GpsGate alternative: per-device fee or the source

Short version. GpsGate is a Swedish tracking platform for telematics providers and integrators, built since 2007: $3 a device a month in its cloud, or GpsGate On-site on a Windows server of yours, with device decoding, per-customer applications, a REST API and in-platform scripting. Routly is AGPL-3.0 source code with a commercial licence for resellers, and it decodes nothing — it reads from Traccar, Flespi or another gateway. If you want a mature, extensible product and accept a fee per device, GpsGate. If you want the code and your own database underneath, Routly.

GpsGate releases monthly — build 11298 shipped on 15 September 2026 — so every claim below links to the page we checked, as of the date at the top.

What GpsGate is

GpsGate started in 2007, when Johan Franson and a small team in Sweden set out to build fleet tracking software. The company is GpsGate AB, and the platform — still called GpsGate Server in its URLs — is aimed at two readers:

• Tracking businesses who sell to fleets. Each customer gets its own application, with its own configuration, branding and workflows, and features can be switched on or off per customer to build service tiers.
• Integrators who build on it. REST APIs, webhooks and JavaScript scripting are in the platform, so custom logic can be written and tested inside the application.

Around that: live tracking, event rules, reports and dashboards, maintenance, a Fleet app for Android and iOS that can also turn a phone into a tracker, and an AI assistant for configuration and data queries. Branding covers logos and colours at account and application level, the Fleet app’s logo, and your own terminology through a localisation editor, per its support article.

On devices, GpsGate says it has integrated the full catalogues of Teltonika and Queclink plus trackers from hundreds of other manufacturers, and pulls data from OEM platforms such as Liebherr, Manitou and Trackunit. The decoding happens in GpsGate. That is the part of the job Routly does not do.

What GpsGate costs

From the pricing page:

• GpsGate Cloud is $3 a device a month, billed on the average number of devices tracked in the month, with no contract. A 30-day free trial, then a five-unit minimum.
• Volume pricing for large projects, quoted.
• GpsGate On-site for running it behind your own firewall: pricing from sales. On-site is now pay-as-you-go too.
• Legacy perpetual licences for existing customers and organisations such as government agencies: $60 per tracked device, once, including twelve months of updates and support, then $18 per licence per year to keep updates. The first five devices are free.

So the fee tracks the fleet in every option. At list price, 1,000 devices in the cloud is $3,000 a month, $36,000 a year. Volume pricing will bring that down; how far is a conversation with their sales team, and the right comparison is against the cost worksheet, not against a headline.

Running GpsGate On-site

The minimum requirements are Windows Server 2016, MySQL 8.0 or SQL Server 2016, and .NET Framework 4.8, with the database on a separate server in production. The September release notes warn on-premises users still on MySQL 5.5 to upgrade before installing it.

That is a perfectly ordinary Microsoft stack, and if your team runs Windows servers it is the easy path. If your infrastructure is Linux containers, it is a second world to maintain.

GpsGate vs Routly, side by side

The rows where GpsGate wins are real. It decodes devices, it has nearly two decades of field use, and its scripting lets an integrator customise a great deal without owning a code base. Routly has none of that history.

Where Routly is different

Source instead of a scripting layer. GpsGate’s extensibility is generous, but it is extensibility inside their product. With Routly the API, the ingest pipeline and the calculators are all in the repository, and a change you need is a change you make.

Self-hosted, there is no per-device fee. A fleet self-hosting for itself pays nothing under the AGPL. A provider reselling under its own name takes the commercial licence, quoted per deployment, which removes the disclosure obligation and adds warranty, indemnity and support. What white-labelling involves is written out separately.

Your database. Postgres is the system of record. Trips and events are derived at ingest and kept there indefinitely; raw positions can go to ClickHouse at about nineteen bytes each, kept 90 days by default.

The analytics are the product. Trips classified as business, personal or commute; fuel drains and fills detected from the tank sensor; an eco score from published weights; scheduled CSV, Excel and PDF reports carrying each customer’s branding; trailers as their own asset class.

The cost is a gateway. Routly needs something in front of it that speaks to the trackers. If you already run Flespi or Traccar, nothing is re-pointed. If not, Traccar is free and handles the decoding, but it is another service to run.

When to choose GpsGate

• You want a vendor that decodes your hardware, including Teltonika and Queclink catalogues and OEM machine data, without a gateway of your own.
• You are an integrator who wants to script and extend a working platform, not maintain a code base.
• You need a hosted option with no minimum commitment beyond five units, or you run Windows servers already.
• Your volumes are small enough that $3 a device is cheaper than any engineer’s time.
• You value a long track record and ISO 27001 certification for enterprise tenders.

When to choose Routly

• Your device count is large enough that a per-device fee shows up in your margin.
• You want to modify the back end, not script around it.
• You already run Traccar or Flespi and want the application layer on top.
• Your team runs Linux and Postgres, and a Windows stack would be a second world.
• You are leaving Wialon and want a move that touches no trackers.

Other GpsGate alternatives

GPSWOX — white label, hosted or lifetime

GPSWOX sells a branded platform from €99 a month, or a one-time licence for your own server, with its own store apps. GPSWOX against Routly.

Traccar — open source, Apache-2.0

Traccar decodes more than 200 protocols, runs on any major SQL database and costs nothing to self-host. The obvious choice if you want decoding without a licence fee. Traccar against Routly.

Wialon — the other incumbent

Gurtam’s Wialon is hosted or Wialon Local on your own hardware. Wialon against Routly.

Navixy — usage-based white label

Navixy prices per unit and by usage, with on-premise deployment for regulated workloads. Navixy against Routly.

The self-hosted options side by side are in the five-way comparison, and every vendor page is on the comparison hub.

Frequently asked

How much does GpsGate cost?

GpsGate Cloud is $3 per device per month with a five-unit minimum after a 30-day trial. On-site and volume pricing are quoted. Legacy perpetual licences, where still offered, are $60 per device plus $18 a year for updates.

Is GpsGate Server self-hosted?

It can be. GpsGate On-site runs on Windows Server with MySQL or SQL Server, on your own infrastructure.

Is GpsGate open source?

No. It is proprietary, extensible through REST APIs, webhooks and in-platform JavaScript.

Is it GpsGate or GPSGate?

GpsGate, which is how the company writes it. Franson, the other name you may see attached to it, is the surname of its co-founder, Johan Franson.

Can I move from GpsGate to Routly without touching trackers?

Only through a gateway. Devices pointed at GpsGate talk to GpsGate; to reach Routly they need to land in Traccar or Flespi first. Plan that before anything else.

Can I try Routly?

The public demo needs no account. GpsGate has a 30-day trial with a simulator, so both can be compared without hardware.