vifo

These two answer different questions. Polarsteps answers where did I go: it runs in the background, tracks your route on a map, and turns GPS history into steps, stats and a printable book. Vifo answers what was it like: your AI agent writes a day-by-day notebook from your photos and the things you said along the way. Plenty of travelers would be happy with either; here is where they genuinely differ.

The honest comparison

	Polarsteps	Vifo
Core output	Route on a map, travel stats, printable photo book	Written notebook: timeline, photo descriptions, your words verbatim
How it captures	Background GPS tracking in its own app	You hand photos and remarks to Claude / ChatGPT / any MCP agent in chat
Writing	You write step notes yourself (optional)	The agent writes descriptions; your own remarks are kept word-for-word
Location handling	Continuous route recording is the product	No tracking; place data comes from photo metadata, and shared pages strip GPS coordinates
Sharing	Followers inside the app, public or private profiles	One private link per trip, viewers need no account; link can be closed or rotated
Battery / presence	An app running on your phone all trip	Nothing installed; it is a connector inside your assistant
Price	Free app; printed books and premium extras paid	Free for 10 recent trips, 50 photos each; Plus $6.9/mo or $39.9/yr

Pick Polarsteps if…

• The map itself is the memory you want — the line across a continent, countries counted, kilometers summed.
• You want a printed book with minimal effort.
• You are comfortable with an app recording your position throughout the trip.

Pick Vifo if…

• You want the journal written — descriptions, days, and the sentence you said at the soba place, quoted exactly.
• You already talk to Claude or ChatGPT anyway and would rather add a capability than an app.
• Privacy is a hard requirement: no background tracking, private by default, and shared pages never expose coordinates.

Some people run both: Polarsteps for the route line, Vifo for the words. They do not conflict — one records movement, the other keeps the story.