TREK is a self-hosted trip planner that runs in one Docker container. An alternative to TripIt and Wanderlog, with a privacy mode and about 400 MB of RAM.
By default, TREK contacts external services run by the project (place search and routing on the sponsor's servers); you can turn this off in the settings.
TREK is a trip planner that you host yourself. It is a web application in a single container; its data lives in two folders next to the Compose file, one for the database and one for uploads. You create trips, add places to them and look places up through a map search, and everything runs on your own server instead of in someone else's account.
According to the authors, TREK also covers day plans, bookings, costs, packing lists, shared trips and a journal. We have not tested those parts, so this page does not describe them in detail.
Why TREK as a TripIt alternative
People who search for a TripIt or Wanderlog alternative usually want the same job done on their own hardware: one place for a trip's places, dates and plans that nobody else can switch off. TREK is built for that, and you control where the data is stored.
We have not compared TREK with TripIt or Wanderlog feature by feature, and we did not open the interface, so we make no claims about how it feels to use. What we did check is how it behaves on the server, including which hosts it talks to. That is the part of a self-hosted planner that is hard to see from the outside.
What it does well
A privacy mode we could verify. We ran TREK with TREK_PLACES_ENABLED=false and TREK_SERVICES=off and captured the server's network traffic through login, trips, place search and reverse geocoding. The server contacted one external host, nominatim.openstreetmap.org, the public OpenStreetMap search service, and made no requests to the project's liketrek.com hosts.
Place search without the project's servers. In that mode, searching for a landmark and looking up an address from coordinates both returned results from OpenStreetMap data.
One container, modest memory. It used about 390 MiB of RAM in our test (300–440 MiB across two runs), measured in an emulated virtual machine.
Trips through the API. After the admin login we created a trip and read it back, and the health endpoint reported .
Similar Open Source Tools
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Hardened Compose recipe. The official Compose file runs the container with a read-only filesystem and dropped capabilities; we kept those settings.
Limitations
We did not test the interface. All checks went through the API. Maps, the editor, mobile use and the features listed by the authors are untested.
Built-in routing is off in private mode. With TREK_SERVICES=off, the project's routing service answers "not available on this instance". We did not set up another routing service, so route calculation is untested.
Place search depends on a public service. In private mode, search and reverse geocoding go to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim, a public service that is not run by the TREK project.
Not checked: browser traffic. Our capture covered the server. Map tiles and trip cover images are fetched by your browser, and we did not look at those requests.
Heavy image, slow first start. The image takes about 2.15 GB unpacked, the first start ran database migrations for about a minute, and the first login requires changing the admin password.
HTTP-only setup needs a cookie setting. The tested recipe sets COOKIE_SECURE=false so sessions work over plain HTTP. If you put TREK behind an HTTPS proxy, remove it; we did not test the proxy setup.
Who should use it
People who want to keep trip plans on their own server and want to know which outside services the server calls.
Home-lab users who already run Docker Compose behind their own reverse proxy.
Anyone willing to try a self-hosted planner while the interface and extra features remain unverified on this page.
FAQ
Is TREK open source?
Yes, it is released under AGPL-3.0-only, and its source is public. You can use it for any purpose. The license has one main condition: if you offer a modified version to users over a network, you must give them its source code.
Does TREK send my data to the project's servers?
By default it contacts external services run by the project for place search and routing. The tested recipe turns that off with TREK_PLACES_ENABLED=false and TREK_SERVICES=off. In our server-side capture with those settings, the only outside host was nominatim.openstreetmap.org, and nothing went to liketrek.com. We did not capture traffic from a browser.
Does place search still work in private mode?
Yes. Searching for a place and looking up an address both worked, using OpenStreetMap's Nominatim.
Can TREK calculate routes in private mode?
Not with the project's built-in routing: that service is disabled and returns an error. Another routing service can be chosen by an admin, but we did not configure or test one.
TREK vs TripIt or Wanderlog: which should you choose?
We have not compared them. Choose TREK if you want to host your trip planner yourself and see which outside services it uses. Stay with the service you use now if you need something we have not tested, such as the interface, bookings or shared editing.
Verdict
Choose TREK if you want a self-hosted trip planner and care about where the server sends requests: in the private configuration we verified, it talked only to OpenStreetMap's public search service. Do not rely on it for routing or for features beyond trips and place search until you have tried the interface yourself, because our test never opened it. Plan for a large image, around 400 MB of RAM and a first-run password change.
Install
We started this Compose file in a fresh Debian 13 virtual machine on Nov 4, 2026 (Docker 29.9.2, Compose v5.7.0, emulated VM, 4 vCPU, 4 GB) and checked it through TREK's own API: the health endpoint answered, the admin logged in, a trip was created and read back, and place search and reverse geocoding returned results. The first response took about a minute after docker compose up -d (the image pull took about 2 minutes). The container used about 390 MiB. We did not open the interface. The image below is mauriceboe/trek:5.1.0, the tag we ran; the source repository is https://github.com/liketrek/TREK, and that repository's README and Compose file also point at mauriceboe/trek.
Verified
Docker Compose with mauriceboe/trek:5.1.0, including TREK_PLACES_ENABLED=false and TREK_SERVICES=off. An earlier run without those two variables did contact the project's place service; the file below is the one checked on Nov 4.
COOKIE_SECURE=false is only for plain HTTP. Remove it behind an HTTPS proxy. ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD are used only when no users exist yet.
Start it and check health:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/health
The health endpoint should answer {"status":"ok"}. The login response asks for a password change at first sign-in; we did not go through that screen. The port is bound to 127.0.0.1. Putting an HTTPS reverse proxy in front, and FORCE_HTTPS, was not tested.
Back up ./data and ./uploads before any update (the update path was not tested). To remove the test setup: docker compose down -v, then docker rmi mauriceboe/trek:5.1.0 and delete ./data and ./uploads.
Found, not run by us
The official Compose file uses the floating tag latest. We did not run that tag. Pin 5.1.0, as above.
Not investigated
Not investigated: Helm, Unraid, a from-source build and package-manager packages.
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