TripIt vs Wanderlog vs Google Trips: Compared (2026)

These three tools come up together constantly, but they do very different things. TripIt organizes bookings you've already made. Wanderlog helps you plan trips on a map. Google Trips is dead -- but Google Travel still pulls booking confirmations from your inbox.

If you're comparing TripIt vs Wanderlog vs Google Trips, you're probably trying to figure out which one replaces a travel planning workflow you've outgrown. Here's the honest comparison, including where each one falls short.

Quick Answer

Need	Best Tool	Price
Organize existing bookings and get flight alerts	TripIt	Free / $49/yr Pro
Plan a trip visually on a map before you go	Wanderlog	Free / $5.99/mo Pro
Auto-collect bookings from Gmail, zero effort	Google Travel	Free
Generate a full itinerary from scratch in 60 seconds	MonkeyEatingMango	Free

If you want to plan and organize, you'll probably need two tools. None of these three does both well.

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What Each Tool Actually Does

TripIt: Booking Organizer, Not a Planner

TripIt does one thing well: it turns forwarded confirmation emails into a clean, chronological itinerary. Forward your flight confirmation to plans@tripit.com, and it creates a timeline with confirmation numbers, addresses, and check-in times.

What TripIt does well:

• Auto-parses booking confirmations from email
• Real-time flight alerts (gate changes, delays, cancellations)
• Calendar sync (Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar)
• Seat tracker that alerts you when a better seat opens up
• International tools: embassy info, exchange rates, entry requirements
• Works with 25+ document uploads per trip (Pro)

What TripIt does not do:

• It doesn't plan your trip. You can't browse restaurants, add sightseeing spots, or build a day-by-day plan.
• No map-based planning. You see a list, not a map.
• No budget tracking. There's no way to input costs or track spending.
• No AI generation. You manually add every item.
• No collaborative editing. Sharing is view-only unless both users have Pro.

Pricing:

• TripIt Free: Auto-parse emails, basic itinerary, 3 documents per trip
• TripIt Pro ($49/year): Real-time alerts, seat tracker, fare tracker, 25 documents per trip, neighborhood safety scores

Best for: Business travelers and frequent flyers who need flight alerts and booking organization. If you book first and organize second, TripIt is the right tool. For a deeper comparison, see our TripIt vs AI planner breakdown.

Wanderlog: Visual Trip Planner With Manual Control

Wanderlog is a map-based trip planner. You search for places, pin them to a map, drag them into a day-by-day order, and see driving times between stops. It's the most popular manual trip planning tool on the internet.

What Wanderlog does well:

• Map-based planning with pins, routes, and drive time estimates
• Drag-and-drop day-by-day itinerary builder
• Built-in expense tracker for budget management
• Collaborative editing (multiple people can edit the same trip)
• "Explore" recommendations for restaurants and activities
• Route optimization to reorder stops efficiently

What Wanderlog does not do:

• No AI generation. You build everything one pin at a time. A 10-day trip can take 2-5 hours to plan.
• PDF export locked behind Pro ($5.99/month or $29.99-39.99/year)
• Dark mode and offline access also paywalled
• Mobile app gets slow as trips grow -- the most-upvoted complaint on r/travel calls the interface "chaotic and clunky"
• Lodging pins to the top of each day (not customizable)
• No email parsing. You manually add every booking.

Pricing:

• Wanderlog Free: Map planning, budget tracker, collaboration, explore suggestions
• Wanderlog Pro ($5.99/month or ~$30-40/year): PDF export, offline access, dark mode, extra export formats

Best for: Travelers who want full control over every detail and enjoy the planning process itself. For a full list of alternatives, see our 11 best Wanderlog alternatives.

Google Trips (Now Google Travel): Passive Inbox Scanner

Google Trips was a standalone app that Google shut down in August 2019. Some of its features live on as Google Travel (google.com/travel), which automatically organizes booking confirmations from your Gmail inbox.

What Google Travel does:

• Auto-detects booking confirmations in Gmail (flights, hotels, car rentals)
• Creates trip pages with confirmation details, dates, and locations
• Hotel and flight search integration
• Explore destinations with things to do
• New in 2026: AI-generated itinerary suggestions via AI Overviews, exportable to Google Docs and Google Maps

What Google Travel does not do:

• No manual trip building. You can't add a restaurant or sightseeing spot.
• No day-by-day itinerary. It groups bookings by trip, not by day.
• No budget tracking
• No collaborative editing or sharing
• No offline access
• No PDF export
• Only works with Gmail -- if your confirmations go to Outlook or Yahoo, nothing happens

Pricing: Free (and always will be -- it's Google)

Best for: People who want zero-effort booking organization. If your confirmations go to Gmail and you just want them grouped by trip without installing an app, Google Travel works.

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Feature Comparison Table

Feature	TripIt Free	TripIt Pro ($49/yr)	Wanderlog Free	Wanderlog Pro (~$30-40/yr)	Google Travel
Auto-parse email bookings	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes (Gmail only)
Map-based planning	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Day-by-day itinerary builder	List only	List only	Yes	Yes	No
Budget / expense tracking	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Real-time flight alerts	No	Yes	No	No	No
Seat tracker	No	Yes	No	No	No
Collaborative editing	View-only	View-only	Yes	Yes	No
PDF export	No	No	No	Yes	No
Offline access	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
AI itinerary generation	No	No	No	No	Limited (AI Overviews)
Calendar sync	Yes	Yes	No	No	Partial (via Gmail)
Route optimization	No	No	Yes	Yes	No

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The Gap None of Them Fill

Here's what the table makes clear: none of these three tools generates a complete itinerary from scratch.

• TripIt organizes what you've already booked
• Wanderlog helps you plan manually, one pin at a time
• Google Travel passively collects bookings from your inbox

If you want a tool that asks your travel dates, budget, and interests, then generates a full day-by-day itinerary with restaurants, costs, and maps -- that's a different category entirely. That's what AI travel planners do.

MonkeyEatingMango generates a complete itinerary in 60 seconds from 8 questions. Free PDF, Excel, and Google Sheets export. No account required. Full disclosure: we built it, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt. For a fair comparison of AI planners, see our best free AI travel planners roundup where we tested 7 tools side by side.

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Can You Use Them Together?

Yes, and many travelers do. The most common combinations:

AI planner + Wanderlog: Generate an itinerary with an AI tool, then import the stops into Wanderlog to customize the order, adjust driving routes, and add your own finds. Best of both worlds.

AI planner + TripIt: Generate your itinerary with an AI tool, book your flights and hotels based on the plan, then forward confirmations to TripIt for organized travel documents and real-time alerts.

Wanderlog + TripIt: Plan your trip in Wanderlog, book everything, then forward confirmations to TripIt. Wanderlog for the planning phase, TripIt for the travel phase.

Google Travel + anything: Google Travel runs in the background anyway. Use it as a passive backup that auto-collects Gmail bookings regardless of what other tool you use.

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TripIt vs Wanderlog: Direct Comparison

If you're choosing between just these two:

Factor	TripIt	Wanderlog
Best at	Organizing booked trips	Planning future trips
Planning approach	Paste confirmations	Build on a map
When you use it	After booking	Before booking
Budget tools	None	Built-in expense tracker
Collaboration	View-only sharing	Real-time collaborative editing
Price for Pro	$49/year	$5.99/month (~$30-40/year)
Mobile app quality	Stable, lightweight	Can slow down on complex trips
Offline	Yes (free)	Pro only

Bottom line: They're complementary, not competitive. TripIt is for the travel phase (managing booked logistics). Wanderlog is for the planning phase (deciding where to go and what to do). If you can only pick one, ask yourself: "Do I need help planning or organizing?" For a deeper dive, see our TripIt comparison and Wanderlog comparison.

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Full disclosure: MonkeyEatingMango is our product. We've tried to give a fair assessment of all tools in this comparison. For context on our product's strengths and limitations, see our Wanderlog alternatives article where we disclose our biases upfront.

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