Keelway vs Aljex
Different categories. The honest comparison anyway.
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Aljex is a mid-market broker TMS — the spine of hundreds of asset-light brokerages and 3PLs since 1983. Keelway is an AI carrier-email triage layer that lives in Gmail. They're not the same product and they don't replace each other. Most Aljex customers run Keelway on top.
The right way to think about it
Don't pick between Keelway and Aljex. Pick which problem is actually slowing you down:
- You don't have a TMS or you've outgrown a previous one → Aljex is a real mid-market choice. Tai, Rose Rocket, Alvys, AscendTMS are the modern alternatives.
- You have Aljex but the inbox is killing you → Keelway. Doesn't require leaving Aljex.
- Both → run both. Aljex for the spine, Keelway above for the inbox.
Side by side
| Feature | Keelway | Aljex |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI carrier-email triage layer | Mid-market broker TMS |
| Year founded / parent | 2026 — independent | 1983 — WiseTech 2021 → now Descartes |
| Where it operates | Gmail | Aljex web client |
| Pricing | $799/mo flat (everything included) | Per-user-per-month, custom-quoted |
| Inbound reply ranking | Yes — Gmail-native, every reply | Not on inbox layer |
| Per-reply FMCSA trust score | Yes — refreshed at scoring time | No |
| Rate extraction | Yes — every reply, every format | Manual |
| Load lifecycle / dispatch | Out of scope | Native |
| Accounting / settlements / EDI | Out of scope | Native, decades-deep |
| Implementation timeline | Under 2 weeks | 6–12 weeks typical |
| Run alongside | Yes — sits on top of Aljex | Yes — system of record stays |
| Replaces the other? | No | No |
The Aljex + Keelway stack
For Aljex customers who add Keelway, the result is two layers, one workflow:
- Aljex — load lifecycle, accounting, EDI, settlements. Decades-deep mid-market broker TMS. Stays the system of record.
- Keelway — inbox triage, FMCSA trust scoring, rate extraction. Lives in Gmail. Booked carrier writes back into Aljex via API.
Integration ships in hours, not weeks. The combined stack is measurably stronger than Aljex alone, especially for brokerages where inbox volume per posted load is in the 30–50 range.
Frequently asked questions
Are Keelway and Aljex direct competitors?+
No. Aljex is a mid-market broker TMS — load lifecycle, accounting, EDI, settlements. Keelway is an AI inbox layer — Gmail-native carrier reply triage. Different categories. Most Aljex customers add Keelway on top rather than choosing between the two; we have a dedicated Aljex integration page.
If I had to pick only one, which?+
Aljex (or some TMS). You can't run a brokerage without a TMS. You can run one without inbox AI, just slower. The honest framing: TMS is mandatory; AI inbox layer is mandatory once your inbound carrier reply volume is high enough that brokers are losing real time to triage.
Why would an Aljex customer add Keelway?+
Aljex doesn't deeply triage inbound carrier email replies. The 30–50 emails that hit Gmail per posted load still get read manually. Keelway runs above Aljex, ranks the replies by trust and rate, scores carriers against FMCSA, and writes the booked carrier back into Aljex via API. Aljex's TMS strengths stay; the inbox bottleneck gets solved.
How does pricing compare?+
Aljex pricing is per-user-per-month, custom-quoted, typically landing in the $200–$500 per-broker-seat range for mid-market deployments — not counting implementation. Keelway is $799/mo flat, every feature included, 30-day free trial, no per-seat fees. Different jobs at different price points; not directly comparable.
Does Keelway integrate with Aljex?+
Yes. Dedicated integration available. Keelway writes booked carriers and trust scores into Aljex load records via API. Email-based handoff also supported for shops that prefer not to wire up API access.
What about the Descartes acquisition — does it affect Keelway integration?+
No. Aljex went WiseTech in 2021, then to Descartes more recently (Descartes also acquired 3Gtms for $115M in March 2025). The product still works the same; the API surface still works. Keelway's integration with Aljex doesn't depend on the parent company. We track product roadmap changes and update the integration accordingly.
Should I stay on Aljex or migrate to a newer TMS?+
Honestly, depends. If your back office runs cleanly on Aljex and you're not bottlenecked at the TMS layer, stay — the migration cost is real. If Aljex's roadmap or UI is genuinely slowing you down, evaluate Tai, Rose Rocket, Alvys, or Turvo (depending on size). Keelway runs on top of all of them, so the inbox-AI investment carries over without rework.
Aljex for the spine. Keelway for the inbox.
