Need To Plan The Shortest Route For Multiple Stops? Try These Apps

Are you (or your employees) on the road a lot? Do you have to visit a lot of different places every day? Then you probably already know that finding the shortest route can save you time, fuel, and money. But how do you find that magical shortest route? 

We’re not talking about simply finding the shortest route from the office to a single client meeting, or from home to a new grocery store. If you’re just driving from Point A to Point B, you can use Google Maps or Waze to get your driving directions, and be done with it. We’re talking about the much trickier task of finding the shortest route around multiple stops — tens, or even hundreds of different addresses. If that’s what you need, read on!

Shortest route planners for delivery businesses

Free route planner tools are fast, free and great for building simple routes. But once a route gets longer than 10-20 stops, free apps like Google Maps become more trouble than they’re worth: 

• Route planning can take hours every day.
• Manually planned routes are inefficient, leading to higher gas and wage costs.
• Inaccurate ETAs lead to late deliveries and frustrated customers. 

It’s also hard to manage delivery drivers when you don’t know exactly where they’re going and when. 

At this point, businesses need delivery management software with built-in route optimization functionality. 

Depending on exactly what your business needs, these are the apps that our customers rate highly:

Note: Pricing may have changed since the publication of this article. Always check the latest information directly on the app site. 

Let’s look at each more closely.

1. Routific

Capterra rating: 4.9 ★ (130+ reviews)

Routific focuses on delivering three things: the most sophisticated route optimization, ease of use, and fantastic customer service. Our algorithm creates routes that are uniquely human-friendly, avoiding looping, criss-crossing and overlapping routes that drivers hate.  

Pricing

Routific’s freemium pricing model is based on the number of orders scheduled.

• The first 100 orders every month are free, to accommodate the needs of very small businesses, non-profits, and occasional users.
• 100-1,500 orders: $150 a month.
• Above 1,500 orders we charge a few cents per stop. Pricing starts at 15c a stop up to 2,000 orders a month, going down to 3c a stop for more than 20,000 orders a month.

💡Test Routific for yourself! Check out our free 7-day trial (no credit card needed) to see how our user-friendly app can reduce your driving time and fuel costs.

2. Circuit

Capterra rating: 4.8 ★ (100+ reviews)

Circuit started as a multi-stop route planner for drivers, and more recently branched out to include route planning software for teams. They’re still very popular with individual drivers, which can make it easier to introduce the app to larger teams. They also have excellent ease of use. Their route optimization is sometimes lackluster, however, and it’s difficult for dispatchers to add stops or reorder routes once they’ve been planned. 

Pricing

Circuit offers four price tiers:

• Starter: $100 a month for up to 500 stops, then 4c per stop.
• Essentials: $200 a month for up to 1,000 stops, then 5c per stop — but no customer notifications or POD.
• Standard: $250 up to 1,000 stops, then 6c per stop. POD and notifications included.‍
• Pro: $300/month up to 1,000 stops, then 7c per stop.

3. Onfleet

Capterra rating:  4.6 ★ (90+ reviews)

Onfleet is a leading delivery management platform for mid-size businesses. It has some features that Routific lacks, including advanced analytics, barcode scanning, on-demand delivery scheduling, and in-app messaging between drivers and dispatchers. It can be difficult to use, however, and it’s the most expensive of the apps in this list. It’s best suited to companies that are large enough to have dedicated route planning and dispatch teams. 

Pricing

Onfleet’s pricing is pitched at mid-size and larger businesses:

• Starts at $599 per month with a limit of 2,500 pickup or delivery tasks. 
• Barcode scanning, age verification and 5,000 pickup or delivery tasks start at $1,299 per month.
• Enterprise pricing for 10,000+ tasks per month starts at $2,999.

4. OptimoRoute

Capterra rating: 4.6 ★ (200+ reviews)

OptimoRoute is a versatile route optimization solution that caters to mobile workforces as well as delivery operations — think lawn care and janitorial companies. It's known for its flexibility in handling complex service scenarios, including multiple constraints and time windows.

Pricing

If you sign up for a full year, OptimoRoute’s pricing tiers are:

• $35 per vehicle per month with a limit of 700 orders.
• $44 per month for up to 1,000 orders, real-time tracking, and proof of delivery. 
• Custom pricing for more complex needs is also available.

OptimoRoute offers a generous 30-day free trial, but the trial is limited to 250 stops so it’s hard to assess how performance will scale.

5. Route4Me

Capterra rating: 4.4 ★ (390+ reviews)

Route4Me is one of the original route planners. It’s still very popular and has a great driver app, but it’s starting to show its age. It has a big library of add-on modules to enable customization — but the costs can start to add up, and many of their add-on modules are features that now come standard with other route optimization apps. 

Pricing

There are three Route4Me pricing tiers:

• Basic route optimization starts at $400 a month for a 5-user plan. This allows optimization for one driver or route at a time, but won’t optimize across routes or depots.
• For multi-driver and multi-depot optimization, you’ll need the $600 per month plan.  
• Custom configuration and pricing for enterprise customers is also available.

Additional modules like SMS customer notifications, curbside delivery, or field service routing are add-ons that will increase the cost. 

There is a 7-day free trial with unlimited functionality.

5. Badger Maps

Capterra rating: 4.6 ★ (200+ reviews)

Badger Maps is a bit of an outlier in this list: It’s a route optimization tool specifically for field sales and service professionals, rather than last mile deliveries or couriers. It integrates directly with leading CRM solutions, so it’s ideal for sales teams on the road who need to visit multiple clients efficiently. Badger Maps offers real-time traffic updates and scheduling features.

Pricing

Badger Maps offers three pricing tiers:

• Business: $69 per user per month billed monthly, or $58 billed annually.
• Enterprise: $109 per user per month billed monthly, or $95 billed annually.
• Enterprise Plus: $135 per user per month, billed annually. There is no month-to-month option.

What to look for in a delivery route planner

When selecting a delivery route planner for your business, you'll want to consider both basic and advanced functionality. Here's a breakdown of what to look for:

Basic route planner app features

Route optimization

A good route optimization algorithm is the backbone of any good delivery route planner. It should allow you to input multiple destinations and calculate the most efficient order to visit them. Look for an app that can adapt to changes in real-time and provide alternatives when needed.

Dispatch to a mobile driver app

The ability to dispatch optimized routes directly to your drivers' mobile devices is essential. This feature ensures that drivers are always equipped with the most up-to-date route information and can easily navigate to their destinations. Make sure the drive app provides your drivers turn-by-turn directions, ideally using their choice of the Google Maps app, Apple Maps or Waze. Most route planners have both an Android and iOS driver mobile app.

Real-time tracking

Real-time tracking provides visibility into the current location of your drivers. It enables you to monitor progress, respond to unexpected delays, and keep customers informed about their delivery status. 

Advanced route planner app features

Customer notifications

Advanced route planning software often offers customer notifications. This allows you to send automated updates to customers regarding their delivery, including estimated arrival times (ETAs) and order tracking links. These notifications are critical for customer service. For example, if you need to re-dispatch a route, the original delivery times will change and customer notifications will automatically update your customers for you.

According to a recent study, 64% of consumers expect delivery tracking to be available with every package they receive, with 94% saying they use it at least sometimes and 63% almost always.

Proof of delivery

Proof of delivery features enable drivers to capture signatures, take photos, or collect other forms of evidence upon completing a delivery. This documentation can be invaluable for verifying deliveries and resolving disputes.

Time windows

For businesses with specific time constraints for deliveries (e.g., time-sensitive packages like perishable groceries), time window management is crucial. An app that can accommodate time windows for each stop in the route is a valuable asset.

Route optimization for different vehicle types

Not all vehicles are created equal, and a route that's ideal for a small van may not be suitable for a large truck. Or you may need refrigerated vehicles for some deliveries but not others. This is where vehicle-specific route optimization comes into play. Look for route optimization software that allows you to customize driving routes based on the type of vehicle in your fleet. Factors such as vehicle size, weight restrictions, and height clearance must be considered to ensure safe and efficient deliveries.

APIs

API integrations make it easy to move data from your online store or order management system, like Shopify or WooCommerce, to your delivery management system.

Is there a good free route planner for multiple stops?

Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze are all excellent free navigation apps. They’ve also spoiled us — we’re so used to getting the valuable services they offer for free that we object if we need to pay for route planning. But there are good reasons why there is no such thing as a good free route planner with unlimited stops. Mainly, planning the shortest route for multiple stops is a route optimization problem that needs a specialized algorithm to solve. Developing and maintaining those algorithms takes hard work by highly skilled engineers — and that’s without the costs of developing an app, making it available and keeping it up to date. 

If your budget is zero, you have three options:

1. Use an ad-supported app 

Mapquest is able to offer limited route optimization by serving ads along with their routes. They also have a limit of 26 stops in a route. If you don’t mind the ads, and just need to optimize a handful of stops one time (or even a couple of times a year), this is probably good enough for you. You won’t necessarily get the shortest route, but it will be a lot better than laboriously hand-sorting addresses in Google Maps.

2. Accept a limit on the number of stops in your route

If you only need to plan the shortest route for 10 stops or less, there are a number of free options:

• The Routific for Google Maps Chrome extension optimizes your route right inside Google Maps. 
• Speedy Route will optimize 10 stops for free (although you’ll get lots of prompts to upgrade). 
• MyRouteOnline will let you plan up to 6 addresses free, or you can sign up for a free trial and get credit for 20 stops. 

Again, these are a good option for limited, one-time use. Don’t expect high-quality route optimization or any customer service, though. 

3. Use a time-limited free version of paid software

All the pro route planners we’ve mentioned in this article offer free trials, usually 7 or 14 days. Most of these trials, including Routific’s, are unlimited — meaning there’s no limit on the number of stops you can add to your route. If you have a lot of stops to plan but only need to do it once (for example, you deliver to the same places every week), this could be exactly what you need. 

You can read more about these and other free route planning apps in our Best Free Route Planners article.

Why is it so hard to find the shortest route around multiple stops?

In a word: Math. Finding the shortest route around a number of stops is so difficult that the task actually has a name: the traveling salesman problem. Mathematicians have worked on it for centuries, and it’s only in the past couple of decades that we’ve started seeing route planners that can do the job. Thanks to ever-increasing computer power and intelligent algorithms, route optimization is now accessible to everyone. 

It’s important to note that there is a difference between the shortest route and the fastest route — they’re not the same! Let’s look at some of the differences:

Shortest route vs. fastest route: What’s the difference?

Shortest route. Fastest route. Best route. Most efficient route. It seems like they’re all different words for the same thing — but actually, there are important differences between them:

• The shortest route is the line with the fewest miles or kilometers between two points. But that shortest distance may include a stretch of the busiest road in town, a bridge that’s often jammed with traffic, or a section of highway that’s in the middle of major roadworks. Shortest is not the same as fastest. 
• The fastest route is the one that gets you to your destination in the least amount of time. Discovering this route is a much more complex task: you need to take into account traffic conditions, the time of day, speed limits, and road conditions. Google Maps and similar navigation apps like Apple Maps, Bing Maps, and Waze are really good at this — provided you’re just going from A to B. But if you need to make a few stops along the way between your starting point and your final destination, you have a route optimization problem. That’s not what everyday route planners are designed to solve. 
• When it comes to multi-stop route planning, we prefer to talk about the best, most efficient or optimal route. This is the route that minimizes travel time, but also considers things like driver shifts, delivery time windows, and different vehicle types and capacities. The best route is the quickest route possible that meets real-world needs and constraints. 

Most route optimization software will you give route options so you configure your routes to your own needs. Usually, there’s a choice to optimize by time (fastest route) or by distance (shortest route).