Truckbase is for carrier fleets. Keelway is for freight brokers.
Truckbase is a YC-backed modern TMS startup, and a good one — built for small carrier fleets and owner-operators who deserve better than legacy carrier software. But it's a carrier product. If you're a pure freight brokerage trying to triage 40 carrier replies per posted load, you need different software. Keelway is $400/month flat, broker-first, with AI carrier-email triage as the core product. Here's the honest comparison.
What Truckbase is, honestly
Truckbase is one of the better modern TMS startups to come out of YC in the last few years. The founders went after a real problem — small carrier fleets and owner-operators stuck on legacy carrier software that looks and feels like 2003 — and built a modern, fast, well-designed product for that audience. Dispatch, driver settlements, IFTA, fleet workflows. The roadmap reads like it was written by people who have actually run a fleet, and the UX shows it.
Pricing is per-company, in the rough ~$199-499/month range depending on tier and fleet size. A broker module exists and is improving, but it sits adjacent to a product whose primary audience is people who own trucks. That's not a criticism — it's a positioning choice, and a good one for their market. It just means a pure freight brokerage is not the buyer Truckbase was built for.
Side-by-side: Truckbase vs Keelway TMS
| Truckbase | Keelway TMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small carrier fleets + owner-operators | SMB freight brokerages (3-30 users) |
| Pricing | ~$199-499/mo per company, tiered | $400/mo flat — published |
| Broker module | Recent addition, secondary | The entire product |
| AI carrier email triage | No | Yes — core feature |
| Carrier rate extraction | No | Yes — >95% accuracy |
| Trust scoring | Carrier-onboarding focus | Continuous, per-reply FMCSA scoring |
| Modern web UX | Yes (their strength) | Yes |
| Self-serve onboarding | Yes — fast | Yes — live in <1 day |
| ELD / HOS / driver pay | Yes (their strength) | No (not the buyer) |
Sources: truckbase.com, YC company directory, public pricing references (May 2026)
Where Truckbase actually wins
Two places, decisively. First, the buyer it was built for: small carrier fleets and owner-operators running 1-50 trucks who are tired of legacy carrier TMS and want a modern, fast, well-designed replacement. Truckbase is one of the strongest options in that segment, full stop. Second, modern UX in general — Truckbase clearly invested in design, and it shows next to incumbents that still look like Windows XP. If you own trucks, Truckbase deserves a serious evaluation.
Where Keelway wins
Everywhere a pure freight brokerage actually spends its day. Three concrete reasons:
- Inbox AI is the core product, not a future module. Truckbase's AI surface is carrier-side automation. Keelway reads every inbound carrier reply, parses the offered rate from the body, scores the carrier against FMCSA, and ranks the top five inside Gmail. That's what brokers do all day.
- Broker-first by design, not by adjacent module. Truckbase added a broker module to a carrier-first product. Keelway is the inverse — the whole product is a brokerage workflow, and that shows in every screen, every workflow, every default.
- Flat $400/mo, unlimited users. Truckbase tiers per company by fleet size. Keelway is one price for the brokerage, no per-seat or per-truck math, printed on the TMS landing page.
The bottom line
Truckbase is a good company building good software for a clear audience — small carrier fleets and owner-operators. Keelway is building software for the adjacent but different audience of pure freight brokerages with no trucks. If you own a fleet, Truckbase is probably your answer. If you are a brokerage covering 50-300 loads/month and the inbox is your bottleneck, Keelway is the right fit at $400/mo flat with AI email triage native.
Frequently asked questions
What is Truckbase?+
Truckbase is a YC-backed modern TMS startup focused on small carrier fleets and owner-operators. It pitches a clean, modern web UI and a fast onboarding experience aimed at trucking companies running 1-50 trucks. The broker module is a more recent addition to a product that was, from day one, built around dispatch, driver pay, IFTA, and fleet operations.
How much does Truckbase cost?+
Truckbase pricing typically lands in the ~$199-499/month per company range depending on tier and fleet size, oriented toward small carriers. Keelway TMS is $400/month flat for the brokerage — unlimited users, no per-truck or per-driver math, no setup fee. The two are priced for different buyers: Truckbase per-carrier-company, Keelway per-brokerage.
Is Truckbase for carriers or brokers?+
Carriers, primarily. Truckbase's center of gravity is small fleets and owner-operators: dispatch, driver settlements, IFTA, fleet workflows. A broker module exists and is improving, but it sits next to a product whose primary audience is people who own trucks. Keelway is the opposite — built only for freight brokerages that do not own trucks.
Does Truckbase have AI carrier email triage?+
No. Truckbase's modern UX is real, but its AI surface is oriented toward carrier-side automation — document handling, dispatch helpers, driver workflows — not toward parsing the carrier-reply email storm that hits a broker's inbox after a load post. Keelway's core product is exactly that: read every inbound carrier email, extract the offered rate, score the carrier against FMCSA, and rank inside Gmail.
Can I migrate from Truckbase to Keelway?+
Yes. Keelway accepts CSV imports for carriers, customers, lanes, and historical loads, plus direct migration support from any TMS — Truckbase included. Onboarding for a standard setup takes under a business day. A dedicated migration contact stays with your team until you're running production loads on Keelway.
Where does Truckbase actually win?+
Truckbase wins decisively for small carrier fleets and owner-operators who want a modern, well-designed alternative to legacy carrier TMS. The UX is genuinely better than most incumbents in that segment, onboarding is fast, and the product roadmap reads like it was written by someone who has actually run a fleet. If you own trucks, Truckbase deserves a serious look.
When should I pick Truckbase over Keelway?+
Pick Truckbase if you are an asset-based small carrier, an owner-operator scaling to 5-50 trucks, or a hybrid carrier-broker where the carrier side is the larger book of business. Keelway does not chase that buyer. If you are a pure freight brokerage covering 50-300 loads/month and drowning in carrier email, Keelway is the right answer.
Migration in under a day. $400/mo flat.
Book a migration callRelated
The full product breakdown — features, pricing, integrations, FAQ.
Another carrier-first TMS compared head-to-head with broker-first Keelway.
The full category teardown — every credible broker TMS ranked for 5-30 user shops.
Which TMS actually has working AI for brokers — and which just have AI in the marketing.