Most “best TMS” lists are written by a software company, and so is this one. I run about 15 trucks, and I built Oculus Freight for fleets like mine, so it’s our pick and it comes first below. Every price here comes from the vendor’s own pricing page or a software directory, checked October 17, 2026, and every product gets the fleet it fits, including the cases where another one is the better buy.

This list is for owners of for-hire fleets with 5 to 15 trucks, where the owner or one office person handles dispatch, billing and driver pay.

Key Takeaways

• Our pick for 5–15 trucks is Oculus Freight: $30 per truck with every module included, your data loaded for you, and 60 days to get your money back.
• Fleets of 10 or more trucks also get at least 4 hours of office work back every week from Oculus Freight, or their money back. The others offer trials of 7 to 30 days, or a demo.
• Oculus Freight sells nothing separately. Elsewhere, add up the extras: Datatruck’s AI Dispatcher is $399 a month on top of the plan, TruckLogics charges $24.95 per IFTA report, and TruckingOffice’s PC*MILER mileage costs $15–25 a month more.
• If the lowest bill decides it, TruckingOffice is the cheapest published option, and AscendTMS has a free version.

What Does a TMS Cost at 5, 10 and 15 Trucks?

At 10 trucks, published prices for a small-fleet TMS run from $90 to $300 a month: Oculus Freight is $300 with everything included, Datatruck‘s Pro plan $299 and TruckingOffice Basic $90. Truckbase starts at $290 a month billed yearly, Alvys quotes a price per load, and AscendTMS offers a free version with paid plans from $99 per user a month, according to Capterra.

Monthly prices from each vendor’s pricing page (AscendTMS from Capterra), checked October 17, 2026. Prices change, so check before you decide.

Per-truck pricing, like ours, grows with every truck you add. Banded pricing, like TruckingOffice’s and Datatruck’s, jumps at set sizes and then stays flat. At 15 trucks, Datatruck’s $299 is $151 a month less than we charge, and TruckingOffice Basic’s $90 is $360 less. What you get for it with Oculus Freight: your data loaded for you, the ChatGPT and Claude assistant, nothing sold separately, and 60 days to get your money back.

Which TMS Fits Which Fleet?

The short answer, by what matters most to you:

1. Our pick for most 5–15 truck fleets: Oculus Freight, for everything in one price, set up for you, with 60 days to get your money back.
2. The lowest monthly bill: TruckingOffice.
3. An owner-operator adding trucks: TruckLogics.
4. 11 to 19 trucks on one flat price: Datatruck.
5. Trying a TMS before paying anything: AscendTMS.
6. Hands-on onboarding for a growing fleet: Truckbase.
7. A dispatch office with several users: Alvys.

Oculus Freight: Our Pick for 5 to 15 Trucks

Oculus Freight is $30 per truck per month with every module included: dispatch, invoices, driver pay, safety and maintenance, and a driver app for iPhone and Android. Drivers scan BOLs and PODs in the app and see their trip, stops and fuel plan, and their arrival times are recorded by GPS, which is the proof you need to get paid for detention. Nothing is sold separately.

You don’t set it up yourself. Our team loads your trucks, drivers, customers and last month’s loads, usually within 3 working days. New customers get their money back if they leave within 60 days, and fleets of 10 or more trucks get at least 4 hours of office work back every week, or their money back. The others on this list offer trials of 7 to 30 days, or a demo.

It works with Samsara, HOS247, Youlog and Safe Lane ELDs, WEX fuel cards, TollGuru and Telegram. Of the other pricing pages here, only TruckLogics (Motive, Samsara) and Alvys (Samsara) name an ELD brand. Starting late October 2026, you can ask ChatGPT or Claude about your trucks, loads, drivers and money in plain words; it’s included in every plan, and you use your own ChatGPT or Claude account. Truck navigation built on our own bridge and restriction data is coming to the driver app; today, the app opens each stop in Trimble CoPilot or Google Maps.

I run about 15 trucks on it every day, so it’s built around how a small fleet’s office actually works: one or two people doing dispatch, billing and driver pay at once.

Best for: 5 to 15 truck owners who want one system set up for them, drivers on a real app, and a refund window long enough to try it on real pay weeks. It’s the wrong pick if you need a QuickBooks link, want the lowest monthly bill (TruckingOffice Basic is $90 at 15 trucks, against our $450) or want one flat price for 11 to 19 trucks (Datatruck is $151 a month less at 15). I built it, so weigh this section accordingly.

TruckingOffice: The Lowest Monthly Bill

TruckingOffice is the cheapest published option here. Its Basic plan is $55 a month for 3–7 trucks and $90 for 8 or more; Pro, which adds LTL loads, a load planner and more users, is $75 and $130. PC*MILER mileage adds $15–25 a month. It covers dispatch, invoices, IFTA and driver settlements, and the free trial lasts 30 days.

Best for: owners who want loads, IFTA and driver pay in one place and are happy to set it up themselves. If the monthly bill decides it, start here.

TruckLogics: For an Owner-Operator Adding Trucks

TruckLogics starts at $39.95 a month for 1–2 trucks, or $35.96 a month billed yearly, and charges more as the fleet grows. IFTA reports cost $24.95 each. It covers dispatch, invoices and payments, settlements and a mobile app, imports trucks from Motive or Samsara, and tracks license, insurance and maintenance dates. The free trial lasts 7 days.

Best for: owner-operators growing into a small fleet who want low entry pricing. A week is short, so line up real loads before you start the trial.

Datatruck: One Flat Price From 7 to 19 Trucks

Datatruck charges $99 a month for up to 6 trucks, $299 for up to 19 and $499 for up to 30. Its own FAQ says it’s built for owners with more than 10 trucks. The plans include a driver mobile app and IFTA reports, while its AI Dispatcher ($399 a month) and AI Updater ($99 a month) are sold separately. There’s a 7-day trial.

Best for: fleets of 11 to 19 trucks, where the flat $299 beats per-truck pricing. At 7 trucks you pay the same $299 as at 19.

AscendTMS: Try It Before You Pay

AscendTMS has a free version, and paid plans start at $99 per user a month, according to its Capterra listing, where it holds a 4.9 rating from 368 reviews. Its own website doesn’t show prices: the pricing page sends you to a login.

Best for: owners who want to run a TMS on real loads before paying anything. Check what the free version leaves out before you move the whole operation into it.

Truckbase: Hands-On Onboarding for Growing Fleets

Truckbase doesn’t publish plan prices; you get a price after a demo, and its pricing page lists a minimum of $290 a month, billed yearly. Onboarding is free and done with you live, with on-site training as an option. It calls itself a TMS built for growing asset-based carriers, with driver settlements and a QuickBooks link.

Best for: fleets near the top of this range that want someone to walk them through setup and are fine with yearly billing.

Alvys: A Dispatch Office With Several Users

Alvys charges per load instead of per truck or per user, quoted on your load volume, and lets you add as many dispatchers as you need. Implementation is free, there are no long-term contracts, and the free trial lasts 14 days. It covers dispatch, invoices with factoring, IFTA, driver settlements with in-app paystubs, a driver app and two-way QuickBooks sync; fleet maintenance and the Samsara link are premium add-ons.

Best for: offices with several dispatchers, where per-user pricing would add up. Ask for a quote at your weekly load count, because per-load pricing is hard to compare until you have that number.

What Should You Check Before You Sign?

Ask every vendor the same six questions, including us.

1. What will I pay at my truck count, with everything I need switched on? Add the extras: mileage, IFTA reports, AI tools, more users.
2. Who moves my data in? Trucks, drivers, customers and open loads. If the answer is an import screen, budget your evenings.
3. Does it link to my ELD and fuel card? Name yours. A logo on a website doesn’t prove a working link.
4. Can it pay my drivers the way I pay them? Per mile, percentage or hourly, with the deductions you actually take.
5. Monthly or yearly billing? A yearly bill locks you in for the year; a monthly one lets you leave.
6. Does the trial or refund window cover two pay cycles? You want to see invoices and driver pay go through end to end before you’re committed.

How long each one gives you to try it:

Frequently Asked Questions

Which TMS is best for a 10-truck fleet?

Our pick is Oculus Freight: $300 a month at 10 trucks with every module included, your data loaded for you, 60 days to get your money back, and at least 4 hours of office work back every week or your money back. If the monthly bill decides it, TruckingOffice Basic is $90 a month at 8 or more trucks.

What is the cheapest TMS for a small trucking company?

Oculus Freight is $30 per truck with everything included, but it isn’t the cheapest. On published prices, TruckingOffice is: $55 a month for 3–7 trucks and $90 for 8 or more on its Basic plan, as of October 2026. AscendTMS also has a free version, according to Capterra. Check what each one leaves out before choosing on price alone.

Do I need a TMS with 5 trucks?

Not always. Spreadsheets and QuickBooks can run 5 trucks if one person keeps them current. A TMS starts paying off when loads, invoices, driver pay and paperwork sit in different places and the owner spends evenings matching them up.

Is QuickBooks enough for a trucking company?

For the books, often yes. QuickBooks doesn’t track loads, rate confirmations, driver pay per load or IFTA miles, so loads and driver pay still need a home somewhere else. Oculus Freight doesn’t link to QuickBooks; Alvys and Truckbase do.

Which small-fleet TMS has a driver app?

Most of them. Oculus Freight, Datatruck and Alvys all list a driver mobile app, and TruckLogics has a mobile app as well. Ask whether drivers can scan documents and see their trip and stops in the app, not just update a load status.

Which TMS works with my ELD?

Name your ELD and ask. Oculus Freight works with Samsara, HOS247, Youlog and Safe Lane ELD, TruckLogics imports trucks from Motive and Samsara, and Alvys’s pricing page names a Samsara link as a premium add-on. A working link brings in miles and driver hours without retyping.

The Short Version

For most 5–15 truck fleets, our pick is Oculus Freight: everything in one price, set up for you, with 60 days to get your money back, and at 10 or more trucks, at least 4 hours a week back or your money back.

If the monthly bill decides it, buy TruckingOffice. If you run 11 to 19 trucks and want one flat price, look at Datatruck. If you want to try before you pay, start with AscendTMS’s free version. Ask us the six questions above, and ask the others too.

See the founding-carrier offer or tell us what you’re running today. For what differs between platforms beyond price, see what separates TMS platforms for small carriers.

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Sources

• Oculus Freight, Pricing, Integrations, Founding carriers and AI. Checked 2026-10-17.
• TruckingOffice, Pricing. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• TruckLogics, TMS Pricing. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• Datatruck, Pricing and FAQ. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• Truckbase, Pricing. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• Alvys, Pricing. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• AscendTMS, Pricing (opens a sign-in page). Retrieved 2026-10-17.
• Capterra, AscendTMS listing (rating, starting price, free version and free trial). Retrieved 2026-10-17.