Milometry vs Stride

What Stride does well

Stride is free. Not free for forty drives, not free for fifteen trips: free, with no paid tier and no in app purchases listed on the App Store. For a US gig worker that is a genuinely good offer and we are not going to talk anybody out of it.

Automatic mileage tracking at no cost. It detects driving, logs the miles, and produces an IRS ready mileage log. That is the core job, done, for nothing.

It sets reminders. If you are the kind of driver who forgets, Stride nags you, which is a small feature that solves a real habit problem.

It is well liked. More than forty thousand reviews from independent workers.

What it costs, and what it is for

Nothing. But an app with no price still has a business behind it, and it is worth knowing what that business is before you decide.

Stride Health is an insurance broker. The company sells health, dental, vision and life insurance to independent workers in the United States, and its own FAQ is direct about the arrangement: "Stride is free to use! When you use Stride to enroll in insurance, the only cost is the cost of the carrier's plan."

That is not a criticism. It is an honest and reasonable model, and Stride says so plainly on its own site rather than hiding it. But it does mean the mileage tracker is the front door to an insurance business, and the product roadmap will always answer to that. If you want a mileage app whose only job is mileage, this is a different kind of thing.

Why a UK driver is not who it is for

This is the more practical point. Stride's insurance products are US health, dental, vision and life cover, sold through the American marketplace system. Its tax tooling is built around IRS rules and 1099 filing. There is no UK product, no sterling, and no HMRC.

If you are driving in Britain and claiming against HMRC, most of what makes Stride worth having is not available to you, and what remains is a US mileage log.

Where we think the trade goes the other way

Milometry is £9.99 once, which is more than free, and we have to earn that difference.

We are built for the UK: HMRC bands, the taper at ten thousand miles, sterling, miles, and a tax year that starts in April. We also track fuel, so a journey is costed against your real economy rather than a brochure figure.

And nothing leaves the phone. Stride's model requires an account and a server, because the point is to know enough about you to sell you insurance. Ours has neither, because the point is only to know how far you drove.

Where Stride is genuinely better

It is free. If money is the constraint, that is the end of the argument.

Insurance and discounts. If you are a US independent worker who needs health cover, Stride does something for you that we never will.

Expense and income tracking. They cover more of the tax picture than we do.

Which one you should pick

If you are a US gig worker, use Stride. It is free, it works, and the insurance side may be worth more to you than any mileage app.

If you are driving in the UK and claiming against HMRC, Stride is not built for you, and £9.99 for something that is pays for itself in nineteen business miles.