Search “best dispatch software for small trucking companies” and the results are almost entirely vendor blogs comparing themselves favorably to their own competitors — which is a fair warning sign before you’ve even opened a pricing page. We went to each company’s own site instead of trusting the roundups, and found something the roundups don’t mention: of the four names that come up most often, only one publishes an actual dollar figure without a sales call. The other three — the ones actually built as trucking dispatch software — keep pricing behind a “request a demo” form.
The short version: Connecteam shows real prices starting at free, but it’s a general workforce-management app with a trucking marketing page attached, not dispatch software with load boards, IFTA reporting, or driver settlements built in. Truckbase, DispatchTMS, and Toro TMS are the actual purpose-built trucking tools, and none of the three will tell you a price until you talk to someone. Truckbase is the one exception that let a number slip: a stated minimum of $290/month billed annually, aimed at carriers running 10 or more trucks — which tells a one- or two-truck operation most of what it needs to know before booking a call.
Quick Comparison: What Each One Actually Is
| Tool | Public Pricing? | Contract Terms | Built For | Review Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecteam | Yes — free for 10 users, then $29–$99/mo | 14-day free trial, no card required; monthly or annual billing, no minimum term published | General workforce scheduling, time clock, and team chat, with a trucking-branded landing page | 4.6★ on Capterra (5,309 reviews) — by far the most-reviewed of the four, though most reviewers aren’t trucking-specific |
| Truckbase | No public number; one figure disclosed on request | $290/mo minimum is billed annually — a 12-month commitment, not month-to-month | Growing asset-based carriers, 10–50 trucks | 4.8★ on Capterra (77 reviews) |
| DispatchTMS | No | Not published anywhere on the pricing page — not even mentioned | Trucking, brokerage, or combined trucking+brokerage operations | Doesn’t appear on Capterra at all; effectively no independent review record to check its claims against |
| Toro TMS | No | Explicitly month-to-month, “no long-term commitment” per its own pricing page | Bulk haulers running multiple short-haul loads per truck per day | 5.0★ on Capterra (23 reviews) |
All four companies’ own pricing pages checked directly on August 25, 2026. Capterra ratings and review counts confirmed directly on Capterra on September 5, 2026.
Connecteam: Real Pricing, But Not Trucking Software
Connecteam is the only one of the four with a pricing page that shows numbers without asking for your email first. Confirmed directly on connecteam.com/pricing: a Small Business plan, free for up to 10 users, then three paid Operations Hub tiers — Basic at $29/month, Advanced at $49/month, Expert at $99/month — each covering the first 30 users, with a small per-additional-user fee ($0.80–$4.20 depending on tier). Oddly, the monthly-billing price is actually cheaper than the annual-billing price shown on the same page ($29 vs. $35 for Basic); we checked this twice because it’s backwards from how most SaaS pricing works, and it’s accurate as published.
Connecteam markets a dedicated “trucking dispatch software” landing page, and the features it lists — GPS clock-in, job assignment, driver messaging, digital forms — are real and do apply to a trucking operation’s day-to-day staff management. What it doesn’t have is what the other three vendors are actually built around: a load/dispatch board tied to rate confirmations, IFTA fuel-tax reporting, ELD-integrated live truck tracking, or driver settlement calculations. It’s workforce management software with a trucking use case bolted on, not a transportation management system (TMS).
It’s also the only one of the four with a real review base to check: 4.6 stars across 5,309 reviews on Capterra, confirmed directly on Capterra’s site. That volume says more about Connecteam’s size as a general workforce-management product across every industry than about its fit for trucking specifically — most of those reviewers aren’t running a dispatch operation. Pricing includes a 14-day free trial with no card required, and both monthly and annual billing are offered with no minimum contract term published either way.
- Who should NOT use Connecteam for this: any carrier that needs to generate IFTA reports, run driver settlements, or manage a load board — none of that exists in the product, regardless of which tier you pay for.
- Who it’s actually right for: a small trucking company that mainly needs to schedule shifts, track driver hours, and send dispatch instructions by message — and is willing to handle load management and fuel-tax reporting somewhere else.
Truckbase: The One Real Number, and It’s Not a Small-Fleet Price
Truckbase’s own pricing page (truckbase.com/trucking-software-pricing) doesn’t list a rate card — it describes multiple possible pricing models (per truck, per driver, per load, flat annual) and directs every visitor to book a demo. The one number the page does disclose is a stated new minimum: $290 per month, billed annually. The same page’s own customer examples and its “Enterprise Carrier Partner Program” language describe fleets in the 11–100 truck range, and the product itself — AI load importing, ELD-integrated live tracking, driver settlements, QuickBooks integration — is TMS functionality built for an office that’s already dispatching multiple trucks a day, not a single owner-operator.
Truckbase also has the strongest review record of the three vendors that hide their pricing: 4.8 stars across 77 reviews on Capterra, confirmed directly on Capterra’s site — a small sample next to Connecteam’s, but a real one, and Capterra’s own summary describes it as the highest-rated TMS in its category.
- The hidden trap: Truckbase’s own marketing copy says “if you run a small trucking company you need this product,” which reads as an invitation to a 1–3 truck operation — but the disclosed $290/mo minimum is billed annually (a 12-month commitment, not a month-to-month trial), and the fleet sizes in its own case studies point at a considerably larger operation than that phrase implies.
- Who should NOT use Truckbase: an owner-operator or a 1–3 truck outfit. The pricing and the feature set are both built around a carrier with enough trucks and enough dispatch volume to justify $3,500+/year on software, locked in for a year, before adding per-truck or per-load charges.
DispatchTMS: No Number at All
DispatchTMS’s pricing page lists five distinct offerings — Trucking, Brokerage, a Trucking & Brokerage combo, Dispatch Services, and Licensing & Permits — laid out with a detailed feature-comparison table, and not a single dollar figure anywhere on it. The page’s own text states: “Please get in touch with our expert support team for pricing details,” with a phone number and email as the only next step. There’s no free trial, no starting price, no per-truck estimate, and no stated contract length published anywhere on the site as of this check.
Its review record is thinner than the pricing page: we couldn’t find DispatchTMS listed on Capterra at all, and a search of G2 turned up only a single review — nowhere near enough to independently check its own claims against, the way Connecteam’s, Truckbase’s, or Toro TMS’s review volume lets you.
- The hidden trap: because five plan names are listed with features but no prices, it’s easy to assume you can compare DispatchTMS against Truckbase or Toro TMS on paper before calling anyone. You can’t — the feature table tells you what each plan includes, but not what any of it costs or what contract you’d be signing, so the comparison stops at “call to find out.”
- Who should NOT use DispatchTMS: anyone trying to shortlist trucking software without picking up the phone, or anyone who wants to see how a product performs for other small carriers first — there’s essentially no independent review record to check.
Toro TMS: Built for Bulk Haulers, and Third-Party Sites Have the Price Wrong
Toro TMS’s own pricing page (torotms.com/pricing, checked directly on August 25, 2026) contains no plan names, no tiers, and no dollar amounts — only a statement that the company offers “month-to-month” contracts with “no long-term commitment” and a prompt to book a demo or call. That’s notable because several third-party software-directory sites currently list specific numbers for Toro TMS — a Basic tier around $19/month, Business around $29, Enterprise around $49 — none of which appear anywhere on Toro’s own site today. We can’t confirm those figures are current, outdated, or simply wrong, and we’re not repeating them as fact. This is the same lesson we ran into with noCRM.io’s pricing in our CRM for solo consultants comparison: a secondary source reporting a specific number is not the same as the vendor confirming it.
Toro’s own copy is explicit about its niche: it’s “built specifically to tackle the unique dispatching and back office challenges of bulk hauling” — repeated, multiple-loads-per-truck-per-day operations, not general freight or long-haul dry van work. That’s a narrower target than “small trucking company” implies. On contract terms, at least, it’s the most transparent of the three no-public-pricing vendors: its own pricing page states month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment, a real point in its favor next to Truckbase’s annual lock-in.
Toro TMS also has the best rating-to-review-volume of the three hidden-pricing vendors for its niche: 5.0 stars across 23 reviews on Capterra, confirmed directly on Capterra’s site — a small but perfect-scoring sample, consistent with a product built for a narrow, satisfied niche rather than a mass market.
- The hidden trap: if you searched for Toro TMS pricing and landed on a third-party comparison site instead of torotms.com directly, you may be working from numbers the company itself no longer publishes.
- Who should NOT use Toro TMS: any carrier that isn’t running short-haul, multiple-loads-per-day bulk operations — the product is purpose-built for that specific workflow, not general trucking dispatch.
Who Should NOT Buy Any of These Four
If you’re a single owner-operator running one or two trucks and your actual problem is remembering which load you agreed to and when it’s due, a $290+/month TMS built for a 10-truck back office is the wrong tool at the wrong price. A shared spreadsheet, a load board’s own free tools, and a phone are still how a lot of one-truck operations run profitably. Add dedicated dispatch software once you’re coordinating more loads or more drivers than you can track from memory — not because a comparison article told you every trucking company needs a TMS.
FAQ
Which of these four actually shows you a price without talking to sales? Only Connecteam. Its Small Business plan is free for up to 10 users, and paid Operations Hub tiers run $29–$99/month, all listed directly on its pricing page. Truckbase, DispatchTMS, and Toro TMS all require contacting sales or booking a demo.
Is Connecteam real trucking dispatch software? Not in the transportation-management-system sense. It handles scheduling, time tracking, GPS clock-in, and driver messaging, but has no load/dispatch board, IFTA reporting, or driver settlement tools — the features the other three vendors are actually built around.
How much does Truckbase cost for a small fleet? Truckbase doesn’t publish a rate card, but its own site discloses a stated minimum of $290/month on annual billing, and its case studies and partner-program language describe fleets of roughly 11–100 trucks — not a 1–3 truck operation.
Is the $19–$49/month price some sites list for Toro TMS accurate? We couldn’t confirm it. Toro’s own pricing page, checked directly, lists no dollar amounts at all as of this writing. Those figures appear only on third-party software-directory sites, which may be outdated.
What’s the difference between DispatchTMS’s five plans? The company’s pricing page describes them by use case — pure trucking, pure brokerage, a combined trucking-and-brokerage plan, standalone dispatch services, and a licensing/permits plan — with a feature comparison table, but no plan discloses a price without contacting sales.
Which of these four has a real track record of reviews to check? Connecteam (4.6 stars, 5,309 Capterra reviews) and Truckbase (4.8 stars, 77 Capterra reviews) both have a meaningful review base, confirmed directly on Capterra. Toro TMS has a smaller but perfect-scoring sample (5.0 stars, 23 reviews). DispatchTMS isn’t listed on Capterra at all and turned up only a single review on G2 — there’s essentially nothing independent to check its claims against.
Which of these lock you into an annual contract? Truckbase’s disclosed $290/mo minimum is billed annually. Toro TMS states month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment on its own pricing page. Connecteam offers both monthly and annual billing with no minimum term published. DispatchTMS doesn’t publish contract terms anywhere on its site.
Bottom Line: Which Should You Choose?
- If you want to compare a real price today without a sales call: Connecteam, starting free for up to 10 users, with the deepest review record of the four (4.6★, 5,309 Capterra reviews) — but budget separately for IFTA reporting, load dispatch, and settlements, because Connecteam doesn’t do any of that.
- If you’re running 10+ trucks and need a genuine TMS with dispatch, tracking, and settlements built in: Truckbase is worth the sales call; its disclosed $290/mo minimum at least sets expectations before you book one, and its 4.8★ across 77 Capterra reviews backs up the marketing. Just know it’s a 12-month commitment, not month-to-month.
- If you run bulk-hauling routes with multiple loads per truck per day: Toro TMS is purpose-built for that workflow and offers month-to-month billing with no long-term lock-in — get a live quote directly, since published third-party prices for it don’t match the company’s own site.
- If you want the broadest side-by-side feature comparison before deciding who to call: DispatchTMS’s five-plan feature table is useful research even though it has no prices, no contract terms, and almost no independent reviews attached.
- If you’re a solo owner-operator with one or two trucks: none of these four are priced or built for you yet. A spreadsheet and your load board’s free tools will likely outperform a $290+/month TMS built for a bigger back office.
- Whichever dispatch tool you land on, it won’t handle your books: see our FreshBooks vs Wave vs Zoho Invoice comparison for the separate question of invoicing and bookkeeping software for a small trucking business.
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