Visited Countries Map: Apps and Maps Compared (2026)

By Serdar Freimoser · Updated 26 October 2026 · Guide · 8 minute read · Auf Deutsch lesen

If you want to mark the countries you have visited, there are three ways: a tracker app such as been or Visited, an online map with no installation such as MapChart, or something to touch like a scratch map. What matters is not the map but what hangs on it – account, ads, where the data lives – and whether you only want to count or to remember.

First, the question: what should the map do?

Most comparisons start with the apps. It makes more sense to start with the purpose, because the tools differ less in how they look than in what they do beyond colouring countries in.

• Count and show. "I have been to 34 countries, here is the map." An online map in the browser, saved as an image, is enough for that.
• Finer than countries. US states, provinces, German federal states. Only apps with regional maps can do this – almost always as a paid feature.
• A map that grows with you. If you keep it for years, you need storage, a backup and an answer to what happens when you change phones.
• Remember instead of count. If you want to keep not the country but the trip, the place or the person, you need a diary map. More on that below – it is the reason this text exists.
• On the wall. Then a scratch map, and no app in the world replaces the feeling of scratching Portugal with a coin.

The tools at a glance

As of September 2026, checked against the providers' own sites and store listings. Prices change; account requirements and data location rarely do – and those two columns are the ones that matter.

A detail that store descriptions like to keep in the small print: the free versions of the big tracker apps show ads – "ad-free" sits in the Premium column for both been and Visited. That is legitimate, but it means an ad network runs on a map that shows your travel life. If you do not want that, you pay or take a browser map.

What "visited" actually means

Every map asks the same question at some point, and everyone answers it differently: does the connection in Doha count? The cruise that sat in the harbour for three hours? The day in Vatican City?

There is no official rule, but two conventions have established themselves. The strict one: a country counts once you have left the airport and slept there. The soft one: a country counts once you have stood on its ground – transit terminals excepted. The Travelers' Century Club, which has gathered frequent travellers since 1954, even counts the layover, but keeps its own list of more than 300 "countries and territories" that has little to do with the 193 UN members – every way of counting explained.

In practice this means: set your rule once and stick to it. The number on your map is only comparable with itself – not with the number in another app that counts differently, and not with your friend's number, who counts Doha.

Three questions before you install an app

1. Where does the data live?

A travel map is a movement profile in its purest form: every country, often with a date. With account-based apps it sits on the provider's server; with browser maps it sits nowhere (that is the price of "no sign-up"); with a few apps it sits only on the device. The store listing tells you: under "App Privacy" at Apple, under "Data safety" at Google. That is where it says what is collected and what is linked to your identity – we went through how to read these labels using other apps as examples (in German).

2. What happens when you change phones?

Account apps solve this through the server, browser maps not at all, apps without an account need a backup. Check what the path to a new device looks like before the first entry – not after three years. What makes a backup reliable is in our guide on keeping memories safe (in German).

3. Can you get back out?

Is there an export – as a list, a file, an image? A map that exists only in one app belongs to the app. If the provider shuts down or the subscription gets pricier, the list of your countries should be allowed to come with you.

Which one for whom

The map this is really about

We come from the same mechanics – collect countries, spin the globe, admire the statistics – and built them for something else: not for countries you have travelled to, but for people you have met. A pin is a one-night stand, a friendship or a trip; every nation becomes a stamp in your passport. It is, honestly, the scratch map for your love life.

That is exactly why the three questions above apply more strictly to us than to any travel tracker: there is no account, no server that knows content, and the entries are stored encrypted on the device. The optional backup goes into your own Google Drive, into a folder only this app can see. And the map can be shared without a server ever seeing it – a real example link shows how (in German).

Sources (retrieved 8 October 2026): been — Free vs Premium · Visited on the App Store · Polarsteps help: account · MapChart · PlanYourTrip travel map · Travelers' Century Club

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