If you’re in the market for a new route optimization API in 2024, you’re spoilt for choice. In fact, there are so many options to choose from that it can be quite overwhelming! How do you know where to look and what to look for? What are the features that matter? Would it be the right fit for your business? It’s a lot to take on. To take some of the burden off your shoulders, we’ve compiled this list of what we consider to be the 10 best route optimization APIs for businesses. We hope it helps!
Why do you need a route optimization API?
Simply put, efficiency is crucial to keeping your business competitive. Pushed far enough, it could even become the key to success. For businesses that involve the movement of people or goods with multi-stop routes, route optimization APIs are what drive that efficiency. They improve productivity, reduce costs, minimize emissions, enhance customer satisfaction and enable scale and operational flexibility, all while making sure that your unique operational requirements are met as efficiently as possible without transgressing any rules or regulations. Route optimization APIs do a lot of heavy lifting!Â
Here’s a list of businesses that use route optimization API:
- Long-Haul Trucking
- Last-Mile Deliveries
- Middle-Mile Deliveries
- Employee & Student Transportation
How did we analyze the route optimization APIs in this list?
All of the route optimization APIs mentioned in our list cover the basics like shortening travel times and distances, enhancing fleet utilization and minimizing fuel consumption. They do, however, differ in terms of features, effectiveness, depth of customization, level of customer support, pricing and ease of use. These are the dimensions we assessed when making this list, in addition to customer reviews on platforms like G2 and Capterra. All information presented here has been gathered from publicly available sources. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
1. NextBillion.ai Route Optimization API
Best forÂ
Mid-sized and large enterprises for last-mile, middle-mile and field service use cases; govt. use cases
G2 RatingÂ
4.7/5Â
NextBillion.ai’s Route Optimization API brings together a powerful mix of performance, flexibility, scalability and cost effectiveness. With features like multiple vehicle routing profiles, customizable objective functions and over 50 routing constraints, you can generate optimized routes that satisfy your unique operational needs. Account for factors like truck dimensions and weight, cargo type and volume, driver preferences, shift timings, delivery windows and much more to ensure efficient and regulation-compliant routes for your vehicle fleet. Our support team has received much customer praise for being prompt, proactive and thorough at every step, from testing and integration to production and beyond. NextBillion.ai’s APIs are cloud agnostic and can be easily integrated into your tech stack with just a few lines of code.
Learn how to solve optimization problems with Route optimization API Tutorials.Â
Key Features
- 50+ hard and soft constraints
- Custom objective functions
- Build logical routes with task sequencing
- Fulfill ad hoc orders with minimal re-optimization
- Multiple vehicle profiles, from two-wheelers to trucks
- Hands-on support to configure your optimization parameters
Pricing
NextBillion.ai offers flexible pricing options, so you have the freedom to choose what works best for your business. Our pricing models can be based on the number of assets, tasks or API calls. We analyze your specific use case and customize costs accordingly to ensure that you only pay for what you need and that your costs remain predictable. NextBillion.ai’s cost-effective rates enable you to scale your operations without worrying about excessive API expenses.Â
2. Google Cloud Fleet Routing
Best for
Small- to mid-sized last-mile delivery businesses that operate at low or moderate scale.
G2 RatingÂ
4.6/5Â
Google, being the global behemoth that it is, has excellent data quality for virtually every region across the world, enabling accurate ETAs and live traffic updates. Nonetheless, Google CFR is unsuitable for large-scale enterprises for several reasons. Its routes are often suboptimal, taking over 50% more time and/or distance compared to higher-performing alternatives like NextBillion.ai’s Route Optimization API. It also omits core logistics features like truck routing profiles, complex task sequencing, custom objective functions and depot designation. This means that Google CFR is geared towards only last-mile operations while ignoring the first and middle mile. The platform does offer some customizations but is quite limited in the constraints and preferences you can set. It also has a poor reputation for the level of support customers receive.Â
Key Features
- Predictive and real-time traffic information
- Dynamic route re-optimization
- What-if scenario analysis
Pricing
Google CFR follows a fixed pricing model. They charge $0.04 per shipment per optimization, where ‘shipment’ is defined as a combination of location identifiers and load identifiers. The cost remains unchanged regardless of how many shipments or API calls are required. Such an inflexible pricing structure makes it impossible to scale operations without significantly driving up API costs — yet another reason it’s best suited to smaller businesses operating at relatively modest scales.
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3. HERE Technologies
Best for
Automotive, logistics, media, telecoms, public sector, retail and insurance use cases
G2 RatingÂ
4/5Â
HERE Technologies is known for its high-quality geolocation capabilities, routing accuracy, live traffic data and ease of use. Developers also rate the platform highly for how quick and simple it is to integrate and implement it into their tech stacks. HERE Technologies does have a few shortcomings, though. It’s relatively inflexible and cannot be tailored to your unique workflows and preferences. For example, you have no option to specify user-defined travel costs for your vehicles. Their customer support is often less responsive than you might hope. While HERE Technologies does have multiple truck routing profiles, these are not applicable to routes longer than 120 miles. If your truck route extends beyond that limit, you will be forced to use generic truck specifications for your routes. The complexity of their pricing model also makes forecasting costs at scale a challenge.Â
Key Features
- Real-time traffic data
- Live ETAs
- Dynamic route re-planning
- EV routing
Pricing
HERE Technologies does offer a Limited Plan, which includes 1,000 free location services requests a day, but this does not apply to their routing solutions — the Matrix Routing and Tour Planning APIs. To make use of their routing capabilities, you’ll have to pay for the Base Plan, which works on a transaction-based model similar to credit systems. The Tour Planning API, which executes fleet route optimization, is free of charge for the first 500 transactions of each month. For 501 to 40,000 monthly transactions, it would set you back $33 per 1,000 transactions. From 40,001 to 200,000 monthly transactions, that becomes $26.40 per 1,000 transactions. Beyond that, you’ll have to contact HERE Technologies directly for pricing information.Â
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4. Routific
Best forÂ
Small- to medium-sized local delivery businesses with multiple drivers and routes
G2 RatingÂ
4.7/5Â
With over a decade of development behind its route optimization algorithm, Routific is a well-respected player in the market. Customers appreciate the platform for its routing efficiency, how easy it is to understand and use, as well as its automated notifications and extensive reporting features. The absence of truck routing and real-time traffic data are big misses, though, and there are user mentions of occasional technical glitches and bugs. The lack of 24×7 availability of support for non-enterprise customers can also be a sticking point for some.
Key Features
- Drag-and-drop reordering of stops
- One-click dispatch to drivers
- Automated customer notifications
- Flexible driver break scheduling
- Reassigning of stops among driversÂ
- ML-based ETAs
Pricing
Routific’s basic pricing starts at $49 per vehicle per month. If you want to make use of the platform’s GPS tracking and proof-of-delivery features, that jumps to $69 per vehicle per month. Automated customer notifications via email or SMS and real-time delivery tracking will further push the cost up to $93 per vehicle per month. Alternatively, Routific also offers a per-stop pricing model.
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5. GraphHopper
Best for
Logistics and navigation for automotive, tourism and food delivery use cases.
G2 RatingÂ
NA
GraphHopper is a routing API provider that does not have any end-user application of their own, but you can use their APIs to create your own branded applications with route planning, navigation and traffic-aware route optimization capabilities. GraphHopper’s routing performance is generally quite competent and, much like NextBillion.ai, their platform is based on OpenStreetMap data, so they have good global coverage when it comes to high-quality location data. Customers have remarked, though, that GraphHopper’s reverse geocoding feature is not as straightforward as it could be.
Key Features
- Vehicle routing profiles from scooters to trucks
- Multiple objective functions
- Global data coverage
- Elevation, road class and surface data
Pricing
GraphHopper has implemented a credit system to measure API usage, where calls of each API would cost you a certain number of credits depending on which API and the parameters of each request. Their Free tier lets you use 500 credits a day with up to 5 locations and just one vehicle per request. However, this free package is only available for non-commercial use. The Basic, Standard and Premium tiers cost $56, $160 and $384 respectively, with restrictions going from 5,000 to 50,000 credits per day, 30 to 200 locations per request and 2 to 20 vehicles per request. GraphHopper also offers a Custom plan for larger-scale requirements. If you explicitly state in your user application that it’s powered by GraphHopper, you can avail a 20% attribution discount on pricing.
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6. FarEye
Best for
Medium, large and enterprise businesses in delivery, retail, logistics and manufacturing
G2 Rating
4.6/5
With over 150 customers across 30 countries, FarEye is a trusted provider of last-mile delivery optimization and visibility solutions. Their real-time notifications and tracking capabilities are widely praised by customers for enabling close oversight of delivery operations. FarEye is known to have a great customer support team that is speedy, proactive and easy to work with, and the platform is customizable to each client’s needs. Customers particularly appreciate the ability to add comments when closing alerts so that they can provide additional context when necessary. Downsides to FarEye’s platform include the occasional generation of false deviation alerts and numerous complex features that require hands-on training and practice to use effectively.Â
Key Features
- ML-based route optimization
- Dynamic scheduling and routing
- Dispatch management
- Specialized fleet routingÂ
- Electronic proof of delivery
Pricing
Pricing information is not publicly available; please reach out to FarEye for quotes.
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7. Route4me
Best for
Field services, field sales, field marketing and field merchandising
G2 Rating
4.6/5Â
Founded in 2009, Route4Me has built a healthy ecosystem of optional features and capabilities around its route optimization solution over the years. The algorithm is proficient at shortening routes, but the solution has serious drawbacks, too. Route4Me only optimizes routes to minimize the number of vehicles used, and this can’t be changed; you cannot set it to minimize distance or cost. Obviously, this is far from ideal. It’s also worth noting that Route4Me regularly underestimates ETAs by up to 50%. Journeys that took 20 minutes to complete in real time were frequently predicted to take 10 minutes or less. Such disparities could have disastrous effects on business outcomes and customer sentiment.
Key FeaturesÂ
- Advanced geocoding and geofencing
- Dynamic route modification and reoptimization
- Address validation
- Detailed reporting and analyticsÂ
PricingÂ
There are three plans available — Route Management, Route Optimization and Business Optimization. It should be noted here that the Route Management package does not offer any route optimization features, so that’s not going to serve your purpose. The plans start at $40, $60 and $90 per user per month respectively, but there’s a minimum commitment of 5 users, so at the very least, the plans would cost you $200, $300 and $450 per month. Route4Me has numerous optional add-on features like curbside routing, driver skills and text message notifications, each of which would further add to your costs if you choose to implement them.
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8. Geoapify
Best for
Startups looking for substantial free tiers, as well as small- and medium-sized businesses
G2 Rating
4.8/5
Geoapify has built a fantastic reputation because of how simple yet effective their platform has proven to be. Customers rave about how quick and easy it is to implement and use Geoapify APIs to solve routing problems or build their own applications. The Geoapify support team is also highly regarded for the lengths they go to in order to solve problems their customers face. The platform has a free tier through which users have access to all Geoapify APIs, but once you get into the paid tiers, the credit system they follow can cause some confusion.Â
Key Features
- Routing profiles for cars, trucks, cycles and pedestrians
- Batch geocoding and reverse geocoding
- Bulk address validation and standardization
Pricing
Geoapify has seven different pricing tiers and uses a credit system to measure your usage of its APIs. They start with their free tier, which offers 3,000 credits per day, and go all the way up to the ‘API 250’ tier, which gives 250,000 credits per day. Beyond that, they also have a custom pricing tier for unmetered credit usage. Assessing your costs can get quite complicated, though, because each of their APIs has a different credit cost for a single API call. A single Map Tile API call would cost you 0.25 credits, while a single Geocoding API call would cost a whole credit. It gets much more confusing with other APIs like their Route Matrix API and Route Planner API, which require complicated formulas to calculate credit costs per call.Â
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9. Trimble Maps
Best forÂ
Small- and mid-sized businesses, particularly those with unusual use cases and workflows
G2 Rating
4.5/5
Trimble Maps is a feature-packed platform that offers a lot of functionality to deal with complex transportation operations. On the flip side, all of that functionality makes it quite complicated to use. The UI can be a little confusing, and the platform’s user-friendliness issues are exacerbated by a lack of comprehensive technical documentation. On the positive side of things, one of the biggest advantages of using Trimble Maps is adaptability. The company has shown willingness in the past to work with customers on adapting the product’s implementation to meet the needs of non-standard use cases or workflows. If your operation falls into that category of unusual workflows, Trimble Maps is certainly worth considering.
Key Features
- What-if scenario analysis
- Live weather and traffic information
- Real-time tracking and notifications
- Territory management
- Truck-specific routing profiles
Pricing
Pricing information is not publicly available; please reach out to Trimble for quotes.
10. OptimoRoute
Best for
Best suited for field service operations
G2 RatingÂ
4.8/5
OptimoRoute offers a range of constraints and customizations to help you configure routes to match your business needs. You can define preferred service areas, technician skills, shift timings, vehicle capacities and capabilities, driver and vehicle costs, and more. Such control comes at the cost of simplicity and ease of use, though — the platform takes some learning and getting used to. While the optimization engine works quickly to generate routes, the results can sometimes be less than ideal. There’s often significant overlap between separate routes, and editing routes can be challenging.
Key Features
- Automated route planning and optimization
- Live driver tracking with accurate ETAs
- Job analytics for performance enhancement
- Multi-day, long-haul route planning
- Mobile app for driver navigation
Pricing
OptimoRoute offers three pricing tiers: Lite, Pro and Custom. On an annual subscription, the Lite tier, with the bare essential features, will cost you $35.10 per driver per month. The Pro tier, which includes features like analytics and live tracking, costs $44.10 per driver per month on an annual subscription. To access more advanced features like multi-day long-haul routes, commercial routing and expert support, you’ll need to opt for the Custom tier.
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