Side-by-side
TaxiDex vs Cordic — cloud-native & per-driver
Cordic has a long heritage in UK taxi dispatch. TaxiDex was built cloud-native from the start. Here's where each shines and how migration works.
Background
What Cordic dispatch is
A plain description first — including if you are researching Cordic rather than shopping for an alternative.
Cordic is a long-established UK taxi and private-hire dispatch platform. It covers the job most operators need covering: taking bookings, pricing them, allocating them to drivers, tracking vehicles, and handling account customers and driver settlement. It has been doing that in the UK market for a long time, which is genuinely worth something — the product understands British private-hire operating conditions, licensing and account work in a way newer entrants often do not.
How it is deployed
The characteristic that shapes everything else is its on-premise heritage. Older Cordic deployments run on servers in your own building, with dispatch software installed on each operator PC. Cloud options exist, but a large share of the installed base is still on-site.
On-premise is not automatically worse — it is a real trade-off. You own the infrastructure, so your data sits in your building and you are not dependent on a vendor’s uptime. In exchange you own the infrastructure: the server, its operating system and database licences, backups, the UPS, the replacement cycle, and somebody whose job it is to care about all of that. Upgrades become scheduled events with downtime windows rather than something that happens without you noticing.
How it is licensed
Cordic-style licensing typically combines per-PC licences for operator workstations, per-driver modules, and support packages priced separately. The commonly quoted indicative figure is around £15 per licence per month, though as with every vendor in this category the real number is quoted per fleet and depends on which modules you take — treat it as a starting point and check your own quote.
The practical consequence is that the monthly subscription is only part of what you spend. Which is the subject of the next section.
Total cost of ownership
The total cost of running dispatch on-premise
The subscription line is the part everyone compares. On an on-premise system it is not the part that decides the total.
| Feature | TaxiDex | Cordic (indicative, on-prem) |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription — 30 drivers | £270 / mo (£9 × 30) | ~£450 / mo (~£15 × 30) |
| Year-one subscription | £3,240 | ~£5,400 |
| One-time setup | Scoped to your fleet, quoted up front | Quoted per fleet |
| Server hardware | None | You buy and replace it |
| OS + database licences | None | Yours to hold |
| Backups, UPS, disaster recovery | Included | Yours to run |
| Operator workstation licences | No charge for dispatchers | Commonly per PC |
| Upgrade downtime | None — weekly, silent | Scheduled windows |
| IT time to maintain it | None | Ongoing |
| Working from home / second office | Any browser | Needs remote access set up |
The lines you can see
On indicative published rates, a 30-driver fleet is looking at roughly £270 a month with TaxiDex against about £450 with Cordic — £3,240 versus £5,400 across year one, a difference of about £2,160. Both sides of that also carry a one-time setup fee, quoted per fleet rather than published. A £79 monthly minimum applies on our side, which in practice only affects fleets of about seven drivers or fewer. The gap is real, but it is the smaller half of the story.
The lines you can’t
We are not going to put a number on the infrastructure, because any figure we invented would be wrong for your fleet. Server hardware, Windows and database licensing, backup and disaster recovery, the UPS, the replacement cycle and the IT time to look after all of it vary enormously between a 15-car firm and a 200-car one. What we can tell you is which lines exist, so you can price them yourself:
- The server, and what it costs to replace it every few years
- Operating system and database licences, and their renewal
- Backup, off-site copies, and whether you have ever tested a restore
- UPS and the power/cooling the box actually needs
- A licence per operator PC, every time you add a dispatch position
- The hours — yours or a contractor’s — spent on patching and upgrades
- Downtime during upgrade windows, priced at whatever an hour of not dispatching costs you
- What happens to all of the above the day the building floods
Add those to the subscription line and compare the totals. Some operators run that exercise and conclude on-premise is still right for them — usually the ones with an existing IT function and a reason to keep data in the building. That is a legitimate answer, and a later section is about when it is the right one.
Our side of the comparison is on the pricing page, including a driver-count slider and the indicative market rates for every other platform in this category.
Pain points
Why fleets evaluate alternatives to Cordic
Three themes come up again and again when operators ask us to compare. Here's the honest version of each — the friction, and how TaxiDex answers it.
Where Cordic gets friction
On-prem heritage means upgrades hurt
Cordic's older deployments still involve on-site servers and PC clients. Upgrades require downtime, the IT team's calendar, and a quiet Sunday — every release is a small project rather than a non-event.
- On-site servers and installed PC clients to maintain
- Upgrades scheduled around IT availability and downtime windows
- Hardware and OS dependencies that age with your office estate
App store feedback is mixed
TaxiDex driver app plus your own branded passenger app work, but reviews flag stability issues on weak signal and slow ride accept. Passengers compare you to Uber, and a laggy accept screen costs you the booking.
- Stability complaints on weak or intermittent mobile signal
- Slow ride-accept flow that frustrates drivers mid-shift
- Passenger expectations set by consumer ride-hailing apps
Licensing complexity
Per-PC licenses, per-driver modules, and support packages priced separately make it hard to forecast monthly total cost of ownership. The real number only emerges once every add-on is itemised.
- Per-PC and per-driver licensing that multiplies with the fleet
- Modules and support packages quoted separately
- Total cost of ownership that's difficult to forecast month to month
How TaxiDex answers it
100% cloud, browser-based
No servers, no installers, no IT calendar dance. TaxiDex runs entirely in the browser, and updates roll out silently every week. Your dispatchers just refresh and see the new build — there is nothing to schedule and nothing to patch.
- Zero on-site infrastructure — runs in any modern browser
- Weekly updates roll out silently with zero downtime
- Dispatchers refresh to the latest build, no IT involvement
Modern, offline-tolerant apps
The TaxiDex driver app plus your own branded passenger app persist the trip queue locally, accept jobs instantly with haptic feedback, and take Apple Pay and Google Pay on the web booker. Your passengers won't know they switched.
- Trip queue persisted locally so a dropped signal never loses a job
- Instant ride-accept with haptic confirmation
- Apple Pay and Google Pay on the embeddable web booker
One per-driver price
TaxiDex bills £11/driver (Starter), £9/driver (Professional) and from £7/driver (Enterprise) per month — everything in the box. You forecast your software cost from one number, your active driver count, instead of a stack of per-seat and per-PC licences.
- Three clear tiers: £11/driver Starter, £9/driver Professional, from £7/driver Enterprise
- Every feature included — no separately priced add-on modules
- One-time setup, scoped to your fleet and quoted up front — and no long-term contract
14 days
Typical go-live
100%
Cloud, browser-based
Weekly
Zero-downtime updates
Direct
Founder support
Side-by-side
Feature comparison
A capability-by-capability look at how TaxiDex and Cordic line up for taxi and limo fleets.
| Feature | TaxiDex | Cordic |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | 100% cloud | Cloud / on-prem |
| Pricing model | Per-driver flat fee | Per PC / per driver |
| Updates | Weekly, zero downtime | Scheduled, with downtime |
| your own branded passenger app plus the TaxiDex driver app | ||
| Offline-tolerant driver app | ||
| AI auto-dispatch | ML model | Rules |
| IVR-to-app conversion | Built-in | |
| Hotel concierge booker | Included (Professional+) | Add-on |
| Open API + webhooks | Full REST | Limited |
| Long-term contract | Cancel anytime | Often required |
Cloud, not on-prem
Nothing to install, nothing to patch
On-prem deployments turn every upgrade into a project: on-site servers, installed PC clients, downtime windows and the IT team's calendar. TaxiDex runs entirely in the browser, so there is no infrastructure to own and nothing to schedule.
Under the hood you get the full enterprise toolkit: a live operations map with driver markers, status halos and an SOS panic panel; an AI auto-dispatch model; and a drag-and-drop dispatch board for moving jobs between drivers in real time. New builds ship every week with zero downtime — dispatchers just refresh.
Documented migration playbook
We move your Cordic data for you
Switching platforms sounds risky — it doesn't have to be. Migration off Cordic follows a documented playbook: we import your customers, drivers, vehicles, zones and trip history, configure your white-label passenger app, and then run both systems in parallel.
You cut over only once your dispatchers are comfortable, with us on hand throughout and a zero-booking-loss target. Most fleets are fully live on TaxiDex within 14 days, on a fixed-cost migration plan agreed up front.
Being fair
Where Cordic still wins
Four situations where we would tell you to stay where you are.
You have a genuine data-residency requirement. Some operators — typically those holding council, NHS patient-transport or school-contract work — have contractual or policy reasons to keep data on hardware they control. If that is written into a contract you hold, on-premise is not a preference, it is a requirement, and no amount of cloud convenience overrides it.
You already have the IT function. The cost argument above assumes infrastructure is a cost you would rather not carry. If you already employ someone technical, already run servers for other parts of the business, and the dispatch box is one more thing on a rack that exists anyway, the marginal cost of on-premise is far lower than it looks on paper.
Your connectivity is genuinely unreliable. A browser-based system needs the office online. If your premises have poor or intermittent connectivity and no practical failover, a local server that keeps dispatching through an outage is the safer engineering choice. Be honest about whether this is actually true of your office or just a worry — for most UK operators it is a worry — but where it is true, it is decisive.
You value a long UK track record above product velocity.Cordic has been in UK private hire for a long time, with the local knowledge and support relationships that come with that. TaxiDex is a newer product. If your board’s first question is “how long have they been doing this”, that is a reasonable question and Cordic answers it better than we do.
Where we think we win is specific: no infrastructure to own, updates that happen without a downtime window, one per-driver price with the modules and branded passenger app in the box, and dispatchers who can work from any browser anywhere. If the four paragraphs above did not describe you, those are worth thirty minutes of your time.
Weighing up more than one platform? The same honest format covers TaxiDex vs iCabbi and TaxiDex vs Autocab.
The verdict
Which one is right for you?
An honest read on when each platform makes sense — and how straightforward the switch is if you choose TaxiDex.
Pick Cordic if…
You're committed to on-prem deployments and don't want to move to cloud. For fleets with an established on-site estate and a reason to keep data in the building, staying put can be the pragmatic call.
Pick TaxiDex if…
You want a fully cloud platform with predictable per-driver pricing and modern, offline-tolerant apps — and weekly product velocity instead of scheduled, downtime-prone upgrades.
Migration is straightforward
Migration off Cordic follows a documented playbook. We import your customers, drivers, zones and trip history, then parallel-run both systems. Typical go-live is 14 days, with a zero-booking-loss target.
The migration plan
What switching from Cordic looks like
A fixed-cost, rollback-protected path from your current on-prem setup to a fully branded TaxiDex cloud deployment.
What is different about migrating off an on-premise system
Moving between two cloud platforms is mostly an export and an import. Moving off on-premise has three extra questions, and they are the ones that actually worry people:
“Can we get our data out?” Yes — and this is the advantage of on-premise, oddly enough. The database is in your building and it is yours. We work from a direct extract of customers, drivers, vehicles, zones, tariffs, account balances and trip history rather than depending on a vendor to hand it over on their timetable.
“What happens to the server?” Keep it running read-only for as long as your record-retention obligations require, then decommission it. Do not switch it off on go-live day. Historical data comes across in the migration, but keeping the original available for a few months costs nothing and removes the pressure.
“Will the dispatchers cope?” This is the real risk, and it is a people risk rather than a technical one. Operators who have run the same installed client for a decade have deep muscle memory. That is why we parallel-run both systems rather than cutting over on a date: the old system stays live and dispatchers move across when they are ready, not when a project plan says so. Nobody has to be brave.
What is Cordic dispatch?
Cordic is a long-established UK taxi and private-hire dispatch platform covering booking, pricing, driver allocation, vehicle tracking, account customers and driver settlement. Its defining characteristic is an on-premise heritage: older deployments run on a server in your own building with dispatch software installed on each operator PC, though cloud options exist. Licensing typically combines per-PC operator licences, per-driver modules and separately priced support packages, with a commonly quoted indicative rate of around £15 per licence per month — vendors in this category quote per fleet, so check your own quote.
How much does Cordic cost per month?
The commonly quoted indicative subscription figure is around £15 per licence per month — roughly £450 a month for 30 drivers, against £270 for the same fleet on TaxiDex at £9 per active driver on Professional. On an on-premise deployment the subscription is only part of the total: you also carry the server and its replacement cycle, operating system and database licences, backup and disaster recovery, a licence per operator PC, and the IT time to patch and upgrade it. Those vary too much by fleet for anyone to quote honestly, so price them for your own operation before comparing totals.
Is TaxiDex fully cloud, or does it need on-site servers like Cordic?
TaxiDex is 100% cloud and browser-based — there are no on-site servers, no installers and no PC clients to maintain. Updates roll out silently every week with zero downtime, so your dispatchers simply refresh the browser to get the latest build. There's nothing for your IT team to schedule or patch.
How is TaxiDex pricing different from Cordic's per-PC / per-driver licensing?
Cordic deployments typically involve per-PC licenses, per-driver modules and separately priced support packages, which makes monthly total cost of ownership hard to forecast. TaxiDex uses one per-driver flat fee across three tiers — £11/driver (Starter), £9/driver (Professional) and from £7/driver (Enterprise) per month — with everything in the box. Setup is a one-time fee, scoped to your fleet and quoted up front on your demo call. There's no long-term contract, so you can cancel anytime.
Will the driver app work on weak mobile signal?
Yes. The TaxiDex driver app persists the trip queue locally and confirms ride accepts instantly with haptic feedback, so a dropped or intermittent signal never loses a job. The embeddable web booker also takes Apple Pay and Google Pay, so the passenger experience matches what riders expect from consumer apps.
Can you migrate our data off Cordic without losing bookings?
Migration off Cordic follows a documented playbook. We import your customers, drivers, vehicles, zones and trip history, configure your white-label passenger app, and then run both systems in parallel with a zero-booking-loss target. You cut over only once your dispatchers are comfortable, with us on hand throughout. Typical go-live is 14 days.
Does TaxiDex offer your own branded passenger app plus the TaxiDex driver app?
Yes. Like Cordic, TaxiDex provides white-label iOS and Android passenger app plus the TaxiDex driver app — and white-label branding extends to a custom domain on the cloud console. Most fleets are fully live within 14 days.
What's included beyond dispatch?
Every TaxiDex tier includes the full platform: a live operations map with driver markers, status halos and an SOS panic panel; an AI auto-dispatch model; a drag-and-drop dispatch board; the enterprise fare engine with zones, surge and per-region tax; finance and Stripe Connect driver payouts; marketing broadcasts and loyalty; analytics and AI demand forecasting; plus CO2e and EV-fleet sustainability tracking — all in the box rather than as separately priced add-ons.
Should we move off an on-premise dispatch system?
Not always. On-premise remains the right answer if you have a contractual data-residency requirement, if you already run an IT function and servers for other parts of the business, or if your office connectivity is genuinely unreliable with no failover. If none of those apply, the infrastructure is a cost and a risk you are carrying for no return, and cloud removes the server, the licences, the upgrade downtime and the maintenance time along with it.
Get a Cordic migration assessment
30 minutes. We'll review your setup and propose a fixed-cost cloud migration plan — your data, your branding, and the old system live as rollback.
Related
Keep reading
- On-prem makes the export question sharper — see what your fleet owns and how to get it out.
- Looking wider than Cordic? Start at the full comparison hub.