MileShield vs Stride.
Stride is free. MileShield is not. The honest case for both, and how to decide.
Stride is the dominant free mileage tracker for gig drivers, with a long-running brand built on "free for life." It works. It is not pretending to be something it is not.
The trade-off is that Stride monetizes through health insurance referrals. The app is genuinely free because its primary product is selling drivers health insurance. That is a legitimate business model, and many drivers appreciate the no-subscription approach. It also means certain features are limited compared to a paid app.
When Stride is the right call.
If you are a part-time gig driver who logs under 5,000 miles a year, do not need an audit-ready Schedule C export, and are open to insurance offers — Stride is genuinely fine. It will track your miles. It is free. The math probably says use it.
When MileShield earns its $39.99.
For full-time gig drivers logging 20,000+ business miles a year, the math changes. Stride's per-trip classification tends to miss deadhead miles that MileShield captures automatically. Over a year, that gap is typically 1,500 to 4,000 deductible miles — worth $1,000 to $3,000 in tax savings at the IRS standard rate.
The Schedule C PDF export is also meaningfully different. Stride gives you a CSV. MileShield gives you a PDF mapped to Schedule C lines plus the CSV. For a driver paying a CPA $200–$400 to file, the Schedule C-ready PDF can save the accountant an hour of work — which often saves more than the subscription cost in CPA fees.
Pro pays for itself the first time it captures more deductible miles than you would have captured manually with Stride, or the first time your CPA charges you less because your records are tax-ready instead of raw.
The privacy difference.
Stride's business model is selling insurance to gig drivers. That requires Stride to know enough about you and your driving to make relevant insurance pitches. MileShield does not have that business model. We charge for the app and never see your data — your records live on your phone. More on that architecture →