Comparison · Tax-residency trackers · 2026
Stretch vs Flamingo Compliance
Flamingo Compliance is a serious tax-and-visa tracker sold in three tiers — Settler, Resident and Globetrotter, $29.99 to $119 a year, iPhone only. Stretch is one plan at $49.99 a year with everything in it, on both phones, and the counter underneath is free forever. Here is how I would choose.
Who each one is for
Pick Flamingo Compliance if your question is mainly a tax one — the UK Statutory Residence Test, domicile, days in a US state or city — and you carry an iPhone. Pick Stretch if you cross borders with day limits attached, want one price with everything in it, or hold an Android phone, which Flamingo does not run on.
Start with how tax-residency days are counted →. Both apps count days. Only one tells you the date you must leave.
TL;DR
| Feature | Stretch | Flamingo Compliance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free counter; Stretch+ $49.99/yr | Three tiers: $29.99, $59.99 or $119/yr | Stretch |
| Packaging | One plan, everything in it | Features split across three tiers | Stretch |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android | iPhone only | Stretch |
| Visa-day counting | Every country's rule, from one log | Schengen 90/180 plus IATA lookups | Stretch |
| Tax residency | 183-day windows and country tests | Deeper: UK SRT, domicile, US cities | Flamingo |
| Where the rules come from | Source and checked date on every rule | No per-rule source shown | Stretch |
| Exports | Travel-history PDFs | Customisable CSV per tracker | Flamingo |
| Advisers and firms | Not offered | Bulk licences, partner branding | Flamingo |
Flamingo Compliance earns its reviews: few consumer apps take the UK Statutory Residence Test and US city-level day counting this seriously. But it is iPhone only, it has no permanent free tier, and it asks you to guess which of three tiers holds the feature you came for. Stretch is one plan at $49.99, with the counter free underneath.
Quick verdict
| If you want… | Choose |
|---|---|
| UK SRT depth, domicile and US city counts | Flamingo Compliance |
| Bulk licences for clients, with your branding | Flamingo Compliance |
| A customisable CSV for your accountant | Flamingo Compliance |
| Stay days for every country, free | Stretch |
| One price with everything in it | Stretch |
| The same app on Android | Stretch |
Flamingo Compliance at a glance
What it is. A tax-and-visa compliance tracker by AccuraSoft Ltd (London, 2022), subtitled "Tax Residency & Visa Tracking". It records trips by geolocation, builds a timeline of countries, US states and cities, and counts your presence against customisable thresholds — its description names the "Statutory Residence Test for UK and Substantial and Physical Presence Tests for US". It adds a Schengen 90/180 view, visa expiry alerts, a passport index "synced in real-time with IATA database", document storage, a flight-crew exemption mode, and a "customizable CSV report of every tracker", all "stored locally only on your device and iCloud".
Price. Three tiers on the US App Store: Settler $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, Resident $5.99 or $59.99, Globetrotter $11.99 or $119.00. In the UK the same tiers are £1.99/£19.99, £3.99/£39.99 and £8.99/£89.99. New users get a 30-day "Discovery mode" with every feature except report export, then no free tier.
Platforms. iPhone only; its own site says Android is "not yet available… actively working on its development."
Rating. 4.4★ from 47 ratings on the US App Store and 4.2★ from 34 on the UK store, version 2.4.7. UK reviewers are warm: "I love Flamingo and rely on it heavily - it just works." US reviewers are where the tier problem shows. One review, titled "Paid $30 and Cannot Use the App", says that after upgrading "I discovered I needed to pay for a second tier" and calls the structure "excessive and confusing".
Stretch at a glance
The app. Log the day you land — two taps — and Stretch shows the days you have left, the date you must be out, and reminds you at 14, 7, 3 and 1 days. It counts limits that reset when you leave and rolling windows like Schengen's 90-in-180 from one log, keeps your e-visas on the stay they cover, and shows every rule's source and checked date at doastretch.com/visa. All of that is free, forever.
Stretch+. $49.99 a year. It adds Explore, on-device GPS logging, tax-day tallies, planning, travel-history PDFs and the Visa Desk — the Visa Desk prepares your tourist-visa and entry-declaration forms with you; you review, pay the government and submit. iPhone and Android, with no account, no server and no analytics.
Feature comparison
Packaging, price and platforms
Flamingo splits its features across Settler, Resident and Globetrotter and asks you to pick before you know which box your problem is in. The Discovery mode is a generous way to find out, but it ends, and reviewers still get the tier wrong and pay twice. Stretch has one paid plan with everything in it at $49.99 a year: well under half of Flamingo's $119 top tier, and cheaper than its $59.99 middle one. Underneath, the counter and your documents cost nothing and always will. And Flamingo is iPhone only.
Winner Stretch — one price under their top tier, free underneath, and it runs on both phones.
What gets counted, and where the rules come from
Flamingo does the famous rule — Schengen 90/180 — tracks permit and visa expiry, and looks up entry requirements from an IATA-synced passport index: a lookup plus one calculator. Stretch counts the rule you are actually under in each country — limits that reset when you leave, rolling windows, visa-on-arrival days, e-visa allowances — from one log, with the must-exit date set the moment you land. IATA is a good source, but Flamingo does not show which source a rule came from or when it was checked. Stretch shows both, and publishes them at doastretch.com/visa.
Winner Stretch — every rule shape, counted rather than looked up.
Tax residency and domicile
This is Flamingo's home ground. Customisable thresholds, domicile tracking, US states and cities, the UK Statutory Residence Test and the US presence tests, plus a crew exemption mode almost nobody else ships. Stretch+ gives you 183-day windows and country tests from the log you already keep — right for most travellers, not as deep for a UK SRT case.
Winner Flamingo Compliance — deeper tax residency, not close on UK SRT or US city days.
Documents and exports
Both hold documents. Stretch attaches e-visas to the stay they cover and links the arrival cards you must complete before you fly. On exports, Flamingo's customisable CSV per tracker is what an accountant asks for — and it is the one thing its trial holds back. Stretch produces travel-history PDFs in Stretch+, but no CSV.
Winner Flamingo Compliance — a CSV per tracker is the better accountant handoff.
Visa applications
Flamingo tells you what a visa requires. Stretch's Visa Desk prepares the forms with you: you review what it has typed, pay the government and submit — no agency fee, no middleman holding your passport scan. Agencies charge $10–80 a visa, so one or two a year pays for it.
Winner Stretch — no tracker on this shelf offers it.
Privacy
Flamingo is admirably clear: local and iCloud only, "We do not collect, nor store, your information on our servers." Stretch goes further — no account, no server to sync to, no analytics, and GPS processed on the device with every border confirmed by you.
Winner Stretch — narrowly, for having no account and nothing to sync.
Advisers, firms and support
Flamingo's partnership programme is a real B2B channel: bulk Globetrotter licences from 25 seats, discounts to 35%, partner branding at scale. Reviewers praise its support, one calling it "exceptional". Stretch has no adviser programme — one nomad answers it.
Winner Flamingo Compliance — for firms, and for support.
Choose Flamingo Compliance if you…
- need real UK SRT, domicile or US city day tracking, and will buy the tier that holds it;
- want a customisable CSV per tracker for your accountant;
- are a firm buying licences for clients, with your branding in the app;
- fly for a living and need the crew exemption mode.
Choose Stretch if you…
- want one price with everything in it — $49.99 a year, no tier to decode;
- want the counter and your documents free forever, so an expired card cannot cause an overstay;
- are on Android, or travel with someone who is;
- enter more than one country with a number attached — Schengen plus Thailand, Japan, Mexico — from one log;
- want to see where every rule came from before you trust it.
How we evaluated
- How the paid features are packaged, and whether the free tier can be taken away
- Which phones the app actually runs on
- How many rule shapes one log can serve, and whether it shows a must-leave date
- Tax-residency depth: thresholds, domicile, UK SRT, US state and city tests
- Where the rules come from, exports, privacy and the complaints — read 17 August 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is Stretch better than Flamingo Compliance?
Yes, for most travellers: Stretch counts every country's stay-day rule free forever, runs on Android as well as iPhone, and charges one price — $49.99 a year, or $149 once for life — instead of three tiers up to $119. Flamingo is better if your problem is mainly tax: deeper UK SRT, domicile and US city tracking, CSV exports, and licences for firms.
How much does Flamingo Compliance cost?
$29.99 a year for Settler, $59.99 for Resident and $119.00 for Globetrotter, or $2.99, $5.99 and $11.99 a month on the US App Store (checked 17 August 2026); in the UK, £19.99, £39.99 and £89.99 a year. A 30-day trial covers every feature except report export; after that, no free tier.
Is Flamingo Compliance available on Android?
No. It is iPhone only, and its own site says it is "not yet available on Android, but we are actively working on its development" (17 August 2026). Stretch is on both stores.
Which tier of Flamingo Compliance do I need?
That depends which features you want, and it is the app's weakest point: one App Store reviewer paid, then found "I discovered I needed to pay for a second tier", and called the structure "excessive and confusing". The trial is the honest way to find out. Stretch has one paid plan, so the question does not arise.
Does Stretch track UK Statutory Residence Test days like Flamingo?
Partly. Stretch+ counts 183-day windows and country tests from the same log as your visa days, which covers most questions. Flamingo goes deeper on the UK SRT, with customisable thresholds and domicile tracking, so if the SRT is why you are buying, it is the deeper tool.
Sources
- US App Store — the three tiers, 4.4★ from 47 ratings, version 2.4.7, description quoted: apps.apple.com (checked 2026-08-17)
- US reviews — the tier-confusion complaints: apps.apple.com (checked 2026-08-17)
- UK App Store — 4.2★ from 34 ratings, £ tiers: apps.apple.com (checked 2026-08-17)
- Flamingo's site — Android, Discovery mode, tier names: flamingo.tax (checked 2026-08-17)
- Partnership Program — bulk licences, 10–35% discounts: flamingo.tax/partnership (checked 2026-08-17)
- Stretch's rules, with source and checked date: doastretch.com/visa
- Stretch pricing and the free tier: doastretch.com
Count it, don't carry it
Do a stretch. Don't snap.
The counter, the alerts and your documents are free, forever. Coming to the App Store and Google Play — one email when it lands.
Recommended reads
- Stretch vs Domicile365: $240 a year of forensic pings, or $49.99 with the counter free [2026]
- Stretch vs TaxBird: $10 a year apart, and only one of them counts your visa days [2026]
- 8 best TaxBird alternatives in 2026 (for tax residency and travel days)
Prices, ratings and features are as published by each product on the date shown; they change — check the store listing before you buy. Stretch is a tracker, not legal advice.