A free TripIt alternative for European trips: Arcway vs TripIt, compared honestly

The short answer

TripIt is the best-known app for turning booking confirmation emails into one itinerary. It has a free version, and TripIt Pro costs $49 a year according to TripIt's pricing page. Its paid features are built around flying: real-time flight alerts, gate and terminal reminders, seat tracking and airport navigation.

Arcway does the same core job, forwarding your bookings and getting one trip back, and it's free. It's built for trips that hop between cities by train, ferry, bus and plane, which is how a lot of European trips work. It draws the whole route on a map, keeps every time in local time, and points out what's missing, like a night with nowhere to stay.

If you mostly fly and want live flight alerts, TripIt Pro is the stronger tool. If your trips are multi-stop and you want the whole journey organised without paying, Arcway is worth a try.

What TripIt does

According to TripIt's own pricing page, TripIt (free) organises your plans into an itinerary. You add bookings by forwarding confirmation emails to [email protected]. It also:

• syncs your plans with your calendar and lets you share them
• shows transport options and places near your hotel
• includes airport and terminal maps
• tallies travel stats
• lets you upload 3 documents per trip

TripIt Pro ($49 a year) adds:

• real-time flight alerts, check-in reminders and "Go Now" reminders for leaving for the airport
• terminal and gate reminders, airport navigation and baggage-claim information
• seat tracking, alternate flights and monitoring for fare refunds
• reward-programme tracking and passport-renewal reminders
• up to 25 documents per trip

TripIt has native apps for iOS (including Apple Watch) and Android, and it's part of SAP Concur, which matters if your company books travel through Concur.

What Arcway does differently

One trip from every kind of booking

Everyone gets a personal Arcway address. Forward a confirmation for a flight, hotel, rental, train, bus, ferry, car rental, or tickets and tours, and Arcway reads it, PDF tickets included. It pulls out times, seats, terminals, booking codes and addresses, and files everything into the right trip. If the email isn't to hand, you can upload a PDF or a screenshot, or paste the text.

A map of the route, not just a list

Flights arc across the map, trains follow the line, and stays are numbered in the order you'll sleep in them. On a trip like three weeks from Milan to Sicily, with high-speed trains, a farm stay, three ferries and two car rentals, the shape of the trip is clear at a glance.

Every time in local time, with clock-change warnings

Departures show the time where you leave and arrivals the time where you land. Arcway warns you when the clocks change on the way, for example CEST to WEST when you fly from Central Europe to Portugal.

Gap detection

Arcway notices what's missing: landing with no way into town, or a night with nowhere to sleep. On our Japan cherry blossom itinerary, it flags the leg from Takayama to Kyoto and the Hiroshima nights that aren't booked yet.

Built for the trip, not just the flight

• Reminders by email when check-in opens, when to leave for the airport, and when your passport, a visa or an arrival card needs attention. Arcway asks for your nationality so it can check visa needs for each trip.
• Costs in your currency, converted at that day's rate and split into getting there, sleeping and everything else.
• Tickets with the booking. Boarding passes and PDF tickets sit next to the booking they belong to. Add Arcway to your home screen and trips you've opened keep working offline.
• A private calendar feed for Google or Apple Calendar that updates as bookings change.
• Shared trips. Invite the people you travel with so they can add their own bookings, or send a read-only link to people at home.
• Travel stats: days away, countries and cities, and kilometres flown and travelled overland.

In your language, and free

Arcway is available in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Japanese. It's free to use. We may add optional paid extras later, and we'll never charge you without asking first.

Side by side

	TripIt (free)	TripIt Pro	Arcway
Price	Free	$49 a year	Free
Build a trip from forwarded booking emails	Yes	Yes	Yes
Flights, hotels, trains, car rentals, tours and events	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calendar sync and sharing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Real-time flight, gate and delay alerts	No	Yes	No
Seat tracking, alternate flights, fare-refund monitoring	No	Yes	No
Map of the whole route, including trains and ferries	Map view	Map view	Yes
Flags missing stays and transfers (gap detection)	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Local times with clock-change warnings	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Passport and visa reminders	Not listed	Passport renewal reminders, country-specific info	Passport, visa and arrival-card reminders
Documents per trip	3	25	Tickets attached to each booking
Apps	iOS, Apple Watch, Android	iOS, Apple Watch, Android	Web app you can add to your home screen

"Not listed" means the feature doesn't appear on TripIt's pricing page. It doesn't mean TripIt can't do it in some form.

When TripIt is the better choice

• You fly a lot and want live flight information. Real-time alerts, gate changes, connection guidance, baggage claim and seat tracking are TripIt Pro's strengths. Arcway doesn't offer live flight-status alerts.
• You want a native app or Apple Watch support. Arcway runs in the browser and can be added to your home screen, but it isn't in the app stores.
• Your company travels with SAP Concur. TripIt is part of Concur.
• You need reward-programme tracking or fare-refund monitoring. Those are TripIt Pro features that Arcway doesn't have.

When Arcway is the better choice

• Your trips have several stops and several kinds of transport: a rail trip around Italy, island-hopping by ferry, or a city break that continues by bus.
• You want to see the route on a map, with each stay in order.
• You want help spotting what's missing before you leave.
• You'd rather not pay for the organising part.
• You or the people you travel with prefer a language other than English.

Try it with a ready-made trip

Not sure yet? Open one of our example itineraries, Italy north to south in 3 weeks or Japan in cherry blossom season, and copy it into your own account. You'll see the map, the timeline and the gaps straight away, then forward your own bookings.