Circuit Pricing: Breaking It Down for You

What brings you here? 

Have you heard of Circuit while on your quest for the best route optimization software but are unsure whether it’s worth your investment? 

Or do you want to compare Circuit’s pricing against competitors’ to determine the most feasible option? 

Or you are already using Circuit but wondering if you could go for a plan upgrade?

If you’ve answered YES to any of these questions, you may be delighted to know you are in the right place.

This blog on Circuit pricing serves as your exhaustive guide to the software’s pricing tiers, the features it offers, and how it compares to other route planning and optimization software. 

By the end of this blog, you will have gained valuable insights that will help you make an informed decision about your new purchase or upgrade.

So, let’s dive in.

Circuit for Teams Pricing Plans 2024

Following is the tabular comparison of Circuit for Teams’ different pricing tiers.

	Starter	Essentials	Standard	Pro
Pricing	Starts at $100 per month	Starts at $200 per month	Starts at $250 per month	Starts at $300 per month
No. of stops included	500	1,000	1,000	1,000
Best for	Micro to small businesses	Small to mid-sized businesses	Mid-sized businesses to large businesses	Large businesses to enterprises
Price per additional stop	$0.04	$0.05	$0.06	$0.07
No. of dispatcher roles	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
No. of drivers	5	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited

Circuit Pricing Plans Explained

Circuit’s pricing starts at $100 per month and goes up to $300 monthly. 

Below are the details of Circuit’s pricing tiers.

1. Starter: $100 per month

The ‘Starter’ package lets you add up to the first 500 stops to plan routes for them. 

Whether you add them all in one route or spread them across multiple routes, you must pay $0.04 for each extra stop you add beyond this limit. 

Further, this plan allows you to add only 1 dispatcher and up to 5 driver roles. It provides the driver delivery app, customer notifications, and proof of delivery.

However, you can’t access delivery analytics or export route data for deliveries made only up to 14 days ago. It may not suffice for large businesses that need to analyze trends and initiate improvement measures based on the data collected over a longer period.

This plan perfectly fits micro to small businesses looking to fulfill basic delivery route planning requirements. 

2. Essentials: $200 per month

The ‘Essential’ plan extends the number of stops to 1,000. However, every additional stop may cost $0.01 more than in the Starter plan, as the price per extra stop is $0.05. 

It allows you to create unlimited dispatcher and driver roles and leverage delivery analytics for the past 90 days. 

This plan suits small to mid-sized businesses that need to optimize routes with more stops to expand delivery operations faster. 

However, this plan is missing major customer-facing features, such as SMS and email delivery notifications, dynamic ETAs, and proof of delivery.

3. Standard: $250 per month

The ‘Standard’ plan keeps the number of stops allowed the same, 1,000. However, the price per additional stop is $0.06, higher by $0.01 compared to Essential.

Another aspect is the duration for which you can leverage delivery analytics and export route data on past deliveries. This plan has upgraded the duration from 90 days to 1 year. 

It is a perfect match for medium—or large-sized businesses looking to make informed decisions based on historical data gathered over a long period.

The fact that the number of stops stays the same while the price per additional stop increases may cause delivery costs to surge, though. 

4. Pro: $300 per month

The ‘Pro’ plan is the most comprehensive, but the number of stops remains the same.

The price per additional stop is $0.07, which drives up your delivery costs fast while providing no flexibility in the number of included stops allowed (that could’ve been provided in the most expensive package on their list!)

The duration you can access delivery analytics or export route data for past deliveries has no bounds on this plan. 

It is ideal for large businesses or enterprises that can afford to pay a high amount for additional stops without letting this significantly hamper their return on investment. 

Circuit Route Planner Price vs Competitors’

Software / Aspect	Circuit	Upper	Routific	Route4Me
Pricing Model	Stop-based	User-based (minimum 3 users included at a flat rate)	Vehicle-based	User-based
Price range (per month, billed monthly)	$100 to $300	$150 – Custom	$49 to $93	$200 – $450 (minimum 5 users across all plans)
Stops / Tasks included	500 – 1000	250 – Custom	Not applicable	Not applicable
Free version	✅	✅	❌	❌
Free trial	7 days	7 days	7 days	7 days
Minimum users	Not applicable	3 – 5	Not applicable	5
Annual discount on pricing	❌	✅	❌	❌
In-app navigation	❌	✅	❌	❌
Contact management	❌	✅	❌	❌
Curbside delivery	❌	✅	❌	✅ (payable add-on)
OCR address scan	❌	✅	❌	❌
Vehicle capacity constraints	❌	✅	✅	✅ (payable add-on)
Multi-depot management	✅	❌	❌	✅ (only in the most expensive plan)

All the software options provide a free 7-day trial. However, only Circuit and Upper provide a free version that allows you to plan routes with up to 10 stops.

Circuit route planning software enables you to create unlimited routes as long as your total stops don’t exceed 500 or 1000, based on your plan. You need to pay extra for each stop you add when your stops exceed this number.

Upper’s software overcomes this constraint by allowing unlimited routes with no limitations on monthly total stops, making it easier and more affordable to scale delivery operations.

As Routific’s pricing is vehicle-based, it may be feasible for large businesses with fleets of trucks that can afford to pay a fixed amount for each vehicle. This is because Routific charges the same price for each vehicle, irrespective of its type.

However, for a small business with a large fleet of bicycles and scooters and low delivery capacity, Routific may not be an economical choice. Moreover, their base package contains only route optimization and dispatch of routes to drivers, making it quite limited in terms of features. 

Route4Me may be a perfect fit for those who mix and match variably priced modules to fulfill delivery requirements. However, they don’t provide ‘route optimization’ and ‘time-window configuration’ in their entry-level package, making it more expensive. Moreover, user-based pricing may not be a cost-effective option for smaller teams. 

Is Circuit worth the pricing?

Circuit for Teams is solid delivery dispatch software for businesses with multiple drivers and dispatchers. 

Circuit’s advantage is that their entry-level pricing tier includes almost all the features, like the number of stops or the maximum period for which you can access past delivery analytics, but with some limitations.

However, even in their most expensive plan, they provide up to 1000 stops. Any additional stop requires an extra price, which may cause your delivery costs to surge, limiting scalability. 

Circuit caters to small businesses with limited budgets and moderate delivery volumes. However, their stop-based pricing makes it less suitable for those looking to scale and expand their delivery addresses beyond 1000. 

Looking for a Good Circuit Alternative? Take a Look at Upper

Upper’s route optimization software is a powerful and budget-friendly alternative to Circuit, as it does not have a stop-based pricing structure.

Aspect / Software	Circuit	Upper
Pricing tiers	Starter, Essential, Standard, and Pro	Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise
Discount on annual billing	No discount offered	20%
Route limits	Unlimited routes with a limit on total stops per month based on the plan	Unlimited routes across all plans
Additional stop per charge	$0.04 - $0.07 based on the selected plan	Not applicable
blank		Try Upper for FREE No credit card required

Unlike Circuit, Upper doesn’t charge a single cent above the plan’s price, whether you have 1000 deliveries or 5000. This makes Upper ideal for small businesses with a handful of stops or large enterprises with thousands of addresses alike. 

We are considering Circuit’s and Upper’s entry-level package pricing details to understand how Upper has a competitive edge. 

Let’s assume you have to cover 1500 addresses per month. Circuit’s basic plan, ‘Starter’ (priced at $100), allows only up to 500 stops. 

So, you must pay an additional price for the remaining 1000 stops. 

Price per stop = $0.04 

The total price for 1000 extra stops = 1000 x 0.04 = $40. 

The plan’s total cost becomes $100 + $40 = $140 per month. Thus, the yearly cost of the plan becomes $140 x 12 = $1660.

On the contrary, Upper’s ‘Essential’ plan starts at $120 per month (billed annually). It lets you create unlimited routes, each with up to 250 stops. 

So, Upper’s yearly cost, $120 x 12 = $1440, stays the same whether the total stops are 1000, 2000, or more, fostering scalability.  

Upper’s pricing tiers are designed to provide cost-effective solutions for businesses of all sizes. With competitive monthly subscription rates and discounted annual subscriptions, Upper offers significant cost savings compared to Circuit.

Moreover, while Upper and Circuit offer a wide range of route planning and delivery management features, Upper has a slight edge as it provides various features that Circuit lacks, such as: 

• Route quality: Upper creates the most optimal routes that don’t involve crisscrossing or overlapping. It helps avoid drivers’ frustration and maximize the ease of navigation.
• Analytics and reporting for unlimited days: Upper lets you access reports and analytics from up to N days in the past.
• In-app navigation: This feature lets drivers navigate planned routes from within the app, eliminating the need for switching between apps and enabling focused driving.
• Contact management: This feature allows you to create and maintain a contact book for recurring clients’ address details. You can import and map these destinations as stops to expedite route planning.
• Custom field management: This functionality allows you to create or delete fields, specify their types, or change their names to meet specific industry demands.
• Vehicle capacity constraints: Upper allows you to define vehicle load constraints, including volume or weight of goods for optimized load distribution.

Overall, Upper enables more flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, making it a superior Circuit alternative.

Final Thoughts on Circuit Pricing

Circuit for Teams is ideal for businesses needing route planning and delivery management features at competitive prices. 

The entry-level plans are affordable and include most delivery-specific features, including route optimization, route spreadsheet upload, a mobile app for drivers, and dynamic ETAs. However, they limit the number of stops or duration of data access.

However, Circuit’s stop-based pricing can be expensive for businesses that must scale their operations beyond 1,000 monthly deliveries.

Thus, Circuit works well for small businesses with budget constraints and moderate delivery volumes but becomes economically infeasible for those looking to scale their operations. Suppose you are looking for a cost-effective alternative platform with unlimited stops and features, like contact management, in-app navigation, and custom field management. In that case, that Circuit lacks, you can consider Upper. You can also use the 7 days free trial to test its features before buying a subscription.