Keepwright
Offline vs Cloud Mileage Apps (where your data actually lives)
A year of business drives is a detailed map of your life — where you go, when, how often. The real question behind “offline vs cloud” isn’t features. It’s who ends up holding that map. Here’s the honest difference, the trade-offs each way, and exactly what does and doesn’t leave your device.
Short answer: a cloud tracker keeps your journey history on its servers, behind an account you log into — usually on a subscription. An offline one keeps it in your phone’s own storage: no account, no server copy, nothing central to breach. Cloud buys you effortless cross-device sync; on-device buys you privacy and works without a signal. Keepwright is on-device, pay-once — and honest about the few things that do leave.
What “cloud” really means for a mileage app
“Cloud” sounds like a convenience, and sometimes it is. But for a mileage tracker it has a specific meaning: your journey history lives on the company’s servers, tied to an account you sign into — and, almost always, kept alive by a monthly subscription. That arrangement has three quiet consequences:
- It’s sensitive data, held by someone else. Not just totals — the where, when and how-often of every drive. Your clients, your sites, your patterns, your home.
- It’s a breach target. A central database of thousands of users’ location histories is exactly the sort of thing attackers want. If it’s never collected, it can’t leak.
- It’s a lock-in. Stop paying and you can lose access to your own records — the ones HMRC might one day want to see.
None of that is a scandal; it’s just the shape of the deal. It’s worth seeing clearly before you accept it.
What “on your phone” means
The offline approach is the opposite arrangement: the log of your journeys lives in your device’s own encrypted storage, and there’s no account and no server copy. With Keepwright specifically, your trips, routes, vehicles and settings are stored on your phone only — not transmitted to any Keepwright server. There’s no “Sign in with Keepwright”, no email or password, no central user database. We couldn’t hand your history to anyone, or lose it in a breach, because we never hold it.
That’s the privacy case in one line: the safest place for a year of your movements is the one device already in your pocket.
The honest trade-offs
Offline isn’t automatically “better” — it’s a different set of trade-offs. Here they are straight:
| Cloud tracker | On-device tracker (Keepwright) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your history lives | The company’s servers | Your phone only |
| Account needed | Yes — email + login | No account at all |
| Works without signal | Often needs a connection | Capture works offline |
| Central breach risk | Yes — one big target | None — nothing central to breach |
| Cross-device sync | Yes — effortless | Via your own iCloud/Drive backup |
| Cost | Usually a subscription, forever | Pay once |
The one genuine thing cloud buys you is effortless cross-device sync — open the app on any phone and it’s all there. On-device, you get that through your own backup instead (below). If seamless multi-device sync matters more to you than privacy or pay-once, cloud may suit you — we’d rather you chose with eyes open than be surprised later.
What actually leaves your phone (the honest bit)
“Offline” shouldn’t mean vague hand-waving, so here’s the whole list. Your journey history never leaves your device — there’s no account for it to sync to. The only things that do leave are short, specific and disclosed in our Privacy Policy:
- An anonymised crash report — only if the app falls over and you haven’t opted out. Stack trace and device model, no identity, no location.
- A receipt check — the app asks the App Store / Play Store “is this device’s purchase valid?” It sees a yes/no, not your name or card.
- Map drawing, while it’s on — to draw and snap the line of a drive, the coordinates are exchanged with an open maps service (OpenStreetMap), not a data broker. No name, no account, never sold, and you can turn it off. We’re working to render the map fully on-device so even that request goes away.
That’s the complete list. Notably absent: no ad SDKs, no analytics, no attribution trackers, no cross-app linkage — and nothing sold to anyone, ever.
Backup, without the cloud account
“On your phone only” raises a fair worry: what if you lose the phone? That’s the real upside of cloud — and you can have it without giving up your privacy. Keepwright’s optional backup sends an encrypted payload to your iCloud or Google Drive, with the key kept on your device. It’s off by default, it never touches a Keepwright server, and it gives you a restore path when you switch phones. The convenience of the cloud — on your terms, in your account, not ours.
Common questions
What’s the difference between offline and cloud?
Cloud stores your journey history on the company’s servers, behind an account you log into (usually on a subscription). Offline keeps it in your phone’s own storage — no account, no server copy. The practical differences are privacy, working without signal, and whether a central database exists that could be breached.
Is my mileage location data really that sensitive?
Yes. A year of business drives shows where you go, when, and how often — clients, sites, patterns, home. In a cloud account it’s a breach target and tied to your identity. On your phone with no account, there’s no central store to attack and nothing linking it to your name.
Does it still work without internet?
Capture does — recording a drive happens on your device and doesn’t need a signal. Some conveniences (turning a postcode into a point, drawing the route) use a network lookup when it’s available, but the trip is recorded and stored locally either way.
What actually leaves my phone?
Not your journey history — that stays on your device, and there’s no account. The few things that do: an anonymised crash report (opt-out), a receipt validity check (not your identity), and, while map-drawing is on, drive coordinates exchanged with an open maps service to draw the route (opt-out, never sold). Full detail in our Privacy Policy.
Can I still back it up?
Yes — to your own iCloud or Google Drive, encrypted, with the key on your device. It’s off by default and never touches a Keepwright server. A restore path without handing us your history.
Keep your mileage yours
Mileage Tracker keeps the journey log on your phone, no account, pay-once — then exports straight onto your tax return. Read the full Privacy Policy, work out a claim with the mileage calculator, or see the UK mileage allowance rules.
This describes how Keepwright is designed to work and was correct at publication (3 July 2026); the definitive, always-current detail is in our Privacy Policy, which we update before anything changes.