Local Pins vs. Etsy vs. TripIt
Every so often someone asks why a Local Pins map costs $5.99 and not, I don’t know, $30. I used to just say “because that’s the price,” which is not an answer. So I actually went and looked at what else is out there for the same job — Etsy’s map sellers, and TripIt’s Pro subscription. Here’s what turned up.
What Etsy sellers charge
Search “Google My Maps travel guide” on Etsy and you’ll find dozens of listings doing roughly the same job as Local Pins: a curated list of places for one city or country. Prices run wide — I saw everything from $5.99 up to $149 — but most of what I looked at clustered $25 to $40. A 650-plus-place Germany map, for one example, sits right in that range.
What that buys you: a shared Google My Maps link plus a PDF of instructions. You need a free Google account to save it, and it only opens in Google’s own map app — not Google Earth, not Organic Maps, not Maps.me.
Honest part, out loud: Etsy sellers also have something Local Pins doesn’t. Reviews. Every listing I looked at had a real stack of star ratings from real buyers. That’s trust I can’t manufacture, and it’s fair to weigh against the price gap.
What TripIt charges
TripIt isn’t quite the same category — it’s a trip-organizing app, not a pre-made list — but it’s the closest subscription comparison for the “no lock-in” argument, so it’s worth including. The free app already handles your itinerary. What sits behind TripIt Pro is the proactive stuff — real-time flight alerts, fare-drop refund tracking, seat upgrade alerts — for $49 a year. Stop paying, and those alerts stop coming.
What Local Pins charges
$5.99 for one region, $14.99 for a full country bundle. One-time, through Paddle, no account created. The file is a KMZ, which opens the same way in Google My Maps, Google Earth, Organic Maps, and Maps.me — whichever one’s already on your phone.
Honest heads-up while it’s still true: those are launch prices. They’re going up before too long, once some groundwork we’re finishing behind the scenes is done. Not a countdown, not a “today only” thing — just a plain fact that now is cheaper than later will be.
The honest catch
Price isn’t proof of quality, in either direction. A $40 Etsy map might be worth every cent of it — I haven’t bought one and put it side by side with mine, so I’m not going to pretend I know. What I can tell you for certain is what’s actually different: the file format, the lock-in, and what happens the day you stop paying.
If $5.99 sounds too cheap to be any good, that’s a fair instinct — cheap things often are. The free sample is the fastest way to settle it. It costs an email address, not a purchase, and you can check the actual pins against your own trip before spending anything.
One file, four apps, no subscription to remember to cancel.