The story behind Miles.
An indie iOS app for car owners who actually care.
Why this app exists
Every car maintenance app I tried wanted a subscription. $5 a month. $30 a year. Cancel and lose access to the history you spent years building. The data wasn’t even mine — it was sitting on someone else’s server, behind someone else’s login, ready to be locked away the moment the company pivoted or shut down.
That’s a bad deal for something as basic as remembering when you last changed the oil. Maintenance records should outlive the app you happen to use this year. So I built Miles the way I’d want it: data on the device, data in your private iCloud if you choose, exportable to PDF anytime, and a single $2.99 unlock if you need more than one car. No subscription.
What Miles does
Miles tracks the maintenance history of every car in your garage. Add a vehicle by scanning the VIN or typing the year, make, and model. Pick between dealer-recommended and mechanic-recommended service intervals per car. Log every service with a date, mileage, photos, price, and notes. Get a notification before something is due — based on either time or mileage, whichever comes first. Export a polished PDF when you sell.
It’s the kind of app you set up once and use for years. No homework. No upsell flow. No pop-ups when you open it.
What Miles doesn’t do
Miles doesn’t collect analytics. No third-party SDKs are in the app. There is no account to create, no email to provide, no password to remember. The Privacy Policy spells it out: data stored on device, optional sync via your own private iCloud (Apple’s CloudKit), and a PrivacyInfo manifest that declares no tracking and no collected data types. Apple verifies that on submission.
Miles doesn’t sell upgrades you don’t need. The Premium unlock is one tap, one charge, one time. Free users get a complete app for a single vehicle — not a trial, not a teaser.
Who builds it
Miles is built by one independent developer who owns more cars than is reasonable and got tired of spreadsheets that didn’t survive moving phones. It’s built with SwiftUI, CoreData, and CloudKit — the same Apple frameworks Apple uses for their own apps — which means it feels native, syncs reliably, and gets faster every time Apple ships a new iPhone or iOS update.
If you have feedback, run into a bug, or want to suggest a feature, email support@trackmiles.app. Real human on the other side.
The pricing philosophy
Free should be free. Paid should be small enough that you don’t need to think about it. Premium should be a one-time purchase that you own forever — restorable on any device with the same Apple ID, including via Family Sharing.
If Apple ever changes the rules on one-time purchases, Miles will adapt without retroactively charging users who already bought Premium. The deal you signed up for is the deal you keep.
What’s next
OBD2 connectivity is the biggest feature on the roadmap — reading mileage straight from the car instead of typing it. When it ships, it’s included for everyone who has Premium. No upcharge, no “Premium Plus,” no surprise.
Beyond that: more reference data for service intervals, better PDF templates, and whatever else makes the app more useful for the kind of car owner who actually keeps records. Follow updates on the Miles blog.