Maritime · head to head
Harbour Assist vs Vortexa
Harbour Assist
Maritime
Marina, harbour and boatyard management software for United Kingdom and European operators
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Vortexa
Maritime
Real-time seaborne energy cargo flow data sold as a subscription to a feed, not an application
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Harbour Assist no pricing is published, and the mandatory setup and data migration fee means the first-year cost is materially above the recurring subscription, which is easy to miss when budgeting.; 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: Harbour Assist covers Berth and mooring management, 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 Harbour Assist and Vortexa actually diverge.
| Attribute | Harbour Assist | Vortexa |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, Cloud, API |
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Harbour Assist
- Berth and mooring management
- Contracts and licences
- Recurring invoicing
- Customer portal
- Boatyard work orders
- Team tasking
- Online reservations
- Reporting
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.
Harbour Assist
- A trust port managing several hundred moorings with annual licence renewals and arrears chasingnot Vortexa
- A sailing club combining membership, berthing and bar accounts under one customer recordnot Vortexa
- A boatyard scheduling lifts and winter storage alongside berth contractsnot Vortexa
- A harbour office cutting phone traffic by moving invoice payment and service requests to a customer portalnot Vortexa
Vortexa
- A crude trading desk sizing a position on inferred cargo flows into a region before customs data confirms them weeks laternot Harbour Assist
- A shipowner assessing tonne-mile demand and ballast patterns to decide where to reposition vesselsnot Harbour Assist
- A refiner tracking competing product cargoes arriving into its market to anticipate margin pressurenot Harbour Assist
- A research team pulling flow data into Python models rather than reading a vendor dashboardnot Harbour Assist
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Harbour Assist
- No pricing is published, and the mandatory setup and data migration fee means the first-year cost is materially above the recurring subscription, which is easy to miss when budgeting.
- The vendor explicitly does not discount, so a small harbour has no negotiating room even when the entry point is a stretch for its budget.
- Ownership by ClearCourse, a private-equity-backed consolidator of vertical software, brings the pricing and roadmap risks that come with that model, and buyers should ask about uplift terms before committing.
- It is built for United Kingdom and Irish harbour practice, so an operator elsewhere gets a system full of concepts that do not match local regulation.
- There is no marketplace or booking demand attached, so unlike Dockwa it fills no berths for you; visitor income still depends on your own marketing.
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
Harbour Assist
On request- Harbour Assist$undefined/month
- Quoted by size and complexity of the operation
- Directory listings place the entry point near GBP 400 per month
- Mandatory setup and installation fee covering customisation, data migration and training
Vortexa
On request- Vortexa$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 Harbour Assist if
- You need berth and mooring management.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want contracts and licences.
Choose Vortexa if
- You need cargo-level flow tracking.
- You work on Web, Cloud, API.
- You also want multi-commodity coverage.
Questions people ask
- Is Harbour Assist or Vortexa better?
- Neither clearly leads. Harbour Assist starts at On request and Vortexa at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Harbour Assist or Vortexa?
- Harbour Assist starts at On request and Vortexa at On request.
- Does Harbour Assist or Vortexa run on more platforms?
- Harbour Assist runs on Web, iOS, Android. Vortexa runs on Web, Cloud, API.
- What is Harbour Assist best used for?
- Harbour Assist is most often used for a trust port managing several hundred moorings with annual licence renewals and arrears chasing, a sailing club combining membership, berthing and bar accounts under one customer record, a boatyard scheduling lifts and winter storage alongside berth contracts, a harbour office cutting phone traffic by moving invoice payment and service requests to a customer portal. Of those, a trust port managing several hundred moorings with annual licence renewals and arrears chasing and a sailing club combining membership, berthing and bar accounts under one customer record are not what Vortexa is typically brought in for.
- What can Harbour Assist do that Vortexa cannot?
- Harbour Assist covers Berth and mooring management, Contracts and licences, Recurring invoicing, Customer portal. Vortexa covers Cargo-level flow tracking, Multi-commodity coverage, Floating storage analytics, API, Excel and Python access.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Harbour Assist: How much does Harbour Assist cost?
It is quoted by size and complexity. Directory listings put the entry point near 400 pounds a month, and every client also pays a setup fee for customisation, migration and training.
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.
Harbour Assist: Does it bring visitor bookings?
No. It takes online visitor reservations through your own website but has no consumer marketplace, so demand generation remains your responsibility.
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.
Harbour Assist: Who owns it?
ClearCourse, a private-equity-backed group that acquires vertical software businesses in the United Kingdom.
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.
Harbour Assist: Does it handle swinging moorings and drying berths?
Yes, and that is one of the reasons British harbours choose it over marina software designed around American pontoon dockage.
Vortexa: Does it cover LNG and LPG as well as oil?
Yes, alongside crude and refined products, though commodity scope affects what you pay.
Related pages
More on Harbour Assist
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