Softwr

Maritime · head to head

Drewry vs Vortexa

Drewry logo

Drewry

Maritime

Maritime research and consulting

From
$1000/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Vortexa logo

Vortexa

Maritime

Real-time seaborne energy cargo flow data sold as a subscription to a feed, not an application

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Drewry the World Container Index is described as free but still requires an account to read, and full access depends on subscription rights; Vortexa cargo attribution is inference from AIS, imagery and pattern analysis, not measurement, so grade and volume figures carry an error band that matters if you size a position on them and the vendor cannot fully quantify it for every route.
  • They diverge on capability: Drewry covers Market research, Vortexa covers Cargo-level flow tracking.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Drewry and Vortexa actually diverge.

Attributes where Drewry and Vortexa differ
AttributeDrewryVortexa
Starting price$1000/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWebWeb, Cloud, API
Founded1970Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Maritime).

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 Drewry

  • Market research
  • Forecasting
  • Benchmarking
  • Advisory services
  • Data exports
  • Custom reports
  • Web support

Only in Vortexa

  • Cargo-level flow tracking
  • Multi-commodity coverage
  • Floating storage analytics
  • API, Excel and Python access
  • Anywhere Freight Pricing
  • Satellite and AIS fusion

What people use each for

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

Drewry

  • Tracking container freight rate movements through the weekly World Container Indexnot Vortexa
  • Supporting shipping and supply chain research with published rate assessmentsnot Vortexa

Vortexa

  • A crude trading desk sizing a position on inferred cargo flows into a region before customs data confirms them weeks laternot Drewry
  • A shipowner assessing tonne-mile demand and ballast patterns to decide where to reposition vesselsnot Drewry
  • A refiner tracking competing product cargoes arriving into its market to anticipate margin pressurenot Drewry
  • A research team pulling flow data into Python models rather than reading a vendor dashboardnot Drewry

Where each one falls short

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

Drewry

  • The World Container Index is described as free but still requires an account to read, and full access depends on subscription rights
  • No subscription price is published anywhere on the index pages
  • The container index publishes weekly, so it is not a source for daily rate movement

Vortexa

  • Cargo attribution is inference from AIS, imagery and pattern analysis, not measurement, so grade and volume figures carry an error band that matters if you size a position on them and the vendor cannot fully quantify it for every route.
  • What you buy is a feed rather than an application, so a firm without quantitative capability to consume it gets far less value than the subscription costs, and the terminal alone rarely justifies the price.
  • Pricing is by seat and by data scope with nothing published, so cost scales with how many analysts need access, which discourages exactly the broad internal distribution that would make the data useful.
  • It overlaps materially with other commodity flow subscriptions and price reporting services, and most desks that buy Vortexa are paying twice for a partly duplicated picture.
  • Coverage quality varies by trade and region; dark fleet activity, ship-to-ship transfers and sanctioned trades are the hardest cases and also the ones where accurate data is worth the most.

Pricing, plan by plan

Drewry

$1000/month
  • Research Subscription$3000/month
    • Market reports
    • Forecasts
    • Data access

Vortexa

On request
  • Vortexa$undefined/year
    • Subscription priced by seat and by data scope
    • API, Excel add-in and Python SDK access licensed separately from terminal seats
    • Commodity coverage selectable, crude, products, LPG, LNG

Which should you pick?

Choose Drewry if

  • You need market research.
  • You also want forecasting.
Drewry review

Choose Vortexa if

  • You need cargo-level flow tracking.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, API.
  • You also want multi-commodity coverage.
Vortexa review

Questions people ask

Is Drewry or Vortexa better?
Neither clearly leads. Drewry starts at $1000/month and Vortexa at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Drewry or Vortexa?
Drewry starts at $1000/month and Vortexa at On request.
Does Drewry or Vortexa run on more platforms?
Drewry runs on Web. Vortexa runs on Web, Cloud, API.
What is Drewry best used for?
Drewry is most often used for tracking container freight rate movements through the weekly world container index, supporting shipping and supply chain research with published rate assessments. Of those, tracking container freight rate movements through the weekly world container index and supporting shipping and supply chain research with published rate assessments are not what Vortexa is typically brought in for.
What can Drewry do that Vortexa cannot?
Drewry covers Market research, Forecasting, Benchmarking, Advisory services. Vortexa covers Cargo-level flow tracking, Multi-commodity coverage, Floating storage analytics, API, Excel and Python access.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Drewry: How much do Drewry subscriptions cost?

Drewry offers annual subscriptions for various services including Container Freight Rate Insight, Benchmarking Club, and forecasters. Specific pricing is not published and requires contacting Drewry directly.

Source
Vortexa: Is Vortexa an application or a data feed?

Fundamentally a data feed. There is a web terminal, but the API, Excel add-in and Python SDK are how most subscribers actually use it.

Drewry: Are Drewry services free?

Drewry offers free content to registered and logged-in users including the World Container Index, market trackers, and indices. Premium services require paid annual subscriptions.

Source
Vortexa: Are the cargo volumes measured or estimated?

Estimated. Vortexa infers cargo, grade and volume from AIS, satellite imagery and pattern analysis. Treat the numbers as estimates with an error band.

Vortexa: How is it priced?

By seat and by data scope, quoted annually. Redistribution and derived-data rights are negotiated separately and matter for internal use.

Vortexa: Does it cover LNG and LPG as well as oil?

Yes, alongside crude and refined products, though commodity scope affects what you pay.

Share

Related pages

More on Drewry

More on Vortexa

Keep looking

Other head to heads