Softwr

Fleet Management · head to head

AssetWorks vs Lonboard

AssetWorks logo

AssetWorks

Fleet Management

Fleet and enterprise asset management software built for government and public sector buyers, owned by Constellation Software subsidiary Volaris Group

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Lonboard logo

Lonboard

Maps

Python map rendering in Jupyter that skips GeoJSON and moves millions of features without choking

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lonboard has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: AssetWorks pricing is entirely unpublished and reportedly often includes ancillary fees beyond the headline licence or subscription cost, making total cost of ownership hard to estimate before a formal quote.; Lonboard it is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • They diverge on capability: AssetWorks covers Fleet lifecycle tracking, Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which AssetWorks and Lonboard actually diverge.

Attributes where AssetWorks and Lonboard differ
AttributeAssetWorksLonboard
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryFleet ManagementMaps

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in AssetWorks

  • Fleet lifecycle tracking
  • Preventative maintenance scheduling
  • Fuel management
  • Inspection and licensing compliance
  • Enterprise Asset Management integration
  • Public-sector procurement fit

Only in Lonboard

  • GeoArrow binary transfer
  • GeoPandas input
  • deck.gl layers
  • Jupyter widget
  • Large dataset handling
  • Styling by attribute
  • Open source licence

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

AssetWorks

  • A municipal or county government needing fleet management that integrates with broader roads, facilities and parks asset managementnot Lonboard
  • A public utility needing fuel, maintenance and compliance tracking suited to public-sector audit requirementsnot Lonboard
  • A government buyer wanting to procure through an existing competitively solicited group purchasing agreement rather than an independent RFPnot Lonboard
  • An agency wanting a stable, long-term software vendor backed by Constellation Software acquire-and-hold ownership model rather than a venture-backed startupnot Lonboard

Lonboard

  • An analyst exploring a national road or parcel dataset in a notebook where pydeck or ipyleaflet becomes unusable at that sizenot AssetWorks
  • A researcher publishing a reproducible analysis where the visualisation must run from the same script as the processingnot AssetWorks
  • A data scientist joining spatial data to model outputs in pandas and needing to see the result immediately without exporting to a GISnot AssetWorks
  • A team building an internal analysis pipeline on GeoParquet that wants rendering without a serialisation step in the middlenot AssetWorks

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

AssetWorks

  • Pricing is entirely unpublished and reportedly often includes ancillary fees beyond the headline licence or subscription cost, making total cost of ownership hard to estimate before a formal quote.
  • Being owned by Constellation Software, known for acquiring and holding software businesses with limited reinvestment pressure, can mean slower feature innovation compared with venture-backed competitors racing to add AI and modern UX.
  • The platform is explicitly built and marketed around public-sector procurement and workflow needs, so a private commercial fleet may find it less tailored to their process than a fleet-first competitor.
  • Multi-year public-sector contracts reduce flexibility to switch providers even if requirements or the competitive landscape change during the term.
  • Choosing between perpetual licence and SaaS subscription is itself a significant decision with different long-term cost profiles, and neither option pricing is published to compare in advance.

Lonboard

  • It is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • Maintenance sits with Development Seed as an open source side output of a consultancy, so roadmap priorities follow client projects and there is no support contract to buy
  • Layer coverage is a subset of deck.gl, so an analyst needing a less common layer type has to drop to pydeck or write JavaScript rather than staying in Python
  • It expects data already in GeoPandas or Arrow form, which means the performance benefit depends on the rest of your pipeline being Arrow-friendly; reading a large Shapefile is still the slow step
  • Rendering happens in the browser, so very large datasets are ultimately limited by the client machine's memory and GPU rather than by the server, and a laptop will still fail on data a workstation handles

Pricing, plan by plan

AssetWorks

On request
  • FleetFocus$undefined/year
    • Perpetual licence or SaaS subscription options
    • No published pricing, quote required
    • Contracts typically multi-year with ancillary fees reported

Lonboard

Free
  • LonboardFree
    • Open source, no licence fee
    • No usage limits
    • Installed from PyPI or conda

Which should you pick?

Choose AssetWorks if

  • You need fleet lifecycle tracking.
  • You also want preventative maintenance scheduling.
AssetWorks review

Choose Lonboard if

  • You need geoarrow binary transfer.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want geopandas input.
Lonboard review

Questions people ask

Is AssetWorks or Lonboard better?
Neither clearly leads. AssetWorks starts at On request and Lonboard at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, AssetWorks or Lonboard?
Lonboard has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for AssetWorks and Free for Lonboard.
Does AssetWorks or Lonboard run on more platforms?
AssetWorks runs on Web. Lonboard runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Lonboard for free?
Yes. Lonboard has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. AssetWorks starts at On request.
What is AssetWorks best used for?
AssetWorks is most often used for a municipal or county government needing fleet management that integrates with broader roads, facilities and parks asset management, a public utility needing fuel, maintenance and compliance tracking suited to public-sector audit requirements, a government buyer wanting to procure through an existing competitively solicited group purchasing agreement rather than an independent rfp, an agency wanting a stable, long-term software vendor backed by constellation software acquire-and-hold ownership model rather than a venture-backed startup. Of those, a municipal or county government needing fleet management that integrates with broader roads, facilities and parks asset management and a public utility needing fuel, maintenance and compliance tracking suited to public-sector audit requirements are not what Lonboard is typically brought in for.
What can AssetWorks do that Lonboard cannot?
AssetWorks covers Fleet lifecycle tracking, Preventative maintenance scheduling, Fuel management, Inspection and licensing compliance. Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer, GeoPandas input, deck.gl layers, Jupyter widget.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

AssetWorks: Who owns AssetWorks?

Volaris Group, a division of Constellation Software, which acquires and holds vertical-market software businesses long term rather than growing and reselling them.

Lonboard: Why not just use pydeck?

pydeck serialises geometry to GeoJSON to reach the browser. Lonboard uses a binary GeoArrow pipeline, which is the reason it handles far larger datasets in the same notebook.

AssetWorks: Is AssetWorks only for government fleets?

It is primarily built and marketed for public sector buyers, though private fleets can also use it; government-specific features like competitive group purchasing access are a key differentiator.

Lonboard: Who maintains it?

Development Seed, a geospatial engineering consultancy, as an open source project. There is no commercial support offering.

AssetWorks: Perpetual licence or SaaS?

Both options exist, but neither is priced publicly, so a buyer needs a quote to compare the two structures directly.

Lonboard: Does it work outside Jupyter?

It is built as a Jupyter widget. Exporting to standalone HTML is possible, but the intended environment is a notebook.

Lonboard: Is it free for commercial use?

Yes, it is open source with no licence fee.

Share

Related pages

More on AssetWorks

More on Lonboard

Keep looking

Other head to heads