Honest comparison
MileageWise vs TruMile
Reconstruction-focused tracker. Built around the IRS audit problem.
The short version
MileageWise is 95 MB and ships in English only. TruMile is 19.8 MB, roughly 4.8× smaller, and is built for self-employed drivers who want a single-purpose tracker, not a fleet suite or a finance app.
All facts on this page sourced from public MileageWise App Store and marketing pages, fetched 2026-05-02.
Side-by-side
| MileageWise | TruMile | |
|---|---|---|
| App size | 95 MB | 19.8 MB |
| Languages | 1 (English) | 1 (English) |
| Apple Watch app | No | No |
| Teams / fleet tier | No | No (solo / self-employed only) |
| Receipt OCR | Not listed | Yes (Pro) |
| Tax jurisdictions | US (IRS) | US, Canada, UK, Australia (tiered rates) |
| Free tier | No free tier. 30-day free trial, then paid. | 40 auto trips/mo + unlimited manual |
| Monthly price | $12.99/mo | $7.99/mo |
| Yearly price | $89.99/yr ($7.50/mo) | $59.99/yr ($5.00/mo) |
MileageWise pricing and free-tier figures confirmed 2026-06-05.
Scope: what each app actually is
Mileage tracker plus reconstruction tooling for drivers who need to assemble back-period logs. Pitched at filers responding to audits or catching up on prior-year deductions.
TruMile is a single-purpose mileage tracker. Detection, classification, saved routes, IRS-compliant export, US/Canada/UK/Australia tax rates. That is the whole product. There is no Teams admin tier, no invoicing module, no fleet dashboard, no in-app insurance enrollment, no time tracking, no scheduling.
MileageWise is the better fit when
Drivers who need to reconstruct a prior-year mileage log before responding to the IRS or filing late, and who are willing to pay for a tool optimized for that specific scenario.
- If you have NOT been tracking mileage and need to reconstruct a prior year before filing or responding to the IRS, MileageWise's reconstruction wizard is a more developed surface than anything TruMile ships. TruMile is built for going forward, not catching up.
- If you want a tax-rule lookup tool inside the same app as your tracker, MileageWise integrates that.
TruMile is the better fit when
Drivers tracking forward from today. The audit-best defense is a contemporaneous log auto-recorded at the moment of each trip, which is what TruMile produces by default.
- 19.8 MB. Roughly five times smaller than MileageWise on iOS.
- TruMile's bias is contemporaneous-by-construction logs. Auto-tracking timestamps every trip at the moment it happens, which is what holds up best in audit. MileageWise's reconstruction emphasis is for filers who are already behind.
- Free for 40 auto trips a month, every month. MileageWise has a 14-day trial then a paid wall.
- Native SwiftUI single-locale build keeps the install footprint small.
What MileageWise does well
Honest credit where credit is due. MileageWise ships these things on the App Store today:
- Marketed specifically around IRS-audit defense and log reconstruction
- Built-in 'AI Wizard' tool that rebuilds prior-period mileage logs from limited data
- Tax-rule database covering deduction calculations for self-employed scenarios
- Explicit positioning around the 14-day reconstruction window the IRS allows for prior years
FAQ
What is reconstruction and why does MileageWise market it?
Reconstruction means rebuilding a mileage log from indirect evidence (calendar, gas receipts, bank statements) when you did not track contemporaneously. MileageWise provides tooling specifically for that workflow. The IRS will accept a reasonable reconstruction in some cases but treats it as weaker evidence than a contemporaneous log.
Can TruMile help me reconstruct a prior year?
TruMile imports CSVs from MileIQ, Everlance, Stride, and Driversnote, which lets you bring forward existing tracker data. It does not have a guided reconstruction wizard for filers who never tracked. For ongoing tracking, TruMile's auto-detection is the audit-best defense.
Is the IRS suspicious of reconstructed logs?
Generally yes. The Tax Court has ruled against drivers in dozens of cases where the only mileage record was a year-end reconstruction, even when the underlying business activity was real. Going forward, contemporaneous tracking is the safer path.
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