Revenova vs Aljex for Brokers Choosing a TMS in 2026

Key Takeaways

• Descartes bought Aljex on February 2, 2018. The product was not shut down. It is sold today as Descartes Aljex, a cloud TMS aimed at freight brokerages.

• The Essential plan on Descartes Aljex costs $699 per month and includes 5 users. The Professional plan is listed from $999 per month. The Enterprise plan is listed from $2,375 per month. Pricing checked October 13, 2026.

• Revenova does not publish a plan price on its own site. Treat the software as quote-based, and ask for Salesforce licensing in the same quote, because the TMS runs natively on Salesforce.

• Aljex is a broker system of record with a printed tier card. Revenova is a Salesforce-native suite described for brokerages, 3PLs, carriers, and shippers, with quoting tools named LaneIQ and RateIQ.

• A general connector such as Zapier, Make, or n8n can move a shipment event and keep a run history when you configure it. You still own the review rules, the retries, and the audit trail.

A transportation management system is the software that holds the load record from the customer quote through carrier pay and the customer invoice. TL;DR: pick Descartes Aljex when you want a published broker rate card and your office fits a named user count; pick Revenova when Salesforce is already the system you run and you will price the TMS by quote.

The choice is a system of record, not a feature checklist

The search "revenova vs aljex" usually means a freight broker, or a carrier owner who also brokers freight, is close to signing. The useful question is which product becomes the record for the load. Everything else, including an automation layer above that record, is a later decision.

Aljex is not an orphaned name. Cash paid: $32.4 million according to Descartes (2018), for a cloud back-office product then used by nearly 400 North American customers to plan and execute nearly 3 million freight moves a year. The February 2, 2018 release said Aljex served freight brokers and transportation providers, including large fleet operators brokering excess capacity, and that shipment tracking could connect to the Descartes MacroPoint network. The product is still on sale under the Descartes Aljex name. It was not discontinued, and it was not folded into a different brand that hides the old product.

Revenova is a separate company. A March 14, 2024 company note names founders Charles Craigmile, Dave Craigmile, and Michael Horvath, and it describes the TMS as a Salesforce-native system for a brokerage, a 3PL, a carrier, or a shipper. A September 17, 2026 product note still describes Revenova TMS as the place an LTL broker quotes, tenders, dispatches, and retrieves documents. Nothing on those pages says the product was renamed or withdrawn. Revenova's own pages do not print a subscription price. The commercial answer a buyer can verify without a sales call is quote-based.

That split decides the short list faster than a feature grid. If you want a broker TMS with a monthly number you can put in a budget before anyone calls you back, Descartes Aljex is the product with a public card. If you want the load, the customer, and the carrier history to live as Salesforce records, Revenova is the product built that way, and the price arrives in a quote. If you want both a printed $699 entry price and a Salesforce-native data model, neither vendor's public materials offer that combination.

Who this is for

This comparison is for a freight broker who is choosing the system that will book, track, invoice, and settle loads, and for a carrier owner whose office also brokers freight or whose fleet and brokerage need one shared record. It is also for the person who has to explain the first-year software cost to a partner without inventing a number the vendor never printed.

You are in the right place if you can answer three practical questions. Which people touch a load today, from the salesperson to the person who releases carrier pay? Do you already run Salesforce, or would a new Salesforce org be an acceptable part of the purchase? Which customer requires electronic tendering, and which customer can live on a portal or email?

Red flags: you will not sign without a Revenova price printed on Revenova's own site; you have no one who will administer a Salesforce org and you will not hire that skill; you need a shipper planning suite as the main job and you are only reading the Aljex broker card.

Review scores are a side signal, not a decision. Satisfaction rating: 72% according to SelectHub (2026), from 42 reviews on a page updated October 5, 2026, set next to an 89% satisfaction rating for Revenova from 27 reviews. Those samples are small, they come from more than one review site, and they do not tell you whether your EDI partner or your Salesforce org will fit. Use them as a prompt to call references, not as a score we assigned.

How we evaluated these tools

We scored the public record a broker can check before a sales call. We did not run the software, we did not invent a lab rank, and we did not turn review percentages into our own points. The weights below are buying weights for this reader. They sum to 100%. A higher weight means the item changes the contract, the system of record, or the daily load desk.

Load lifecycle coverage is the heaviest weight because a broker does not buy a dashboard. The office needs the quote, the cover, the in-transit status, the customer invoice, and the carrier bill to point at the same load. Price clarity is next because one vendor prints monthly list prices and the other does not. Comparing a printed $699 with an unseen quote is not a fair price fight until the quote arrives. Carrier tools, accounting, and customer connectivity are the three places a "cheap" TMS grows a second bill: load-board seats, an accounting file, and EDI links the tier does not include. System of record is the weight that stops a Salesforce shop from pretending a broker TMS is a drop-in CRM, and it stops a non-Salesforce shop from pretending Revenova is only a screen.

We read Descartes Aljex's pricing card, Descartes' February 2, 2018 acquisition release, Revenova's broker solution page, Revenova's March 14, 2024 platform note, and Revenova's September 17, 2026 SMC³ integration note. SelectHub's October 5, 2026 comparison supplied the satisfaction ratings above and nothing else. Where a review site printed a different dollar figure than the vendor's own card, we ignored the review site. Third-party pages have listed other Aljex starting prices and other Revenova starting prices. Those figures are not on the vendor pricing page we opened, so they are not used here.

Ownership, scope, and what is still for sale

Descartes Aljex, on the pricing card we opened, is a cloud TMS for freight brokerages "from two to several hundred users," from small companies to larger operations. The card's job is brokerage execution: shipments, carrier profiles, customer and carrier portals on the higher tiers, load-board posting, mileage, visibility, and accounting names. The 2018 release also said fleet operators could use the product to broker excess capacity. That is a real carrier-owner use, and it is still a brokerage use. The public card does not present Aljex as a shipper planning suite.

Revenova's public scope is wider on purpose. The March 14, 2024 note says the same TMS can be configured for a brokerage, a 3PL, a carrier, or a shipper, because it sits on Salesforce. Named partners: more than 40 according to Revenova (2024). That count is from 2024, so ask for the current partner list rather than treating it as a 2026 inventory. The broker page names LaneIQ for carrier matching from performance history and RateIQ for quotes, plus real-time visibility, ETA alerts, a customer portal, lane and carrier dashboards, and tracking of carrier authority, insurance, and documents. The same page says Artimus, Revenova's agent inside the TMS, can create loads from emails and quote requests. We are not repeating any speed claim from that page, because a vendor slogan is not a measured result for your desk.

The September 17, 2026 integration note adds a concrete LTL path. Brokerage customers can use one SMC³ connection inside Revenova for quoting, automated PRO assignment, dispatch, status notifications, and document notifications. The note ties the newer quoting to Revenova's Spring '26 release and to SMC³ RateWare XL and CarrierConnect XL already available in the product. Listed tariffs: 4,000+ according to Revenova (2026), on a note that also says more than 5,000 companies across North America rely on SMC³'s LTL tools. Those two figures describe SMC³, the data partner, not a count of Revenova customers.

Our reading of scope: choose Aljex when the office is a brokerage and the carrier work is "cover this load." Choose Revenova when the same org must hold brokerage loads and carrier or shipper work, and Salesforce is an acceptable foundation. A carrier owner who only brokers overflow freight can fit either description. A carrier owner who needs fleet planning as the primary screen should read Revenova's carrier materials and should not assume the Aljex price card is a fleet suite.

Published prices and a year of list cost

Pricing checked October 13, 2026. Revenova is quote-based. Descartes Aljex prints three monthly plans. The Essential plan on Descartes Aljex costs Entry list price: $699 per month according to Descartes Aljex (2026). The Professional plan is listed from $999 per month, and the Enterprise plan is listed from $2,375 per month. The words "from" on the two higher plans mean the printed number is a starting list, not a promise that your invoice will match it. Every tier names a one-time setup fee or implementation fee and does not print that fee in dollars. Professional and Enterprise integration notes say customers must still buy third-party subscriptions when a partner requires one, and that the integration table is about one-time integration fees rather than the subscription.

The year-one column is arithmetic on the published monthly list. It is not a second price, and it excludes the unnamed setup or implementation fee, Salesforce licenses, and partner subscriptions such as a load board or a mileage product. Revenova has no row of dollars because no Revenova pricing page we opened printed one. Do not drop a review-site dollar figure into that empty cell.

What the tiers actually add is easier to see as hours, seats, and EDI counts than as slogans.

An orchestration product does not belong in either table. The tables compare the two TMS products a broker would buy as the system of record. A layer that watches exports, holds a bill, and asks a person to approve an exception is a separate design, configured only after the TMS choice is made.

Read the Essential card as a five-user brokerage stack, not as "the whole market." It includes unlimited shipments, a one-time setup fee with no printed amount, MacroPoint visibility, MyCarrierPortal, one integration chosen from 123 Loadboard, DAT, or Truckstop, Pro Miles, QuickBooks, and DAT Rateview. The Professional card moves to 15 users, unlimited carrier profiles, unlimited customer and carrier portals, a private load board, 10 hours of support and training, 30-day hypercare, MyCarrierPortal, Descartes Analytics, and 1 customer EDI connection, plus a one-time implementation fee. The Enterprise card keeps the portals, the private load board, MyCarrierPortal, and Descartes Analytics, and it adds 15 hours of support and training, 90-day hypercare, agent security, 2 customer EDI connections, and a dedicated customer success manager. It does not print a user count. Do not invent one.

E-support speed: 88.5% within 5 minutes according to Descartes Aljex (2026), on a card that also says the product connects with 40+ leading SaaS providers and that its US-based implementation team has supported hundreds of brokerages. "Hundreds" is the vendor's word, not a census. The same card says additional integrations can be purchased ad hoc on the Essential plan and the Professional plan. NetSuite, Sage, and Great Plains are marked available rather than included. QuickBooks is named in the Essential bullet list. On the Professional and Enterprise integration grid, QuickBooks is listed without the "available" tag those other accounting systems carry. Confirm in the order form whether your tier includes the QuickBooks link or bills it as an extra.

Revenova's total cost is the quote plus the Salesforce org you must have because the product is native to that platform. The pages we opened do not itemize Salesforce user licenses, implementation days, or a hypercare window. A buyer who compares 12 × $699 with a Revenova quote that bundles Salesforce, data migration, and partner connectors is comparing different baskets. Ask the quote to split TMS subscription, Salesforce licenses, implementation, and any SMC³ or load-board fees.

Side-by-side on the decisions that move a load

A truckload day on the Essential plan, using only what that card names, looks like this. Mileage can come from Pro Miles. A rate check can use DAT Rateview. The load can post to the one load board included in the tier. Carrier onboarding can use MyCarrierPortal. In-transit status can use MacroPoint. The customer invoice and the carrier bill can land in QuickBooks. That is a coherent broker loop for an office that fits in 5 users. It does not include a private load board, Descartes Analytics, or a customer EDI connection. Those show up on higher tiers.

A day on Revenova, using only the pages opened for this guide, looks different. A quote can use RateIQ, and carrier choice can use LaneIQ. Artimus can turn an inbound email or a quote request into a load record inside the TMS. An LTL shipment can stay on the SMC³ connection for the quote, the PRO, dispatch, status, and documents, including carrier-specific overlength accessorials when dimensions cross the carrier's threshold. The customer can use a branded portal. The broker page says accounting integration supports invoice processing and freight-bill audit, and that authority, insurance, and documents can be tracked on the carrier. None of that is a printed seat price.

The disqualifier is the system you refuse to run. Aljex is the wrong buy when the load must be a Salesforce record beside the account and the contact, because that is not what the price card sells. Revenova is the wrong buy when the office will not operate a Salesforce org, because the product is built on that platform rather than beside it. Both are the wrong buy when the "TMS" you need is only a shared inbox and a load board login. In that case the public Aljex entry price is still a real bill, and a Revenova quote is still a project.

Descartes Aljex for a brokerage that wants a rate card

Best fit: a freight broker, or a carrier owner brokering overflow freight, whose team is near the published 5-user or 15-user marks and who wants the monthly software number in writing. The Essential plan fits an office that can live with one load-board integration, QuickBooks, MacroPoint, MyCarrierPortal, Pro Miles, and DAT Rateview, and that does not yet need a customer EDI link. The Professional plan fits an office that needs the 15-user count, portals, a private load board, Descartes Analytics, and exactly 1 customer EDI connection, and that can use 10 hours of included support and training plus 30 days of hypercare. The Enterprise plan fits an office that needs a second EDI connection, agent security, 15 support hours, 90 days of hypercare, and a named customer success manager, and that will accept an unpublished user count.

Limitations are on the card if you read the gaps. The setup and implementation fees have no public dollar amount, so year-one cash is not knowable from the monthly list alone. Third-party products still send their own invoices. The EDI allowance is a small integer: 0, then 1, then 2. A brokerage with a handful of EDI customers will outgrow the printed allowance and must price the ad hoc links. The Enterprise user count is not published, so a large floor cannot confirm seat cost from the page. SelectHub's write-up, on the same October 5, 2026 page as the satisfaction ratings, says reviewers praise order entry, dispatch, and invoicing and also describe an interface some of them find dated. That is a review summary, not our test.

Implementation, as published, is a US-based team, a one-time fee, and a short block of support hours and hypercare on the Professional and Enterprise plans. Hypercare is monitoring after go-live. It is not a promise that the whole project lasts 30 or 90 days. Essential does not publish a training-hour bank or a hypercare window. Plan on your own staff time for carrier cleanup, customer terms, and the QuickBooks mapping even when the vendor's hours are included. Primary evidence is the pricing card at Descartes Aljex and the February 2, 2018 acquisition release.

Revenova for a team that already lives in Salesforce

Best fit: a brokerage, 3PL, carrier, or shipper that already keeps customers in Salesforce, or that has decided a Salesforce org is the record it wants. The broker page is the right fit when the pain is dual entry between a CRM and a TMS, because the product's pitch is one platform for the relationship, the load, and the financial tools. The September 17, 2026 note is the right fit when LTL rating, PRO assignment, dispatch, and document retrieval are the bottleneck and an SMC³ connection is acceptable. A carrier owner who needs the TMS and the customer record in one org has a clearer public path here than on the Aljex price card, which is written for brokerage operations.

Limitations are mostly commercial silence and platform commitment. There is no public monthly list, no public user count, and no public EDI count. The "more than 40" partner figure is a 2024 statement. The 4,000+ tariff figure and the 5,000-company figure belong to SMC³, not to a Revenova customer census. Configuration is a Salesforce skill. An office without an admin will buy that skill from Revenova, from a partner, or from a hire. We did not find a public training-hour bank or hypercare window comparable to the Aljex tiers, so those items belong in the quote. Do not treat a review-site starting price as Revenova's price. It was not on a Revenova pricing page in this research.

Implementation is a configuration project on Salesforce plus the partner connections you turn on, such as the SMC³ LTL path or an accounting link. The broker page says workflows can be configured to the operating model and that carrier compliance documents can be tracked in the product. It does not print a calendar. Budget staff time for the field map, for who may release a freight bill, and for how Artimus-created loads get checked before they are tendered. A load created from an email still needs a human to confirm the odd lane, the accessorial, and the customer credit. Primary evidence is the broker solution page, the March 14, 2024 platform note, and the September 17, 2026 SMC³ note.

A five-person year, priced from the public card

Take a five-person brokerage that fits inside the Essential plan on Descartes Aljex, which lists $699 per month, 5 users, unlimited shipments, and QuickBooks. The Professional plan is listed from $999 per month and includes 15 users, so the seat math is 15 minus 5, which is 10 more included users, while the monthly lists to compare are $999 and $699. That Professional card also includes 10 hours of support and training and 1 customer EDI connection. The Enterprise plan is listed from $2,375 per month with 15 hours of support and training and 2 customer EDI connections, so the support-hour math is 15 minus 10, which is 5 hours, and the EDI math is 2 minus 1, which is 1 extra connection. This illustration uses only those published list figures and ignores the one-time fee because the page names it and does not print its dollars. In the QuickBooks file the Essential plan names, a carrier bill exposes Bill.DueDate, the nominal date the bill must be paid, on Intuit's Bill class. A proposed hold can flag that bill when the date is close and the shipment export still has no proof of delivery, and a person decides whether it is released.

The same arithmetic tells a carrier owner who brokers a side book whether the printed tier matches the people who touch freight. Five dispatch and billing users fit the Essential user count. The moment a sixth person needs a login, the public Essential card does not list an extra-seat price. The next published step is the Professional plan at 15 users, listed from $999 per month. That is the comparison to make before you assume the $699 card survives the first hire.

The work that still sits above either TMS

Most of the pain after go-live is not "which TMS screen is prettier." It is the gap between a delivered load and a carrier bill that should not be paid yet, or between a quoted amount and the invoice that arrived. A proposed US Tech Automations workflow for an Aljex office starts from a scheduled export or from the shipment read the public Aljex Live API documents by pro number. The trigger is a shipment that looks delivered or released while the document set still has no proof of delivery and a carrier bill already exists in QuickBooks. The action opens a review item with the pro number, the carrier, and Bill.DueDate. The output is a hold or a release. A person has to choose before any payment record changes. Prerequisites are an API credential or a CSV the office already runs, plus QuickBooks permission to read bills. This is a configurable design. It is not a live customer and it is not a measured saving.

On a Revenova org the gap is often a delivered load whose carrier invoice does not match the quoted charge. US Tech Automations can be configured to park that invoice, show the two amounts side by side, and assign the item to a billing clerk. The output is an exception list, not an automatic post into accounting. Prerequisites are Salesforce report or API access the customer already has, a field map the office signs, and a rule that no bill is created until a person approves the variance. The same design can require a second look when Artimus has created the load from an email, because an extracted weight or date can be wrong. Again, this describes a proposed configuration, not a deployment we are claiming exists.

The reader's real alternative is often Zapier, Make, or n8n, or a small in-house script. Those tools can support run histories, retries, error branches, and audit evidence when someone configures them. They do not arrive knowing what a missing proof of delivery means, or which variance a clerk may approve. The buyer has to design and own observability, idempotency, escalation, access controls, and maintenance. A missed retry can create a second bill. A connector token with too much access can change a payment record no one reviewed. A proposed US Tech Automations design can configure the review queue, the hold tied to Bill.DueDate, and the escalation path as named steps, with the same prerequisites and with a human review point before release. The office still owns the TMS data and the accounting file. Offices that write their own handoff notes sometimes borrow the shape of a month-end exception recipe, the control points described for in-house membership plans, and the documentation habits in a software-team writing shortlist. Those pieces are about designing a review, not about replacing a TMS.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: stay inside the TMS when Aljex or Revenova already posts the invoice and your clerks clear exceptions in that product without a second queue. Stay with a saved report and a shared inbox when the office is small enough that one person can see every bill before it is paid, because another system would only add maintenance. Stay with the carrier's own pay screen when you do not export bills to QuickBooks and you do not need a hold keyed off Bill.DueDate. A connector is the wrong purchase when the real gap is that you bought the wrong system of record.

Mistakes that show up after the contract

Buyers lose a quarter in a few repeatable ways. They paste a dollar figure from a review roundup into the budget even though the vendor's own card says something else, or says nothing. They compare 12 × $699 with a Revenova quote that quietly includes Salesforce licenses and a migration. They assume the Professional plan repeats every Essential bullet. The Professional card has its own list. Confirm QuickBooks, the load board, and mileage on the order form rather than inheriting them by hope. They treat 30-day or 90-day hypercare as the full implementation length. They forget that DAT, Truckstop, MacroPoint, and SMC³ can each be a separate subscription even when the TMS "includes the integration." They buy the Enterprise plan for a second EDI connection without checking that the second partner is the customer who actually tenders electronically.

Another mistake is asking an automation layer to invent data the TMS does not store. If the proof of delivery never lands on the shipment, no workflow can honestly release the bill. If Salesforce field security hides the quoted amount from the integration user, the variance check cannot run. Fix the record first. Then decide whether a person, a TMS rule, or a proposed external workflow should apply the hold.

A checklist before you sign

1. Write the system of record in one line: Descartes Aljex, or Revenova on Salesforce. If you cannot, you are not ready to buy.

2. Count the people who need a login. Match 5 or 15 to the Aljex tiers, or put "not published" next to Revenova and Enterprise and ask the vendor.

3. List EDI customers. The Aljex card covers 0, 1, or 2. Anyone beyond that is an extra.

4. Name the accounting file. QuickBooks is on the Essential card. Any other ledger needs a written yes and a price.

5. List partner subscriptions you will still pay: load board, mileage, visibility, LTL rating.

6. Ask for the setup or implementation fee in dollars. The Aljex card names the fee and does not price it. Revenova's fee is inside the quote.

7. Decide who may release a carrier bill, and whether that person works in the TMS, in QuickBooks, or in a review queue above them.

8. If you want a layer above the TMS, write the trigger, the human approval, and the field it may read, such as Bill.DueDate, before you buy the connector.

Questions brokers ask before they pick

Is Aljex still its own product?

No. Descartes bought Aljex on February 2, 2018, for $32.4 million, and the product is sold as Descartes Aljex. It was not discontinued.

Does Revenova publish a monthly price?

No. The Revenova pages opened for this guide do not list a plan price, so the honest label is quote-based. Ask the quote to separate Salesforce licenses from the TMS.

Which product has a price for a five-user brokerage?

Descartes Aljex does. The Essential plan costs $699 per month and includes 5 users. Revenova does not publish a five-user price.

Do I need Salesforce to use Revenova?

Yes. Revenova's own pages describe the TMS as native to Salesforce, for brokers, 3PLs, carriers, and shippers. The org is part of the buy, not an optional add-on.

Does the Aljex entry plan include customer EDI?

No. The Essential plan does not include a customer EDI connection. The Professional plan includes 1, and the Enterprise plan includes 2.

Can Zapier, Make, or n8n replace the TMS?

No. Those tools can move events and, when configured, keep retries and an audit trail. They do not quote, cover, track, and settle a load as the system of record.

What dollar figures should I ignore?

Ignore any Revenova or Aljex price that you cannot find on that vendor's own pricing page. Review sites have printed other starting numbers. They are not the card this guide uses.

The decision is the record you will run next year. Descartes Aljex gives you a published broker card with named seats, hours, and EDI counts, and it leaves setup dollars and partner subscriptions for the order form. Revenova gives you a Salesforce-native suite with a wider audience on the public pages and no printed subscription. Put a review step above either one only where the TMS stops before a person should release money. Read the configuration notes and see how US Tech Automations configures this before you add that layer.