Free to start. $19.99 a year for every trip.
Every feature is in the free version. Membership opens the rest of your archive and lets you plan as many trips as you like.
Last updated
Free
$0
Everything the app does, for your recent travel.
- Your trips abroad from the last five years, written up day by day
- One trip in planning at a time
- Itineraries imported from any AI, or built from your booking emails
- Suggestions with why to go and how long to stay
- A print-ready PDF journal and a short video of each trip
- Your globe, with every country you have been to
Member
$19.99 a year
Your whole archive, and every trip ahead.
- Every trip abroad in your camera roll, from any year
- As many trips in planning as you like
- Everything in the free version
- Cancel anytime from your App Store settings
Free and Member, side by side
| Feature | Free | Member |
|---|---|---|
| Trips abroad written up | The last five years | Every year |
| Trips in planning | One at a time | As many as you like |
| AI itinerary import and forwarded bookings | Included | Included |
| Each day written up while you travel | Included | Included |
| Suggestions with a verdict | Included | Included |
| PDF journal and short video | Included | Included |
| Globe of every country you have visited | Included | Included |
| Edit or rewrite any line | Included | Included |
| Location access | Never requested | Never requested |
| Your photos | Stay on your iPhone | Stay on your iPhone |
| Price | Free | $19.99 a year |
How Meridian Dispatch compares
Price and features next to fourteen other travel apps, from journals and travel maps to AI planners. Swipe the table sideways to see them all.
| Feature | Meridian Dispatch | Apple Journal | Day One | FindPenguins | Journi | Lambus | Layla | Mindtrip | Polarsteps | Roadtrippers | Stippl | TripIt | TripMemo | Visited | Wanderlog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (US App Store) | Free. Membership is $19.99 a year | Free, with no in-app purchases | Free. Silver is $49.99 a year and Gold is $74.99 a year | Free, with no subscription | Free. Premium is $53.99 a year, $43.99 for six months or $9.99 a month | Free. PRO is $24.49 a year, $3.99 a month, $8.99 a trip or $89.99 for life | Free. Premium is $49.99 a year or $9.99 a month | Free, with no in-app purchases listed | Free. Plus is $34.99 a year or $9.99 a month | Free. Basic $35.99, Pro $49.99 or Premium $59.99 a year; monthly from $11.99 | Free. Pro is about $24.99 a year or $3.99 a month | Free. Pro is $48.99 a year | Weekly, monthly or yearly subscription. Yearly is listed at $19.99 or $34.99 | Free with ads. Pro is $59.99 one-time, $34.99 a year or $9.99 a month | Free. Pro annual plans are listed at $31.99 to $59.99 |
| Free version | Every feature, for your trips from the last five years and one trip in planning | The whole app: suggestions, multiple journals, streaks, reminders and Places view | Unlimited entries and journals, one photo per entry, on a single device | Every feature: tracker, footprints, planning, sharing and flyover videos | Photo timelines with notes and maps, sharing and full-size photo saving | Plan stops on a shared map, store bookings and documents, and split expenses | Chat planning with full itineraries, and human advisors who book for you | Everything: AI planning, maps, group chats and booking | Track, share and relive trips | One saved trip with up to three stops | Planning, budgets, packing lists, a journal and a travel reel | An itinerary from forwarded bookings, and travel stats | Sold by subscription | Country map, US, Canada, Australia and UK regions, and travel stats | Plan, collaborate, budget and forward bookings |
| What paying unlocks | Every trip, from any year, and unlimited plans | Nothing to buy. Every feature is free | Sync across devices, 30 photos per entry, audio, and AI features on Gold | Nothing to unlock. Only the printed travel book costs extra | Cloud saving, weather and flight details, 600 stickers, 10% off books yearly | Offline access, PDF export, flight and weather updates, route times, currency conversion and packing lists | Live pricing and PriceLock fare alerts. The App Store says unlimited access | Nothing. There is no paid tier; it earns when you book | 3D maps, step stats, map styles, more travel buddies and a Travel Book discount | More trips and stops (150 on Premium), exports, navigation, offline maps, RV routing | Unlimited AI trips, forwarded bookings, calendar sync, PDF export and a photobook discount | Flight alerts, seat tracking, check-in reminders and loyalty points | Unlimited TripBooks and collaborators, full stats and priority cloud backup | City maps, travel lists, itineraries, more regional maps and no ads | Gmail connection, route optimisation and export to Google Maps |
| How a trip gets recorded | From the geotags on your photos, day by day | Entries you write, often started from on-device journaling suggestions | Entries you write, with date, weather and location added automatically | Live route tracking, plus footprints you post | Photos you upload, grouped by time and location into a timeline | Stops, bookings, notes and photos you add | No trip record. Bookings made through Layla are listed in the app | Bookings, ideas and media you save to a trip | Live route tracking, plus steps you add | Stops you add to a planned route | Journal entries with photos you post at each stop | The bookings you forward or sync from your inbox | TripBooks you make from photos you pick | Places ticked off by hand on maps and lists | The itinerary you build |
| Who writes the journal | The app does, in prose, and you can edit it | You do. Suggestions are prompts to help you start | You do. On Gold, Daily Chat drafts an entry for you to edit | You do, in the footprints you post | You do, in notes and captions | No journal | No journal | No journal | You do | No journal | You do | No journal | You do | No journal, only travel notes you add by country | You do, in its Trip Journal |
| Trip planning | AI itinerary import, a connector for Claude, ChatGPT and Grok that edits your plans (from 15 November), forwarded bookings, and suggestions that give a verdict | None | None. It suggests a shared journal for itineraries and reservations | Itineraries and travel documents, plus other travellers' itineraries to browse | None | Shared map itinerary, route planning, forwarded bookings and an AI connector | AI chat itineraries with flights, hotels and activities, bookable by its team | AI travel assistant, itineraries, maps, flight alerts and booking in the app | AI itinerary planner and transport planner | Route planner, Autopilot AI trip builder, trip guides and campground reviews | AI trip planner, route map, day planner, bookings and group planning | An itinerary from your bookings, and nearby places | An AI itinerary planner | Bucket list by country, plus itineraries with dates, hotels and notes in Pro | A map-based itinerary, guides and an AI assistant |
| Past trips | Trips abroad found in your camera roll | Added by hand, one entry at a time | Added by hand, or imported from Apple Journal and other apps | Added by hand, with GPX track uploads | Uploaded by hand, in bulk | Added by hand | Places you have visited can be noted in your travel profile | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Added by hand | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Built by hand, plus a scratch map you pin countries on | Only trips whose bookings reached TripIt | Photos you pick are sorted into days | Ticked off by hand | Only trips you planned in Wanderlog |
| Location access | Never requested | No location data collected, according to its privacy label | May be used when the app is not open, for Location History | Tracked, including when the app is closed | Optional. Its App Store privacy label lists no location data | Optional, used for features like currency detection. None listed on its privacy label | Approximate location, linked to your account | Precise location, linked to you | Tracked in the background | Precise location, not linked to you, and may be used in the background | Used with permission while the app is open | Set to Always for some Pro features | Used when you tag a memory or use the map | Not collected, per its privacy label | Requested, and may be used in the background |
| Your photos | Stay on your iPhone | On your devices and in iCloud, end-to-end encrypted | Synced to its servers, end-to-end encrypted | Stored on its servers | Uploaded to its servers, with Dropbox and Google Drive backup | Uploaded to the shared trip | Only images you send to the chat | Media you add to a trip is stored with your account | Stored on its servers | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Uploaded to its servers with each journal post | Uploaded only as attachments | With its cloud providers, by default | Does not read your photos | Uploaded when you add them |
| Sharing | None built in. Export a trip and send it yourself | None built in. Entries can be exported or printed | Shared journals for up to 30 people | Followers and close friends, with public, private or delayed trips | Followers and invited friends, with private, secret, on request or public stories | Invite travel buddies to plan together and split costs | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Group chats, shared collections and itineraries you edit together | Followers, with public or private trips | Trip collaboration with friends and family on Pro and Premium | Co-planners edit together, and followers can see a trip by link | Plans shared by invite or link | Shared TripBooks, links anyone can open, and a leaderboard | Share maps, lists and itineraries, and compare travels with a friend | Real-time group editing and public guides |
| Print and export | A print-ready PDF journal and a short video, free | PDF or print (iOS 18 or later), and a ZIP of every entry | PDF, CSV and JSON export, and printed books sold separately | Free 3D flyover videos and a hardcover travel book sold separately | Printed photo books from $19.99 and photo calendars, ordered in the app | PDF trip export, GPX routes and expenses to Excel, with PRO | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Not stated on its site or App Store listing | Printed Travel Books (sold separately) and Trip Reels videos | Trip export on paid plans | Travel reels free, printed photobooks sold separately, PDF itinerary with Pro | Calendar sync | Stat images and a data export | A printed scratch-map poster, ordered from the app | A journal link, and Google Maps export with Pro |
| Platforms | iPhone | iPhone and iPad (17.2 or later) and Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, Android, Windows and the web | iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs and Android | iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs, Apple Vision and Android | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android and the web | iPhone, iPad, Android and the web | iPhone (iOS 26 or later) and the web | iPhone, Android and the web | iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision, Android and the web | iPhone, Mac, Apple Vision, Android and the web | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Watch, Mac and the web | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision and Android | iPhone, iPad, Android and the web |
| Full comparison | Meridian Dispatch vs Apple Journal | Meridian Dispatch vs Day One | Meridian Dispatch vs FindPenguins | Meridian Dispatch vs Journi | Meridian Dispatch vs Lambus | Meridian Dispatch vs Layla | Meridian Dispatch vs Mindtrip | Meridian Dispatch vs Polarsteps | Meridian Dispatch vs Roadtrippers | Meridian Dispatch vs Stippl | Meridian Dispatch vs TripIt | Meridian Dispatch vs TripMemo | Meridian Dispatch vs Visited | Meridian Dispatch vs Wanderlog |
Questions
How much does Meridian Dispatch cost?
It is free to download and free for your trips abroad from the last five years, with one trip in planning at a time. Membership is $19.99 a year and opens every trip from any year, with as many plans as you like.
Is there a free trial?
The free version is the trial, and it does not run out. It covers every feature for your last five years of travel, so you can see your own trips written up before you decide to pay.
What happens to my older trips if I cancel?
Trips from the last five years stay open, and so do their journals. Trips older than that lock again, though they still show on your globe, and they open as soon as you rejoin.
How do I cancel?
Membership is an App Store subscription, so you cancel it in your iPhone's Settings under your Apple Account and Subscriptions, whenever you like.
Is the price the same in every country?
$19.99 a year is the US App Store price. The App Store shows the equivalent price in your own currency before you pay.
How does the price compare with other travel apps?
Polarsteps Plus is $34.99 a year, TripIt Pro $48.99, and Wanderlog Pro annual plans are listed between $31.99 and $59.99 on the US App Store. TripMemo's yearly plan is listed at $19.99 or $34.99. Meridian Dispatch membership is $19.99 a year.