The Best Mobile Route Planning Apps for Delivery Drivers

Long delivery days can be exhausting, especially when you're juggling multiple stops without an efficient plan. 

While apps like Google Maps or Waze are good for navigation, they aren't designed for planning complex delivery routes. A delivery route planning app with route optimization and delivery management features can help you save time, reduce fuel costs, and streamline your day. More money and less time on the road — what’s not to love? 

For this article, we tested and ranked six of the top route planning apps designed specifically for delivery drivers who are planning their own routes, using mobile phones

Who is this guide for?

This guide is about multi-stop route planning apps for delivery drivers. It will be useful if:

• You work for a last-mile delivery company as a full-time, part-time, or contract delivery driver.
• You drive a route with many stops.
• You have to plan your own routes.

If you’re looking for a delivery driver app that offers payouts like Doordash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, Postmates, Instacart, etc — read this article on the best apps to make money instead. Delivery gig work is a different world from planned and scheduled deliveries, and your app needs will be different. We’re experts in route planning and route optimization — we’ll leave the food delivery service apps to someone else.

Is there a free route planner app?

This question comes up a lot, so we’ll answer quickly: If you’re looking for a free route planner, your options are very limited. You can do extremely basic route planning with a free app like Google Maps or Waze, but the route optimization apps we’re reviewing here do a lot more than that. They’re basically full-on delivery management systems for your phone. Most of them cost around $10-$20 a month (the costs may vary between countries). For free you can get:

• A free trial period (usually 7-14 days)
• A limited number of stops (usually somewhere between 10-20 a day)

You can read a lot more detail about free route planners here. But if you earn money doing deliveries, you will definitely save a lot of time, money, and hassle by investing in a subscription to one of these apps.  

If you don’t think the efficiency gains are enough to justify the cost, check out our post on how to optimize delivery routes with Google Maps.

Our favorite delivery route planning apps for drivers

We tested a bunch of driver apps to find the best delivery route planner app for your multi-stop route planning needs. We’ve used screenshots from the iOS versions, but all these apps are available for Android as well. 

We’ll start with the three delivery route planning apps that performed best in our tests: Route4Me, Circuit Route Planner, and MyWay. Then we’ll also look at three second-tier route planners: Zeo Route Planner, RoadWarrior, and Upper Route Planner. 

All of these apps have different standout strengths and weaknesses, so the right choice for you will depend on your needs. We’ve given the prices as listed in the US app store — the exact price points vary by country. 

1. Route4Me

Route4Me is one of our top picks for the best route optimization software on desktop, and their mobile app is equally good. It’s a powerful standalone delivery route planning app that’s easy to use. 

Route4Me app top features

Here’s what we love about the Route4Me app:

• Lots of ways to add addresses: Text search, voice recognition, scan a printed manifest, or upload a spreadsheet from cloud storage.
• It’s easy to make changes to your route plan. Just click “Edit Route” from the main screen to drag and drop stops into a different order.
• A choice of navigation apps: Choose from Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, Route4Me’s own in-app navigation, and even CoPilot and Uber.
• Delivery management features: Send ETA messages, get photo or signature proof of delivery, scan barcodes, and make notes, all within the app.

Route4Me disadvantages

We looked through Route4Me’s reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store, and these are the most common complaints that come up:

• The pricing is inflexible: Route4Me only offers a per-month subscription, with no pay-as-you-go option. If you don’t use the app every day, this can make it unaffordable. 
• Some users report instability: This may only be an issue on certain phones, but some users find Route4Me doesn’t work for them at all. If that’s the case for you, another app may be a better choice.

Route4Me specs at a glance

2. Circuit

Circuit Route Planner another app that’s both powerful and easy to use, even for beginners. Not surprisingly, it’s a big favorite among delivery and courier drivers.

Circuit Route Planner top features

Circuit has much in common with Route4Me, with a couple of added bonus features:

• Package finder: This is a Circuit original. Use the app to record the size and type of each package, and exactly where in the vehicle it’s loaded. This can save a lot of time through the day. 
• Several ways to add addresses: Add stops from the map, with the camera, or using voice recognition.  
• Route editing: If you’re not happy with your route, there are two ways to change it. You can reverse the direction of the whole route, or use the map to draw a circle around the areas you want to visit first. 
• Copy routes: If you regularly drive similar routes, Circuit makes it easy to copy stops from previous days.
• Choice of navigation apps: Choose Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps, HERE WeGo, or Circuit’s own in-app navigation.

Circuit disadvantages

Based on our own observations as well as user reviews in the App Store and Google Play Store, these are the issues with Circuit:

• No spreadsheet upload in the iPhone app. This feature is only available on Android. (This may change in future).  
• Limited route editing: You can’t drag and drop individual stops to change their order.  
• Limited delivery management features:  You can make notes and take a picture, but there’s no option to scan a barcode or get a signature. There are also no messaging options.
• Performance issues: Some Circuit users report that the app can be slow and unresponsive in areas with poor mobile data connectivity.

Circuit specs at a glance

3. MyWay

MyWay is one of the new kids on the block, and rapidly becoming a favorite choice for many delivery drivers. 

MyWay top features

Our favorite thing about MyWay is its flexibility when it comes to creating a route. We counted seven different ways to add addresses:

1. Type individual addresses
2. Find places on a map
3. Add from a previously saved list of places
4. Add from your phone contacts
5. Scan with your camera to add one address at a time
6. Copy and paste
7. Upload a file 

MyWay offers a lot more options here than its main rivals Route4Me and Circuit Route Planner. 

We also liked these features:

• Wide choice of navigation apps: When we tested on an iPhone we could choose between Apple Maps, Google Maps, HERE WeGo, Waze, Organic Maps, Maps.Me and Yandex Maps. 
• Solid delivery management features: It’s pretty easy to mark stops as successfully completed, with the option to add a photo, signature, and notes. If you need to mark a stop as failed, you can add a reason from a pre-set list, or add your own.
• Up to 15 stops per route free: This is a more generous free tier than Route4Me or Circuit Route Planner offers.
• Easy route editing: Tap and hold a stop to change its position on your route.

MyWay disadvantages

Looking at the most common user complaints about MyWay, these are the ones that stand out:

• Route optimization isn’t always the greatest.
• Performance issues: It’s sometimes slow or unresponsive in areas with poor mobile data connectivity.

There are also some reviews complaining about the inability to move stops or upload spreadsheets on iOS, but both these problems seem to have been fixed in recent updates. You can add a spreadsheet from your iCloud saved files. There’s also an option to add an XLS or CSV from an URL, but this proved to be very buggy with Google Docs, and we couldn’t get it to work. 

MyWay specs at a glance

4. Zeo Route Planner

Zeo is one of the newer route planners on the block, and it’s come a long way in the two years since we first reviewed it. It now has a feature set to rival Route4Me, Circuit, and MyWay. There are still some concerns around reliability, though, which keeps it just outside of the top three. 

Zeo top features

• Load vehicle: Zeo is the only route planner apart from Circuit that helps you track where you’ve loaded each package. When you tap on the “Load vehicle” button, it even starts with the last stop first in the list so you can load from the back.
• Spreadsheet upload: You can add an xls file from your cloud storage, or from an URL. 
• Navigation choices: Choose from Google Maps, Apple Maps, HERE WeGo, TomTom Go, Waze, Sygic, and Baidu.

Zeo disadvantages

• It can be buggy: Some users have noted recurring issues that don’t get fixed.
• Route editing is difficult. You can skip a stop or mark it as failed, but not change the order of stops or mark it to try again later. 
• Missed stop reasons can’t be edited. This is where MyWay really shines.

Zeo specs at a glance

5. RoadWarrior

RoadWarrior Route Planner is a popular multi stop route planner and route optimizer. You can choose to optimize your route by distance or by time, avoid highways and tolls, and specify whether you’re driving, cycling or walking. It is less full-featured than our top choices, though. 

RoadWarrior top features

• Wide choice of navigation options: Choose from Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, HERE WeGo, Sygic, Navigon, or Yandex.
• Lots of route optimization fine tuning: Optimize by time or distance, set default stop time, choose a one-way or return route, avoid highways/tolls/ferries.

RoadWarrior disadvantages

• No spreadsheet upload. If you’re often creating routes with more than 15-20 stops, the ability to upload a list from a spreadsheet or photo is essential. With RoadWarrior, you have to add stops one at a time. You can copy from previous routes or add from an address book, but that doesn’t help if your route is not regular.
• No proof of delivery options. You can make notes on a stop or click an icon to check in, but there’s no option to take a photo, scan a barcode or get a signature.

RoadWarrior specs at a glance

6. Upper Route Planner

Upper actually has two apps, which can be confusing:

1. Upper Route Planner is a standalone app you can use as an individual driver planning your own routes. 
2. Delivery Driver App by Upper is the driver app for delivery services that use Upper’s browser-based central route planning software. 

The route planner app itself is very similar to others in features, although we found its interface clunkier than Route4Me’s or Circuit’s. We also got a lot of error popups and subscription reminders during the free trial, which was annoying. We actually couldn’t optimize a route using our own stops — we had to use the sample route data provided in the app instead.

Upper Route Planner top features

• Route optimization: Upper has all the standard route optimization settings, including the option to optimize for speed or distance
• Navigation options: Choose from Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, Maps.me or Yandex.
• Proof of delivery: You can collect signatures and photos, and make notes.
• Customisable delivery notes: When you mark a delivery as completed or failed, you can choose a reason or comment from a scrolling list. This can be customized in the settings.

Upper Route Planner disadvantages

• It's buggy: We found Upper to be much less easy to use than our top contenders, with a lot of error messages.
• Limited ways to add stops: You can type an address or choose a place on a map, but that’s about it. The camera scan didn’t work for us at all. And while Upper does offer a spreadsheet upload feature, you have to use a computer to open a separate web page, log in, and upload from there. That pretty much makes it unworkable for anyone who’s on the road. 
• Performance issues: Some users report that the app is slow or unresponsive when they have a poor signal.
• It’s expensive: The monthly and annual plans for Upper are more expensive than any others on our list.

Upper specs at a glance

Pricing summary: Compare 6 route planner apps at a glance

What about Routific?

At Routific, we don’t have our own standalone driver app (yet). But if you’re a delivery driver working with a dispatcher who needs easy, effective route optimization with a full set of route management features, they should check out our free 7-day trial. We don’t ask for any credit card details upfront, so it really IS a free trial!

The combination of Routific’s browser-based route optimization software and our mobile app allows delivery and field service dispatchers to manage multiple routes, drivers and vehicle types all on one day. GPS tracking makes it easy to follow driver progress and reassign stops if needed — and customer notifications are all sent from the dispatch app, so drivers can concentrate on their driving. 

Our route optimization algorithm is developed with driver happiness in mind. We know how annoying it is to see your colleagues on the same route, so our routes are optimized to avoid criss-crossing and overlaps. We also enable dispatchers to assign drivers to the territories they’re most familiar with.

What about other route planning software?

What about other apps like Onfleet or Optimoroute? Like Routific, these offer route optimization software for delivery routes — but they don’t have standalone driver apps. You can only use their driver apps if invited by an organisation that’s already using the software. For that reason we haven’t reviewed them here.