Descartes Global Logistics Pricing Guide (Mar 2022)
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ITQlick Score: | 90/100 |
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ITQlick Rating: | (4/5) |
Pricing: | 6.8/10 - high cost |
Category: | Distribution -> Descartes Global Logistics -> Descartes Global Logistics pricing |
Ranking: | Ranked 4 out of 122 Distribution systems |
Company: | Descartes Systems Group |
Pricing: | starts at $290 per user/month |
Typical customers: | Small, medium and large size businesses |
Platforms: | Desktop, Cloud |
Links: | Descartes Global Logistics review, Descartes Global Logistics alternatives |

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Is Descartes Global Logistics expensive?
Descartes Global Logistics is more expensive than the industry average.
When comparing Descartes Global Logistics to their competitors, on a scale between 1 to 10 (10 is the most expensive to implement), Descartes Global Logistics is rated 6.8. Descartes Global Logistics offers few flexible plans to their customers with the basic cost of a license starting from $290 per user/month. Read the article below in order to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes: customization, data migration, training, hardware, maintenance, upgrades, and more.
You can leave your contact information with us to get a free custom quote with a breakdown of cost for your business needs.
Distribution Software Price Range
A majority distribution software in the market has perpetual licences that can be bought with a one-time fee. However, there are others set on the conventional per month, per user basis. Businesses can expect to pay between $20 to $100 per month for a distribution software. Alternatively, companies can expect prices from $5,000 and above for distribution software perpetual licenses.
For example, Visco pricing starts from $95 per user monthly and Info M3 pricing from $150 per user monthly. Meanwhile, Epicor Distributor and Accolent ERP cost one-time fees of $20,000 and $2,500 respectively for perpetual licences.
Different vendors target different sizes of businesses; hence, each business size should expect disparate pricing.
- Small Businesses can expect price points which range from $10 to $40 for distribution software. For example, Hello Tracks is priced at $10 per user, per month, while Zoho Creator pricing starts from $10 per user, per month. Also, Emerge App costs up to $26 per user monthly.
- Medium Businesses can expect to pay within $40 to $100 for a distribution software, depending on the type of package, the robustness of its features, and the number of user accounts. For example, Aquilon is priced at $75 per month for a single user account, but costs around $60 for multiple accounts. Also, Visco is priced around $95 per user monthly, and Nowcommerce for QuickBooks costs around $100 per month.
- Large Businesses can expect volatile pricing for a distribution software because most vendors adjust their prices to suit capacity of interested organizations. However, they can expect a price between $100 to $800 per month. For example, InfoPlus pricing starts from 695 per month, while that of Infor M3 starts from 150 per month.
Distribution Software best of breeds and their price ranges are as follows:
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Software Most electronic data interchange software in the market are priced either on a yearly basis or per license, although there are a few others with monthly pricing. The price ranges for EDI, depending on their tiers, are $150 to $250, $250 to $2,500, and $2,500 upward. For instance, Chiapas EDI is priced around $3750 per year, while ERP Integration Software costs $1,000 per year. Alternatively, GoAnywhere MFT perpetual licence costs around $2,000, while that of Business Systems Integrators costs $1,200.
- Food Traceability Software Most food traceability software products in the market are set on per user, per year or per user, per month basis. The price points ranges are $40 to $80, $80 to $200, and $200 above per month, depending on their tiers. Otherwise, yearly food traceability software tools are between $500 to $2,000, and $2,000 to $10,000 per year. For example, SafetyChain Food Safety & Quality Software starts from $7,500 per year, while Compliance Mate pricing starts from $500 per year. Otherwise, Visual Produce costs $300 per user monthly, while eQ Trace costs $350 per user monthly.
- Shipping Software Most shipping software apps in the market are either priced per user, per month or by the volume of shipping per month. Its price varies between $2 and $50 above depending on the vendor offering it. For instance, ShippingEasy pricing starts from $29 per month, FreightView costs around $99 per month, and 2Ship pricing starts from $10 monthly.
- Logistics Software Most logistics Software solutions in the market are priced per user, per month or per volume of items monthly. There are also others based on commission. The price ranges are between $40 to $80 and $80 to $200 per month. For example, Logitude World starts from $45 per month, OnFleet pricing starts from $149 per month, and Betachon Freight Auditing pricing starts from $0.1 per gain on each item.
- Food Distribution Software Food distribution software have prices that fall between $18 to $50 and $50 to $150 per month, depending on their tiers. The price is set per driver or user per month or per trip, per month. For example, Traverse pricing starts from $100 per month, Routteique pricing from $49 per month, and OptimoRoute costs about $19 per driver per month.
What is the cost for Distribution implementation?
Understanding the exact price of a Distribution system isn't easy as the overall cost of software includes the cost of a license, subscription fees, training, customization, hardware, maintenance, support, and other related services. It's essential to take into account all of these costs to gain an understanding of the system's "total cost of ownership."
What are the typical Distribution pricing models?
- Subscription/Software-As-A-Service: - Relevant for Descartes Global Logistics
Under this pricing model, the system is accessed over the internet, as opposed to installed on-premises. The payment is made either on a per user basis or subscription basis. Ideally, customers are required to pay a recurring monthly fee until a specific period for using the tool. Subscription pricing model is more common with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps. - Upfront cost for customization and integration is less compared to perpetual license cost because there is not much flexibility with SaaS systems in this area.
- Recurring cost is greater as customers are required to make monthly payments as a subscription fee. Additionally customers using premium support services must pay an extra fee.
- All in all, the total cost of ownership in the both cases is almost the same and may span over a period of 7-10 years, though you may have to pay a higher perpetual license fee upfront. The total cost may vary from starter to mid range to enterprise level apps in both cases.
- Perpetual license: - Not relevant for Descartes Global Logistics
A common pricing model for on-premise applications, perpetual license requires a customer to pay an upfront sum to own the tool or other intellectual property on-premises for a fixed term. - Upfront cost involves the fee for installation, customization, and integration with existing systems, besides perpetual license fee.
- Recurring cost is low in this pricing model and may include the cost for updates, maintenance, upgrades, and patches. Some vendors do offer premium support services, which come for an extra price.
- Commercial open source: Not relevant for Descartes Global Logistics
The customer can acquire the system free of cost without having to incur any upfront license fee. As a customer, you’re solely responsible for the ongoing maintenance, upgrading, customization, and troubleshooting of the application to meet your specific needs. You are on your own for providing end-user support, since you are not locked in with a vendor-supplied system solution.
How much would it cost to customize Descartes Global Logistics? (and is it relevant)
Some apps allow you to easily combine data from multiple sources, without any complicated query requirements, while some others can be embedded into different applications to provide enhanced reporting. If you seek products that support customizable dashboards and predictive analysis to identity possible trends and facilitate decision making, you may have to pay higher for all the customization features.
Additionally, the following factors may affect the cost of customization:
- User interface changes
- Configurable dashboards
- Data elements required for tracking
- Forms to collect additional data
- Dashboard, management and operational reports that are needed.
- Workflows and how complex they are
- Forms to collect additional data
In order to calculate the cost of customization you can use the following estimates:
- Minimal customization - integrate with 1-2 systems: $2,500
- Standard customization - integrate with 3-5 systems: $10,000
- Fully customized system - integrate with more than 5 systems: $25,000
What is the data migration cost of Descartes Global Logistics? Relevant for Descartes Global Logistics
Data migration cost depends on the amount of data to be transferred, your current software, availability of migration tools, complexity of data, and gaps between the existing system and the new system.
If your data is stored in Excel spreadsheets, then it may incur you a lot of time and money to migrate data from Excel.
By involving a business services provider in data migration, you are asking them to offer additional services, for which you may have to pay extra.
As a rule of thumb the cost of data migration depends on how many records you want to migrate. Records can include the number of customers, invoices, financial transactions, products, versions, etc. Here is a list you can use as a rule of thumb:
- 1,000 records: $500
- 10,000 records: $2,500
- 100,000 records: $10,000
- 1,000,000+ records: $25,000
What is Descartes Global Logistics's cost of training? Relevant for Descartes Global Logistics
The cost is mainly derived from the approach that you select for your organization:
- End-user training
- Group/Department
- Video /self
- Train the trainer/super user
Here are some questions to answer: How many groups (different departments, usages, type of users) are needed?
In order to calculate the cost you can use the following estimates:
- 1-2 Sessions: $500
- 3-4 Sessions: $1,500
- 5-7 Sessions: $2,500
- 8-10 Sessions: $5,000
How Descartes Global Logistics pricing compares to alternative Distribution solution?
- Functionality: Descartes Global Logistics Platform offers features like B2B Connectivity & Messaging, Routing, Mobile & Telematics, Customs & Regulatory Compliance, Broker & Forwarder Enterprise Systems, Transportation Management, Global Trade Intelligence, Ecommerce Shipping & Fulfillment, etc. Oracle Transportation Management Cloud offers features like Operational Planning, Transportation Management (available in Descartes), Fleet Management, Logistics Network Modeling, Digital Assistant, Machine Learning, etc. MercuryGate TMS offers features like Carbon Impact, Dock Scheduling, Dynamic Routing, Load Planning, Modeling, Multimodal Optimization, Pooling & Advancing Routing, Street-Level Optimization, Request Demo, Management, Carrier Management, Compliance & Governance, Customer Rating, Digital Freight, Document Generation, Fleet Management (available in Oracle), Multimodal Rating, Rate Repository, Spot Market, Transportation Order, etc. Kuebix TMS offers features like Negotiated Rates, Spot Service, Book, Track, Reports and Analytics, Freight Pay and Audit, Financial Management, Claims Management, Prepay and Add, Order Integration, Invoice Integration, Custom Integrations, etc.
- Customers/Industries: Descartes Global Logistics Platform had customers like Atlantic Tire Distributors, SEKO Logistics, Tyres on The Drive, Adafruit Industries, Fishing Tackle & Bait, Box Components, Megaware Keelguard, etc. Oracle Transportation Management Cloud targets Automotive, Communication, Construction & Engineering, Energy and Water, Financial Services, Food and Beverage, Government and education, Healthcare, High Technology, Hospitality, Industrial manufacturing, Life sciences, Media & Entertainment, Oil and Gas, Professional Services, Retail, Travel, and Transportation, etc. Oracle Transportation Management Cloud has customers like Zoom, Premier League, Motorola Solutions, MTN Group, SKY, Comcast, AYA Bank, PiLog, Talcott Resolution, Enersense, Allied Irish Banks, EMSS, Staughton Group, Toro, etc. MercuryGate TMS targets customer types like 3PLs, Carriers, Freight Brokers, Freight Forwarders, and Shippers. MercuryGate targets Food & Beverage, Pharma, Retail, Manufacturing, Wholesale Distribution, etc. Kuebix TMS has customers like Challenger, Monarch Brands, Weis, Master Magnetics, ShowMe Global Logistics, Vaxcel, Hanover, Coatings & Adhesive, Sensata Technologies, Summit Supply LLC, etc.
- Cost: The license cost information for Descartes Global Logistics Platform and all its alternatives are unavailable.
- Cloud-based/On-premise: Descartes Global Logistics Platform and its alternatives mentioned are cloud-based. MercuryGate and Kuebix TMS offers On-Premise for Windows and Linux.
- Popularity: Descartes Global Logistics Platform is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the DSGX symbol. Oracle Transportation Management Cloud is also publicly traded on the NYSE under the ORCL symbol with 430K+ customers.
- Scalability: Descartes Global Logistics Platform and Kuebix TMS can accommodate businesses of all sizes.
- Support: MercuryGate TMS offers the 24/7 (Live Rep) support channel. Kuebix TMS offers Email/Help Desk, Phone Support, and Chat.
How can the team at ITQlick help?
The science of TCO (total cost of ownership) may not be easy to calculate. If you seek to get detailed info about the TCO, get in touch with ITQlick experts. Contact us today and get up to date, detailed quotes.
Author
Shlomi Lavi
Shlomi holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Information System Engineering from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Shlomi brings 15 years of global IT and IS management experience as a consultant, and implementation expert for small, medium and large size (global) companies.