How to share a map of your recommendations: the options compared

Which should you choose?

Choose by what you want the map to do for you.

• The least friction for followers who already use Google Maps: a Google Maps list.
• Ranking restaurants against each other, with friends doing the same: Beli.
• A personal place map with tags, ratings and filters: Mapstr.
• Selling a guide: Rexby, or a paid map on Proxi.
• Your own take on every place, with photos and the date you went, readable in any browser, and followers who get an email when you add somewhere new: Here My Story.
• Tips that open only when the reader is standing at the place: Here My Story.

How do they compare side by side?

What is a Google Maps list best at?

Reach and convenience. Your followers already have Google Maps, a shared list opens inside it, and each place comes with directions, hours and reviews. You can share a link to view or edit, add a note to each place and invite collaborators. It is free.

Its weakness is that it is a list of Google's places with a line from you, not your writing. Creators who keep large lists also find them hard to manage. One food writer described more than 1,000 saved places as "one giant jumbled list," and a travel writer called shared lists "unorganized" with "no options to sort or filter and no search." Google's help page gives a limit of 3,000 places per list.

What is Beli best at?

Beli is built for ranking restaurants. You compare each new place against ones you have already been to, and the app builds your ranked list and a map, alongside your friends' rankings. It holds notes, favorite dishes and tags, and it is popular: about 18,000 App Store ratings averaging 4.8. If rating and ranking is the heart of what you do, it fits better than a story map.

It is an app for iPhone and Android, so your followers need to install it to follow along.

What is Mapstr best at?

Mapstr is a personal map of saved places with tags, notes, ratings and photos, and filters to slice it by. A shared map can be viewed in a browser without the app. It suits someone who wants an organized database of places more than a piece of writing about each one. The free version is limited, and a Plus subscription starts at $5.99 a month.

What if you want to sell your guide?

Then use a tool built for selling. Rexby lets travel creators sell guides with a map and itinerary; buyers pay once to unlock, and the creator keeps 80% of each sale. Proxi offers paid access to a map on its premium plan. Some newsletter writers simply put a Google Maps list behind a paywall, at prices such as $5 for one city.

Here My Story has no way to charge for a map. It is free to make and free to read.

What is Here My Story best at for creators?

Here My Story is a free personal memory map: you pin a place and attach your story of it, up to ten photos and the date. For someone who reviews places, that makes it a map of write-ups in your own voice. More on how creators can use it.

• Nothing for followers to install. A public map opens from a link in any browser, with no account.
• Your words, at length. Each pin is a story with photos, not a star rating with a caption.
• A following you can reach. People who follow your map get an email digest when you add places, and you can see your follower and view counts.
• Tips that unlock on location. Mark a story "Only readable at this place" and it opens only for someone within about 200 meters of the pin. How that works.

Where does Here My Story fall short for creators?

• No star ratings, categories, tags, filters or search.
• No directions, opening hours or booking links. A pin is a spot on the map, and web addresses in a story are plain text.
• One map per account, so one city or one theme per account.
• No way to charge, no affiliate links and no custom branding.
• No import from Google Maps lists or anywhere else.
• Followers need a free account to follow, though not to read.

If you need any of those, one of the tools above is the better choice, and nothing stops you from linking to both.

What happened to Instagram Guides and Thatch?

Both were ways creators shared recommendations, and both are gone. Instagram retired Guides in December 2023. Instagram's newer Map, launched in the United States in August 2025, shows posts by their location tags, but it is not a list of recommendations you curate. Thatch, which let travel creators sell guides, has moved to Mindtrip.

Common questions