The best apps for business travel are not one app. A traveler needs an itinerary that updates, a flight status that tells them about the gate change before the airline does, and a way to file the confirmations so the office can act on them. The office needs the record: who approved the trip, what was booked, who is away. This ranking judges each app on the job it does for a company that has no travel manager, not on the length of its feature list, and it says where each stops. The free worksheets on this site produce the documents the apps carry: the plan, the checklist, the request the approver signed.
Best apps for business travel: the ranking, and the criterion
- TripIt: Turns forwarded confirmations into one itinerary; the traveler's app for the plan, not the office's record
- Flighty: Flight status, gate changes and delay prediction ahead of the airline's own app; does one job and does it well
- Navan: A booking channel with negotiated inventory and a rebooking line; right for a team traveling weekly, priced by the booking
- TravelPerk: Booking platform with a flexible-fare option and support; earns its per-booking fee at volume
- Perdiemo: The office's record: the approved request, the booking references, the policy version and the register, with the free worksheets that produce the documents
How the ranking was made
Each app was judged on three questions: does it do one job the traveler or the office needs, does it work for a company that books on airline and hotel sites rather than through a platform, and does what it holds export. Apps that require the whole company to book through them were ranked on that basis, because a small company usually will not. Nobody paid to be listed and no app is ranked on a feature count.
The itinerary and the flight status
The traveler's app is the one that turns confirmations into a plan and tells them the gate moved. TripIt does the first from forwarded confirmations and Flighty does the second faster than the airline's own app. Neither keeps the office's record, which is why they sit beside Perdiemo rather than instead of it: the plan they render is the one the business trip plan worksheet counts, and the confirmations they parse are the references the office files against the trip.
The booking channel apps
Navan and TravelPerk book for the company on negotiated inventory with a support line, and their apps are good at the rebooking. They are priced by the booking and expect the company to book through them, which is the right trade for a team traveling every week and the wrong one for a team traveling twice a month. Read the pricing page for the per-booking fee before judging the app.
The record the office keeps
None of the traveler apps answers 'who approved this and at what cost' or 'who is in Chicago this week'. That is the office's record, and Perdiemo Pro keeps it: the request with its figure and approver, the bookings with their references, the policy version, the register. The worksheets that produce those documents are free here and need no app at all.
Questions people ask about best apps for business travel
What is the best app for business travel itineraries?
TripIt builds the itinerary from forwarded confirmations and is the one most travelers keep. The business trip plan worksheet on this site counts what that itinerary should hold before the bookings are made.
Do we need a booking app?
Only at a volume where negotiated rates and a rebooking line save more than the per-booking fee costs. Below that, the airline and hotel sites and a record of the references do the job.
Which app keeps the company's record?
Perdiemo Pro: the approved request, the bookings, the policy and the register, one record per trip for the whole team, exportable.