For most readers, the choice splits three ways: Flexport for a shipper that wants booking, customs, and tracking in one place, CargoWise for a freight forwarder that needs a full back office, and TRADLINX for low cost ocean visibility at $1.11 per bill of lading. Only two of the eight charge a published amount you can budget from today: CargoWise from $2.63 per shipment and TRADLINX from $1.11 per bill of lading, while the other five sell by quote. Two free starting points exist: Freightos WebCargo Book Air costs $0 for forwarders, and GoComet lets you track 6 shipments a month free.
Ocean freight space is sold by the container, by the sailing, and by the contract, so the software that manages it has to cover booking, rates, documents, customs, and tracking in one workflow. A tool that only tracks containers will not help you buy space, and a forwarder platform that only books space will not warn you when a container misses its vessel. The eight tools below cover both sides, and prices and plan limits come from official vendor pages checked on 12 November 2026.
On this page
Best software for managing ocean freight space: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flexport | Shippers who want booking, customs, and tracking together | quote only | No | Visit |
| 2 | Freightos WebCargo | Forwarders who want free air booking plus ocean quoting | $0 for WebCargo Book Air | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | CargoWise | Large forwarders who need a full back office | $2.63 per shipment | No | Visit |
| 4 | GoComet | Mid market shippers who want tracking plus procurement | quote only | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | project44 | Enterprise shippers who need deep ocean visibility | quote only | No | Visit |
| 6 | Descartes Forwarder TMS | Forwarders who want modular customs and TMS | quote only | No | Visit |
| 7 | Magaya Supply Chain | Forwarders and 3PLs who need freight plus warehouse | quote only | No | Visit |
| 8 | TRADLINX Ocean Visibility | Small teams who want low cost ocean tracking | $1.11 per bill of lading | Yes | Visit |
The 8 best best software for managing ocean freight spaces, in detail
Flexport
Best for: Shippers who want booking, customs, and tracking together
Flexport is a digital freight forwarder, not a standalone software licence, and that is the point of the product. You book Full Container Load and Less than Container Load ocean shipments through the Flexport Platform, clear customs through its licensed brokerage in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, and track every shipment in the same view. It covers ocean, air, rail, and road across 135 countries.
- The platform also checks every import entry against a 100 point audit before filing, and its Buyers Consolidation feature merges smaller orders from s
- Flexport says this can cut ocean spend by up to 10 percent.
- Choose Flexport if you import regularly and want one vendor accountable for the whole move.
- Do not choose it if you only need tracking software, because there is no software only plan and no published price to budget from.
Pros
- Books FCL and LCL ocean shipments
- licensed customs brokerage in 6 markets
- one platform for freight, customs, and fulfillment
Cons
- No published price, so every lane needs a quote
- platform access is bundled with forwarding, so you cannot buy the software on its own
Freightos WebCargo
Best for: Forwarders who want free air booking plus ocean quoting
Freightos WebCargo is a forwarder platform with a free entry point that most ocean tools do not offer. WebCargo Book gives forwarders instant pricing and live booking across more than 370 airlines at $0. For ocean freight, WebCargo Rate and Quote Ocean centralises carrier rates, local charges, and trucking costs, and lets forwarders quote and manage ocean rates in the same system they use for air.
- Freightos also runs Freightos Terminal, which publishes the Freightos Baltic Index for container shipping.
- The ocean side is about pricing and quoting rather than instant booking, so a forwarder that wants one click ocean booking will still confirm space wi
- Choose WebCargo if you already price air freight and want ocean quoting in the same workflow.
Pros
- WebCargo Book Air is free for forwarders
- ocean rate management and quoting in one place
- live rates from 370 airlines for air legs
Cons
- Instant booking is built for air, while ocean work is rate management and quoting
- advanced Rate and Quote packs have no published price
CargoWise
Best for: Large forwarders who need a full back office
CargoWise is the most transparent platform on price in this list, and that transparency is new. On 1 December 2025 WiseTech Global moved about 95 percent of CargoWise customers from seat licences to CargoWise Value Packs, a per transaction model with 216 modules and unlimited users included and no separate seat or hosting fees. The published community price list shows $2.63 per LCL gateway shipment, $8.35 per LCL export shipment, $12.75 per FCL export shipment, $13.30 per LCL import shipment, and $19.95 per FCL import shipment, with standalone customs procedures at $3.28 for export and $9.95 for import.
- The $250 monthly private cloud minimum and $200 monthly secured link are easy to miss.
- That makes CargoWise easy to model once you know your shipment mix, but a high volume forwarder sees the per shipment fee on every job.
- Choose CargoWise if you run a multi country forwarding operation and want one system of record.
- Do not choose it for a small team, because 216 modules is a lot to configure for a narrow operation.
Pros
- Published per transaction price list
- 216 modules with unlimited users
- no seat fees under Value Packs
Cons
- A fee applies to every shipment, so cost grows with volume
- no free plan
- implementation commonly takes months
GoComet
Best for: Mid market shippers who want tracking plus procurement
GoComet pairs container tracking with freight procurement, which suits a shipper that buys space often and wants to compare rates before booking. Its Freight Index benchmarks rates from more than 25,000 quotes submitted each month by more than 4,000 vendors, and the platform also covers compliance, disruption management, and payment controls. The free tracker allows 3 trackings before sign up and 6 shipments a month after, with email and WhatsApp alerts.
- That free tier is useful for an occasional shipper, but it is a trial of tracking rather than a free version of the platform.
- The full product is sold through sales with no published price, and buyers should expect an annual agreement.
- Choose GoComet if you ship regularly and want procurement and visibility in one contract.
- Do not choose it if you only track a handful of containers a year, because the free tier already covers that.
Pros
- Free tracker covers 6 shipments a month
- freight index built from 25,000 quotes a month
- email and WhatsApp alerts
Cons
- Full platform is sold by quote with no published price
- free tracker is capped at 6 shipments a month
project44
Best for: Enterprise shippers who need deep ocean visibility
project44 is a visibility platform first and a booking tool second, built for shippers that already have forwarders and carriers and need to see what they are doing. Ocean Visibility tracks containerised ocean freight by container number, booking number, or bill of lading, using direct carrier EDI and API links, AIS vessel tracking, and port event monitoring. Extended Ocean adds forwarder data for the pre carriage and on carriage legs.
- Ocean Terminal Visibility adds discharge events, holds, and the last free day for containers inside the terminal.
- The detention and demurrage tools are the most distinctive part: project44 calculates those costs from contracts you upload, with tiered daily costs t
- Choose project44 if you run a large import programme and detention charges are a real cost line.
- Do not choose it if you want to buy ocean space, because it watches the shipment rather than selling the capacity.
Pros
- Direct EDI and API links to ocean carriers
- AIS vessel tracking
- detention and demurrage cost tools
Cons
- Quote only pricing with enterprise contracts
- detention cost math needs your own carrier and terminal contracts uploaded first
Descartes Forwarder TMS
Best for: Forwarders who want modular customs and TMS
Descartes Forwarder TMS is a software as a service platform for freight forwarders that runs shipment management, rate management, accounting, and customer tracking in one back office. Its e-Customs suite covers import and export filing and transit, and the Descartes Global Logistics Network connects the platform to carriers and partners. Descartes MacroPoint adds real time freight visibility.
- The buying model is modular: Descartes prices Forwarder TMS on operational requirements rather than a bundled list, and says its pricing stays stable
- That helps a forwarder that wants customs and TMS only, but it means there is no public number to compare against CargoWise at $2.63 per shipment or T
- Choose Descartes if you want to build your stack module by module.
Pros
- Modular pricing, so you licence only the modules you need
- customs filing plus TMS in one suite
- MacroPoint visibility network
Cons
- No published price, so every quote is built per module
- modular pricing means two buyers can see very different totals
Magaya Supply Chain
Best for: Forwarders and 3PLs who need freight plus warehouse
Magaya Supply Chain is a single system for freight forwarding, warehouse management, accounting, and compliance, which suits a forwarder that also runs its own warehouse. One database covers freight quotes, shipments, invoices, warehouse receipts, picking, packing, and billing, and the Magaya Network lets customers exchange documents with other Magaya users. Magaya Customs Compliance is an ACE certified ABI solution for United States customs filing, and the Digital Freight Portal gives customers a branded web portal.
- The platform is modular, so a small forwarder can licence Supply Chain and WMS only, while a larger 3PL can add Rate Management, Customs Compliance, C
- That flexibility comes with a quote only price and no free plan or trial, with implementation and training billed separately.
- Choose Magaya if your warehouse and forwarding teams share the same jobs.
- Do not choose it for United Kingdom customs filing alone, because its customs module is built for United States CBP filing rather than HMRC declaratio
Pros
- Freight, warehouse, accounting, and customs in one system
- ACE certified customs filing for the United States
- branded customer portal
Cons
- No published price and no free plan or trial
- per user licensing with implementation and training billed separately
TRADLINX Ocean Visibility
Best for: Small teams who want low cost ocean tracking
TRADLINX Ocean Visibility is the cheapest way into serious ocean tracking in this list, and the reason is its billing unit. Instead of charging per container, TRADLINX charges per Master Bill of Lading, starting at $1.11 per bill of lading, so a shipment with 6 containers under one bill of lading costs one tracking fee rather than six. Plans run from Free through Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise, with a pay as you go option, and updates arrive every 2 to 4 hours.
- You can also track a shipment free by entering the Master Bill of Lading number on the TRADLINX site.
- The platform tracks by bill of lading, container, booking, and vessel, and offers an embeddable tracking widget so a forwarder can show customers the
- The limit is scope: TRADLINX watches ocean freight and does not book space, file customs, or run a warehouse, so it sits alongside a forwarder or a bo
- Choose TRADLINX if you move multi container shipments and want tracking costs to stay flat as containers are added.
Pros
- One fee per bill of lading no matter how many containers it covers
- free tracking without registration
- plans from Free to Enterprise
Cons
- Ocean visibility only, with no forwarding, booking, or customs of its own
- single container shippers get less benefit from the per bill of lading model
How we chose
We included only tools with a live official product page that covers ocean freight booking, quoting, or tracking, and we checked prices on official vendor pricing pages and product pages on 12 November 2026. We did not test any tool hands-on. Where a vendor publishes no price, we wrote quote only rather than repeating a third party estimate. One unique fact worth knowing is that CargoWise replaced seat licences with per transaction Value Packs on 1 December 2025, so older roundups that quote CargoWise by the seat are out of date. Another is that TRADLINX bills per bill of lading rather than per container, which changes the cost of a multi container shipment by a factor equal to the container count.
Which system fits your volume and budget
| Monthly volume | Best fit | What you will spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 containers a month | TRADLINX Free plan and GoComet free tracker | $0 to $1.11 per bill of lading |
| 10 to 100 containers a month | TRADLINX Professional or CargoWise | $1.11 per bill of lading or from $2.63 per shipment |
| 100 or more containers a month | CargoWise, Magaya, or Descartes | CargoWise from $2.63 per shipment; Magaya and Descartes by quote |
| Need forwarding plus software | Flexport or Freightos WebCargo | Flexport by quote; WebCargo Book Air $0 |
| Need visibility only at enterprise scale | project44 | By quote |
Frequently asked questions
How much does software for managing ocean freight space cost?
It ranges from $0 to quote only, with two published anchors. TRADLINX starts at $1.11 per bill of lading, and CargoWise starts at $2.63 per shipment under its Forwarding Value Pack, rising to $19.95 for an FCL import shipment. Freightos WebCargo Book Air costs $0, while Flexport, GoComet, project44, Descartes, and Magaya all sell by quote.
Which is best for a small importer with only a few containers a month?
TRADLINX is the best pick for a small importer, because its Free plan tracks shipments by bill of lading number and its lowest tier starts at $1.11 per bill of lading. GoComet is a useful second option, since its free tracker covers 6 shipments a month with email and WhatsApp alerts.
Which is best for a freight forwarder?
CargoWise is the best pick for a large forwarder, because it combines forwarding, customs, warehouse, and accounting in one system with 216 modules, unlimited users, and a published price from $2.63 per shipment. Magaya suits a forwarder that also runs a warehouse, while Descartes suits one that wants to licence customs and TMS modules one at a time.
Can I track ocean containers for free?
Yes, in two ways. TRADLINX lets you track a shipment free by entering the Master Bill of Lading number on its site without registration, and GoComet offers a free tracker with 3 trackings before sign up and 6 shipments a month after. Neither includes quoting, booking, or customs filing.
Does any of this software book ocean space directly?
Yes, but only the forwarder tools do. Flexport books FCL and LCL ocean shipments and clears customs in the same platform, and Freightos WebCargo lets forwarders quote and manage ocean rates, with instant booking built mainly for air. TRADLINX and project44 track space you already booked rather than selling new capacity.
Sources
- https://www.flexport.com/products/ocean-freight/
- https://www.freightos.com/
- https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/webcargo-sky-the-future-of-air-cargo-is-not-on-the-phone/
- https://cargowise.com/
- https://cargowise.com/cargowise-value-pack/cargowise-value-pack-community-pricing/
- https://www.gocomet.com/
- https://www.gocomet.com/freight-shipping-rates-index-calculator
- https://www.project44.com/
- https://www.project44.com/blog/ocean-visibility-connecting-the-dots-in-a-single-source-of-truth/
- https://www.descartes.com/solutions/broker-and-forwarder-enterprise-systems/forwarder-tms
- https://www.magaya.com/
- https://www.tradlinx.com/
- https://blogs.tradlinx.com/how-to-choose-the-best-logistics-visibility-software-in-depth-pricing-and-features-comparison/
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.