SimpleGPS vs Traccar
Traccar is free if you run the server yourself, and $7.95 a month if you let them run it - but both prices are software only: the tracker, the SIM and the setup are still yours to buy and wire. SimpleGPS is $9.99 a month with the device configured, the SIM live and nothing to maintain.
Traccar is a genuinely good open-source project - free software that speaks hundreds of GPS protocols. "Free" is accurate about the licence and misleading about the bill: you supply the server (a $5-10 VPS), the install, the port and protocol setup, the updates, the backups, and the debugging at 2 AM when a device stops reporting.
Traccar also sells hosting - a shared Tracking Account from $7.95 a month, a dedicated Tracking Server from $39.95. That removes the server and leaves everything else: you still choose, buy, configure and insure a tracker, and you still buy and manage a SIM.
SimpleGPS is the other end of that trade. $9.99 a month, or $119.88 a year, with a Teltonika tracker shipped pre-configured on a live SIM, a listener we run, and support from the people who built it. Plug it in and the map moves.
Side by side
| SimpleGPS | Traccar | |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent public pricing | Yes | Free (open source), but you pay for a server + your time |
| Modern app-style UI | Yes | No |
| Device included / sold with the service | Yes | No |
| Hosted - no own server needed | Yes | Paid managed hosting, or self-host for free |
| Fits private individuals | Yes | Only if you are technical |
| Real-time tracking | Yes | Yes |
| No long-term contract | Yes | Yes |
| Self-serve online signup | Yes | DIY install and setup |
| Bulgarian support | Yes | No |
SimpleGPS keeps full route playback for 31 days, and routes, stops and statistics for 365. We state both numbers because we have them.
The differences in detail
What the first year really costs
Self-hosted Traccar: $0 for the software, roughly $60-120 for a VPS, $25-60 for a SIM plan, and whatever a tracker costs - plus your time standing it up. Traccar hosted: $95.40 a year for a shared account, still without a tracker or a SIM. SimpleGPS: $52 for the tracker on the annual plan, $15 shipping and $119.88 of service, so $186.88 the first year and $119.88 after, with the SIM, the data and the roaming inside that number.
Nobody ships you a device
Traccar is software at both price points. You pick a tracker off a marketplace, work out its APN, point it at the right port for its protocol and hope the firmware behaves. Ours arrives set up for our listener with an active SIM, and it is on the map the first time the engine turns over.
Who gets paged when it breaks
On your own server, you do - the protocol change, the disk that filled, the certificate that expired. On Traccar hosted, they keep the server up but the device is still your problem. With SimpleGPS the listener, the database, the map tiles and the SIM are one company's job, and that company answers the phone.
You can bring the hardware you already own
If you ran Traccar with a Teltonika device, it usually moves to us with one change of server address - no new hardware, no re-flash. Tell us the model and we will confirm before you buy anything.
Traccar is the better choice if you are technical, want the data on hardware you control, and would rather own the stack than rent it. If what you actually want is to open an app and see the truck, buying a server project is the expensive way to get there.
Bottom line
Free software is not a free system. Once the server, the tracker, the SIM and your own hours are on the invoice, the honest comparison is $7.95-plus-parts-plus-labor against $9.99 a month plus a tracker bought once - with the SIM, the data and the server inside the $9.99