RoadWarrior vs Circuit: Comparing Route Optimization Software

If you need to plan an efficient route — either as a delivery driver or a dispatcher managing a team of delivery drivers — you’ll need to use route optimization software. Planning routes manually is never guaranteed to get you the fastest route possible, even when you’re using mapping tools. And if you’re managing multiple drivers on complex routes, this is even tougher.

Luckily, there are various route planning tools to choose from. In this post, we’re going to be comparing one route planning software, RoadWarrior, against our own platform, Circuit.

We’ll be highlighting the main features of each software, helping you understand which one ideally suits your needs. The post will take a deep dive and compare the routing functionality, pricing tiers, and delivery management capabilities of RoadWarrior and Circuit’s platforms.

Circuit Route Planner & Circuit for Teams

If you’re looking for a platform to help you with simple route planning and optimization, you can download the Circuit Route Planner app from the Apple App Store (for iPhone/iOS) or Google Play Store (for Android).

It’s free to plan routes of up to 10 stops (compared to Route Warrior’s 8 stops), and our “Pro” plan is $20 per month for routes up to 500 stops. With both the free plan and the Pro plan, you can optimize an unlimited number of routes per day. And with Pro, you can save an even bigger amount of time by importing spreadsheet lists of delivery addresses.

Note: As we’ll explain later, RoadWarrior’s “Pro” tier is cheaper ($10 per month), but routes can only be a maximum of 120 stops, and there’s a cap of 512 stops per day.

The Circuit Route Planner app is designed specifically for delivery drivers, and it’s trusted by more than 50,000 worldwide (and counting). On average, each driver saves an hour per day.

And if you’re working with — or managing — a team of drivers, Circuit offers another solution that helps you with route optimization and route monitoring, while adding extra functionality that allows you to manage deliveries and run a smooth operation. Enter, Circuit for Teams.

Introducing the Circuit for Teams Delivery Management Platform

As we’ll explain in more detail later in this guide, Circuit for Teams goes up against RoadWarrior’s recently-launched “Team” subscription tier — the top plan in their range.

While the route optimization capabilities of Circuit’s Route Planner and RoadWarrior are pretty similar, when it comes to comparing the more advanced functionality in the high-tier plans, i.e. Circuit for Teams vs Team RoadWarrior, there are many more points of difference.

To summarize: Circuit for Teams is designed specifically for delivery teams, offering functionality that helps drivers and dispatchers operate their delivery routes better. Team RoadWarrior is more “generic”, focused mainly on routing and monitoring driver fleets in the field.

For example, on top of route optimization for multiple drivers and real-time driver tracking (which both platforms offer), Circuit for Teams also provides:

Proof of Delivery (POD):

Your delivery drivers can capture POD photos with their smartphone, meaning they’re able to leave packages in safe locations (and prove it) if the recipient isn’t home.

And with the Circuit for Teams app, they can also collect electronic signatures (a.k.a. e-signatures). The proof of delivery is then uploaded to the cloud, and the dispatcher back at HQ can access it anytime they want via their web app.

Delivery Tracking and Recipient Updates:

Circuit for Teams allows you to update recipients via email and SMS, meaning you can automatically ping them with an accurate delivery ETA when drivers set out on their route.

With Circuit, your post-delivery recipient updates can also contain the proof of delivery photo — showing customers exactly where the package has been left safely by the driver:

Multi-Capacity Vehicles (Coming Soon): 

It’s common for couriers and delivery companies to have multiple vehicles which are different sizes, especially when working with contract drivers. When there’s large trucks, smaller vans, and cars in the mix, that means each driver can handle different volumes (or different items).

Soon, with Circuit for Teams, you’ll be able to specify the capacity of each vehicle in your fleet. This means you can customize the amount of stops that are allocated to large trucks and small cars, allowing you to do 100% efficient fleet-level route optimization. Stay tuned for this.

Key Takeaways: Why Choose Circuit for Teams?

Circuit for Teams is a user friendly route planner for delivery teams with multiple drivers, but it offers much more than just calculating better driving directions.

Dispatchers and managers can plan the best route in a couple of minutes by uploading their list of stops, and routes are optimized according to time windows and priority stops. Drivers access routes via their own smartphone app, and follow whichever GPS navigation app they prefer (e.g. Google Maps, Waze, or Apple Maps).

With Circuit, driver management and route monitoring is easy. You can swap routes between drivers at the last minute, and track vehicles as they go about their route. This allows you to keep recipients in the loop manually if needed, although automatic email and SMS recipient updates will also inform them of when to expect their package.

Our built-in electronic proof of delivery minimizes lost packages and customer disputes, and ensures that drivers can maximize the number of deliveries they make in any given day.

Circuit for Teams Pricing

Circuit for Teams comes in three possible tiers.

With Dispatch ($40 per month), you get route planning for multiple drivers, real-time route monitoring, and spreadsheet import.

Our Recipient plan ($60 per month) offers all this, plus proof of delivery and recipient updates.

Our Premium plan ($100 per month) offers everything on both of these smaller plans, plus you can export data to other services — and you’ll get multi-capacity vehicles.

For just ~3% of what you pay your drivers, you could have them deliver 20% more packages.

If you manage a team of drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to keep track of them (while making their routes more efficient), sign up for a free trial of Circuit.

RoadWarrior: Key Features and Pricing Tiers

RoadWarrior is a route planning and optimization app, which is available as an app for iOS and Android. The highest tier (“Team”) is available as a web-based application, although drivers can still use their RoadWarrior smartphone app in combination with the dispatcher’s Team account.

Basic & Pro Tier Functionality

RoadWarrior’s Basic tier is free of charge, and contains all the standard route optimization features for an individual driver. For example, drivers can enter addresses into the app (maximum of 8 stops per route, compared to Circuit’s 10) and the algorithm will calculate the most efficient directions. With this Basic tier, you get a combined cap of just 48 daily optimized stops — whereas on the Circuit Route Planner, there’s no daily limit.

These routes, though limited, can account for time constraints and schedules. You can also add “Drop Stops” if you need to pick something up from another location before delivering it.

However, if you want to upload a bulk list of stops and access the reporting functionality, you’ll need to pay $10 for the Pro subscription. This tier also increases your maximum route size to 120 stops, with a cap of 512 daily stops in total. Both plans are limited to one individual driver.

Team RoadWarrior Functionality

As we mentioned earlier, Team RoadWarrior is what you’ll need if you want to optimize routes for multiple drivers — and this is the product that you might compare against Circuit for Teams.

Team RoadWarrior is a platform for dispatchers, transferring the routing software capabilities from the app into a web-based application. Here, the dispatcher or manager can plan routes, assign routes to drivers, and manage or update routes that are in progress.

One of the key benefits of Team is that you can group routes into zones, meaning you can schedule certain drivers into their preferred parts of a town or city.

Team RoadWarrior Pricing

The pricing structure is pretty complicated for the Team product. They work on quotas, meaning you pay for “virtual driver packs”. If you pay the base rate without a driver pack, it costs $20 per month for a maximum route size of 120 stops, with 1021 daily stops per day. This can be used by a maximum of 5 drivers. By adding another pack (totalling $40), you add another 5 drivers to the plan and get 1536 daily optimized stops — still with a cap of 120 for each route.

As you add more virtual driver packs (at $20 increments), you get more drivers and a higher number of stops optimized per day.

Final Thoughts: RoadWarrior vs Circuit

When it comes to route planning and optimization, both RoadWarrior and Circuit use robust routing algorithms, which help drivers to efficiently deliver more parcels.

However, if you’re running a delivery team and you want more than just better routing, the Circuit for Teams platform is probably a better fit. This is because it has been designed specifically to help delivery companies, couriers, and small business delivery teams.

RoadWarrior offers some nice features like spreadsheet uploading, zonal grouping, data sync, and reporting in its Team platform — but it lacks proof of delivery, delivery tracking, recipient updates, and other features that make delivery operations easier.

At Circuit, we’re constantly talking to customers and developing new features based on their feedback.

If you manage a team of drivers and want a simple, cost-effective way to keep track of them (while making their routes more efficient), sign up for a free trial of Circuit.

PS. You can also check out another article that might help: RouteXL vs Circuit. And in our comparison of route planning solutions, you’ll find details of how Circuit stands up against RouteXL, Route4Me, and OptimoRoute.