Comparison
A Cargo-Planner alternative with a free tier and plain-English input
Cargo-Planner is a mature load planner with a genuinely well-regarded API and a broad equipment library. Its route in is a free trial and then a subscription, and its input is structured. This page is for people who want neither.
Ten calculations a month, free, no card — and you can run one before signing in.
Side by side
| Feature | 3DPACK.ING | Cargo-Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 10 calculations a month, forever, no card | Free trial, then subscription |
| Published pricing | Yes — $0 / $29 / $99 / custom | Not on the homepage |
| Plain-English input | Yes | No |
| Interactive 3D plan | Yes | Yes |
| Equipment breadth | Containers, trucks and pallets | Wider — adds air ULDs and pallets, step decks and open tops, plus oversized and out-of-gauge cargo |
| API maturity | Newer | “Battle tested for many years”, in their own words |
Rows where they win are marked as such. Every figure here comes from each product’s own published pages and is checkable in two clicks.
Why people look
The same trial-to-subscription shape, and the same problem for occasional users. There is no tier for somebody who plans a load a fortnight.
The input, again. Cargo-Planner’s flow is to import a file or fill in the equipment and items. Ours is a sentence. For a shipment that arrived as prose, that is the difference between a minute and ten.
And price discovery. Their pricing is not on the homepage. Ours is on the page you are reading.
Where Cargo-Planner is the better choice
Two places, and both are real. Their equipment coverage is wider than ours: alongside sea containers and road trailers they handle air ULDs, step decks and open tops, and they describe support for oversized and out-of-gauge cargo with special contours. We do containers, trucks and pallets, and nothing that flies. And their API has, by their own account, been battle tested for many years; ours is newer. For breadth of equipment they win outright.
Moving over
There is nothing to migrate and nothing to install. Open the planner, paste or type the load, and you have a plan. If the items already live in a spreadsheet, Excel import on Pro takes the sheet as it is.
- Nothing to install
- Excel import on Pro
- Share a plan as a link
Try it here, without signing in
The planner below is the real one. Describe a load or edit the example, and you get the same 3D plan the paid tiers produce.
Questions
Is the free tier really free?
Yes, and permanently. Ten calculations a month, no card.
Can I describe a load in plain English?
Yes — that is the primary input. Type the sentence, get the plan.
Do you handle air freight or out-of-gauge cargo?
Not today. Containers, trucks and pallets. If you need air ULDs or oversized cargo, Cargo-Planner covers that and we do not.
Is there an API?
Yes. One endpoint: plain-English in, a packed result and a 3D link out.
Comparing something else?
- 3DBinPacking alternativeNo free tier — but genuinely cheaper than us at high API volume
- packVol alternativeWindows desktop software — but it works offline, and we do not
- EasyCargo alternativeTen-day trial, registration first — but a deeper product with a longer track record
See your own load
Paste a box list and the first plan takes about a minute.
Open the plannerCompared on 15 August 2026 against publicly published pricing and product pages. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.