GPSWOX alternative: lifetime licence or source

Short version. GPSWOX is a white-label GPS tracking platform for people starting a tracking business: hosted by them from €99 a month, or installed on your own server under a one-time “lifetime” licence, and it decodes the trackers itself. Routly is AGPL-3.0 source code with a commercial licence for resellers, and it decodes nothing — it sits behind Traccar, Flespi or another gateway. If you want a branded platform and apps running next week with your devices pointed straight at it, GPSWOX. If you want to own and change the code, and keep the telemetry in a database you run, Routly.

GPSWOX ships often — its 4.5.0 changelog lists a new interface, dash cam replay and 44 device protocols moved to a new decoder service — so every claim below links to the page we checked, as of the date at the top.

What GPSWOX sells

Three things under one name, all from its pricing page and white-label page:

• Personal and small-fleet accounts on its own servers: Lite at €2.99 a month for one object, Basic at €9.97 for up to five (both paid yearly), and Pro at €49 a month for up to fifty.
• Hosted white label from €99 a month: your domain and logo, branded iOS and Android apps in the stores, API access, customer billing through a payment gateway, admin tools and unlimited sub-accounts. The white-label page prices the same thing at $99. The pricing page does not print the steps above “from”.
• Unlimited (lifetime) software: a one-time licence installed on a server of yours. Its price is not on the pricing page; the FAQ describes it as no monthly fees for unlimited users and devices.

On devices, GPSWOX says it is compatible with 900+ trackers and will add a protocol on request. The supported-tracker list runs from ATrack and CalAmp through Queclink, Ruptela and Teltonika, and each device is pointed at a GPSWOX server address and port. That is the part of the job Routly does not do.

What the lifetime licence actually gives you

“Lifetime” and “source code” both appear in GPSWOX’s marketing, so it is worth reading the licence itself:

• One copy, on one domain registered with GPSWOX. Additional installations need additional licences.
• GPSWOX owns the software and the source. “We provide source code to server’s frontend files only.” You may modify those parts and run them on your server; creating derivative works, reverse engineering and redistribution are excluded.
• Technical support and automatic updates are 49 EUR, USD or GBP a month.
• No refund once the software is delivered.

The FAQ adds that custom features are developed by GPSWOX at 90 an hour, and lists the server requirements for self-hosting as Linux CentOS 7 — which reached end of life on 30 June 2024. The FAQ may simply be stale; ask what they install today.

None of this is unusual for a proprietary platform. It does mean “lifetime” buys a perpetual right to run their product, not ownership of it: the back end stays a black box, and updates after day one are a monthly fee.

GPSWOX vs Routly, side by side

Read the middle rows honestly. Branded store apps, billing your customers, dash cams and native decoding are things a new tracking business needs on day one, and GPSWOX ships them. Routly ships none of them.

Where Routly is different

You get the whole thing. Every line of the API, the ingest pipeline and the calculators is in the repository. If a customer needs a report GPSWOX does not have, the GPSWOX answer is a quote for development hours; the Routly answer is a pull request, yours or ours.

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

The data is in a database you can query. Postgres is the system of record. Trips and events are derived at ingest and kept there indefinitely; raw positions can go to a separate ClickHouse at about nineteen bytes each.

The analytics go further down. Trips are classified as business, personal or commute; fuel analytics flag drains and fills from the tank sensor; drivers get an eco score from weighted components you can read. Reports go out on a schedule as CSV, Excel or PDF, with each customer organisation’s own branding, and trailers are a separate asset class with no engine data.

The cost is a gateway. Routly needs something in front of it that speaks to the trackers. If you have one — Flespi or Traccar — adopting Routly re-points nothing. If you do not, Traccar is free and decodes over 200 protocols, but it is one more service to run.

When to choose GPSWOX

• You are starting a tracking business and want branded web and mobile apps live within days, not a deployment project.
• You want devices pointed straight at the platform, with no gateway to run, and the vendor adding protocols when you need one.
• You need customer billing and store apps under your name out of the box.
• You have no engineers and want GPSWOX to install, run and update the server for you.
• A one-time licence plus 49 a month suits your cash flow better than infrastructure you operate.

When to choose Routly

• You want the complete source, and the right to change the back end, not only the front-end files.
• You already run Traccar or Flespi and want the application layer on top.
• Your customers ask where their telemetry lives, and a Postgres you run is the answer you want to give.
• The deciding features are fuel-loss detection, driver scoring and scheduled reporting per customer.
• You are leaving Wialon and want a move that touches no trackers.

Routly is young and its community is small. If a vendor’s track record matters more to you than the source, that is a fair reason to buy GPSWOX.

Other GPSWOX alternatives

Traccar — the open-source base

Traccar is Apache-2.0, Java, and supports more than 200 protocols. It is the closest open-source equivalent to GPSWOX’s server: decoding, a map, reports, and resellers do run it white-labelled. Many people run it under something else, Routly included. Traccar against Routly.

Wialon — the incumbent

Gurtam’s Wialon comes hosted or as Wialon Local, a server version on your own hardware. It is the platform a lot of GPSWOX’s market already knows. Wialon against Routly, row by row.

Navixy — licensed white label, at scale

Navixy prices per unit and by usage, with optional on-premise deployment. Closer to a supported enterprise product than GPSWOX. Navixy against Routly.

GpsGate — per-device cloud, or on-site

GpsGate charges $3 a device a month in its cloud and also runs on your own Windows server. GpsGate against Routly.

For every option in one place, see the comparison hub.

Frequently asked

How much does GPSWOX cost?

Hosted white label starts at €99 a month ($99 on its white-label page); personal plans start at €2.99. The lifetime licence is a one-time fee not listed on the pricing page, plus 49 a month for updates and support.

Is GPSWOX open source?

No. The lifetime licence includes the front-end source files, which you may modify on your own server, but GPSWOX owns the software and the back end is not provided.

Can I self-host GPSWOX?

Yes, under the Unlimited (lifetime) licence, on one domain per licence. GPSWOX installs it for you.

Can I move from GPSWOX to Routly without touching trackers?

Only if a gateway is involved. Devices pointed at GPSWOX speak to GPSWOX; to move them to Routly they need to reach Traccar or Flespi first, which means re-pointing them or forwarding from a gateway you already run. Plan that step before anything else.

Can I see Routly before deciding?

The public demo needs no account and runs a sample fleet. GPSWOX has a demo and a 14-day trial; put the two side by side.