Let’s explore the similarities and differences between MileWiz and MileCatcher. If you are deciding between the two apps or if you are looking to make a switch, the information here may be important to you.

Before you install

Developer - Both MileWiz and MileCatcher are developed and supported by small development studios. This means that most likely you will be able to enjoy swift and competent support.

Rating - both MileWiz and MileCatcher have incredibly high ratings score. It would be fair to say that whichever one you choose, you will likely be satisfied.

Price

Price is an important part of the decision, especially when it comes to a service that is supposed be saving money for their users. Such is the case with mileage trackers.

MileWiz costs US$4.99 per month or US$49.99 per year

MileCatcher costs US$5.99 per month or US$47.99 per year.

Onboarding

When you first install MileWiz, you will be asked to provide access to Location, Motion & Fitness and Notifications. Those are critical permissions for the app to function properly, as we’ve outlined here. Then you will be invited to Sign up or Sign in for a cloud account - this is to help preserve your data in the case of an accident (like your child deleting the app from your device). Using a cloud account with MileWiz is encouraged, but it’s not mandatory.

When you first install MileCatcher, you will be asked to Sign in or create an account with them. Having an account is mandatory. Additionally, you will be immediately forced to initiate your free 1 month trial. You will then be asked to provide access to Location and Notifications. Later you can also provide access to Motion and it’s recommended to improve accuracy of detected trips.

Tracking and Precision

Battery usage - while it should be expected that GPS trackers could consume a lot of energy, there’s a limit which should be acceptable to you. In our tests, MileWiz and MileCatcher were installed on the same device for 10 days, and MileCatcher consumed 16% of the battery topping every other app and mileage tracker on this device. MileWiz on the other hand consumed only 1%, which is more acceptable for an app working mostly on the background.

Precision - MileWiz was created and optimized for precision. For example, for MileWiz reliance on the Motion & Fitness sensor is of critical importance. In our tests, MileCatcher performed just as well on most occasions. However, there were some cases where MileCatcher would not correctly terminate trips when walking was involved, resulting in unseparated trips where there was clearly a pit stop.

Routes - MileWiz and MileCatcher render the entire trips on a map, but you may notice that while this is seamless for MileWiz, MileCatcher takes a few seconds for each trip. This can become annoying if you have to categorize 10 trips from your errands morning.

Clearly, MileWiz ⬇️provides the better value.

Further Experience

Places

In MileCatcher those are called My Locations. In both apps you can create places when you already have a trip to or from a particular one. In MileCatcher this is really convenient as you just type in the name on the pin. In MileWiz, you’ll need to do a bit more work - tap on the trip, tap Options, then Create Place from Origin or Create Place from Destination. On the other hand, MileCatcher is behind on every other aspect here.

• When you save a place on a trip, it starts reloading the trip map, but the reloading never finishes.

• It doesn’t offer automations based on places

• It doesn’t offer the location of the place on a map in the context of other saved places.

Clearly, MileWiz ⬇️provides more value here.

Vehicles

MileWiz and MileCatcher provide very similar functionality when it comes to Vehicles. Both allow you to track trips performed with multiple vehicles and to easily switch between them. Both offer the option to input the odometer readings at the beginning and end of the year.

Purposes

MileWiz allows users to enter any text they deem proper for purpose of a trip. According to tax authorities the purpose any trip should be specific as to provide clear reason for why the trip was necessary and why it was categorized as business. MileCatcher doesn’t offer this option - in this regard, using MileCatcher as a self-employed could backfire in case of audit, because trip purposes are a required attribute. If you still prefer to use MileCatcher, use the notes field to input purpose-related information.

Clearly, MileWiz provides more value here.

Mileage Rates

MileCatcher allows you to use a custom flat rate. This is convenient for users who get reimbursed at a rate different than the standard mileage rate set by the government. MileWiz offers a completely customizable mileage rate system, where you can have different rates for different vehicle types as well as different rates up to certain mileage and after that.

One thing that MileCatcher is really missing is the ability to categorize to alternative categories. Even though the show the rates for the moving, charity and medical categories in the US, there is no easy way to categorize trips with any of these categories through the app. For some reason, categorizing to business doesn’t work for me, but categorizing to personal works fine.

Clearly, MileWiz provides better value here.

Working hours

Both apps allow users to create a highly flexible schedule and enable automatic categorization based on working hours. Depending on what you need, MileCatcher may offer just that. MileWiz has more features in terms of customization - you can choose different categories on different days, handle night shifts or other less predictable situations.

Clearly, MileWiz provides better value here.

In Conclusion

MileWiz does offer some more thought out and polished features and at the same time has a lower price. MileCatcher is a solution that works. If you are already using it and you are content with the results, there is no good reason to switch.

Ultimately, the best way to decide which one to use would be to install the apps and try them on.