An Upper Route Planner alternative with no cap on drivers.
Upper bills per user and caps driver profiles on each plan. Lite Route Planner has a free plan that doesn't expire, and Business includes unlimited drivers on a browser app they don't have to install.
- Free for up to 50 addresses
- No credit card
- No app to install
- Free plan
- Up to 50 addresses, no time limit
- No (7-day trial)
- Paid plans from
- $19.99/mo, billed every 6 months
- $40/user/mo, billed yearly
- No per-driver or per-user fees
- Yes
- No
- Driver app works with no install
- Yes
- View-only browser link
- Color the map by last visit
- Yes
- No
The short answer
Updated
Lite Route Planner is an alternative to Upper Route Planner for small teams that want a free plan and no driver caps. As of October 2026, Upper starts at $50 per user a month ($40 billed yearly) with up to 10 driver profiles and 250 stops per route, after a 7-day trial. Lite is free for up to 50 addresses, and Business starts at $59.99 a month with unlimited drivers and up to 500 stops per route. Upper is the better fit if you need live GPS tracking, proof of delivery or vehicle capacity.
What Upper is, in plain terms
Upper (upperinc.com) is a route planner for delivery fleets. A dispatcher plans in Upper, and drivers run their routes in Upper's mobile app, with proof of delivery by photo, signature and notes. It handles time windows, and it sells add-ons for customer text messages, live tracking, vehicle capacity and barcode scanning.
Pricing is per user per month, and each plan caps how many driver profiles you can add and how many stops fit on a route. There's a 7-day trial with no card, and a separate one-person app, Upper Solo, at $19.99 a month in the App Store.
Lite Route Planner is smaller on purpose. It plans routes from a spreadsheet, optimizes them by distance, and puts them on drivers' phones through the browser. What it adds for repeat work is memory: every visit is saved to the stop, and the map shows who you haven't seen in a while.
Upper's plans next to Lite Business
Upper's prices are per user. Driver profiles and stops per route step up with each plan.
| Feature | Lite | Upper Starter | Upper Professional | Upper Optimize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly billing | $59.99 for the team | $50 per user | $60 per user | $89 per user |
| Longer billing | $39.99 a month, every six months | $40 per user, yearly | $48 per user, yearly | $71 per user, yearly |
| Drivers | Unlimited | 10 driver profiles | 15 driver profiles | 30 driver profiles |
| Stops per route | Up to 500 | 250 | 500 | 1,500 |
| Before you pay | Free plan, up to 50 addresses | 7-day trial | 7-day trial | 7-day trial |
Checked October 19, 2026 on upperinc.com/pricing. Upper's Enterprise plan is quoted. Upper's add-ons are customer SMS, live tracking ($20 per driver), vehicle capacity ($25 per driver) and barcode scanning ($50 per company). Starter also caps the address book at 1,000 and keeps 6 months of data. Lite Business 1,000 covers 1,000 new stops a month, with sizes up to $249.99 for 10,000.
Upper vs Lite, row by row
Upper does more for a delivery fleet. Lite starts free, has no driver cap, and is built around repeat visits.
Checked October 19, 2026 against each company's own pricing and help pages. Prices in US dollars; vendors change them, so check before you buy. Sources: upperinc.com/pricing, support.upperinc.com/docs/crew/route-planning/share-a-route-with-a-driver.
The driver's side of the comparison
How a route reaches the person driving it is where these two differ most.
Upper: an app, or a view-only link
Upper drivers work in its mobile app. Upper can also share a route as a browser link, but it's view-only, and stops completed there don't flow back to the dispatcher.
Lite: a browser app that reports back
On Lite Business, drivers sign in on their phone's browser with a code from their email. They mark each stop Visited or Attempted with a note, and you see it in the planner within seconds.
Lite share links are view-only too
Any Lite route can also go out as a link or QR code to someone without an account. Like Upper's, it's for following the route, not checking off stops.
Directions in the app they know
Lite doesn't do its own turn-by-turn. Each stop opens in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze with one tap. More on sending a route to a driver's phone.
Upper or Lite?
Choose Lite if
- Your team might outgrow 10, 15 or 30 driver profiles, or you'd rather not count them.
- You want to start on a free plan, not a 7-day trial.
- Your drivers shouldn't have to install anything, and their check-offs should reach you.
- You revisit customers and want visit history and a map colored by last visit.
- Your routes fit within 500 stops.
Choose Upper if
- You want live GPS tracking of drivers on the map (an Upper add-on).
- You need proof of delivery with photos and signatures, or barcode scanning.
- You plan around time windows or vehicle capacity.
- You run routes longer than 500 stops: Upper's Optimize plan fits 1,500.
- You drive alone and want a native iPhone app: Upper Solo is $19.99 a month in the App Store.
How to move from Upper to Lite
- 1
Export your addresses from Upper
Download your address book or routes as a spreadsheet, or use the CSV you imported into Upper.
- 2
Upload the file to Lite
Lite finds the address columns, looks up every address and keeps your other columns as custom fields. Any address it couldn't place is flagged, so you can edit it or drop a pin on the map.
- 3
Rebuild routes by lasso
Draw a loop around each day's stops on the map, press Optimize, and save to see drive time and miles for every leg.
- 4
Invite every driver
On Business, add drivers by email. There's no profile limit, so part-timers and fill-ins get their own sign-in.