Upper Route Planner Reviews: Features, Pricing, and What Real Users Say in 2025

What is Upper Route Planner? Upper Route Planner’s Key Features

As a dispatch manager at a courier company or busy retailer, your delivery operations are complex and span multiple clients and locations a day. You need a delivery management software that can handle your most important needs with ease:

1. Route planning and optimization. Import your delivery stops and automatically find the most efficient routes in one click.
2. Dispatcher dashboard. Plan, adjust, dispatch, and track your team’s daily delivery routes from a centralized platform.
3. Driver mobile app. Empower your drivers to view and follow their daily routes, upload proof of delivery, and get in touch with dispatch within a well-designed mobile app.
4. Customer notifications. Keep customers in the loop about their delivery status (without a call to your support team) with automated email and SMS notifications and live driver tracking.
5. Analytics reports. Review historical route data and delivery success metrics to identify inefficiencies and make improvements for better performance.

Upper Route Planner users often praise these features in reviews (even though things like customer notifications and PoD are only included in the mid-level plan), and overall, it does save dispatch managers time, resources, and hassle as they plan out their delivery routes.

However, there are a couple of problems users consistently bring up. Some users complain that route planning/optimization is “slow” and “low quality” for longer routes. Several reviews mention issues with adjusting in-progress routes when you add a new stop, which can set your drivers on a less efficient route.

While many of Upper Route Planner’s customers say the route planner itself is well-designed and user-friendly, multiple reviews cite a steeper learning curve for the software’s other features.

Upper Route Planner’s pricing may also present an issue for growing delivery operations. Its base plan starts at $120/month billed annually ($40/user/month with a three-user minimum) and doesn’t include core features like real-time route editing, live driver tracking, proof of delivery, or customer notifications.

At Circuit for Teams, we understand that managing deliveries requires speed and adaptability. Our dispatcher dashboard makes route planning simple and flexible, allowing you to adjust on the go—whether it’s adding customer notes, changing delivery windows, or updating proof of delivery.

Beyond basic features, our advanced analytics dashboard gives you insights into delivery performance, from measuring real vs. expected route times to calculating cost per delivery and pinpointing issues with missed deliveries.

As your business grows, our platform easily scales to manage multiple depots from one dashboard.

Try our 7-day free trial to see how Circuit for Teams can take your delivery management to the next level today.

Upper Route Planner Reviews - We Analyze What Users Think

In this section of our review, we’ll deep dive into user reviews and analyze their feedback on the features that matter most to busy dispatch teams.

The Most Important Feature: Is Upper Route Planner Good for Route Planning and Optimization?

With a name like Upper Route Planner, it’s no surprise that this company’s primary selling point is its route planning and optimization capabilities.

The software generally gets good reviews in this area, but it’s not a completely clean sheet.

Let’s start with the positives. Users report that it’s fast and easy to import their stops from various sources (spreadsheets, Shopify, etc.) and plan optimal delivery routes.

You can customize stops with information like stop type (pickup or delivery), priority level, time windows, pre-assigned drivers, and more. This is especially important for courier companies managing deliveries for multiple clients with unique requirements.

From there, you can reorder stops if needed and either export your routes to a Garmin device (on the Growth plan or higher) or simply dispatch the routes to your drivers with a single click, straight to their mobile app.

That said, there were a few negative mentions of the route planning and optimization feature.

While it works well for most, there are reports of performance issues—particularly when it comes to optimizing longer routes. Several users have mentioned slow performance and occasional problems with “low optimization quality”, which can be frustrating in a tool designed to streamline route planning.

Some users also complained about poor note-taking abilities, for when drivers need to take the details of something at a particular delivery and communicate it back to headquarters. Communication between drivers and dispatch managers needs to be effortless, with real-time updates on delivery progress flowing smoothly and without interruption.

Many users have noted a frustration with Upper: if a driver accidentally marks a delivery as “status - complete” before it’s done, you can’t just add the stop back to the route. You’d need to create a new route for that stop. It’s the tiny things that make a delivery management platform seamless and intuitive for users.

Now we’ve covered route planning and optimization, let’s look at the full pros & cons list for Upper Route Planner.

Upper Route Planner Reviews - Pros

These were the most commonly mentioned pros.

1. Accurate real-time driver tracking

Upper’s advanced GPS tracks driver location, progress, stops, ETAs, and traffic conditions, all in real time. This data keeps dispatch teams and their drivers in the loop, which helps make the delivery process as smooth as possible.

The real-time tracking feature also enables live customer tracking updates. Recipients just need to click a link to follow their driver’s current location and ETA, so they know exactly when to expect their deliveries (without contacting you).

Here’s what this G2 user said about their experience with Upper’s real-time tracking feature:

Source: G2

Of note, “active driver tracking” via real-time GPS is only available on Upper’s mid-level tier and higher. If you’re on the Essential plan, you’ll only have access to passive tracking data that you’ll have to download to review.

2. Useful integrations with other platforms.

Upper integrates with popular e-commerce programs like Shopify, Woocommerce, and GrazeCart and project management systems/CRMs like Monday.com, as well as custom API capabilities and Zapier connectivity.

Upper can sync order details, customer information, and other logistical data from your existing system for delivery route planning. This means less manual data entry and cross-referencing for you, so you can do your job faster and easier.

Here’s how one Capterra user describes it:

Source: Capterra

It’s worth noting that Upper’s custom API and integration features are only available on the Enterprise plan.

3. A clean, user-friendly mobile app.

A good driver app is essential for a more efficient delivery team. Upper’s iOS and Android driver app is packed with convenient features including route search capabilities, navigation, and proof of delivery collection. Drivers can communicate with their dispatch managers for real-time updates from the road.

Here’s what one Capterra user said:

Source: Capterra

Upper Route Planner Reviews - Cons

These were the most commonly mentioned cons.

1. Limited options for adjusting in-progress routes.

Users love Upper’s ability to customize and adjust routes before dispatch, but what happens if your driver hits a last-minute snag while a route is in progress?

While Upper does allow you to add last-minute stops and reassign live routes to another driver, several reviewers expressed frustration with what happens after that. For instance, you can’t reorder stops for in-transit routes if you add a new one, according to this Capterra user:

Source: Capterra

If dispatch managers and drivers can’t reorder their stops in real time, it’s much harder to adapt to changes like heavy traffic, constructions and road closures, and added stops in the same area. Your drivers (who have the best first-hand knowledge of what’s happening on the road) may not be able to follow the most efficient route in these cases, even if they know a better way to go.

By the way, Upper doesn’t let you edit a dispatched route at all if you’re on the Essential plan, which means you’ll need to communicate off-platform with drivers about real-time changes.

2. A steep learning curve for advanced features.

Despite the route planner and driver app’s user-friendly interfaces, Upper’s other delivery management features can take some time to learn. To fully understand its capabilities, users must dedicate time to learning the software or contact customer support for help.

Depending on your needs, getting the most out of Upper can become an overwhelming, time-consuming, and resource-intensive experience, which really detracts from any time or effort it might save you on route planning and optimization.

Here’s how one Capterra user puts it:

Source: Capterra

3. High cost for growing teams that need a full feature set.

Many public reviews of Upper Route Planner mention cost. While some of those reviews praise Upper’s straightforward pricing, many others say the cost is too high for smaller and growing teams.

As mentioned above, Upper’s Essential plan (which starts at $120/month with a minimum of 3 users at $40 each) lacks many of the features that make this software a useful delivery management platform. To get things like live driver tracking and route editing, customer notifications, and PoD, you’ll need to upgrade to the Growth plan, which requires 5 users and doubles your minimum price.

This Capterra review is a good representation of users’ feelings about Upper’s pricing:

Source: Capterra

Do All Users Like Upper Route Planner? What Drivers Really Think

If your drivers aren’t happy with your delivery software, it can lead to higher turnover and logistical headaches.

Luckily, this shouldn’t be an issue with Upper Route Planner.

Overall, drivers enjoy the experience of using Upper’s mobile app. Many of them say it has a clean interface and is easy to use. Most importantly, it’s functional and accurate, as evidenced by this review from a driver who used the app:

Source: Capterra

However, not all users find the app perfect. Some users have described it as “slow,” and others wish it was easier to accomplish certain tasks, like logging stops and adding notes to completed deliveries.

Source: Capterra

Upper Route Planner Pricing

Upper Route Planner offers an Essential plan, a Growth plan, and a customized Enterprise plan for more complex delivery management needs.

The Essential plan starts at $40/user/month when billed annually, or $50 with month-to-month billing, and requires a minimum of three users. This means no matter what, your starting price is at least $120/month (or more if you have more than three users).

The Essential plan limits you to 250 stops per route and doesn’t include basic features like real-time route adjustments, live driver tracking, customer notifications, or proof of delivery. On this plan, you also lose out on access to Upper’s integration capabilities, driver zone feature, and the ability to export your routes to Garmin.

Upper does offer SMS customer notifications ($0.01 per text), live driver tracking ($20/driver), and in-app navigation ($20/driver) as marketplace add-ons.

The Growth plan, which requires a minimum of five users, is $48/user/month billed annually ($60 for month-to-month). The Growth plant includes most of the features that are missing from the Essential plan and increases the per-route stop limit to 500, but you still won’t get Upper’s custom API/FTP integration, webhooks, or Zapier connectivity.

If you’re at the point where you’d need to consider Upper’s Enterprise plan for its advanced features, it’s likely worth considering a solution that includes more standard capabilities in its lower tier plans.

👋 Introducing Circuit | A Faster, More Intuitive Delivery Management Software

Circuit’s delivery management software makes delivery operations effortless while actively helping improve delivery success rates and customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the key features of Upper Route Planner and how they compare to our solution.

Circuit for Teams has some key improvements on Upper Route Planner:

• More features on the base plan: Upper’s lowest pricing plan works out to be $120/month for a minimum of three users, which is just a little higher than Circuit’s $100/month Starter plan. With Circuit, you also get a lot more access to features on that plan.

Upper’s Essential plan lacks features you’d likely need in your delivery management software, like live route editing and driver tracking, customer notifications, and PoD. You’ll need to either upgrade to the Growth plan ($300/month for a minimum of five users) or pay for marketplace add-ons to get those features.

Circuit’s Starter plan, which covers one dispatcher and five drivers for your first 500 stops, includes all available features—including access to our extensive two-way API and Shopify and Zapier integrations (which is only available on Upper’s Enterprise plan).

• More customization and route editing options: Circuit’s route planner makes it ridiculously easy to change your routes (even once they’ve been started) and update your driversinstantaneously. You and your drivers have lots of options for customizing your routes, too: You can add special notes and instructions, like priority and PoD type, for each stop from your dispatcher dashboard. Your drivers can reorder and color-code priority stops within the app, which gives them more control over the way they organize and complete their routes.
• Advanced analytics reports: Planning, optimizing, and tracking your delivery routes is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to efficiently managing your delivery operations. You also need to be able to review historical data and understand exactly how your drivers are performing—their delivery success rates, what went wrong with late or failed deliveries, how long it takes them to complete their routes, etc.—so you can make improvements.

Unlike Upper, every Circuit plan comes with access to its full suite of performance analytics reports, which can help you drill down into granular details about your routes, drivers, and delivery stats and track the metrics that matter most.

Here are four more areas where we shine most:

1. Flexible proof of delivery.

With Circuit for Teams’ driver app, proof of delivery can captured via delivery status updates, photographs, and signatures. There’s even a field for customers and/or the dispatch team to leave notes about the delivery.

Proof of delivery can also be collected at pickup points and be automatically shared with customers and dispatchers.

2. Dynamic, customizable customer notifications.

With automatic SMS and email notifications, your customers always know their delivery status (without having to contact you). You can generate and share live tracking links with delivery ETAs, driver locations, and queue positions so customers know exactly where their package is. Plus, you can customize your notification messages to better reflect your brand voice.

3. Advanced two-way API and integrations.

Unlike Upper, which only gives access to its API on the Enterprise plans, all Circuit for Teams users can take advantage of our two-way API. It offers seamless third-party integrations with your existing tech stack, including Shopify, Zapier, Microsoft Excel, and more.

For example, you can create routes by importing stops directly from your Shopify orders, or set up automated customer notifications through Zapier triggers. The result is a delivery operations system with end-to-end automation, customized to your courier company’s exact needs.

4. Multiple depot management for growing courier services.

Thinking about expanding your delivery operations? Circuit for Teams can grow with you.

With Circuit, you can manage multiple depots, assign drivers to specific locations, and set depot-specific preferences within a single interface. You can even track the progress and performance of multiple depots without having to jump between different accounts.

As your business needs shift each month, you can easily scale your operations up or down. You can increase the number of drivers and depots to meet high demands during busier periods, then reset your operations back to your “normal.”

Want to learn more about Circuit for Teams and see why it’s the best alternative to Upper Route Planner? Start your free trial or talk to our sales team for more details.

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