What started as an after-work project between four travel-obsessed friends has turned into an app that’s used by 20 million people. Polarsteps is in the back pocket of almost every Dutch traveler and is making waves in Europe and beyond.

Polarsteps co-founder and CTO Maximiliano Neustadt says: “I remember celebrating our first 10,000 users and what a huge moment it was. It feels unreal to think back to those early days now, when 20 million travelers are using the product we created.”

The secret of the company’s success has been to keep the joy of travel and user-first design at the center of its offering, so that growth has been the natural consequence of a quality product rather than being driven purely by marketing.

CEO Clare Jones says: “We’ve seen millions of users in Europe fall in love with Polarsteps for planning and tracking their trips. It’s so good to see this now spreading to places like the US and Canada as users keep telling each other about the app.”

Start-up beginnings

The idea for Polarsteps was born aboard a catamaran as co-fouder Niek Bokkers crossed the Atlantic Ocean. When he and the other founders started building Polarsteps, there were no all-in-one travel apps already on the market. So without a map to follow, they were led by a simple guiding principle: travelers should love what they created. In the first eight years after launching, the team didn’t spend a single euro on marketing.

Maximiliano, says: “Instead, we focused on getting the product right. This led to so much user love that travelers recommended the app to other travelers themselves. We grew organically.”

Surviving the pandemic 

It was this unshakeable belief in the product, and the love travelers already had for Polarsteps, that helped the company weather the storm of the global Covid-19 pandemic, when almost all travel stopped. As travel lovers adapted to the new reality of being stuck in one place, they started reliving the memories of past trips on Polarsteps, and using their time to convert their photos into Travel Books.

Maximiliano says: “What could have been a bleak time for the company turned out to be a reminder that our travel community was ready and waiting to get back on the road with Polarsteps.”

Steady growth dramatically accelerates

As Polarsteps scaled up, the number of travelers installing the app grew and grew. Back in 2019, the company celebrated its first million users; by 2022, five million travelers were tracking trips with Polarsteps. By 2025, that number had tripled to 15 million. 

Clare says: “To have 20 million people using Polarsteps just nine months after we celebrated the 15 million milestone shows that the people in our community value what we’ve created, see Polarsteps as an essential part of the journey, and are sharing their love of the app with others.”

The world takes notice

Having cemented its place in the travel sphere, Polarsteps is being mentioned more and more in tech circles and travel news. Newspapers and travel publications in the Netherlands, Europe, and North America have followed this tech success story, while industry awards recognize the company’s unique approach, and recognition by tech giant Apple reflects the app’s reputation for seamless and elegant design. 

Polarsteps is still driven by the needs of travelers. The team built features like Travel Together (the ability to plan and track your trip as a couple or group) and Trip Reels (an auto-generated video of your trip) in response to requests from people all over the world who were using Polarsteps to track their adventures.

Clare says: “We spend a lot of time listening to our users’ feature requests, whether that’s in our Support inbox, on Reddit or via App Store reviews. We love that people care so much about the app and help us improve it all the time.”

What’s next for Polarsteps?

From its humble beginnings, Polarsteps has grown into a team of 100 employees and is now one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, helping 20 million travelers around the world plan, track, and relive their adventures. The team is continuously improving the app and adding features that make planning trips easier.

Clare says: “This dramatic increase in people using Polarsteps shows we’re on course to achieve our goal of becoming an essential app for all travellers.”

About Polarsteps

Recognized as one of Europe’s hottest scale-ups, Polarsteps is the market-leading travel app that helps over 20 million travelers worldwide to plan, track, and relive their adventures in a beautiful and seamless way. Using pioneering technology and design, the all-in-one app builds itineraries, maps travelers’ paths across the globe in real time, and provides a new way to share travel experiences. Headquartered in Amsterdam and powered by an international team of 100+ passionate travelers, we’re becoming the essential tool for modern-day explorers — before, during, and after their trips.