TruckPack vs Truck Packer: $8.99 a Year vs $28 a Month, and Why They're Different Apps

TruckPack by dgApps is an $8.99-a-year iPhone checklist that tells your crew which case goes on the truck next, and Truck Packer is a $28-a-month web app that builds the whole load in 3D for freight, warehouse and touring loads, so they're two different tools with confusingly similar names.

I get asked about this one a lot, mostly because of the name. They aren't related. TruckPack is an iOS app from an independent developer called dgApps. Truck Packer is the load planner I built to be the easiest one to use, after years of drawing my own trailer packs by hand as a FOH engineer. Honestly, if all you need is a loading order, the cheaper one might be enough.

TruckPack costs $0.99 a month or $8.99 a year

Source: App Store, TruckPack by dgApps

TruckPack is a free download with two in-app subscriptions: $0.99 a month or $8.99 a year. It runs on iPhone and iPad. On price alone, it wins easily.

Truck Packer costs $28 a month, 25% less billed annually

Source: Truck Packer pricing

Truck Packer Pro is $28 a month, or 25% less if you pay for the year, and you can pause it when you don't have loads to plan. Business is quoted, and it adds multi-user orgs, collaborative packs, multi-truck packing, API access, SSO and third-party warehouse integrations. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial that unlocks the Business features, no credit card needed. So you're paying more, and the question is whether you need what that buys.

TruckPack is a load-order checklist for flight cases

Source: App Store, TruckPack by dgApps

TruckPack is made by someone who's clearly loaded a truck. You name your flight cases, color-code them (monitor world in yellow, for example), and the app walks you through what goes on first and what comes next. Double-tap a case to check it off as it's loaded. It ships with an example pack from a 2023 Blur audio truck. If your crew chief already knows the pack and you just want the order on a phone, that's what this does.

Truck Packer plans freight, warehouse and touring loads on about 83 container presets

Source: Truck Packer changelog

Truck Packer is a 3D load planner that runs in any browser with no install and no training. You drag cartons, crates, pallets or road cases into trailers, ISO 20, 40 and 45ft containers, air ULDs, pallets, rail cars or rental trucks, with real dimensions, so you see whether it fits before anyone's at the dock. Our users are 67% tour production, 24% warehouse and distribution and 9% freight and logistics. Production shops also get a case library with manufacturer catalogs. It solves the planning problem, not just the loading order.

TruckPack has 0 3D views and 0 auto-pack, Truck Packer has both

Source: App Store, TruckPack by dgApps

TruckPack is a list. Items don't have dimensions in it, there's no truck diagram, and nothing gets arranged for you. Truck Packer packs in a 3D truck or container, flags collisions, and AutoPack will place everything for you as a starting point. To be straight about the limits, AutoPack is a space solver. It doesn't yet know stacking limits, bottom-only items or unload priority, so you'll still move a few things by hand.

Neither app shows axle weights today

Source: Truck Packer pricing

TruckPack doesn't track weight at all. Truck Packer has a weight readout per container and a weight visualization mode, so you can see where the heavy stuff sits. What it doesn't have yet is axle or kingpin weight calculations. That's in progress, not shipped, so if you need legal axle numbers today neither of these is your answer.

TruckPack shares a .truckpack file, Truck Packer shares a link with a QR code

Source: Truck Packer changelog, v0.10.2

TruckPack can hold multiple packs and share each one as a .truckpack file or plain text, which works if the crew has the app or just needs a text list. Truck Packer's crew view is a link that opens on any phone without an account, with a per-truck QR code you can tape to the trailer. The crew gets the 3D view, notes and a shared loadout checklist they can tick off together. Pro also exports a PDF.

Truck Packer imports CSV, Excel and pull sheets, TruckPack doesn't import

Source: Truck Packer changelog

In TruckPack you type the cases in yourself, which is fine for one truck you load every night. Truck Packer takes CSV and XLSX imports, and on Business the importer reads dimensions written in one column like 48x24x30, which is how a lot of packing lists come out. Rental shops can pull sheets in from Stagera, and Business adds an API. If your list already lives in a spreadsheet, a WMS or rental software, that's hours saved. If it's 40 cases you know by heart, it probably isn't.

Different apps: TruckPack keeps the order, Truck Packer builds the plan

Source: App Store, TruckPack by dgApps

TruckPack is a great deal at $8.99 a year if your load order is already figured out and you want it on your phone with checkboxes, and I'd tell a friend the same thing. Worth knowing, its last update was version 1.0.1 in October 2023. Truck Packer is the 3D planner, whether the load is a container of cartons, a warehouse run of pallets or a tour's worth of road cases, and it's easy to get a crew on because the pack opens in a browser with no account. The honest line: TruckPack is far cheaper and lives as a native iPhone app, so if a checklist is all you need, it's the better buy.

Got a load to fit in a truck? Log in to Truck Packer and pack it.