Routly and Wialon, compared honestly
Wialon has a self-hosted product, so "we run on your servers" is not the difference. The difference is the licence, the shape of the fee, and whether you can query the database yourself.
In three lines
- Wialon Hosting is their cloud product, billed per unit per month. Wialon Local is their on-premise product, sold as a perpetual licence plus annual maintenance — still proprietary, still licensed by unit count.
- Routly is AGPL-3.0. You get the source, the fee does not track the fleet, and the telemetry lands in a PostgreSQL and a ClickHouse you can point any SQL client at.
- Wialon decodes devices directly and supports a vast hardware range. Routly has no device decoders at all — it reads from Flespi, Traccar or any JSON webhook, which is also what lets you migrate without touching a tracker.
Side by side
Wialon has two products and they differ, so both are in the middle column.
| Wialon Hosting / Local | Routly | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Hosting is their cloud; Local runs on your hardware | Your servers, one compose file |
| Source code | Proprietary — Local is a binary you host | AGPL-3.0, complete source, yours to modify |
| What it costs | Hosting per unit per month; Local a perpetual licence plus 15–20% annual maintenance | Your infrastructure bill; the licence is free or quoted |
| Does the fee track the fleet | Yes, both products are licensed by unit count | No — a position costs about 19 bytes on disk |
| Where the telemetry sits | Their schema, reachable through their API and exports | Your PostgreSQL and ClickHouse, queryable directly |
| Device protocols | Decoded natively, a very large certified hardware range | None — reads from Flespi, Traccar or any JSON webhook |
| Maps | Vendor keys | MapLibre, no key required |
| API | Their SDK and remote API | REST, plus outbound webhooks you configure |
| Access control | Roles you are given | Roles, and grants down to a single vehicle |
| Reports | A large built-in library | Built, saved, and emailed on a schedule as CSV, Excel or PDF |
| Mobile | Their apps | iOS and Android, same accounts |
| Changing what it does | A feature request | A pull request against your own copy |
When Wialon is the right answer
A comparison that never reaches this section is an advertisement. These are the cases where we would tell you to stay.
- You want one vendor accountable for the device, the platform and the support, and you are content to pay for that.
- Your hardware is unusual and you need Gurtam-certified support for it specifically.
- You have no operations capacity at all and nobody who would own a server.
- You are an integrator already deep in the Wialon partner ecosystem, and that channel is where your customers come from.
What people are actually leaving
The invoice tracks the fleet
Both Wialon products are licensed by unit count, so ten thousand vehicles cost ten times what a thousand did for software that has not changed. Self-hosted under AGPL, the hundredth vehicle costs what the first did: disk, not licence.
On-premise is not the same as owning it
Wialon Local puts the software on your hardware, which answers data residency. It does not give you the source, does not let you change behaviour, and does not stop the licence being counted per unit. Hosting it and owning it are different things.
The roadmap is someone else’s
A report you need is a feature request behind a queue you cannot see, for customers you are not. With the source, it is work you can schedule.
Leaving does not mean touching a tracker
Wialon ships a retranslator that forwards your live telemetry to another system in real time, over an open protocol other platforms accept. Point it at a Flespi channel, forward that to Routly, and both systems run on the same devices while you compare the numbers. Nothing is reconfigured in a vehicle and nothing is switched until you decide.
The step-by-step migration pathSwitching
Three steps, and you can run both at once
The trackers keep reporting to both systems while the data is compared, so nothing is cut over on trust. You are never without tracking, and never mid-migration without a fallback.
- 01
Assessment
1–2 daysWe go through what you run now — devices, protocols, the reports people actually open, the integrations that must keep working.
- 02
Deploy
1–3 weeksRoutly goes up on your infrastructure with your branding, your users and your geofences configured.
- 03
Migrate
1–2 weeksBoth systems run side by side on the same trackers while the data is checked. You switch when you are satisfied, not before.
Questions people ask
Is Routly a drop-in replacement for Wialon?
No. Wialon decodes device protocols itself; Routly has no decoders and reads from a gateway such as Flespi or Traccar. In exchange, adopting it does not mean reconfiguring a single tracker.
Wialon Local is already self-hosted. What does Routly add?
The source, and the shape of the fee. Wialon Local is a proprietary binary licensed by unit count with annual maintenance on top. Routly is AGPL-3.0: you get the code, you can change it, and the cost stops tracking the fleet.
How do I get my data out of Wialon?
Wialon has a retranslator that forwards live telemetry to another system over an open protocol. Both platforms then run on the same devices until you are satisfied the numbers match.
What does Routly cost?
Nothing to self-host under AGPL-3.0 for your own fleet. A commercial licence, quoted per case, covers reselling, hosting it for customers, or a policy that rules out AGPL.
Can I keep my existing trackers?
Yes. That is the point of reading from a gateway rather than from the device. Nothing is re-flashed and nothing is re-installed.
Where the Wialon figures come from
- Wialon Local is a server-based version you host on your own hardware
- Wialon Hosting pricing surveys: from about $10 per unit, falling toward $5 above 1,000 units
- Wialon Local sold as a one-off licence plus 15–20% annual maintenance
- Wialon retranslator: real-time forwarding to other systems
Wialon is a product of Gurtam, and the trade mark is theirs. Published pricing is indicative; both products are sold through a sales process, so your quote is the only figure that binds. Corrections are welcome at hello@theassettrack.com.
Talk to us
Tell us what you are running now
Tell us what you run today and how many vehicles are on it — whether that is one fleet or thirty customers’ worth. We answer within one working day.
Or look around first — the demo needs nothing from you. Open it.