Alternatives
Autocab alternatives: a straight comparison of the real options
Autocab is one of the best-known dispatch platforms in the UK private-hire market, running everything from small local firms to multi-depot regional operators. Most operators who start shopping are not unhappy with the dispatching itself. They are reacting to something structural: the Uber acquisition, a per-unit bill that does not match how their fleet actually works, or a renewal quote carrying modules and licences they had forgotten they were paying for.
The trigger
Why operators start looking past Autocab
Your dispatch vendor is owned by a competitor
Autocab is owned by Uber. For an independent operator that means the platform running your jobs, and the iGo marketplace that passes overflow work between fleets, sits inside the largest competitor in your market. Whether that is a real risk or a non-issue is a commercial judgement, but it should be made deliberately rather than by default.
Billed per unit, not per working driver
Autocab quotes per fleet rather than publishing a price list. The rate commonly quoted in the market is around £11.40 per unit per month, which is indicative only, so check it against your own quote. The definition matters more than the rate: if you are billed per vehicle and your cars outnumber your working drivers, spare and seasonal vehicles carry a charge while producing nothing.
The headline rate is rarely the whole bill
On platforms of this generation the monthly rate sits alongside hardware, per-PC dispatcher licences and modules sold as bolt-ons, so cost grows with your back office rather than your revenue. Onboarding in this market commonly runs from around £1,200 to £15,000 depending on fleet size and migration scope, again indicative rather than a quote. Ask for a fully itemised renewal before comparing anything.
Hybrid deployment leaves you running the IT
Autocab deployments commonly include on-site components rather than being purely browser-based, so dispatcher machines, local installs and site hardware stay your responsibility to patch and replace. Few operators leave over this alone, but it surfaces as a hidden running cost at renewal, and it is the reason a clean data export off the platform is harder than it should be.
The other side
When staying on Autocab is the right call
Stay if the iGo network is doing real work for you. Autocab's iGo network is widely regarded as the largest of its kind in the UK, and if a meaningful share of your jobs is overflow passed between operators, that reach is genuine revenue no smaller vendor can replicate today.
The options
What operators actually move to
TaxiDex
That’s usFleets wanting per-driver billing, a browser-only console, and no competitor owning the vendor
£11 per active driver on Starter, £9 on Professional, from £7 on Enterprise, with a £79 monthly minimum and a 14-day trial. You pay for drivers who worked, not cars parked. Setup is a one-time fee scoped on the demo call. The passenger app and web booker carry your brand; the driver app stays TaxiDex-branded.
iCabbi
Operators who want a large established network and accept per-vehicle billing
A widely deployed platform with its own partner-fleet network and a mature integration ecosystem. Billing is typically per vehicle, commonly quoted rather than published, so check your own figure. That suits fleets whose cars and working drivers track closely. The dispatcher interface carries a lot of legacy design DNA, so insist on hands-on time before signing.
Cordic
Operators contractually required to self-host, or built around on-site telephony and hardware
A long-established UK vendor with genuine on-premise heritage and deep telephony integration. If a corporate or council contract requires your data to sit on hardware you control, or your operation is built around an on-site PBX and physical meters, Cordic answers a brief TaxiDex does not. We are cloud-only and cannot self-host.
Onde
Very small fleets where a monthly platform minimum would be the entire budget
A lightweight white-label platform aimed at small and starting operators, with entry pricing typically well below enterprise dispatch vendors, though you should confirm the current figure directly. Below roughly seven drivers our £79 monthly minimum dominates your bill and TaxiDex is honestly the wrong purchase. Come back when the fleet grows.
Competitor pricing and terms quoted anywhere on this site are indicative market figures, not quotations we hold. Confirm the current number, and the line items around it, directly with the vendor.
Practicalities
What moving off Autocab involves
Because Autocab licences per vehicle, expect vehicle- and account-keyed records rather than driver-keyed ones, so driver-to-vehicle assignments may need rebuilding — confirm the export schema with them before you plan around it. Where the deployment includes on-site components, some history sits locally rather than in a cloud export, so pull it before anything is decommissioned. Our published 14-day protocol runs both systems live and cuts over shift by shift, Autocab still licensed as rollback.
If the trigger was the renewal quote rather than the software, the anatomy of that bill is broken down separately in what Autocab actually costs — the billing unit, and the charges that sit outside the headline rate.
The mechanics are the same whichever platform you land on: export and establish what you actually own while you are still a paying customer, then run both systems in parallel and cut over shift by shift with the old one still licensed behind you. That method is published in full as the 14-day migration protocol.
Free guide
Score them all on the same scale
The buyer's guide is the requirements worksheet and weighted scorecard we use — vendor-neutral, so it works just as well for shortlisting someone other than us.
How much does Autocab cost?
Autocab quotes per fleet rather than publishing a price list, so any figure you find online is indicative. The rate commonly quoted is around £11.40 per unit per month, which is a ballpark to check your own quote against rather than a number to budget from. Two costs usually sit outside it: a monthly minimum (ours is £79 — ask what theirs is) and a one-off onboarding fee, commonly £1,200 to £15,000 depending on fleet size and migration scope. Ask whether you are billed per vehicle or per active driver.
Does Uber owning Autocab actually matter for an independent operator?
It depends entirely on where your work comes from. Autocab is Uber-owned, and the acquisition was reviewed by the UK competition authority at the time. If you take meaningful volume through iGo, that ownership is arguably why the demand exists. If you compete directly with Uber in your town, you are running dispatch on a competitor's platform. Both positions are defensible. The mistake is not having decided which one you hold.
What is the real difference between per-vehicle and per-driver pricing?
Per-vehicle billing charges for every car on the licence whether or not anyone drove it. Per-driver billing charges for drivers who actually worked that cycle. On a fleet where cars and working drivers sit roughly one-to-one, the two models land in a similar place and the rate is what matters. On a fleet with spare cars, seasonal vehicles or multi-driver shifts, the definition moves the bill further than the rate does. Model both against your own roster before comparing headline numbers.
Can we move off Autocab without losing bookings?
We do not promise zero downtime, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we publish instead is a 14-day migration protocol: data export and reconciliation first, then a window where both platforms run live and the new one shadow-dispatches without being authoritative, then a cutover done shift by shift starting with the lowest-volume overnight period. Autocab stays licensed and switched on throughout, because a rollback is only real if it is still running.
Is TaxiDex always the right replacement for Autocab?
No. If a contract requires you to host data on hardware you control, we are cloud-only and cannot meet it, and a self-hosting vendor such as Cordic is the better answer. If you run under about seven drivers, our £79 monthly minimum dominates the bill and a low-entry platform serves you better. And if iGo overflow is genuine revenue for you, that network reach is real and we cannot match it today.
Comparing Autocab with TaxiDex?
Bring your driver count, your current rate and your contract end date. We will tell you on the call whether switching is worth it for your fleet — including when it is not.