Polarsteps and Globestamp do different jobs. Polarsteps is built for the trip you're on: it plans the route, tracks where you go as it happens, shares it with family and turns it into a book or video. Globestamp looks back: it reads where the photos you already have were taken, privately on the iPhone, and finds every country you've been to, including trips from years before you installed it. They overlap so little that you can use both.
Everything below about Polarsteps comes from its App Store listing, website and help center as they read on 13 November 2026.
Polarsteps and Globestamp side by side
| Polarsteps | Globestamp | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans trips | Yes, including an AI itinerary planner | No |
| Tracks your route as you travel | Yes, automatically | No |
| Friends and family follow a trip live | Yes | No |
| Finds past countries from your photo library | Not stated | Yes, privately on the iPhone |
| Countries visited count | Yes, in its travel stats | Yes, by 193, 250, the TCC's 330 (Pro) or your own list (Pro) |
| Trip video | Trip Reels | A short film of any trip, cut to music |
| Printed keepsake | Travel Books | A poster or book of your countries to print (Pro) |
| Account | Yes, you create one | No account |
| Who can see your trips | Everyone, followers only, or only you, per trip | You choose what to share: a share card, or comparing with a friend by a link |
| Ads | Its website says "Proudly ad-free" | No ads |
| Get your data out | "Download my data" (JSON), or a Travel Book | CSV, PDF, KML, GeoJSON |
| Android | Yes | No, iPhone only |
Polarsteps: the trip as it happens
Polarsteps' listing describes four stages: plan, track, share and relive. You build an itinerary, then let the tracker record your route on a world map while your phone is in your pocket. Its website says tracking keeps going offline. At each stop, a "step", you add photos, videos and a few lines. Followers see where you are, and afterwards the app makes a Trip Reel video or a printed Travel Book with your route, stories and photos.
That's something Globestamp doesn't try to do. If you're setting off for three months in South America and your parents want to see each day's stop, Polarsteps is built for exactly that.
Two limits worth knowing. Its help center says you can't import a GPX or other location file (the website lets you enter coordinates by hand). And you need an account: its help center starts with "Create a new account", with Google, Apple ID or email.
Globestamp: every trip you've already taken
Globestamp starts from the other end. Many people have years of photos with locations saved in them, from long before we'd heard of a travel app. Globestamp reads those locations on the iPhone, never uploads the photos, and works out the countries: Lived (a home was there), Stayed (photos on two days or more) or Visited (photos on one day). A photo from a plane never counts, and photos only at an airport make a lighter transit stamp, counted only if you count layovers.
It also has a few things for the trips ahead: a Live Activity when you land somewhere new, your days in every country, and how far you've flown. But it doesn't record a route between photos, and nobody follows you live.
If your camera wasn't saving locations, the photos can't help. How to make your iPhone save where each photo was taken fixes that for the future, and how to remember every place you've traveled, years later covers the trips before it.
Using both
They fit together like this:
- During a big trip, track it with Polarsteps if you want the route, the daily steps and the followers.
- For your lifetime count, let Globestamp read your whole library, including that trip's photos and every trip before it.
- Afterwards, make whichever keepsake you prefer. How to make a travel video from your photos on iPhone and how to make a poster of the countries you've visited compare the options.
Privacy and accounts
The two apps take different approaches. Polarsteps is a social app with an account: each trip can be public, for followers or private, and its help center explains how to hide your home as a trip's start. Its App Store privacy label, written by the developer, lists Data Linked to You: Purchases, Financial Info, Location, Contact Info, Contacts, User Content, Search History, Identifiers, Usage Data and Diagnostics.
Globestamp has no account and no server; it reads photos on the iPhone and never shows your home. Why a travel tracker without an account is worth looking for explains what that changes.
Polarsteps is a trademark of its owner; Globestamp is not affiliated with it.