate what your tax obligation will be ahead of filing your quarterly taxes. It'll also send you reminders about upcoming tax deadlines.
- Data Reports: Get your mileage and expense data compiled into tax-compliant reports.
Hurdlr has three pricing options:
- Free: This version includes unlimited mileage tracking, as well as the ability to add income and expenses. It also provides a tax calculations summary and a feature to export or email reports.
- Premium: For $9.99 a month or $100 a year, you'll get unlimited mileage tracking, as well as expense tracking and income tracking. You can set specific business hours and set up automatic tags for certain expenses. You'll also get calculations for state and self-employment taxes.
- Enterprise: This option is geared toward business owners, and you need to contact Hurdlr for pricing information. This version provides personal training and premium integrations.
If you're a rideshare driver, independent contractor or entrepreneur, Hurdlr is a great option not just for tracking mileage, but to stay on top of your profit and tax obligations.
Download Hurdlr from the App Store or Google Play.
5. MileIQ
MileIQ automatically captures your drives and delivers a comprehensive mileage log whenever you need it.
Features include:
- Automatic Tracking: MileIQ runs in the background, automatically keeping tabs on all the miles you drive.
- Mileage Classification: You can classify your drives into categories like business or personal by simply swiping with your thumb to assign them to the correct list â€" or you can set your work hours and let MileIQ classify your trips automatically.
- Frequent Trip Recognition: You can save recurring routes in the app so they're automatically categorized.
- Data Reports: MileIQ compiles weekly and monthly reports of your mileage. You can also create customized reports.
MileIQ has three price options:
- Free: Track 40 trips per month with this free version.
- Unlimited: Get mileage tracking on unlimited trips for $59.99 a year or $5.99 billed monthly.
- MileIQ for Teams: This option allows tracking for multiple users with single billing. It includes volume discounts and expert customer support. Contact MileIQ for cost information.
MileIQ is ideal for individuals looking to ditch paper logs and go digital with automatic mileage tracking.
Download MileIQ from the App Store or Google Play.
6. SherpaShare
SherpaShare advertises itself as the 'ultimate rideshare driver assistant.' It helps you record how many miles you drive and other related expenses with little effort â€" and offers ways to increase your income and lower your expenses.
Features include:
- Automatic Tracking: Stay on top of the amount of miles you drive without having to manually indicate when you start and stop trips.
- Smart Driver Tools: SherpaShare helps you identify profitable routes and keep tabs on your hourly revenue and profit.
- Expense Tracking: Record all the business spending you encounter throughout the workday.
- Driver Savings: Get discounts on related products and services, such as insurance, in-car accessories and tax preparation.
SherpaShare has two versions:
- Basic: Pay $5.99 monthly or get billed annually at $59.99 a year. This plan includes unlimited mileage tracking, profit charting and member savings.
- Super Premium: This premium package costs $10 per month or $120 per year. You get all the features of the basic plan, plus priority support and exclusive discounts.
Consider this app if you drive for Uber, Lyft or another similar company. This app can also be useful for delivery drivers.
Download SherpaShare from the App Store or Google Play.
7. QuickBooks Self Employed
From Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, you can download QuickBooks Self Employed to track miles, organize expenses and estimate taxes.
Features include:
- Automatic tracking: Log your miles automatically via GPS tracking. There's also the option to add your trip manually.
- Mileage Classification: Categorize business and personal miles with a swipe of your thumb.
- Data Reports: Get detailed reports outlining your miles driven and potential deductions
- Tax Estimator: This app will estimate your quarterly taxes for you.
QuickBooks Self Employed has three price tiers:
- Self Employed: For $7.50 a month, you get automatic mileage tracking with categorization, tips to increase your tax deductions and calculations of your estimated quarterly taxes.
- Self Employed Tax Bundle: For $12 a month, you get all the perks of the previous package plus the ability to pay your quarterly taxes online and file your state and federal tax returns.
- Self Employed Live Tax Bundle: For $17 a month, you'll enjoy all the benefits of the lower-tiered plans, plus access to real certified public accountants (CPAs) for year-round advice and a final review of your tax return.
QuickBooks Self Employed is perfect for solo workers looking to accurately record their miles driven and make it easy to file taxes.
Download QuickBooks Self Employed from the App Store or Google Play.
Top Features of Mileage Tracking Apps
When trying to decide which mileage tracker app would be the best for you, consider one with these top features.
Automatic Mileage Tracking
With automatic mileage tracking, you can just get in your vehicle and drive â€" no need to do anything to signal the start of the trip or make note of your odometer reading. Having automatic tracking saves you from having to track miles by hand, which is always a win in our book.
Mileage Classification
Mileage classification allows you to distinguish between personal and business trips. If you use your vehicle for work and personal purposes, it's helpful to be able to easily categorize trips.
Be aware, only business mileage is tax deductible. If you're dropping off a rideshare customer and then decide to visit a friend's house for a break before picking up more passengers, you can't deduct the miles driven to your friend's place.
Tax-Compliant Data Reports
Mileage tracking apps that turn your miles driven into IRS-compliant mileage reports will make it easier to deduct your business travel expenses when it's time to file taxes. Also if the IRS audits your tax return, these reports will be an accurate record of your mileage log.
Why Should You Use a Mileage Tracker App?
If you're going to deduct mileage from work trips on your taxes or you need to track mileage to get reimbursed for gas at work, mileage trackers can be very useful. You don't have to worry about wasting time tracking your miles and writing down the details of trips with pen and paper.
Mileage trackers make it easy to stay organized and have all the information you need come tax time.
Independent contractors, entrepreneurs and small business owners can either keep record of all their actual expenses (like gas station receipts and parking stubs) or use the IRS standard mileage rate to determine the deduction amount for business travel. The rate for 2021 is 56 cents per mile.
If you drove 10,000 miles for business, for instance, you would be able to deduct $5,600 from your tax liability.
The 2021 standard mileage rate for charitable purposes is 14 cents per mile. The rate for moving (for active duty military personnel) or medical purposes is 16 cents per mile.
People in the following lines of work should consider downloading a mileage tracking app:
- Rideshare drivers
- Delivery drivers
- Truck drivers
- Real estate agents
- Airbnb hosts
- Freelance photographers
- Home health aides
Frequently Asked Questions
Use this Q&A to help you determine which mileage tracker to download.
What Is the Best App for Tracking Mileage?
All of the mileage tracker apps listed above come highly recommended. However, the best mileage tracking app for you will be one that fits your needs.
If you're just looking for a simple app to track your mileage without added features like bank integration or money-saving tools for drivers, then Stride may be the one for you.
If you're an independent contractor and would like your app to make it easier for you to nail down mileage deductions for filing quarterly taxes, try Hurdlr or QuickBooks Self Employed.
If you run a small business with a fleet of multiple vehicles, you might consider Everlance or TripLog.
Reviewing the features of each app listed above will help you determine which will be the best mileage tracker for you.
Is There a Free Mileage Tracking App?
Stride is the only completely free app on this list. However, Everlance, TripLog, Hurdlr and MileIQ all have a free version. You can test out the free version to see if you like the app before committing to paying for the premium version with more features.
What Is the Best Free Mileage Tracker App?
You really can't go wrong with any of the mileage tracker apps we've discussed. Stride is completely free, but trying the free version or a free trial of the other apps are also a great way to go.
You're not making any financial commitment, so you can also switch to one of the other mileage tracking apps if you try one and find it doesn't serve you well.
The information on each mileage tracking app listed above will help you select the best mileage tracker for you.
How Do I Track my Mileage for Tax Deductions?
The brilliant thing about using one of these best mileage tracking apps is that they keep a record of your work travel so you can deduct business mileage with ease. You don't have to worry about how to track your mileage. The app records it for you!
When deducting mileage on your tax returns, the IRS is looking for an accurate account of business miles driven. In addition to your mileage numbers, you should keep track of the dates of your trips, the places you travelled and the reason for the trip. Mileage tracker apps, like the ones listed above, will help you keep the required records.
Lisa McGreevy is a former staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Nicole Dow is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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