CargoWise vs Open TMS

CargoWise is a logistics operations platform for organizations such as global freight forwarders and third-party logistics providers. It brings freight forwarding, customs, warehousing, and transport planning together, covering multiple freight modes and work across borders. Forwarding tools include capacity planning, rate management, vessel booking, and last-mile trucking; customs workflows manage import and export declarations and connect with authorities and regulatory systems. Warehouse and transport functions cover inventory, loads, routes, alerts, and ETA updates. Built-in connections link customers, partners, carriers, and government systems, while AirlineConnect connects to airline systems for shipment details, pricing, capacity, flight information, eBookings, and status updates. Denied Party Screening checks more than 1,300 blacklist databases and logs results for audit and reporting. Customers can report incidents through a 24/7 eRequest system, and CargoWise Learning offers free online training. Listed transaction charges vary by service: the eCommerce Value Pack is $0.20, paid once, while several listed packs are $9.95, paid once. User access and standard cloud hosting are included in the Value Pack; optional services have separate monthly charges.

Open TMS is an open-source transportation management system for coordinating logistics from order intake through delivery. Orders can be entered by CSV, EDI 850, REST API or manually, then managed alongside shipment tracking, lane matching and multi-stop routing. Carrier operations include broadcast and waterfall tenders, a bidding portal and EDI tendering. Its EDI hub supports X12 transaction types including 850, 855, 856, 204, 990, 997, 214, 210, 810 and 820 over SFTP or HTTP. Tracking integrations use FedEx, UPS and DHL APIs; GPS and sensor data can feed traffic-aware ETA monitoring through TomTom, HERE or self-hosted Valhalla routing. Warehouse tools cover receiving, putaway, picking, packing, load planning, inventory and returns. A scan-first progressive web app supports warehouse work and barcode scanning with Zebra and Honeywell RF guns. Open TMS can be deployed with Docker Compose on cloud or self-hosted infrastructure. Its plan costs nothing, is MIT licensed, and lists no per-user fees, transaction costs or feature gates.