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A free route optimizer that orders your stops in one click.

Choose where the day starts and ends, press Optimize, and your stops fall into the shortest order it can find. Optimize as often as you like on every plan, and undo if you liked the old order better.

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  • Free for up to 50 addresses
  • No credit card
  • No app to install
5643121234576
Monday · West6 stops · 9.0 miOptimized

The short answer

Updated October 19, 2026

Lite Route Planner is a free route optimizer: press Optimize and it reorders the stops on a route into the shortest-distance order it can find, almost instantly, as often as you like. It's free for up to 50 addresses, and paid plans fit up to 500 stops on one route. You choose whether the route starts at a saved base, comes back to where it started, or ends at the last stop, and undo puts the old order back. After you save, every leg shows drive time and distance from real road directions.

What happens when you press Optimize

Finding the best order is harder than it looks. Ten stops can be driven in 3,628,800 different orders, and every stop you add multiplies that again. No route optimizer checks them all. A good one finds a very short order fast.

Lite builds the route by always heading to the nearest stop it hasn't used yet. When the route has no fixed start, it tries that from different first stops and keeps the shortest. Then it untangles the result: wherever two legs cross or double back, it flips that stretch, and it keeps going until no flip makes the route shorter.

It measures the distance between stops directly rather than along roads, which is why it finishes almost instantly. Once you save, real road directions take over: every leg gets a drive time and distance, and the route shows the day's total, time driving, time at stops and miles. If a river or a highway makes one leg longer than it looks on the map, drag that stop somewhere better and compare.

What it doesn't weigh: live traffic, delivery windows or appointment times. The time you set at each stop adds to the day's total but doesn't change the order. If most of your stops have to happen inside a time window, a delivery tool built for that will serve you better; see how delivery planners compare.

Choose how the route starts and ends

The optimizer works around the ends you pick, so the order fits how your day actually runs.

  • Start at a base, end at the last stop

    For a technician who heads home from the last job. The route leaves your shop and finishes wherever the drive is shortest.

  • Round trip

    Back to where you started, for crews that return to the yard to unload. See how to plan a round trip route.

  • Start and end at different bases

    Leave from the warehouse and finish at home or at a second yard. Personal includes one base, and Business holds up to 100.

  • No base at all

    On the free plan a route starts at one of its stops. The optimizer tries different first stops and keeps the shortest, or loops back to the first stop if you choose a round trip.

Optimize a route in four steps

  1. 1

    Add your stops

    Paste a list, upload a spreadsheet or click the map. Every address is looked up and pinned.

  2. 2

    Make the route

    Lasso stops on the map or click pins one by one. Any group of stops can become a route, whether it's a neighborhood, a day of the week or one driver's share.

  3. 3

    Press Optimize

    The stops reorder at once, and a message shows roughly how many minutes the new order saves.

  4. 4

    Fine-tune and save

    Drag a stop up or down if a customer has to come first, or press undo to get the previous order back. Save, and every leg gets a drive time from real road directions.

Free route optimizers compared

Plenty of tools give directions. Fewer will reorder your stops, and the free ones cap how many.

Free route optimizers compared
FeatureLiteMapQuestRouteXLGoogle MapsApple Maps
Reorders stops for youYesYesYesNoNo
Free limit50 addresses26 stops, with ads20 stops10 places15 stops
Choice of start and endBase, round trip or last stopFirst and last stay fixedNot statedNoNo
Optimizes forShortest distanceShortest time or distanceNot statedNoNo
Saves routesUnlimited routesWith an accountNot statedNoNo
Paid plansFrom $19.99 a monthAd-free app from $1.99 a year€35 a month or €5 a dayFreeFree

Checked October 19, 2026. Google Maps and Apple Maps keep stops in the order you enter them; in Google Maps you can drag them into a new order by hand. See whether Google Maps optimizes routes and the best free route planners.

After the order is set

Optimizing takes one click. These make the rest of the day go right.

Monday Route

1h 56m · 26m driving · 1h 30m at stops · 9.0 mi

  1. 4m · 1.4 mi
    1Riverside Library740 Park Boulevard
  2. 6m · 2.1 mi
    2Bluebird Café305 Cedar Avenue
  3. 4m · 1.3 mi
    3Northside Gym61 Market Street

Drive time for every leg

See the day's total, time driving, time at stops and miles before anyone leaves.

1234Round trip · Back to Shop

Start and end where you work

Save your shop, warehouse or home as a base. Start there, end there, or make it a round trip.

Oakwood Dentistry77 5th Street
Green Leaf Dental88 Main Street
Pine Street Laundry47 Pine Street
Garcia Residence402 Aspen Drive
3 stops deletedUndo

Undo, always

Deleted the wrong stop? Optimized too soon? One click puts it back.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

The questions people ask before they plan their first route.

Try it free

Is the route optimizer free?

Yes. Free for up to 50 addresses, and optimizations are unlimited on every plan, the free one included. There's no credit card and no trial clock. Paid plans start at $19.99 a month when you need more addresses or a saved base.

How many stops can I optimize at once?

Up to 500 stops on one route on Personal and Business. On the free plan, a route can use any of your 50 addresses. Free optimizers elsewhere stop at 20 stops (RouteXL) or 26 (MapQuest).

Does it find the fastest route or the shortest?

The shortest. Lite Route Planner reorders stops to cut the distance between them, which usually cuts drive time too, but it doesn't use live traffic. After you save, every leg shows a drive time from real road directions, so you can see the whole day before you leave.

Can I keep a certain stop first?

You can fix where the route starts and ends: a saved base, a round trip back to the start, or the last stop. To put a particular customer first, optimize and then drag that stop to the top of the list. If you optimize again, move it back afterward.

Does it plan around time windows or appointment times?

No. Lite Route Planner orders stops by distance and doesn't schedule around time windows or traffic. If only a few stops have a deadline, drag them forward after optimizing. If most do, a tool built for time windows, such as Routific or OptimoRoute, is the better fit.

Can I undo an optimization?

Yes. Undo puts the stops back in the order they had before you pressed Optimize. Deleting and moving stops can be undone too.

What's the difference between a route maker and a route optimizer?

A route maker groups stops into a route, and a route optimizer puts that route in the best order. Lite Route Planner does both: lasso stops on the map or click pins to make a route, then press Optimize to order it. Routes are unlimited on every plan.

Can it split my stops into routes for different days or drivers?

Not automatically. You decide which stops go together, usually by area or by day, by lassoing them on the map, and then optimize each route. Filtering by a field such as Service day first makes it quick.

Keep reading

  • Free route plannerThe free route planner for up to 50 addresses.Free for up to 50 addresses, with unlimited routes and optimizations, and no credit card or trial clock.Read more
  • Google Maps optimizationDoes Google Maps optimize routes with multiple stops?Google Maps keeps stops in the order you type them. Here's how to get an optimized order you can still drive in Google Maps.Read more
  • Round trip routesPlan a round trip route that starts and ends in the same placeSet a route to Round trip, or start and end at a saved base, and optimize the loop so the drive home is short.Read more
  • Splitting stops into routesHow to split a list of stops into routes for several driversDivide a stop list between drivers by area, optimize each route, and balance them by drive time.Read more
  • Excel route planningYour spreadsheet in. Optimized routes out.Upload the spreadsheet you already keep and get pins, custom fields and optimized routes back.Read more
  • RouteXL alternativePast RouteXL's 20 free stops, without buying a day pass.Free for up to 50 addresses, with saved routes, a driver app and a history for every stop.Read more
5643121234576

Your next route is two minutes away.

Make a free account, add a few stops and press Optimize. That's the whole lesson.

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Lite

Lite Route Planner is an easy route planner for multiple stops. Add addresses by typing, pasting or importing a spreadsheet, optimize the order in one click, and send each route to a driver's phone, with turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.

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