Every gig driver runs the same mental math: which app to open and when, whether the airport is worth the drive, and how much they should be saving for taxes. The platforms have the data to answer all of it precisely. They just keep it to themselves.

That's the problem both Solo and Gridwise are solving. Both track your income, mileage, and expenses across Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and more. Both have a free tier and a paid plan. Both are built to help you earn more. They just take different routes, and which one is right for you depends on how much you want a single app to handle.

The core difference: Gridwise gives you data. Solo gives you answers.

Solo built Sherpa: the first AI built for gig workers. Open the app, ask a question, and get an answer drawn from your real earnings, your actual miles, your specific expenses, and your tax situation. Not just the average driver's numbers, it starts with yours.

"How much did I actually take home last week?" "Is the airport worth it right now? Should I drive Uber or Lyft?" "How much should I set aside for taxes this year?" "Which platform is paying the most in my city today, Doordash or UberEats?"

Sherpa handles all of it. It runs on Solo's proprietary dataset, using more than $7 billion in real gig earnings across 150+ metros, then layered on top of your linked financial profile. It knows what Uber paid in your city last week and it knows what your mileage deduction is worth this quarter. Sherpa draws on everything else Solo tracks: income history, work expenses, Smart Schedule predictions, tax projections, local events, and live demand data. It's powered by Claude, Anthropic's flagship AI model.

Gridwise takes a different approach: dashboards, historical market-level averages, and a "Where to Drive" map. These are useful, well-built tools, but they are similar to what you'd find in your Uber Driver or Dasher app.

What happens when you have a question?

It's Tuesday night. You're parked, trying to decide whether the next two hours are worth it. You need to figure out if Uber or Lyft is going to be your best option. You've been out for four hours, haven't hit your goal for the day yet, and you're starting to feel unsure if this is going to be worth the squeeze.

In Gridwise, you open the app and check the "When to Drive" chart. You scan the airport queue. You scroll high level demand data for your area. The information is there, but it's open to interpretation.

In Solo, you open Sherpa and type: "Should I keep driving tonight?" Sherpa knows what you've earned today, what your hourly target is, what demand looks like in your city right now, and what the next two hours have historically paid drivers like you in this market. Then it gives you an answer — not a chart to interpret, an actual answer. (It can build the chart too, if you want one.)

That's the difference between a market-data tool and an AI that knows your business. Gridwise surfaces the information. Sherpa and the Solo app do all the thinking with it, so you can stop running numbers in your head and start making decisions you can trust.

Solo vs. Gridwise: side-by-side comparison

Both apps are great tools when it comes to market data, airport intelligence, and income tracking. The difference is everything Solo adds below.

Which app actually helps you earn more?

Both are built to grow your income, and both come with receipts. Gridwise says Plus members earn 30% more on average in their first month through better market decisions. Solo users earn up to 40% more per hour using Smart Schedule and pay predictions, and the average app-based worker keeps $5,000+ more per year according to Solo's latest dataset.

The real difference is what stands behind the number.

Gridwise gives you live market data and hands you the judgment call. Solo does that too — then backs its predictions with a Pay Guarantee: schedule an hour, and if you earn less than Solo predicted, Solo pays the gap. The predictions should not be confused for a quick cash grab or a forecast you hope comes true, rather you can view it as a "floor" for your daily earnings that we hold ourselves to. Solo has guaranteed more than $25 million in earnings to date.

Earning more is only half of it. Solo automatically tracks income, mileage, and expenses. Every deductible mile and dollar gets captured without you manually logging anything.

The mileage piece is worth calling out. Solo has its own automatic mileage tracker which automatically syncs with completed trips from your linked gig accounts. As you drive, Solo logs your trips. When you complete a job on Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, or any linked gig, Solo's system matches that activity against your tracked drives and auto-classifies the miles as work. No start/stop button, no swipe-to-classify queue, no weekly review. The classification just happens in the background. If you'd prefer to keep things old school as someone who enjoys the start/stop of it all, Solo also offers a manual mileage tracking option that can be enabled at any time (similar to what you get with Gridwise Plus).

Gridwise takes a different approach. Its Plus plan runs GPS-based tracking, but it isn't fully automatic. Gridwise's own help center tells drivers to "start the shift tracker at the beginning of your shift" and "toggle off your shift tracker when you finish working." Miss the start button and those miles don't get logged. And once they are logged, work and personal drives land in the same list — so you go back and classify each entry by swiping right or left. Gridwise recommends doing this weekly, before the trips pile up and you can't remember which ones were work miles or personal. It's a legitimately useful tool. It just adds a manual step at both ends that Solo's matching eliminates.

Sherpa reads all of it alongside live market data and answers in seconds: what to work, when to start, what to set aside.

How does Solo help at tax time?

Solo turns a year of driving into a finished return. Every classified mile and tracked expense lands in IRS-compliant CSV and PDF reports, ready to file. Annual Pro and Pro Plus members file federal and state taxes free, in the app or on the web, with income and expenses pulled in automatically.

Ask Sherpa what you owe. Ask what deductions you're missing. Ask what to set aside this week. You'll always get answers from your actual numbers, not a generic estimate.

Gridwise doesn't include native tax filing — it exports a file you take to a third-party tool or preparer. For drivers who'd rather keep everything in one place, that's a $150+ gap Solo's Annual Pro and Pro Plus plans close.

What about the Pay Guarantee?

Gridwise's comparison page focuses on the fine print, and that's reasonable. Eligibility terms are real and worth naming plainly.

Solo's Pay Guarantee lets you lock in an earnings floor for scheduled hours through Smart Schedule. If you work the hour and earn less than predicted, Solo pays the difference. Over $25 million guaranteed to date. No other gig app offers anything close.

The terms: you work the scheduled hour, on the scheduled platform, within your city's coverage area. Pro and Pro Plus plans are available to all US users, but Smart Schedule and Pay Guarantee are tied to specific metros. Solo publishes a full coverage map at worksolo.com/pay-guarantee-coverage-map. It covers the vast majority of major US cities. For drivers in a covered city, the guarantee functions as a real earnings floor. If you're outside a covered area, Solo still gives you Sherpa, automatic income, expense and mileage tracking, tax filing, and market insights — the guarantee is simply not yet available there.

Solo vs. Gridwise: pricing compared

Gridwise Plus is $9/month billed annually ($108/year). Solo runs $8/month for Basic, $10 for Pro, and $15 for Pro Plus on the same annual billing. At face value, Gridwise Plus and Solo Pro are about a dollar a month apart.

Then factor in tax filing. Solo Annual Pro and Pro Plus include free federal and state filing, which is a service that runs $150+ a year from any standalone prep tool. Gridwise doesn't include filing, so that's a separate line item. Net it out and Solo Pro is the cheaper overall package for anyone who files taxes (which is everyone).

All Solo subscriptions are also fully tax-deductible.

What does Gridwise do well?

Quite a bit, and it deserves the recognition.

Gridwise rates a little higher in both app stores — 4.9 iOS and 4.6 Google Play, compared to Solo's 4.7 and 4.3. Its free trial runs longer too: 14 days to Solo's 7. And its market intelligence is strong.

The airport feature stands out: live flight arrivals, delay alerts, and real-time wait estimates that save meaningful time if you work the airport regularly. Event notifications for concerts, games, and demand surges are solid. The driver benefits marketplace covers health, dental, vision, and accident coverage.

Where Solo pulls ahead is its breadth: Sherpa AI, automatic expense tracking, free in-app tax filing, a live personalized earnings forecast, and the Smart Schedule/Pay Guarantee. Gridwise offers none of those. Solo matches Gridwise on real-time market data, airport intelligence, and benefits, then layers in the features that turn a tracking app into something that runs your whole gig business and helps you earn more, keep more, and stress less.

Which gig app is right for you?

It comes down to how much you want one app to handle.

Choose Gridwise if you want:

• Strong airport intelligence with live flight data and wait-time estimates
• Event-based demand alerts for concerts, games, and local surges
• A driver benefits marketplace with health and insurance options
• The higher app store rating and the longer 14-day free trial

Choose Solo if you want:

• Sherpa, the first AI built for gig workers, answering questions about your earnings, taxes, schedule, and deductions in plain English
• Automatic mileage tracking that logs your drives and auto-classifies work miles by matching them against your completed gig jobs. No start/stop button and no manual classification required.
• Income and expenses tracked automatically by linking your bank or card
• IRS-compliant reports and free federal and state tax filing built right in
• A live earnings forecast by day, hour, platform, and location with Smart Schedule — plus a Pay Guarantee that backs it with real money
• One app that covers every aspect of your rideshare, delivery, courier and gig business

For independent workers who want answers instead of dashboards, automatic tracking, guaranteed pay, and taxes handled in one place — Solo is the complete kit. Stop stitching together a tracker, a tax tool, and a running guess across multiple jobs. Run your whole business from one app with Solo.

Frequently asked questions

Is Solo or Gridwise better for gig workers?

Depends what you need. Gridwise is a strong market-intelligence tool with real-time airport and demand data that's well-executed. Solo is the all-in-one option for every type of independent worker: Sherpa (the first AI built for gig workers), automatic tracking across income, mileage, and expenses, free in-app tax filing for annual subscribers, and a Pay Guarantee backed by real money. For drivers who want everything in one place, Solo does more. For drivers who mainly want a live market-data layer, Gridwise handles that job well.

Is Gridwise legit?

Yes. Gridwise is a legitimate, well-reviewed app used by over a million drivers, with strong app store ratings (4.9 iOS, 4.6 Google Play). It tracks income and mileage across rideshare and delivery platforms and provides solid real-time market data. If you also want an AI assistant, automatic expense tracking, in-app tax filing, and a pay guarantee, Solo adds everything Gridwise doesn't include.

Is Gridwise safe to use?

Yes. Gridwise uses secure, read-only connections to your gig accounts to pull earnings and mileage data, and it anonymizes what it analyzes. As with any earnings app, you're granting access to your platform account data. Solo uses the same secure, read-only connection model.

Does Gridwise have an AI assistant?

No, Gridwise is built around dashboards and market data, not a conversational AI. Solo's Sherpa is the first AI built for gig workers: it answers questions about your earnings, taxes, schedule, and deductions in plain English, pulling from your actual data. Sherpa is included with every Solo plan, including the free tier.

What is Sherpa and what can it do?

Sherpa is Solo's built-in AI — the first AI built for gig workers. Ask it anything about your gig business in plain English: earnings, taxes, mileage, expenses, schedule. It answers from your real numbers, grounded in Solo's $7B+ dataset of real gig earnings across 150+ metros and layered with your personal financial profile. Powered by Claude, Anthropic's flagship AI model.

Is Solo's mileage tracking automatic?

Yes. Solo has its own built-in mileage tracker that logs your drives, then auto-classifies work miles by matching them against completed jobs from your linked gig accounts (Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, and others). When you finish a delivery or drop off a rider, Solo already knows that drive was work — no start/stop button, no manual classification, no review queue. Gridwise's Plus plan uses GPS-based tracking that requires you to start the tracker before each shift and stop it after, then manually classify each logged drive as work or personal. Forget to hit start and those miles are gone. The Rideshare Guy named Solo a top pick for mileage tracking.

What is the best DoorDash mileage tracker?

Solo is a strong pick for DoorDash mileage tracking. Its built-in tracker logs your drives and auto-classifies work miles by matching them against completed DoorDash deliveries — no manual start/stop, no classification needed. Tracked miles feed directly into IRS-compliant reports you can file in the app (Annual Pro and Pro Plus, federal and state, free). Gridwise also tracks DoorDash mileage alongside solid market data, but requires you to remember to start and stop its shift tracker each session, then manually classify each entry as work or personal — and has no built-in tax filing.

Is Solo more expensive than Gridwise?

Solo Pro is $10/month billed annually versus $9 for Gridwise Plus — about a dollar a month apart. But Solo Annual Pro and Pro Plus include free federal and state tax filing, which runs $150+ a year from any dedicated prep tool. After that savings, Solo Pro is the cheaper overall package. And both plans are fully tax-deductible. For more information about pricing, check out Solo's pricing page here.

What is Solo's Pay Guarantee?

Solo's Pay Guarantee lets you lock in an earnings floor for scheduled hours through Smart Schedule. Work the hour and earn less than predicted, and Solo pays the difference. More than $25 million guaranteed to date. Terms apply — you work the scheduled hour, on the scheduled platform, within your city's coverage area — and no other gig app offers anything comparable. Solo publishes a full coverage map at worksolo.com/pay-guarantee-coverage-map.

Can Solo and Gridwise track multiple gig platforms?

Yes. Both track income across Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Spark, Amazon Flex, and more. Solo also tracks expenses automatically via bank or card link and covers a wider range of app-based work beyond rideshare and delivery.

Does Solo help with taxes?

Yes. Solo generates IRS-compliant CSV and PDF reports from tracked income, mileage, and expenses. Annual Pro and Pro Plus members file federal and state taxes free in the app, with all data pulled in automatically. Ask Sherpa what you owe, what deductions you're missing, or what to set aside — and get answers from your actual numbers. Gridwise exports a file you take elsewhere to file.

How is Sherpa different from ChatGPT or other AI tools?

Generic AI tools don't know what Uber paid in your city last Tuesday or what your mileage deduction is worth this quarter. Sherpa is built on Solo's proprietary dataset of real gig earnings and layered with your personal financial data — so every answer is specific to your business, not a category average.

Does Gridwise sell driver data to companies?

Gridwise runs a separate B2B business, Gridwise Analytics, that sells anonymized, aggregated gig-mobility data to gig platforms, financial firms, retailers, and autonomous-fleet operators — as described on its own site. The data is aggregated, not individually identifiable. Solo does not sell user data; its only customer is the driver. Both models are common in the industry; worth knowing before you choose.

Ready to stop doing the math in your head? Download Solo on iOS or Android and ask Sherpa your first question — free for 7 days.