A Google My Maps alternative that does the placing for you
Google My Maps is genuinely good, and free. The catch is that it is a drawing tool: you search for each place, drop each pin, type each description and draw each line yourself. For a twelve-stop road trip that is an evening of data entry. MightyMaps starts from a sentence and produces the finished map, then lets you correct it by talking to it.
25 free credits · No credit card · No subscription
What Google My Maps is good at
If one of these is what you need, use it — you will be happier, and this page will have done its job.
Free, and attached to an account you already have
No new sign-up, no credits, no billing relationship. If cost is the deciding factor, this is the honest answer.
Maps open inside the Google Maps app
A My Maps layer can be viewed in the app people already navigate with. Nothing MightyMaps produces does that — a shared map is a web page.
Import from a spreadsheet
If your places already exist as a CSV or KML with coordinates, My Maps ingests them directly. That is a real strength MightyMaps does not match.
Direct manual control
You can drag a pin to the exact metre. MightyMaps only moves things when you describe the move, which is faster in bulk and fiddlier for one stubborn pin.
Where MightyMaps works differently
You describe instead of place
The difference is the input. "Five days in Nova Scotia out of Halifax" produces the stops, the driving route between them and a dated itinerary. In a drawing tool, that same map is a couple of hours of searching and clicking.
Editing is a sentence, not a session
"Add a night in Lunenburg and shift the rest back" rewrites the route, the dates and the list together. Doing that by hand means touching every item after the insertion point.
The sidebar is an itinerary, not a legend
Entries carry dates, times and a one-line summary each, so a shared map reads as a plan. A layer list is an index of what is on the map, which is a different thing.
Detail cards, not one description box
Each place takes multiple markdown cards — parking, booking references, what to order, what to avoid — instead of a single description field.
Google My Maps vs MightyMaps
| Google My Maps | MightyMaps | |
|---|---|---|
| How a map gets built | You place every pin and draw every line | Described in plain English, drawn for you |
| Making a change | Edit each affected item by hand | One sentence, applied across the whole map |
| Routing | Directions between points you choose | Driving, walking and cycling routes along the real network |
| Place detail | A description field per pin | Multiple markdown cards per place |
| Day-by-day itinerary | Not the shape of the tool | Dated entries with summaries, built in |
| Importing existing data | CSV, KML and spreadsheet import | Paste addresses or coordinates into the chat |
| Viewing a shared map | Web, and inside the Google Maps app | Web page, any device, no account or app |
| Cost | Free | Free credits at signup, then prepaid packs |
Honest advice
Stick with Google My Maps if…
- Your places are already in a spreadsheet and just need plotting.
- You need the map to open inside the Google Maps app for navigation.
- You want precise manual control over the exact position of every pin.
- Free matters more than the hours the map takes to build.
Try MightyMaps if…
- You are building the map from knowledge and notes, not from a data file.
- The map has an order to it — days, stops, sessions — not just locations.
- You expect to revise it repeatedly, and dread touching twenty items each time.
- The people you send it to should see a finished plan, not a pin cloud.
A real map, built from one sentence
One sentence produced this: eight stops, a routed 720 km drive and a five-day itinerary. Drag it around — it is the real thing.
Plan a five-day Nova Scotia road trip out of Halifax
Built 8 stops, a 720 km driving route and a five-day itinerary
No subscription to weigh up
25 credits free at signup, then prepaid packs that never expire. Viewing and sharing a finished map is always free.
Switching from Google My Maps
Not as a file. There is no KML or CSV import — paste the addresses or coordinates into the chat and ask for a map of them, and they are used exactly as given. For a large existing dataset, My Maps import is genuinely the better tool.
No. A published map is a self-contained web page that opens in any browser on any device. That is better for sharing a plan with people who have no account, and worse if you wanted turn-by-turn navigation — for that, use a navigation app.
Not entirely. You get free credits at signup with no card, and after that you buy prepaid credit packs — there is no subscription. Viewing and sharing a finished map is always free, for you and for anyone you send it to.
Other tools people weigh up
A full trip planner with apps and collaboration. MightyMaps makes the map you send people.
Read the comparison →MightyMaps vs RoadtrippersGreat for discovering stops along a drive. MightyMaps is for mapping the trip you already know.
Read the comparison → What you can buildTen kinds of map, each with a live example and the prompts behind it.
See them all →Describe your map and see
The first version takes one sentence and a few seconds. That is the whole argument.
25 free credits when you sign up · No credit card · No subscription