The best apps to track concerts you've been to (2026)

There’s no shortage of apps that touch the gig-tracking space — but most of them were built for something else (discovery, setlists, ticket-buying) and added “log a show” as an afterthought. Below is a practical, honest look at what’s actually out there in 2026, who each app is best for, and where they fall short.

Full disclosure up front: we make Banded, and we think it’s the best at the personal-diary use case specifically. We’ll explain why — and we won’t be coy about where the others are stronger.

1. Banded — the purpose-built gig diary

• Best for: People who want a Letterboxd-shaped place to log every show they’ve been to, see stats, and follow friends.
• Platform: iOS (iPhone)
• Price: Free; optional Pro and Backstage subscriptions for cosmetics and supporting development.

Banded was designed from day one as a personal gig diary. The unit is one artist on one date at one venue. You rate the artist and venue separately (each out of 5 in half-star increments), write an optional review, and the gig appears on your profile and in your followers’ feed.

Where it differs from the others: every gig generates a polaroid-style share card you can post directly to Instagram Stories (guide here). Year-in-review is built in. Festivals get treated as a parent record with child acts so you don’t have to log thirty separate entries. There’s a back-date flow specifically for filling in your history (how to log a past gig).

Weak spots: iOS only (Android is on the roadmap but not committed). Setlist data is shown but not editable — Banded reads from Setlist.fm rather than hosting its own. The artist database is sourced from MusicBrainz, so very obscure local acts can be missing until someone adds them upstream.

2. Setlist.fm — best for setlists, awkward as a diary

• Best for: People who care about the specific songs played at the show.
• Platform: Web, iOS, Android
• Price: Free

Setlist.fm has been around since 2008 and is the canonical source of setlist data. Almost every other app (Banded included) pulls setlists from here. The community is huge and active — for any gig at a venue of meaningful size, there’s a setlist within minutes of the encore.

You can use Setlist.fm as a diary by adding yourself to a setlist’s “I was there” list, but it’s clearly a secondary use case. The UI hasn’t meaningfully changed in years. There’s no concept of ratings, reviews, or following friends. Your “I was there” list is essentially a flat catalogue.

If your gig-tracking is really setlist-tracking, this is the place. If you want a journal, look elsewhere. Detailed comparison: Banded vs Setlist.fm.

3. Songkick — was great, isn’t really for tracking anymore

• Best for: Historically, getting alerts for tours; in practice, increasingly unreliable.
• Platform: Web, iOS, Android (depending on year)
• Price: Free

Songkick was the best in class for “tell me when my favourite bands are touring” for nearly a decade. Its “Trackings” feature let you mark artists you cared about and get email alerts when they announced tours.

In recent years, ownership changes, feature wind-downs, and shifting strategic focus have made it less reliable. We wrote a longer piece on Songkick alternatives in 2026 which covers what’s happened and what people are migrating to.

For tracking past concerts, Songkick was never really purpose-built. The Plans/Going-To functionality covered upcoming events but didn’t give you a serious personal log of what you’ve attended.

4. Bandsintown — discovery-first, not diary-first

• Best for: Hearing about upcoming tours from artists you follow.
• Platform: Web, iOS, Android
• Price: Free; ad-supported

Bandsintown is the biggest player in concert discovery — over 80 million registered users, deep ticketing integrations, artist-side tools. Their model is more like Ticketmaster’s competitor than Letterboxd’s: they make money on ticket affiliate revenue, not subscriptions.

You can mark shows you’ve been to via the “RSVP’d”/Going feature, but again, it’s not the primary product. The feed is dominated by upcoming-show recommendations, not friends’ diaries. There’s no concept of ratings or reviews for past shows.

If you want to be alerted when bands you love are touring nearby, Bandsintown is hard to beat. If you want a diary, it’s the wrong tool. See Banded vs Bandsintown for the full breakdown.

5. Concertful — niche, web-only

• Best for: People who already use the site and have a list there.
• Platform: Web only
• Price: Free

Concertful aggregates upcoming events and lets users mark themselves “going.” It has a small, dedicated audience but no mobile app and limited social features. If you’ve never heard of it, you probably aren’t missing much for a personal-diary use case.

6. Apple Notes / Google Sheets — the manual approach

• Best for: People who actively prefer not to use a dedicated app.
• Price: Free

We’ll say it: a stack of dated entries in Notes works perfectly well as a gig diary, especially if you only go to a handful of shows a year. The trade-off is no metadata (no artist images, no setlists, no automatic venue info), no stats, no social, no sharing — but the simplicity has a certain charm.

A spreadsheet is the next step up. Columnar, sortable, eternal. We’ve seen people maintain decades-long gig diaries in a single Google Sheet. The downside is the same: no one but you ever sees it, and it has the visual appeal of, well, a spreadsheet.

7. Last.fm — for the listening, not the going

Worth mentioning briefly because people confuse the use case. Last.fm tracks what you listen to, not what you go and see. Some users have hacked it together as a gig log via the events feature, but it’s never been the point of the service. If you want a diary of live shows, you want something built for that.

Comparison table

How to choose

If you want a single app that does the log every gig you’ve been to job well and looks good, install Banded and back-date your history. (How to log a past gig.)

If you care most about the specific songs played at every gig you go to, use Setlist.fm alongside. Banded pulls Setlist.fm data into the artist page, so the two coexist nicely.

If your main need is “tell me when bands I love are touring near me,” Bandsintown is still the best at this, ahead of Songkick’s current state.

For most people who want one app that just works for personal gig-tracking — and who want to discover what their friends are seeing — Banded is the one we’d recommend. Free, iOS, download here.