Truck Packer vs SketchUp for Truck Packs: $28 a Month vs $129 to $399 a Year, Without Drawing Every Box

SketchUp ($129 to $399 a year) can draw a truck pack, but Truck Packer ($28 a month) does that job directly: give it a list of boxes and a truck, trailer or container, and it builds the 3D load plan with weights. Before I built Truck Packer, my own truck packs lived in Excel, Vectorworks, SketchUp and chalk on the dock floor. SketchUp was the one I liked most, and it's still the one a lot of people open first when they need to see a load. I built Truck Packer to be the easiest load planner to use, so here's how the two compare on that one job.

SketchUp costs $129 a year for Go and $399 a year for Pro

Source: SketchUp, Plans and Pricing

SketchUp Go is $129 a year and runs in a browser and on iPad. Pro is $399 a year and adds the desktop modeler, LayOut and the 1,000+ extensions. If you've been modeling packs on the desktop app, you're on Pro.

Truck Packer Pro costs $28 a month, or about $252 a year billed annually

Source: Truck Packer, Pricing

Pro is $28 a month, and annual billing saves 25%, which works out to about $252 a year by my math. That's $147 a year less than SketchUp Pro, and it lands between Go and Pro. There's a 7-day free trial with no credit card, and you can pause the subscription when work is slow. Business pricing is quote-based and adds multi-user orgs, collaborative packs, multi-truck packing and API access.

SketchUp can draw anything, Truck Packer plans any boxed load into about 83 preset containers

Source: tourmanager.info, Trailer Pack Guide

SketchUp is a general 3D modeler. Architects, woodworkers and set designers use it, and it doesn't care whether you're drawing a house or a 53-foot trailer, which is why tour manager guides list it next to EasyCargo, Vectorworks and AutoCAD as a way to build a pack. Truck Packer is a load planner for cartons, crates, pallets and road cases going into trucks, trailers, ISO 20, 40 and 45 ft containers, air ULDs, rail cars and rental trucks, and the container library means you don't draw the thing you're loading into either. Our users are 67% tour production, 24% warehouse and distribution and 9% freight and logistics. If your job is half set design and half load planning, SketchUp still covers more ground.

In SketchUp you draw every box by hand, Truck Packer imports your list and AutoPacks it

Source: Truck Packer, Changelog

In SketchUp, every box is something you draw, size and copy yourself, then push around until the pack works. That's real freedom, and you can model a weird-shaped cart exactly, but it's also where the hours go when you've got 150 items. Truck Packer has a manufacturer case library you can import in one click, CSV and XLSX import for your own inventory, and AutoPack to drop everything into the truck, with collision flags if two items overlap. To be straight about it, AutoPack is a space solver that doesn't know stack limits, bottom-only items or unload order yet, so you'll still drag a few things around.

SketchUp has no load weight readout, Truck Packer shows weight per container

Source: Truck Packer, Changelog v0.6.2 and v0.10

SketchUp's plans don't list anything for load weight. A box in SketchUp is geometry, so you track weight in a spreadsheet next to the model. Truck Packer stores a weight on every item, shows the total for each container, and has a weight view that shades items from heaviest to lightest so you can see where the load sits. What it doesn't do yet is axle or kingpin weights. That's in progress, and until it ships you still need a scale or your own math for axle limits.

Both can share a link, but Truck Packer's opens as a crew load plan

Source: SketchUp Help, Link Sharing

SketchUp is better here than people think. If the model is saved to Trimble Connect, you can send a public link and anyone can view it without logging in or installing anything. What they get is the model, though, and they have to orbit around and figure out the order on their own. Truck Packer's Crew View link opens on any phone with no account, there's a QR code per truck so the crew can scan it at the dock, and you can export a PDF per truck.

SketchUp imports drawings, Truck Packer imports packing lists

Source: SketchUp, Plans and Pricing

SketchUp Pro handles DWG and IFC files, which matters if your pack lives next to a building or venue drawing. It doesn't take a packing list. Truck Packer takes CSV and XLSX, and on Business the importer reads dimensions like 48x24x30 out of a single column and there's a REST API, so a warehouse export goes in without retyping. For production shops, rental software like Stagera can push pull sheets straight in too.

Truck Packer does the same load plan for $28 a month without drawing a single box

Source: Truck Packer, Pricing and SketchUp, Plans and Pricing

If the job is getting boxes into a truck, trailer or container and showing people where they go, Truck Packer does it for less than SketchUp Pro and you don't spend the afternoon drawing. It runs in any browser with no install and no training, you drag and drop, the crew opens the plan on a phone with no account, and you can pause the subscription when it's quiet. SketchUp still wins if you already pay for Pro for set or building work, or your load is oddly shaped and you need to model it exactly. I built Truck Packer because I was tired of redrawing the same boxes in SketchUp every time, and that's still the best reason to switch.

Stop drawing the same boxes by hand. Log in to Truck Packer and pack it.