For one truck in 2026, the TMS products with a published price are TruckingOffice Basic at $25 a month, Truxello at $29 a month, and TruckLogics at $39.95 a month. ProTransport Basic is $0 and covers driver and truck profiles, IFTA, and document storage. TruckingOffice is the cheapest full TMS. Truxello is the one that reads a broker rate confirmation, includes a free driver app, and syncs two ways with QuickBooks Online. TruckLogics is the better pick when fuel tax is the main job.
We make Truxello, so read the prices below as a comparison, not a ranking we get to win by default. Every figure is from the vendor’s own site, checked October 2026. Confirm it before you buy. A wider look at small fleets is in best TMS for small carriers, and the one-truck product page is owner-operator software.
- Cheapest TMS that covers dispatch, invoices, and IFTA: TruckingOffice Basic, $25/month for 1–2 trucks. The driver app is on PRO at $35.
- You live on broker freight and want the paperwork done: Truxello, $29/month for the first truck. AI fills the load from the rate con, invoices go out from your own Gmail or Outlook, and the driver app is included.
- IFTA is the reason you are shopping: TruckLogics at $39.95/month, from the ExpressTruckTax team. Truxello also builds the quarterly report from route miles and fuel.
- You want $0 and can live without QuickBooks sync: ProTransport Basic. It is free. QuickBooks and real-time load alerts are not on that tier.
What a one-truck operation actually needs
An owner-operator is the dispatcher, the driver, and the bookkeeper. Settlements do not matter until you pay someone else. A dispatch board with five views does not matter when there is one truck. The jobs that do matter are small and repeated:
- Get the load in without retyping it. A rate confirmation has the broker, stops, dates, rate, and commodity. Typing that into a spreadsheet every night is the job software should take.
- Invoice the broker the day it delivers. The invoice, rate con, and POD need to match, and the broker’s reference number has to be the one on the rate con. Clean packets get paid. Mismatched ones get kicked back. See the trucking invoice guide.
- Know whether the load paid. Fuel, tolls, factoring fees, and deadhead decide that, not the linehaul on the rate con. A cost per mile calculator is the starting point.
- File IFTA from records you already have. State miles and gallons, once a quarter. Rebuilding them from trip sheets is a weekend.
Everything else — ELD marketplaces, EDI, a built-in general ledger — is a fleet-office problem. Paying for it on one truck is how people end up in a demo for software they will not use.
Published prices for one truck
| TMS | 1 truck | 2 trucks | Trial | Driver app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ProTransport Basic | $0 | $0 | Basic stays free | RTS Pro app |
| TruckingOffice Basic | $25/mo | $25/mo | 30 days, no card | PRO plan, $35/mo |
| Truxello | $29/mo | $44/mo | 14 days, no card | Yes, free, English and Spanish |
| TruckLogics | $39.95/mo | $39.95/mo | 7 days | Yes |
| AscendTMS Basic | $69 per office user | $69 per office user | 30 days on Premium and Pro | Text-message tracking, no app |
Truxello is $29 for the first truck and $15 for the second, with both drivers included and every feature on. Annual billing takes two months off. TruckingOffice’s $25 Basic price holds for one or two trucks, and it stays cheaper than Truxello at those sizes. Prices were read from each vendor’s site in October 2026.
How each one fits
TruckingOffice
The long-running budget option. Basic covers dispatch, invoicing, settlements, expenses, and IFTA and IRP records, with QuickBooks export. The driver app is on PRO, and PC*MILER routing is a paid add-on. If the monthly number is the whole decision and you are fine typing rate cons, start here. Side-by-side: Truxello vs TruckingOffice.
Truxello
Built for carriers that book broker freight. Upload the rate con and AI fills in the broker, stops, dates, rate, and commodity. You review it and dispatch. The invoice, rate con, and POD go out as one PDF from your own Gmail or Outlook. Fuel cards (EFS, WEX, Comdata), Samsara, Motive, and Geotab, and two-way QuickBooks Online are included at $29, not sold as add-ons. The trade-off is age: it is a newer product with fewer published reviews than TruckingOffice or TruckLogics.
TruckLogics
The IFTA-first option, from the people behind ExpressTruckTax. It imports miles and fuel from Motive and Samsara and has DAT load import. At one or two trucks it costs $39.95 a month, or $35.96 billed yearly, which is more than TruckingOffice or Truxello. It is the right call when fuel tax is the pain and the rest is secondary. Side-by-side: Truxello vs TruckLogics.
ProTransport Basic
Owned by RTS, which also sells factoring and fuel cards. Basic at $0 covers profiles, IFTA, and document storage. That is a real offer, and nothing else on this page beats $0. Premium is $125 a month flat. QuickBooks sync and real-time load alerts sit on the custom-priced Enterprise tier. If you only need a place to keep trucks and file IFTA, use Basic. If you need invoicing tied to QuickBooks, price the tier you would actually land on. Details: ProTransport alternative.
AscendTMS
Priced per office user, starting at $69, and it never charges for trucks. That model is a bargain for a large fleet run by one person. For one owner-operator it is $69 against $25 or $29, and driver tracking is by text message rather than an app. It earns its place when you also broker freight. It is a poor fit for a single truck that only hauls.
What to skip
Quote-only products are built for a different buyer. Truckbase publishes a $290 a month minimum billed annually. Rose Rocket starts around $2,080 a month. Axon, McLeod, and Trimble quote after a demo and expect an implementation. A one-truck carrier does not have a six-month onboarding window, and the annual commitment is the whole point of a trial: if the software does not survive a real week, you should be able to leave.
Also skip anything whose “free” plan is a directory listing rather than the vendor’s own page. Some directories still show AscendTMS with a free tier. AscendTMS’s own pricing page shows $69, $119, and $149 per user, with no free tier. The longer look at free offers is free TMS options for trucking.
When you hire the first driver
That is the week the software requirements change. You now owe someone a settlement, and you can no longer see the truck from the driver’s seat. Per-mile, percentage, and flat pay, plus deductions and advances, stop being a spreadsheet formula you trust. A driver app stops being optional, because status updates and BOL photos otherwise come back as texts.
Price the second truck before you hire, not after. Truxello goes from $29 to $44. TruckingOffice Basic stays $25 for two trucks, with the app on the $35 PRO plan. TruckLogics stays $39.95 through two trucks and steps to $79.95 at three. The driver settlement guide covers the pay structures themselves.
How to choose in a week
- Write down the job that is eating your evenings. If it is IFTA, shortlist TruckLogics and Truxello. If it is rate cons and invoices, shortlist Truxello and TruckingOffice.
- Use a real week of loads, not a demo. Upload the worst rate con you have, not a clean sample.
- Send one real invoice from the trial and see whether the broker’s reference number, the rate, and the POD survive the trip.
- Add up the price of the tier that includes the driver app and QuickBooks, not the advertised starting price.
If you want to run that week in Truxello, the trial is 14 days with no card, and one truck stays $29 after that. Full pricing is on the site, including the per-truck steps after the first one.
Try it on this week’s loads
$29 a month for one truck after a 14-day trial. No card, no contract.
Start Free TrialQuestions owner-operators ask
What is the best TMS for an owner-operator in 2026?
TruckingOffice Basic at $25 a month is the cheapest full TMS. Truxello at $29 adds AI rate confirmation entry, a free driver app, and two-way QuickBooks Online. TruckLogics at $39.95 is the IFTA-first option. ProTransport Basic at $0 covers profiles, IFTA, and documents, without QuickBooks sync.
Does an owner-operator need a TMS?
Not on day one. You need invoicing, fuel and expense records, and IFTA. A spreadsheet handles a light week. A TMS earns its fee once rate cons, PODs, and the quarterly return start taking evenings. The honest version of staying on spreadsheets is TMS vs spreadsheets.
How much should an owner-operator pay for trucking software?
About $0 to $40 a month for one truck, from the products that publish a price. A demo-and-quote TMS, or a product with a minimum in the hundreds, is priced for an office, not a single truck.