What is the best route optimization software in 2026?
The right tool depends less on the algorithm than on how it bills you.
You plan the day in Google Maps and hit the wall at stop ten: a single route won't take more. Even below that, Maps keeps your stops in the order you typed them. It never reorders them. That is usually the moment a delivery business, a contractor or a service crew starts looking for route optimization software.
The short answer. OptimoRoute is the best pick for most small fleets: the strongest optimization in our comparison, at $35.10 per driver per month on annual billing, with a 30-day trial. Routific is free up to 100 orders a month, then a flat $150 up to 1,000. Spoke Dispatch (formerly Circuit for Teams) bills by stop with unlimited drivers, from $125 a month. Upper is the easy start for field teams, Onfleet the platform for 2,500+ deliveries a month, and Routal the option if your vans run in Europe.
Also managing fuel, maintenance and vehicle tracking? That is a different job: read our fleet management software comparison.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best route planner for your situation
Lite at $35.10 per driver, billed annually
Best free plan for low volumeFree up to 100 orders a month
Best for many drivers$125 a month for 1,000 stops, unlimited drivers
Easiest for field teamsStarter at $50 a month, $40 billed annually
Best for high-volume deliveryLaunch from $619 a month for 2,500 deliveries
Best for European fleets€199 a month with 4 vehicles included
6 route optimization tools compared
This ranking is built for a business running 1 to 20 vehicles: local delivery, HVAC and plumbing crews, home care, repair services. Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, before tax. Billing units differ: per driver, per stop or order, or a volume package. The cost section below puts them side by side.
| Best for | What sets it apart | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OptimoRoute | Best overall for small fleets | Time windows, skills and capacity in one solve | 4.3/5 | Lite $35.10/driver/mo, annual | — | 5 to 50 vehicles | Visit → |
| 2 | Routific | Best free plan for low volume | Free up to 100 orders a month | 4.1/5 | Free, then $150/mo up to 1,000 orders | ✓ | Low volume, seasonal peaks | Visit → |
| 3 | Spoke Dispatch | Best for many drivers | Unlimited drivers and team members | 4.2/5 | Starter $125/mo for 1,000 stops | — | Many drivers, few stops each | Visit → |
| 4 | Upper | Easiest for field teams | Quick for a crew to pick up | 3.8/5 | Starter $50/mo, $40 annual | — | Field teams up to 10 drivers | Visit → |
| 5 | Onfleet | Best for high-volume delivery | Full customer tracking and proof of delivery | 3.9/5 | Launch from $619/mo, 2,500 deliveries | — | 2,500+ deliveries a month | Visit → |
| 6 | Routal | Best for European fleets | Priced in euros, 4 vehicles included | 4.0/5 | Standard €199/mo ($199 outside Europe) | — | Fleets operating in Europe | Visit → |
The order reflects what a small US fleet needs: optimization quality first, then a predictable bill. Scores rate each tool overall on our five criteria and stay the same on every page of our Labs.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and ranked
This page is for the owner or ops manager of a small business that delivers goods or sends people to customers. You know your routes and your drivers. You want to know which tool saves miles, and what the bill looks like once the trial ends.
We read every vendor's official pricing page, then worked out the monthly cost for 3 and for 10 vehicles. We went through user reviews next, starting with the negative ones: gaps between the web planner and the mobile app in rural areas, no way to avoid tolls, stops that are painful to move between drivers mid-day, prices that feel steep for a small team.
Route4Me is not ranked. Its pricing page lists $199, $299 and $349 a month without saying whether that is per user or per account, so there is no honest way to compute a fleet cost. We left out Track-POD and RouteXL too: their pricing pages were down during our comparison.
- Optimization qualityTime windows, vehicle capacity, skills, service time, re-optimizing mid-day.30%
- Cost for a small fleetMonthly cost at 3 and 10 vehicles, free plan, contract terms.25%
- Driver app and trackingNavigation, proof of delivery, customer texts, live tracking.20%
- SetupAddress import, first day of use, trial without a card.15%
- Support and languageSupport quality, languages, where the vendor operates.10%
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
OptimoRoute
OptimoRoute scored highest on optimization quality in our comparison. One solve handles delivery windows, the weight and volume each van can carry, the skills of each technician, breaks and service time. Lite plans up to 700 orders at a time, Pro up to 1,000, with no daily volume cap.
Pricing is per driver: $35.10 a month on Lite and $44.10 on Pro, both on annual billing. The pricing grid doesn't show a month-to-month rate, so ask before you commit. The 30-day trial is the longest in this ranking, long enough to replay a full month of real routes, and there is no setup fee.
- 30-day trial: enough to compare a full month of routes
- Time windows, capacity and skills combined in one solve
- No setup fee and no daily volume cap
- ✓Top score for optimization quality
- ✓Rated 4.6 out of 5 across more than 260 reviews
- ✓Works for delivery and field service alike
- ✗Users report gaps between the web planner and the app in rural areas, and road works aren't always picked up
- ✗No option to avoid toll roads, and the base map differs from Google Maps
- ✗Setting up the rules takes time, and the monthly rate isn't published
The strongest planner if your constraints are real: two-hour windows, mixed van sizes, specialized techs. Use the 30 days to replay a real month, and check your rural routes before you sign.
Routific
Routific, a Canadian company, dropped per-vehicle pricing in 2024. It now bills by order, with unlimited drivers. Under 100 orders a month, it costs nothing. That is the most useful free plan in this ranking for a real business, like a bakery that delivers on weekends or a farm running a box program.
Between 100 and 1,000 orders, you pay a flat $150 a month. Past that, each order costs 15 cents, then less as volume grows, down to 3 cents. The free plan doesn't send texts to your customers: that add-on is quoted separately.
- Free up to 100 orders a month, unlimited drivers
- Flat $150 up to 1,000 orders, easy to budget
- Per-order price drops as volume grows, handy for seasonal peaks
- ✓The best free plan for a small delivery operation
- ✓Adding a driver for the holiday rush doesn't change the bill
- ✓Predictable cost while you stay under the 1,000-order tier
- ✗No customer texts without a quoted add-on
- ✗Fewer constraint settings than OptimoRoute for technician work
- ✗Past 1,000 orders, the bill climbs with every order
Start here if you deliver under 100 orders a month: you pay nothing. Between 100 and 1,000, the flat $150 stays simple. Above that, run the numbers against a per-driver plan.
Spoke Dispatch
Spoke is the new name for Circuit. Its team product, Spoke Dispatch, flips the math: you pay for stops, not for drivers. Starter is $125 a month for 1,000 stops, with unlimited drivers and team members. Past that, each stop costs $0.04 on Starter, $0.06 on Premium and $0.07 on Expert.
Read the counting rule carefully: a stop counts as soon as it is attempted, exported or printed, even if nothing gets delivered. Billing is monthly only. For a solo driver, the Spoke Route Planner app is enough: free up to 10 stops per route, then $9.99 a month on Lite or $19.99 on Standard with unlimited stops. The Dispatch app requires a business account.
- Unlimited drivers: adding a seasonal hire costs nothing
- Route Planner app free up to 10 stops for a solo driver
- Monthly billing, no annual contract
- ✓Unbeatable for 15 drivers doing ten stops each
- ✓Driver app rated 4.8 out of 5 by its users
- ✓Unlimited team members, so dispatchers cost nothing extra
- ✗The bill grows with volume, and an attempted stop counts like a delivered one
- ✗Moving stops between drivers mid-day is clunky
- ✗No autofill for recurring stops, and some users find the price too high
The best math when you have lots of drivers and few stops each. Count last month's real stops before picking a plan: here, that is the only number that matters.
Route planner pricing changes often. Get the changes that hit your budget
Upper
Upper keeps things simple: import addresses, optimize, send each route to a driver. Starter is $50 a month, or $40 on annual billing, with 250 stops per route and 10 driver profiles. Professional is $60 ($48 annually) for 500 stops and 15 profiles. Optimize is $89 ($71) for 1,500 stops and 30 profiles.
One thing to check before you sign. The pricing table says per user, but the FAQ on the same page mentions free users. Get it in writing: are you billed for each driver, or only for the people who plan routes?
- 7-day trial with no credit card
- Up to 1,500 stops per route on Optimize
- About 20% off on annual billing
- ✓Clear stop limits on every plan
- ✓Fits technician routes as well as deliveries
- ✓Cancel during the trial without paying anything
- ✗Optimization gets slow past a few hundred stops, users say
- ✗Billing unit is unclear on the pricing page
- ✗Pricey for very small teams
A good pick for a field crew that wants to start fast, once you know exactly who gets billed. Past 500 stops a day, look at OptimoRoute instead.
Onfleet
Onfleet plays in a different league. It is a full last-mile delivery platform: live tracking for the end customer, photo and signature proof of delivery, analytics, unlimited users. Launch starts at $619 a month for 2,500 deliveries, Scale at $1,349 for 5,000, Enterprise at $3,099 for 10,000 and up.
Above your package, each task is billed on top, at a rate the pricing page doesn't show. Courier companies get their own plan, Courier Suite, from $299 a month. For a three-van business it is overkill: price and paid add-ons come up again and again in reviews from small users.
- Live tracking and proof of delivery included
- Unlimited users on every plan
- Courier Suite plan for courier companies
- ✓The most complete customer tracking in this ranking
- ✓Built for thousands of deliveries a month
- ✓14-day trial on Scale
- ✗Too expensive under 2,500 deliveries a month
- ✗Overage rate not published
- ✗Paid add-ons on top of the plan
Worth a look only if you run more than 2,500 deliveries a month and tracking is part of your promise. Below that, OptimoRoute or Spoke do the job for a fraction of the cost.
Routal
Routal is a Barcelona company, and the tool most US rankings miss. If part of your fleet runs in Europe, it bills in euros, with European support and data handling. Standard costs €199 a month with 4 vehicles included, then €49 per extra vehicle. Outside Europe and Latin America, the list price is $199.
Options are priced openly: live traffic adds €10 per vehicle, an extra user €5. The Routal Drivers app is free up to 10 stops, a handy way to let one driver try it before you commit.
- 4 vehicles included in the base price
- Driver app free up to 10 stops
- 10-day trial without a card
- ✓Rated 4.8 out of 5 by its Spanish users
- ✓Every option has a public price
- ✓European support and data handling
- ✗Base price of €199 is high for one or two vans
- ✗Live traffic is a paid option
- ✗Little presence or support footprint in the US
The right call if your vans run in Spain or elsewhere in Europe. For a US-only fleet, OptimoRoute or Routific are closer to home.
What route optimization costs for 3 or 10 vans
Pricing pages don't compare at face value. OptimoRoute and Upper bill per driver. Spoke and Routific bill per stop or order, with unlimited drivers. Onfleet sells volume packages. Here is the monthly cost at list price, before tax, for a fleet doing 20 stops per vehicle per day, 22 days a month.
3 vehicles (about 1,320 stops a month)
OptimoRoute Lite: $105.30 on annual billing. Spoke Starter: $125 plus 320 stops at $0.04, so $137.80. Upper Starter: $150 monthly, $120 annually, if every driver is billed as a user. Routific: $150 plus 320 orders at 15 cents at most, so $198 max. Routal: $199 outside Europe, with room for a fourth van.
10 vehicles (about 4,400 stops a month)
Spoke Starter: $125 plus 3,400 stops at $0.04, so $261. OptimoRoute Lite: $351 on annual billing. Upper Starter: $500 if every driver counts, right at its 10-profile limit. Onfleet Launch: $619, worth it only for its tracking. Routific: $570 at most with its tiers (15, 13, then 10 cents an order). Routal in Europe: €493.
Many drivers, few stops
Fifteen drivers doing 3 stops a day is about 990 stops a month. That is $526.50 on OptimoRoute Lite and $125 on Spoke Starter. Per-stop pricing wins as soon as your vehicles stay lightly loaded. Run this with last month's real numbers.
- Count last month's actual stops, not a ballpark
- Budget the regular rate, not the trial or first-month price
- Ask how customer texts are billed: often a separate add-on
- Get in writing who is billed: every driver, or only dispatchers
- On per-stop plans, check whether failed or exported stops count
Roll out route optimization without a rough first month
The software is only as good as the data you feed it. Most disappointments come from messy addresses, missing time windows or a trial run on a day that was too easy.
Measure where you are today
Week 1Before any trial, log one week of miles driven, return-to-depot times and stops per vehicle. Without that baseline, you can't tell whether the tool saves anything.
Tip: read the odometer morning and evening on each van. It is more reliable than GPS history.
- Length
- 5 working days
- Track
- miles, stops, return time
Clean up your address file
Week 1The optimizer turns every address into a point on the map. An incomplete address lands in the wrong place, and the whole route suffers. Split street, ZIP code and city into separate columns, then add each customer's time window and expected service time.
Tip: for rural customers you visit often, save their GPS coordinates. It avoids the web-versus-app gaps several users report.
- Columns
- street, ZIP, city, window, service time
Trial it on your hardest day
Week 2Run the free trial on your busiest day, not a quiet Monday. Compare the result with the routes your team would have run. Trials go from 7 days (Upper) to 30 days (OptimoRoute).
Tip: load the same file into two tools on the same day. The gap between them tells you more than any review.
- Trials
- 7 to 30 days
Brief your drivers before day one
Before launchTell drivers what the app tracks and why: route progress and proof of delivery. Let them switch tracking off when they are off the clock, and check your state's rules on employee location tracking.
Tip: lead with what changes for them (fewer trips back to the depot, more predictable days) before you talk about tracking.
- Plan for
- a written notice to drivers
Pick the plan, then go annual
Month 2After one real month, you know your volume. Pick the plan that covers your busiest month, not your average. Only then look at annual billing: about 20% off at Upper, and OptimoRoute shows its prices on annual terms.
Tip: at Spoke, compare the higher tier with the lower tier plus overage. At 4,400 stops, Starter with overage costs less than Premium.
- Annual discount
- up to about 20%
What people ask before they choose
Can Google Maps optimize a route with multiple stops?
No. Google Maps takes up to 10 stops per route and keeps them in the order you entered. It doesn't reorder them for the shortest drive. A solo driver can use the free Spoke Route Planner app for up to 10 stops; beyond that, you need real route optimization software.
Is there free route optimization software?
Yes. Routific is free up to 100 orders a month with unlimited drivers. Spoke Route Planner is free for one driver up to 10 stops per route. If you can code, Google's open-source OR-Tools library solves routing problems too, but there is no driver app.
How much does route optimization software cost?
For a small fleet, expect $35 to $89 per driver per month on per-driver plans, or a flat $125 to $200 a month for 1,000 to 2,000 stops on per-stop plans with unlimited drivers. Delivery platforms like Onfleet start at $619 a month.
What is the difference between route planning and route optimization?
Route planning decides which customers go on which day and in which vehicle. Route optimization then finds the best stop order for each route, accounting for time windows, distance and capacity. Most tools here do both in one pass.
What is the best route planner for a single delivery driver?
Spoke Route Planner: free up to 10 stops per route, then $9.99 a month on Lite or $19.99 on Standard with unlimited stops. A team product like OptimoRoute or Spoke Dispatch only pays off once you dispatch other drivers.
Does route optimization software work for field service and technicians?
For the order of visits, yes: OptimoRoute and Upper handle skills and job durations. For work orders, quotes and on-site invoicing, you need field service software: see our field service management software comparison.
How long before route optimization pays off?
The first month mostly goes into fixing addresses and service times. Then compare miles and return times with the baseline week you logged before the tool. Be skeptical of vendor savings percentages: they depend entirely on where you start.