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Descartes Aljex

Freight brokerage TMS with published plan pricing, from 699 dollars a month for five users

As of 1 September 2026, Descartes Aljex starts at $699/month. A brokerage-focused transportation management system, Descartes-owned since 2020, and one of the few TMS products with a real price page. Softwr lists it under Logistics. Descartes Aljex is made by The Descartes Systems Group, available on Web, iOS, Android.

Overview

What Descartes Aljex does

Descartes Aljex is a cloud transportation management system built for freight brokers and third-party logistics providers rather than for shippers or asset carriers. It covers load entry, carrier selection and vetting, dispatch, tracking, document capture, settlement and brokerage accounting, with lane pricing data to support quoting. The workflow assumptions are brokerage assumptions: margin per load, carrier compliance, agent commission structures and the speed of entering a load, which is what separates it from a shipper-oriented TMS retrofitted for brokers. The pricing is published and structured by bundled users rather than per seat. Essential is 699 dollars a month including five users, unlimited shipments and basic integrations to MacroPoint, MyCarrierPortal, load boards, ProMiles, QuickBooks and DAT RateView. Professional starts at 999 dollars a month with fifteen users, ten hours of training and one customer EDI connection. Enterprise starts at 2,375 dollars a month with unlimited users, fifteen hours of training, two EDI connections, a dedicated customer success manager and agent security controls. Each tier carries a one-time implementation fee that is not published. For a small brokerage, knowing the recurring number without a sales cycle is a genuine reason to shortlist it. Buyers are small and mid-sized North American freight brokerages and 3PLs, including agent-based models where security separation between agents matters. The trade-offs are scope and integration cost. Aljex is a brokerage system, not a forwarding or customs platform, so international work goes elsewhere; and customer EDI connections are metered by tier, with one included on Professional and two on Enterprise, so a broker onboarding several EDI shippers pays beyond the plan price.

What people use it for

  • A five-person brokerage that needs to know its monthly software cost before committing rather than after a discovery call
  • An agent-based brokerage that must stop agents seeing each other customers and margins
  • A growing broker moving off spreadsheets and email who wants load boards, tracking and carrier vetting already connected
  • A 3PL needing brokerage settlement and QuickBooks accounting without a separate finance integration project

The honest half

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Descartes Aljex.

  • Customer EDI connections are metered by tier, with none on Essential, one on Professional and two on Enterprise, so a broker onboarding several EDI shippers pays above the published plan price.
  • The one-time implementation fee is not published at any tier, so the advertised monthly price is not the first-year cost.
  • User counts are bundled per tier, which means growing from five to six users on Essential forces a jump to the 999 dollar Professional plan rather than adding one seat.
  • It is a domestic brokerage system with no forwarding or customs capability, so any international freight work requires a second platform.
  • Descartes is an acquisitive group with several overlapping transportation products, so Aljex customers depend on portfolio decisions about which brokerage product receives investment.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Descartes Aljex

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Pricing

What Descartes Aljex costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Essential

$699 /mo

  • Five users included
  • Unlimited shipments
  • MacroPoint, MyCarrierPortal, load boards, ProMiles, QuickBooks and DAT RateView
  • One-time implementation fee, not published
  • No customer EDI connection included

Professional

$999 /mo

  • Fifteen users included
  • Unlimited shipments and carrier profiles
  • Ten hours of support and training
  • Thirty-day hypercare period
  • One customer EDI connection included

Enterprise

$2,375 /mo

  • Unlimited users
  • Fifteen hours of support and training
  • Ninety-day hypercare period
  • Dedicated customer success manager
  • Two customer EDI connections and agent security features

Capabilities

Features

  • Published plan pricing

    Three tiers at 699, 999 and 2,375 USD a month with users included rather than per seat

  • Load entry and dispatch

    Fast order creation, carrier assignment and dispatch built for brokerage speed

  • Carrier vetting

    MyCarrierPortal integration for authority, insurance and fraud screening

  • Lane pricing

    Rate and lane data to support quoting and margin decisions

  • Tracking integrations

    MacroPoint and load board connections included from the entry tier

  • Brokerage accounting

    Settlement, invoicing and QuickBooks integration

  • Agent security

    Enterprise tier controls separating agent visibility in agent-based brokerages

  • Customer EDI

    Metered EDI connections, one on Professional and two on Enterprise

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

What does it cost?

Essential is 699 USD a month for five users, Professional from 999 USD for fifteen, Enterprise from 2,375 USD for unlimited users, plus a one-time implementation fee.

Is it priced per user?

No. Users are bundled into each tier, so cost steps up between plans rather than per seat.

Are EDI connections included?

One on Professional and two on Enterprise. Essential includes none, and additional connections cost extra.

Can it handle international freight?

No. It is a domestic brokerage TMS with no customs or forwarding functionality.

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Descartes Aljex, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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