Tai vs. Keelway is the wrong frame.
Tai Software is a real broker TMS — modern UI, bundled AI features, a credible alternative to McLeod or Aljex. Keelway isn't a TMS at all. We're the AI carrier-email triage layer that sits on top of whatever TMS you run, Tai included. The right comparison isn't Tai vs. Keelway; it's "do you need to replace your TMS, or do you need an AI layer above it?" Here's how to tell.
The honest decision tree
- Replacing a legacy TMS (McLeod, Aljex, in-house spreadsheets) and want a modern broker TMS with AI baked in? Tai is a real choice.
- Already on a TMS that works fine but the inbox is killing your brokers? Keelway is the layer that fixes the 40 carrier replies on every load — without touching your TMS.
- Already on Tai and the operational workflow is great, but you still want stronger inbox-native triage with FMCSA trust scoring on every reply? Run Tai + Keelway. They integrate cleanly.
Side by side
| Feature | Tai Software | Keelway |
|---|---|---|
| Primary product | Modern broker TMS with bundled AI features | AI carrier-email triage layer on top of any TMS |
| Where the broker lives | Tai web app | Gmail |
| AI surface | Inside the TMS workflow | Inside the inbox where the carrier reply lands |
| Inbound reply ranking by trust + rate | Partial — within Tai's carrier dashboard | Yes — Gmail-native, on every reply |
| FMCSA-backed trust score per reply | Carrier-level, not per-reply | Per-reply, refreshed at scoring time |
| Pricing model | Tiered SaaS — published $995–$7,925/mo by tier | $799/mo flat, all features, 30-day free trial |
| Implementation | 4–8 weeks typical | Under 2 weeks |
| TMS replacement? | Yes — fully replaces older broker TMSs | No — sits on top of any TMS |
| Carrier portal / driver-side tools | Yes | No — broker-side only |
| Accounting / settlements | Native module | Not in scope |
| Best for | Brokerages replacing a legacy TMS | Brokerages keeping their TMS, fixing the inbox |
| Run alongside? | Yes — many do | Yes — Keelway integrates with Tai |
When Tai is the right answer
- You're actively replacing a legacy broker TMS and want modern UX + bundled AI in one platform.
- Your brokers will live primarily inside the TMS (not Gmail) and you want a unified surface.
- You don't want to pick AI vendors a la carte and would rather get most of it bundled.
When Keelway is the right answer
- You already have a TMS that works (any of them), and replacing it isn't worth the disruption.
- Your brokers spend their day in Gmail reading carrier replies and need a per-reply ranking, not a TMS-side dashboard.
- You want pricing that scales with load volume — $799/mo flat, no seat fees — rather than a TMS subscription.
Why "Tai + Keelway" is a real configuration
Several Tai customers run Keelway alongside Tai. Tai owns the load lifecycle and operational workflow inside its app. Keelway owns the inbox: every carrier reply gets ranked by trust + rate, and the booked carrier writes back to Tai via API. Brokers stay in Gmail where they already are; ops stays in Tai where they already are. Each tool plays where it's strongest.
When Tai is the right call
Tai earns its place on a shortlist for specific reasons, and being honest about them matters. The product was built broker-first from day one — there's no asset-carrier heritage to retrofit out of — so the workflows feel native rather than bolted on. The UI is modern enough that brokers coming off Aljex or McLeod usually rate onboarding as the easier piece of a Tai migration, not the harder one.
The AI story is the real differentiator. Tai brands its internal AI as Cheetah AI and has invested across multiple operational surfaces — load building, planning suggestions, document extraction, and an expanding set of email-side features. For brokerages that want bundled AI rather than picking vendors a la carte, the Cheetah feature set is one of the more credible in the mid-market TMS category.
Support reputation is another quiet edge. Tai customers consistently rate response time and account management above the legacy TMS baseline, which matters when an operational issue is blocking dispatch on a Friday afternoon. The multi-tenant architecture is mature, the API surface is broad enough for integrations, and the carrier-side tools are real — carrier portal, document collection, basic rating — not vaporware.
The pricing tiers also work cleanly for one specific shape: brokerages with a low user count and high load volume per user. If you've got 8 brokers each running 30+ loads a month, you fit the Premium tier well and the bundled AI feels like a fair deal. Tai is genuinely the right call for that profile.
When Keelway wins outright
The pricing math is where Tai's tier structure starts to bite. A 6-person team at 250 loads/month sits inside the $995/month Growth tier — fine — but the moment you hit 15 staff or 1,500 loads, the bill jumps to the $3,995/month Premium tier. Stretch to 25 staff or 2,500 loads and you're paying $7,925/month. Keelway is $799/mo flat. Same team, same load count, same growth trajectory — Keelway's price doesn't change.
That structural difference compounds. Tai's tiers cap two axes independently — user count and load volume — so a brokerage growing on either axis is forced into the next tier. Add a recruiter, hire two carrier reps, win one bigger shipper account — any of those can push the bill up. For brokerages growing fast, Keelway's flat pricing removes a tax on growth that Tai can't structurally avoid.
The AI gap is the other dimension. Tai's Cheetah AI is broad — it covers operational automation across the lifecycle. That breadth is real, but it's also why Cheetah on carrier-email triage specifically is shallower than Keelway's focused implementation. Keelway is inbox-native and built around one job: score every carrier reply against FMCSA in real time, extract the rate from the email body, and rank the top 5 inside Gmail where your brokers already work. If carrier email is the bottleneck for your team, the depth of Keelway's inbox AI matters more than the breadth of Tai's operational AI.
Put the two together and the case for Keelway is sharpest for brokerages whose biggest pain is carrier-reply triage and whose team is either growing fast or running lean per user. The tier tax disappears, the AI lives on the surface where the work actually happens, and you keep the TMS you already have.