Parents of teenagers
They text back eventually. The map tells you they got to school before that.
- Arrival alerts
- Saved places
- History
The "where u at" text, automated.
Your circle, live on the map.
PinUs puts your whole circle on one live map — free and self-hosted, no data broker, no subscription. Create a circle, drop your pin, and get notified the second someone lands home safe.
One Tuesday, one circle
Step through a normal day and watch what the map does on its own. No one had to text anybody.
Tap a time to jump to it
Live map
Everyone is still in
Three pins sitting on Home. Nothing to do, nothing to check — this is what most of the day looks like.
Places & arrival alerts
Maya arrived at School
You saved School as a place once. Now the circle gets told the moment she gets there, and nobody had to ask.
Live status
Dad is driving
His pin shows he is moving rather than sitting still, so you know not to call right now.
Battery alerts
Sam's phone is at 12%
A heads-up before his pin goes quiet, so a dark pin reads as a flat battery instead of something worse.
Circle chat
"Grabbing food — want anything?"
Chat lives on the same screen as the map, so asking takes one tap. Messages clear themselves after seven days.
History
Everyone back, nobody texted
The whole day is on the map if you want it — and it deletes itself after seven days if you do not.
How it works
-
1
Create an account
Just your name, email, and a password. No phone number, no drama.
-
2
Start or join a circle
Make a circle and send the code, or drop in with one someone sent you.
-
3
Share your location
Turn on location in your browser. Your pin goes live for the whole circle, instantly.
Who can see all this?
Only the people you invited. That's not a setting you have to find — it's how circles work.
Members of a circle you joined.
Never sees you
- Other circles — even ones you're also in
- Advertisers and data brokers
- Anyone without your invite code
- Search engines and the public web
And you can go invisible any time without leaving the circle.
Who ends up using PinUs
Same map, very different reasons for opening it.
Two people, opposite schedules
Know when to start cooking without asking "how far away are you" for the fourth time.
- Live map
- Driving status
- Circle chat
Friends meeting somewhere new
Five people, five routes, one map. Nobody waits alone outside the wrong entrance.
- Live map
- Circle chat
- Invite codes
Checking on aging parents
A quiet arrival alert when they get home, instead of a phone call that feels like surveillance.
- Arrival alerts
- Battery alerts
- Invisible mode
Walking home on your own
Send one person a link that shows where you are until you're through the door — then it stops.
- Share links
- SOS
- Live map
A house full of people
Who's in, who's out, who's bringing dinner — settled without a group chat nobody reads.
- Saved places
- Circle chat
- Arrival alerts
What makes this different
Most family locator apps are free until they aren't. Here's the honest comparison — including where PinUs still falls short.
| Feature | PinUs | Typical locator app |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no tiers | Free tier, paid upgrades |
| Ads | None | Often, or upsells |
| Who holds your location data | The server your circle hosts | The company's servers |
| Sold to data brokers | Never | Read the fine print |
| Go invisible without leaving | Yes, anytime | Usually not |
| iPhone app | Not yet — browser only | Yes |
That last row is a real gap, not a spin. On iPhone, PinUs runs in the browser, and browsers stop sharing location when the tab closes. The Android app does keep sharing in the background.
Free forever. Nothing to download. Live in under 60 seconds.
Start my circle
Frequently asked questions
What is PinUs?
PinUs is a location-sharing web app for families and friend groups. People join a shared "circle," and everyone in that circle can see each other's last-known location on a live map, along with arrival and departure alerts for saved places.
Does PinUs work on both iPhone and Android?
Yes, on both — through your phone's browser, with nothing to install. On Android there's also a native app, currently in closed testing on Google Play ahead of its public release, which adds background location sharing.
Is PinUs free?
Yes. PinUs has no subscription tiers, no ads, and doesn't sell your data — whoever hosts it runs it on their own server instead of paying a company for the service.
Do I need to install an app?
No. PinUs works fully in your mobile or desktop browser. An Android app is in closed testing on Google Play, but it's optional — it mainly adds background sharing that a browser can't do.
Does location sharing work in the background?
In a browser, no — sharing runs only while the dashboard tab is open and active, because browsers suspend background tabs. The Android app does keep sharing in the background, and shows a notification the whole time it's active so you always know.
Who can see my location?
Only the members of the circles you've joined. Location data is never shared between circles or shown to anyone outside them.
You stop having to ask
PinUs tells your circle the things you'd otherwise be texting about.
- Maya arrived at Home Left School 22 min ago · 4.1 km · top 48 km/h
- Dad isn't at Work yet You asked to be told if he hadn't arrived by 09:15
- Sam's phone is at 12% His pin may stop updating soon
- Jo was doing 118 km/h On the drive between Home and Airport
- Maya sent an SOS Location shared with everyone in Family right now
Every alert stays inside the circle
Nobody outside it is notified, and activity logs delete themselves after 7 days.
This is the whole thing
One map, everyone on it, and the alerts that mean you stop asking. No dashboard to learn.
In closed testing
Google Play
On the roadmap
App Store
Start my circle
Free forever. Nothing to download. Live in under 60 seconds.