Quick verdict
DAT = largest load network, industry-standard rate data, higher price.
Truckstop = instant Book It Now booking, flatbed specialization, lower entry price.
DAT wins for volume and data, the largest load board network in North America and RateView's industry-standard rate benchmarking, while Truckstop wins for speed and specialization, with Book It Now instant booking and thirty years of flatbed broker relationships.
The trade is close to a straight line. DAT costs more but the network is bigger and the rate data is the one brokers actually trust. Truckstop costs less and books faster, but its Trustpilot score (1.8/5) and BBB rating (D-) trail DAT's by a wide margin, and both platforms carry real billing complaints worth reading before you sign up.
Dry van haulers should start with DAT. Flatbed and step-deck haulers should start with Truckstop. A meaningful share of owner-operators run both.
DAT vs Truckstop at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free tier | External rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dry van owner-operators and fleets who want the largest network and the best rate data | $49/mo (DAT One Standard) | No (trial availability varies by plan) | G2 4.6/5 (84-220 reviews) | |
Flatbed and specialized freight operators, and budget-conscious small brokers | $42/mo (Basic, plus non-refundable application fee) | No | G2 4.0/5 (412 reviews) |
Feature comparison by criteria
| Criteria | DAT | Truckstop |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating | 4.6/5 | 4.0/5 |
| G2 review count | 84-220 | 412 |
| Capterra rating | 4.5/5 (239 reviews) | Limited data available |
| Trustpilot rating | 2.7/5 | 1.8/5 |
| Entry price | $49/mo | $42/mo + non-refundable $42 application fee |
| Mid tier | Enhanced $99/mo, Pro $149/mo | Professional ~$79-99/mo |
| Top tier | Office $299/mo | Premium $149/mo, Heavy Haul $299/mo |
| Daily loads posted | 644,500-722,500 | Not publicly disclosed; estimated ~40% below DAT |
| Trucks in network | 1.7 million | Not publicly disclosed |
| Rate data product | RateView, industry standard | Rate Insights, secondary dataset |
| Instant booking | Not a core feature | Book It Now, on every plan including Basic |
| Carrier onboarding/vetting | Broker credit scores, days-to-pay | RMIS, industry-standard compliance automation |
| Mobile app rating | ~4.5/5 iOS, ~4.2/5 Google Play | ~4.4/5 iOS, historically less stable Android |
| Our score (out of 10) | 9.1 | 8.3 |
Affiliate note: some links below are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Rankings are never sold. This is a research-led comparison built from G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot review samples, vendor documentation, and published third-party research. See our testing methodology .
What DAT and Truckstop actually cost
DAT starts at $49/mo for the One Standard/Express plan: basic carrier search, unlimited searching, truck posting, and mileage/routing tools. Enhanced runs $99/mo and adds broker credit scores, load counts by state, and 15-day average lane rates. Pro at $149/mo adds round-trip suggestions, 7-day average lane rates, and TriHaul route optimization. Select at $199/mo brings a LIVE auto-refresh board and market analytics, and Office at $299/mo layers in LaneMakers and back-end management tools. DAT Power runs $150-250+/mo, and DAT Authority sits around $289/mo. Annual billing saves 15-20%.
Truckstop starts lower on paper, around $42/mo for Basic, which includes search and Book It Now instant booking. Professional runs roughly $79-99/mo and adds Rate Insights lane analytics plus enhanced broker data. Premium at ~$149/mo unlocks the full platform including fleet and dispatch tools, and Heavy Haul runs $299/mo. Broker plans range $42-420 per user per month. Annual billing saves roughly 10-20%.
Here’s the part that trips people up. Truckstop charges a $42 non-refundable application fee on top of the subscription, and it applies whether or not the application gets approved. A carrier who gets denied loses the $42 with no explanation given, according to multiple complaint threads. Budget for that fee before you sign up, not after.
Tier for tier, Truckstop runs $10-50/mo cheaper than the equivalent DAT plan. That gap matters more to a small broker running under 50 loads a month than it does to a fleet dispatcher who needs the data DAT charges more for.
Network size and load volume
DAT is not close on raw scale. The network carries 644,500 to 722,500 loads posted daily, somewhere between 267 and 284 million loads a year (a handful of sources cite over 500 million), across 1.7 million trucks. Some DAT materials claim 2.5 times more daily loads than the nearest competitor. Nearly fifty years in business built that density.
Truckstop does not publish daily or annual load counts. Third-party estimates put the network around 40% smaller than DAT’s by volume, with one figure cited near 80 million loads annually. That is still a real marketplace, just a smaller one.
For a carrier whose main problem is finding enough freight, DAT’s raw volume is the safer bet. For a carrier who already has broker relationships and just wants a cheaper booking tool, the volume gap matters less.
Rate data: RateView vs Rate Insights
DAT’s RateView (also branded DAT Trendlines) is built on more than $1 trillion in real freight transaction data across 68,000-plus lanes. Brokers and carriers across the industry treat it as the reference point for what a lane should pay, which is a different kind of authority than a competing product simply having similar features. It unlocks starting at the Enhanced tier, $99/mo.
Truckstop’s Rate Insights, available from the Professional tier at roughly $79-99/mo, is generally regarded as the secondary dataset in the category. It is useful. It is not what brokers quote when they want to settle an argument about a rate.
If rate benchmarking is the reason you’re paying for a load board at all, DAT’s data is the one the rest of the industry already trusts.
What DAT does better than Truckstop
Network size. More loads, more trucks, and a five-decade head start on density. When the goal is simply finding freight fast, DAT’s volume shows up directly in search results.
RateView’s authority. This is not a marginal edge. RateView is the number brokers cite in negotiations, and carrying the same number as the broker on the other end of the call is worth something concrete.
Brand trust. 4.6/5 on G2, 4.5/5 across 239 Capterra reviews with 88% positive sentiment, and a Capterra customer service score of 4.4/5. DAT’s reputation, while not spotless, sits well ahead of Truckstop’s on every third-party rating source that publishes one.
Mobile app reliability. The DAT One app runs around 4.5/5 on iOS and 4.2/5 on Google Play with over 500,000 Android downloads, and reviewers describe it as faster and more stable than Truckstop Go, particularly after Truckstop’s recent app updates.
What Truckstop does better than DAT
Book It Now. A carrier can accept a load without calling the broker, on every plan including the cheapest one. For an owner-operator who hates the back-and-forth phone negotiation, this single feature changes the day-to-day workflow more than any pricing tier does.
RMIS carrier onboarding. Automated insurance validation, authority and safety checks, and Carrier Assure’s predictive scoring pull from FMCSA data to cut onboarding time by up to 80%. Carrier Hub then consolidates authority, insurance, safety, CSA scores, and complaints in one view. This is the stronger carrier vetting ecosystem of the two, full stop.
Flatbed and specialized freight depth. Thirty-plus years of broker relationships in flatbed, open deck, step deck, and lowbed freight give Truckstop a niche where it out-executes DAT’s broader dry van focus.
Lower entry price. $42/mo against DAT’s $49/mo, and the gap widens at the middle tiers. For a small broker watching every line item, that difference adds up across a year.
Where DAT and Truckstop are at parity
Stop weighing these. Both platforms handle them at a similar level and the decision shouldn’t turn on any one of them.
- Basic load search and posting. Both let carriers search, filter, and post trucks against available freight.
- Mileage and routing tools. Both include route planning as a standard feature across tiers.
- Multi-channel support access. Both offer email, phone, chat, and a knowledge base, even if the actual wait times differ (more on that below).
- Annual billing discounts. Both knock 10-20% off for paying yearly instead of monthly.
Mobile app comparison
DAT One rates around 4.5/5 on iOS and 4.2/5 on Google Play, with over 500,000 Android downloads and generally positive reviews for speed and stability. Truckstop Go rates around 4.4/5 on iOS with roughly 250,000 Android downloads, close on paper, but historically dogged by slower performance and crashes reported after updates.
One point in Truckstop Go’s favor: because Book It Now is designed for quick action in the cab, the app tends to perform better in low-connectivity environments than a search-heavy app like DAT One does. For a driver in and out of cell coverage, that design choice matters more than a star rating.
Support and complaints, the honest version
DAT’s support reputation is better on paper. Capterra scores customer service at 4.4/5, and G2 sentiment on support tends to run ahead of Truckstop’s. That said, response times stretch during peak season, and one documented case took 11 days to resolve an account access issue.
DAT also has real complaint patterns worth knowing before you sign up: fake or phantom loads (19,000 fake postings were found under a major broker’s name in March 2025), bait-and-switch load details that change after a carrier accepts, and billing issues including unauthorized charges and fees users describe as hidden.
Truckstop’s reputation is worse across every third-party source: a Trustpilot score of 1.8/5, a BBB rating of D-, and hold times reported over two hours with emails going unanswered for weeks. Complaint patterns include unauthorized charges after cancellation, a five-day cancellation window that catches people off guard, payment delays tied to the factoring platform switch to Denim, scammers posting loads with fake DOT/MC numbers, the non-refundable $42 application fee with no explanation on denial, and rising subscription costs alongside what users describe as declining service.
Neither platform is clean here. Read the complaint threads for your specific plan before you commit a year of billing to either one.
DAT or Truckstop, by the operator you’re running
Dry van owner-operators. DAT. The larger network and RateView’s rate authority are worth the extra $7-50/mo at every tier for a carrier competing on volume and pricing accuracy.
Flatbed, open deck, step deck, and lowbed operators. Truckstop. Thirty years of broker relationships in this specific niche outweighs DAT’s general size advantage for specialized freight.
Small brokers under 50 loads a month. Truckstop. Lower entry cost, RMIS onboarding automation, and Book It Now cutting phone time all favor a lean operation watching every dollar.
Small fleets, 2 to 10 trucks. DAT Pro or Select. The multi-truck tools and route optimization at those tiers are built for exactly this size operation.
Large brokerages. DAT. TMS integration, rate benchmarking depth, and the largest network in the category all matter more at scale than the per-seat savings Truckstop offers.
Budget-conscious operators who hate the phone. Truckstop. Generally $10-50/mo cheaper per tier, and Book It Now removes the negotiation call entirely.
A meaningful number of owner-operators and small carriers run both platforms simultaneously, DAT for volume and rate benchmarking, Truckstop for Book It Now speed and flatbed relationships. If your monthly freight spend supports two subscriptions, that combination covers more ground than either one alone.
For where both sit in the wider category, see our best freight management software list and our best TMS for freight brokers comparison, or read our full testing methodology .
Frequently asked questions
Which load board has more loads, DAT or Truckstop?
DAT, by a wide margin. DAT posts an estimated 644,500 to 722,500 loads daily, somewhere between 267 and 284 million a year, across a network of 1.7 million trucks. Truckstop does not publish its load volume, and third-party estimates put it around 40% below DAT, with one figure citing roughly 80 million loads annually. For a carrier whose main constraint is finding enough freight to fill the truck, DAT's density is the safer starting point.
Is Truckstop cheaper than DAT?
On the base subscription, yes. Truckstop Basic starts around $42/mo against DAT's $49/mo, and the gap widens at the middle tiers where Truckstop Professional runs $79-99/mo compared to DAT Enhanced at $99/mo and DAT Pro at $149/mo. Watch the fine print though: Truckstop adds a non-refundable $42 application fee on top of the subscription, charged whether or not the application is approved. Factor that in before assuming Truckstop is the cheaper option in year one.
Can I use both DAT and Truckstop at the same time?
Plenty of owner-operators and small carriers do exactly that. DAT covers volume and rate benchmarking through RateView, while Truckstop adds Book It Now for fast booking and stronger relationships in flatbed and specialized freight. If your monthly freight spend can absorb two subscriptions, running both widens the pool of loads you see and gives you a second data point on rates. It is not redundant the way it might look on a budget spreadsheet.
Which is better for flatbed and specialized freight?
Truckstop. It carries thirty-plus years of broker relationships specifically in flatbed, open deck, step deck, and lowbed freight, a niche where DAT's broader dry van focus does not go as deep. A flatbed owner-operator will typically find more relevant freight and more responsive brokers on Truckstop than on DAT, even though DAT wins on general network size.
Is DAT's RateView worth paying extra for?
For most carriers negotiating rates directly with brokers, yes. RateView is built on more than $1 trillion in real freight transaction data across 68,000-plus lanes, and it is the number brokers themselves reference when discussing what a lane should pay. Truckstop's Rate Insights is a usable alternative, but it does not carry the same weight in a negotiation. RateView unlocks starting at DAT's Enhanced tier, $99/mo, and for a carrier who negotiates rates weekly, that tier pays for itself in avoided lowball offers.