Keelway vs Alvys — both flat-rate. One has AI for the inbox.
Two modern broker TMSs, both flat-rate, both with unlimited users — already an unusual fight in a market full of per-seat pricing. The real split: Alvys is automation-first with deep EDI and load-volume pricing. Keelway is broker-first with native AI carrier-email triage Alvys doesn't ship. Here's the head-to-head, including where Alvys actually wins.
The fastest way to read this comparison: figure out where your team loses the most time. If it's the inbox — twelve quote formats a day, manual FMCSA cross-checks, copying rates into the TMS by hand — Keelway closes that exact surface and Alvys leaves it open. If it's shipper EDI plumbing, load tendering at volume, and broad automation across non-email workflows, Alvys has invested more surface area there and it shows.
The second tiebreaker is pricing model. Both are flat-rate with unlimited users — that's the rare common ground. The difference is that Keelway stays flat at every volume, while Alvys layers a load-volume pricing component on top of its base. For most SMB brokerages that pencils out a hundred-something dollars a month cheaper on Keelway; for very high-volume shops the math is closer.
Side by side
| Feature | Keelway | Alvys |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $400/month flat | ~$514/month base |
| Pricing model | Published, flat, no per-seat, no volume layer | Flat base + load-volume pricing tiers |
| Setup fee | $0 | Implementation typically scoped per customer |
| Contract | Month-to-month, cancel any time | Annual typical |
| Unlimited users | Yes | Yes |
| AI carrier email triage | Native — core product | Not shipped |
| Carrier rate extraction from email | Every reply, twelve formats normalized | Manual / not native |
| FMCSA per-reply trust scoring | Yes — cross-checked at scoring time | Carrier-record level only |
| EDI depth | Standard EDI 204/214/210 | Deep — a core strength |
| Modern UX | Yes — broker-first, opinionated | Yes — automation-first, broad surface |
| Implementation time | Under 2 weeks | 3–6 weeks typical |
| Integrations (DAT / Truckstop / QuickBooks) | Yes — all three | Yes — all three |
| Free trial | 30 days, full product | Demo only, no public trial |
Where Alvys wins
We try to be honest on these pages. Alvys is a real product with a real customer base, and it competes hard at the upper edge of the SMB-to-mid-market band. Where it beats Keelway:
- EDI depth. Alvys has invested heavily in EDI 204/214/210/990 plumbing and the operational layer around it. Brokerages with established shipper EDI relationships at scale get more out of the box on Alvys than on Keelway.
- Load-volume automation. If you're running thousands of loads a month and your operational bottleneck is tender acceptance, dispatch automation, and high-frequency recurring lanes, Alvys's automation-first surface area is genuinely competitive. Keelway will get there; Alvys is there now.
- Maturity and breadth. Alvys ships a broader non-email surface than Keelway. If you want a single tool that handles a wider set of non-carrier-email workflows out of the box, Alvys has more checkboxes ticked today.
Where Keelway wins
For an SMB freight brokerage where the daily P&L moves on carrier email and quoting speed, Keelway wins on the things that actually affect the day:
- Price. $400/month flat, unlimited users, $0 setup, month-to-month, all published. Roughly $100–$150/month cheaper than Alvys at the entry tier, and the gap widens at higher load volume because Keelway doesn't add a volume layer.
- Native AI carrier-email triage. Twelve quote formats normalized, per-reply FMCSA cross-check, per-reply rate extraction, trust scoring on every reply. Alvys doesn't ship this — your team still reads every carrier email by hand. This is the single biggest functional gap between the two products.
- FMCSA scoring per reply, not per carrier. Most TMSs score carriers at the record level — checked once, cached. Keelway re-checks on every reply, which catches authority changes, insurance lapses, and chameleon-carrier patterns Alvys's record-level model misses.
- Self-serve and reversible. 30-day full-product trial, online signup, month-to-month. Alvys is demo-gated with an annual contract typical. "Try it and see" is structurally easier on Keelway.
The verdict in one paragraph
Two well-built flat-rate broker TMSs aimed at slightly different centers of gravity. If you're an SMB brokerage and the inbox is your biggest bleed, Keelway wins on price and on the AI gap — $400 flat, native carrier-email triage, FMCSA per-reply scoring, 30-day full-product trial to verify before you commit. If you're a higher-volume operation leaning hard on EDI and broad non-email automation, Alvys is competitive at ~$514/month. The honest call: most SMB freight brokers will get more daily P&L lift from Keelway's email AI than from Alvys's extra automation breadth.
Frequently asked questions
What's the main difference between Keelway and Alvys?+
Both are flat-rate broker TMSs with unlimited users — already a rarity in this market. The real difference is the AI layer. Keelway ships native AI carrier-email triage as the core product: twelve quote formats normalized, FMCSA cross-check on every reply, per-reply rate extraction, trust scoring. Alvys is automation-first and modern, with strong EDI and load-volume pricing for higher-volume shops, but it does not ship native carrier-email AI. If your team's biggest bleed is the inbox, Keelway closes a gap Alvys leaves open.
Which is cheaper — Keelway or Alvys?+
Keelway. $400/month flat, unlimited users, $0 setup, month-to-month, published on the pricing page. Alvys lands around $514/month at the entry tier with unlimited users, and adds load-volume pricing components as you scale. For an SMB brokerage running normal volume, Keelway is roughly $100–$150/month cheaper before any volume tiers kick in. Both are dramatically below per-seat legacy TMS pricing.
Which one has AI carrier-email triage?+
Keelway, natively. Alvys is a strong automation-first TMS and a modern UX, but the carrier-email triage layer — twelve quote formats normalized into one schema, FMCSA cross-check at scoring time, per-reply rate extraction, trust scoring per carrier reply — is not part of the Alvys product. Brokers on Alvys still read every carrier email by hand and paste rates into the TMS. Keelway automates that surface.
Which is better for SMB freight brokers?+
Keelway, on price and on the inbox problem. $400/month flat versus $514/month, plus the AI-email layer Alvys doesn't ship. SMB brokers lose more time to carrier email than to any other workflow — that's the surface Keelway automates. Alvys is still a fine product; it's just optimized for a slightly higher load-volume cohort and an automation strategy that doesn't include native email AI.
Which is better for higher-volume or enterprise brokerages?+
Alvys, in some scenarios. Alvys has invested heavily in EDI depth, load-volume pricing, and automation workflows that pay off when you're moving thousands of loads a month with established shipper EDI relationships. Keelway is broker-first and flat-rate at every volume, but the Alvys feature set around EDI and high-volume automation is genuinely competitive at the upper end of the SMB-to-mid-market band.
Can I switch from Alvys to Keelway?+
Yes. Keelway is month-to-month with a 30-day full-product trial, so you can run it alongside Alvys, migrate carriers and active loads at your pace, and cancel Alvys when you're confident. Both products are modern API-first systems, so the data export is clean. The honest caveat: if you've built deep EDI integrations on Alvys, plan a migration window to rebuild those on Keelway — the workflows port cleanly, the EDI plumbing takes a couple weeks.
How does migration actually work?+
Export your carriers, shippers, and active loads from Alvys (their API and CSV exports are both reasonable). Map them into Keelway during the 30-day trial — carrier profiles, FMCSA data, and historical rates all import cleanly. Run dual for a week or two on new loads to verify quote-to-book parity. Cut over when your team is comfortable. Most brokerages finish the migration inside the 30-day trial without paying for both products at once.
What does the pricing actually look like side by side?+
Keelway: $400/month flat, unlimited users, $0 setup, month-to-month, 30-day full-product trial — all published. Alvys: roughly $514/month at the entry tier with unlimited users, plus load-volume pricing that scales with shipments. For a five-seat brokerage doing 300 loads a month, Keelway is $400 all-in; Alvys is closer to $514–$650/month depending on volume tier. Both are flat in the sense that neither charges per seat — the difference is the volume layer Alvys adds and Keelway doesn't.
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