Short version. Wialon’s own retranslator forwards live telemetry to another system over an open protocol. Point it at a flespi channel, forward that to Routly, and both platforms run on the same devices while you compare the numbers. No tracker is reconfigured and nothing is switched until you decide.
The thing that stops most fleets leaving a hosted platform is not the price and not the features. It is the belief that switching means sending someone to every vehicle. It does not, and the mechanism that makes it unnecessary is already built into Wialon.
The fear, and why it is misplaced
Ask an operations manager what a platform migration involves and you get some version of this: book the vehicles in, reconfigure each tracker’s server address, lose tracking on whatever is on the road that week, and hope the new system works before the old contract lapses. For a hundred vehicles that is weeks of scheduling. For a thousand it is not a project anyone approves.
None of it is necessary, because Wialon can forward your telemetry to a second system itself, in real time, while continuing to run exactly as it does now.
The retranslator is the whole trick
Wialon ships a feature called a retranslator. It is designed for exactly this: transmitting unit messages from your server to other servers or systems in real time or for a past period, and data can go to several destinations simultaneously over different protocols.
The Wialon Retranslator protocol is Gurtam’s own, binary over TCP, with an open specification, and it carries position and sensor values. Because the specification is open, it is widely accepted by other telematics platforms.
The device never learns about any of this. It keeps reporting to Wialon on the same address, the same port, the same protocol. Wialon receives it, and passes a copy on.
The path, end to end
GPS device → Wialon → retranslator (TCP) → flespi channel → Routly webhook → ClickHouse
↓
keeps workingFour hops, and only two of them are yours to configure.
1. A retranslator on the Wialon side. In the management system, create a retranslator of type Wialon Retranslator and point it at a host and port. Select the units you want forwarded — start with two or three, not the whole fleet.
2. A flespi channel that speaks the protocol. Flespi is a telematics gateway with a channel type for this protocol: create a channel operated over Wialon Retranslator and point the Wialon retranslator at its address. Flespi parses the binary into JSON and buffers it — 100 MB on a free account, 10 GB commercial, for 30 days — which matters more than it sounds, because that buffer is what absorbs a restart on your side without losing messages.
3. A flespi stream pointed at Routly. Flespi’s stream forwards parsed messages onward. Point it at https://your-host/api/webhook/flespi with your FLESPI_WEBHOOK_SECRET.
4. Nothing on the device. That is the point of the exercise.
If you already have flespi in the picture — many Wialon integrators do — steps two and three are an afternoon.
A note on what we have and have not tested
Routly’s flespi provider is the path our own production instance runs on; it takes several hundred webhook posts an hour and has done for months. The Wialon retranslator into a flespi channel is documented by both vendors at the links above, and the shape of the JSON that reaches Routly is flespi’s regardless of which protocol filled it.
What we have not done is run your Wialon account into it. Sensor naming is where these migrations get fiddly: a fuel level called fuel_lvl on one integrator’s setup and can_fuel_level on another’s has to be mapped once, on the Routly side, and that is the one step nobody can promise in advance. Do it with three vehicles before you do it with three hundred.
Then run both, and compare
This is the part that makes the migration defensible to whoever signs it off. For a fortnight or a month, both systems receive the same telemetry from the same devices. Nothing has been switched. Nothing can break, because nothing has changed.
What you compare, in rough order of how often it surfaces a problem:
- Position counts per vehicle per day. If Routly is seeing 5% fewer messages, the retranslator filter is dropping something.
- Total distance per vehicle per week. Small differences are normal — trip detection thresholds differ between platforms. A 20% difference means a unit conversion is wrong.
- Trip starts and ends. Compare a handful by hand. Different platforms disagree about what ends a trip, and you want to know how yours disagrees before someone in accounts does.
- Fuel levels. The most common place a sensor mapping is wrong, and the easiest to spot: a level that never changes, or one that reads 4,000 instead of 400.
- Geofence entries. If you rely on them for billing, reconcile a week of events before switching.
You are not testing whether the new system works. You are finding the three mappings that are wrong, which there always are, while the old system is still running.
What does not come across
Being straight about this saves a bad week later.
Historical data. The retranslator can send a past period, but there are limits to how far back and how fast, and in practice most fleets do not bother. Derived data — trips, fuel events, driver scores — is recomputed at ingest anyway, so replaying raw positions does not give you the old system’s trips; it gives you Routly’s interpretation of the old system’s positions. Keep Wialon readable for as long as your retention policy requires and let the new history accumulate from the switchover.
Configuration. Geofences, users, notification rules, report templates. None of it travels over a telemetry protocol. Rebuilding it is real work, usually a few days, and it is the honest bulk of a migration. It is also the point at which most fleets discover how many of their forty saved reports nobody has opened in a year.
Anything Wialon computed. Sensor formulas, calculation tables, custom parameters. If a value is derived inside Wialon rather than sent by the device, decide whether to recreate the formula or take the raw value and derive it downstream.
When you actually switch
The switch itself is anticlimactic: you stop paying for Wialon, and the retranslator stops with it. Everything that mattered was done during the parallel period.
Our own switching outline puts numbers on the phases — one to two days of assessment, one to three weeks to deploy, one to two weeks running side by side. The middle number is the only one that varies much, and it varies with how much configuration you are rebuilding rather than with fleet size.
Frequently asked
Does this work with Wialon Local as well as Hosting?
Yes. Retranslators are documented for both. Wialon Local gives you one additional option, which is reading its database directly, but the retranslator is simpler and does not couple you to a schema.
Do I need flespi, or can Wialon post to Routly directly?
You need something that speaks the retranslator protocol, because it is binary over TCP and Routly’s ingest is HTTP. Flespi is the shortest path and the one we support. Any gateway that can terminate the protocol and POST JSON works — that is what the generic provider is for.
What does flespi cost for this?
Flespi bills by device and publishes its own pricing; a small fleet frequently fits the free tier while you are testing. We have no commercial relationship with them, and Traccar is the free alternative if you would rather not add a vendor — see the Traccar route.
Can I forward to Wialon and Routly at once, permanently?
Yes, and some integrators do exactly that: Wialon for the customers who want it, Routly for the ones who want their own database. The retranslator supports several destinations.
Will Wialon notice or object?
Retranslation is a documented feature of the product you are paying for, intended for exactly this kind of integration. It is not a workaround.
How long before we can cancel?
Whatever your comparison period is, plus your notice period. The technical part is done in the first week; the rest is watching.
Start with three vehicles
The whole argument for this path is that it costs almost nothing to try. Pick three vehicles, one retranslator, one channel, one stream, and look at the live demo while you wait for the first positions to appear. If the numbers match, the remaining work is configuration and a calendar. If they do not, you have found out for the price of an afternoon and nobody drove anywhere.
