Guest vs. account
What you can do without signing up, and what an account unlocks.
Trailkeep has two modes: guest and account. You can start planning immediately without signing up, but an account is required to save your work and access safety features.
Guest mode
Guest mode lets you try the planning side of Trailkeep — no registration, no email address required. Planning is fully enabled; management features (saving, sharing, safety, collaboration) require an account. You can:
- Build a trip itinerary with daily stages and waypoints
- Upload a GPX file and view your route on the map
- Build a gear list with items, weights, and categories
Guest data is stored in your browser only. Clearing your browser data or switching devices will delete your plan. Create an account to save everything to your profile.
Free account
Creating a free account takes under a minute and costs nothing. It unlocks persistent storage and the full feature set:
- Trips and gear lists saved to your profile, accessible from any device
- Real-time collaborative editing — share an edit link with anyone (collaborators need no account)
- Export and import trips and gear lists as CSV
- Gear vault to save and reuse items across trips
- Safety QR code linked to your profile
- Emergency contacts and a basic overdue alert when your trip end date passes
- Trail Companion sharing — people who scan your Safety QR can ask to be alerted if you go overdue
- GPS location capture — update your last known location from the trail
Free accounts have storage limits: up to 10 trips and 10 gear lists.
Pioneer / Pro tier
Beta testers who sign up during open beta receive lifetime Pioneer status, which includes all Pro features at no cost.
Pioneer / Pro has two differences from Free:
- No storage limits — unlimited trips, gear lists, and vault items
- Safety Auto-Timer — automatic overdue alert if you do not complete a day within your chosen window (24, 36, 48, or 72 hours). The timer resets each time you mark a day complete, not just at your trip end date, making it far more precise for multi-week trips
Free accounts still receive a basic overdue alert when the trip end date passes — the Pro timer is more useful for longer trips because it tracks your daily progress throughout.
Feature comparison
| Guest | Free | Pioneer / Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan a trip | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upload GPX | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gear list | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share read-only trip link | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save trips to profile | Browser only | ✓ | ✓ |
| Collaborative editing | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gear vault | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSV export / import | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Safety QR | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emergency contacts | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar-based overdue alert | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trail Companion sharing | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| GPS location capture | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Storage limits | — | 10 trips / 10 lists | Unlimited |
| Auto-timer (day-based check-ins) | — | — | ✓ |
What carries over if you upgrade from guest
If you create an account after using guest mode, your trip itinerary and gear list are migrated automatically. Note that GPX route data and precise waypoint GPS coordinates are stored in browser memory only — these will not carry over. Export your GPX file from your original source before signing up if you need to re-upload it.
Start with guest mode to try the app. If it fits how you tackle the trails, create an account — it takes under a minute and everything is free during the beta.