CarvicoDisclosure
We make one of the apps in this category — Carvico. So read this as a buyer's checklist written by someone with a stake, not as a neutral review. Every factual claim below is one you can verify yourself in about two minutes: App Store version history, the privacy label on the listing, and whether the export button works. Where we could not verify something, we say so.
The six checks
- When was the last update? Scroll to Version History on the App Store listing. An app untouched for two years on a platform that ships a major OS release every September is a risk, however good it looks. This is the single fastest signal in the category.
- Does export work — today? Install, add two entries, export a CSV, open it. Do this on day one. An export button that has quietly broken is discovered by people who need it in a hurry, years later.
- Where does the data physically live? On the device? In the developer's database? In your own cloud account? This determines what happens when the company loses interest: data in your own iCloud or on your phone survives that; data on someone's server does not, in any way you control.
- What does the privacy label say? Especially the "Data Used to Track You" section, which means shared with other companies for advertising or data brokerage. It takes 20 seconds to read and it is a disclosure the developer has to stand behind.
- Do reminders handle miles and months? Real maintenance intervals are "5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first." An app that only does one of the two will nag a high-mileage driver constantly and forget a low-mileage one entirely.
- How does it compute MPG? The full-tank method, with partial fill-ups carried into the next full tank. See below — this is where the quiet errors live.
A seventh, softer one: does logging a fill-up take ten seconds? Every car-log app dies of entry friction rather than of missing features. If it takes a minute and eight taps, you will stop.
Where the well-known apps stand
Verified July 2026 from public App Store listings. Listings change — check the current one before deciding, and treat the "last update" column as the thing to re-check rather than take on faith.
| App | Status (July 2026) | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Fuelly | No iOS update since Jun 2024 | The category's long-standing default, with a large community dataset. Its own forums carry unanswered threads asking whether it is still maintained, and recent reviews report data loss after a forced-login migration. Data lives on Fuelly's servers. Export guide. |
| Simply Auto | No iOS update since Mar 2022 | Feature-rich in its day and still selling subscriptions on its website, while iOS reviews report purchases not being recognised. Export guide. |
| Drivvo | Active, ad-supported | Actively maintained and capable, with a fleet-oriented direction. Reviews commonly complain about ad volume, including from users who paid. Check the current privacy label for tracking declarations. |
| Fuelio | Android-first | Well regarded on Android; the iOS version has a small US rating count and is not the platform the team leads with. Reviews mention lost data when switching phones. |
| aCar / Gas Cubby | Gone from iOS | Both were popular; neither is a current option. If you are moving an old export off a dead app, a CSV importer that recognises their formats is the thing to look for. |
| CARFAX Car Care | Active, large, free | Strong on service records tied to a vehicle history business, and genuinely useful for recalls and reported shop visits. It is not built around fuel economy, records that come from the history report are not yours to edit, and its privacy label has historically declared data used to track you. Free, with a business model behind it. |
| GasBuddy | Active | A fuel-price finder, not a maintenance log. Its handling of location data has drawn sustained press criticism; if you use it, use it for prices and keep your records elsewhere. |
| Road Trip MPG | Veteran, one-time purchase | Long-standing, paid-once, no subscription, no ads. Dated interface, loyal users, honest model. A reasonable pick if you want fuel tracking without a recurring bill. |
| Carvico (ours) | Active | Local-first: records live on your iPhone and sync only through your own iCloud, so no server of ours holds them. Receipt scanning fills entries in, full-tank MPG with partials carried forward, dual mileage/time reminders, CSV and PDF export generated on-device, CSV import from the apps above. Free for one vehicle; Pro adds unlimited vehicles, more scans, and export. |
Why abandonment is the risk that matters
A missing feature is an inconvenience. An abandoned app holding ten years of records behind a login, on servers nobody is paying attention to, is a loss you cannot undo. The category has produced several of these — which is why "can I get my data out, and where does it live?" outranks every feature comparison.
Four kinds of app, four kinds of trade-off
| Type | You are trading | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Free, data-monetised | Your driving and location data for a polished free product. | People who genuinely do not mind, and want features at zero cost. |
| Free, ad-supported | Attention and screen space; sometimes tracking too. | Casual loggers. Check what the paid tier actually removes before paying. |
| One-time purchase | An upfront fee for no ads and no subscription — with the risk that development stops when the revenue does. | People who want to buy a tool and be left alone. |
| Freemium, local-first | A subscription for the advanced tier, in exchange for data that stays on your device. | People keeping a car a long time who want the record to outlive the app. |
None of these is dishonest by nature. What is dishonest is a free app that is vague about which one it is. The privacy label and the pricing page together tell you in a minute.
The methodology question nobody asks
Two apps can show different MPG for identical data, because fuel economy depends on a modelling choice:
- Full-tank method (correct). The gallons that refill the tank are charged against the miles just driven. Partial fill-ups produce no figure on their own and are carried into the next full tank.
- Charge-it-to-the-previous-tank (wrong, and common). The fuel you just bought is credited to the distance you drove before buying it. On a steady commute the error mostly cancels; across a road trip it can be off by double digits and never converges.
- Ignoring partials (wrong in a subtler way). Dropping partial fill-ups keeps the miles and loses the gallons, so the next full tank looks better than it was — and your fuel spending totals come out low.
The test: log a partial fill-up and see what happens. If the app produces an MPG figure for it, the number is fiction. Detail in the MPG guide.
Reading a privacy label in 60 seconds
On any App Store listing, scroll to App Privacy. Three sections, in descending order of importance:
- Data Used to Track You. This specifically means linked to third-party data for advertising or shared with data brokers. For a car log, anything here deserves an explanation.
- Data Linked to You. Tied to your identity. An email address for account login is ordinary; precise location and browsing history are not.
- Data Not Linked to You. The lowest-stakes tier, typically crash logs and aggregate analytics.
Two useful sanity checks. First, Precise Location in a maintenance app: a fuel log needs a station name, which does not require continuous location. Second, compare labels between two apps in the same category — the difference is usually stark, and it is a disclosure the developer signed their name to.
Carvico's own answer, for the record: vehicle, fuel and service data are not collected by us at all — they live on your device and in your private iCloud database. What we do declare is an email address and user ID if you choose to sign in for Pro, and purchase history through the payments provider. No tracking, no ads, no data selling, on the free plan or Pro. The privacy policy spells it out.
Questions
What if I just want the app that most people use?
Popularity in this category is a lagging indicator — the most-rated apps accumulated their ratings years ago, and two of the best known have not shipped an update since 2024 and 2022 respectively. Check the version history date before treating rating count as a recommendation.
Do I need iCloud sync?
Only if you use more than one device or want an off-device backup. What matters more is whether sync goes through your cloud account or the developer's servers — that distinction decides who still has your records if the company disappears.
Is a subscription worth it for a car log?
Depends what it funds. A subscription that keeps a small app maintained on a platform that changes annually is reasonable; a subscription for features that were free last year is not. The honest test is whether the free tier is genuinely usable — if the free version cannot log a fill-up, it is a trial, not a free tier.
Can I try one without losing my old data?
Yes, and you should. Export a CSV from your current app, import it into the candidate, and check that the numbers survived — dates, odometer readings, partial flags, currency. If the importer mangles it, you found out in five minutes rather than five years.
Run the six checks on ours
Updated actively, CSV export on-device from day one, records on your iPhone and your own iCloud, no tracking declared, reminders on miles and months, and full-tank MPG with partials carried forward. Free for one vehicle, no account required.
Download on theApp Store