Best route optimization APIs for retail & distribution

Kardinal

3 weeks ago

In short

APIs compared in this sector

97%

of retail constraints covered by Kardinal, ranked 1st

82%

LogisticsOS, the closest competitor

Among route optimization APIs for retail and distribution, Kardinal dominates this sector ranking by a wide margin, ahead of LogisticsOS. Coverage remains very uneven: time windows conditioned on a specific resource, useful as soon as a store reserves an access for an accredited driver, are covered by no solution other than Kardinal.

Premium > 70%Kardinal (97%), LogisticsOS (82%), Solvice (78%), HERE (72%).

Standard 50–70%NextBillion AI (70%), Google (70%), GraphHopper (53%).

Basic < 50%Timefold (46%), Verso (46%), Routific (41%), Mapbox (31%).

Retail places constraints on route optimization that few other sectors combine: receiving slots set by the stores with no room for negotiation, volumes per stop counted in pallets rather than parcels, subcontracting policies to activate only when capacity is exceeded, and multiple rotations between the warehouse and the stores within a single day.

This article compares eleven route optimization APIs (Kardinal, LogisticsOS, Solvice, HERE, NextBillion AI, Google, GraphHopper, Timefold, Verso, Routific, Mapbox) on their ability to handle the specific constraints of retail delivery and store distribution.

A sector analysis, drawn from the full benchmark

For a market-wide view across all solutions and all sectors: the main guide to route optimization APIs. The raw data sits in the 2026 benchmark, and the price lists in the pricing comparison.

Key takeaways

In this sector, Kardinal covers 97% of the relevant constraints. LogisticsOS follows (82%), then Solvice (78%) and HERE (72%), ahead of NextBillion AI and Google, tied (70%).

Kardinal is the only solution in the panel that varies a time window according to the vehicle or driver assigned to a stop.

Kardinal's only gap in this sector concerns a very niche need: time-of-day-dependent hourly cost, which only Solvice covers.

Lexicographic optimization, which ranks objectives rather than weighting them, is only available from Kardinal and HERE. The others fall back on a weight for every criterion, which quickly turns into a sprawling setup to fine-tune. Ranking keeps multi-objective optimization simple and readable.

What makes retail distribution genuinely complex

Receiving slots are contractual and strict

A store sets its receiving slots to a 30-minute precision, sometimes 15. A truck arriving outside its slot is turned away, with an immediate contractual penalty. Those slots are usually set by the retailer with no room for negotiation: the optimizer has to adapt to them, not the other way round.

Volumes per stop counted in pallets

Unlike parcel delivery, every retail stop means several pallets and 30 to 90 minutes of unloading. That variable is decisive for route balancing: a route of 4 hypermarkets can take up a driver's whole day.

Multiple rotations between warehouse and stores

A limited fleet often has to chain several routes a day, coming back to reload at the warehouse between two delivery sequences to the stores.

Subcontracting triggered by excess capacity

Many retailers call on third-party carriers only once their own fleet is saturated, with a priority order defined in advance across several providers. The optimizer must respect that hierarchy rather than arbitrate freely.

Access conditioned on vehicle or driver

Some stores accept a delivery outside the standard slot only for a specifically accredited vehicle or driver: access to a reserved dock, a badge, a local logistics agreement. The optimizer then has to widen the time window for that resource alone.

The critical constraints for a retail distribution API

Three levels of requirement structure the market: the classic baseline everyone covers, the intermediate constraints that are indispensable in practice, and the advanced constraints that genuinely make the difference in distribution.

Classic

Strict time windows

30-minute receiving windows, sometimes 15, set by the retailer.

Covered by: Every vendor, with varying levels of granularity.

Classic

Vehicle capacity by weight and volume

Fitting a palletised load into the assigned vehicle.

Covered by: Every vendor.

Classic

Pickup and delivery within the route

The core movement of the business.

Covered by: Every vendor.

Intermediate

Several trips a day from the warehouse

Chaining deliveries with a reload stop in between.

Covered by: Every vendor except Routific and Timefold.

Intermediate

Predictive traffic

Forecast traffic is built in before optimization, not patched afterwards.

Covered by: Kardinal, NextBillion AI, Solvice, GraphHopper, Google, HERE and Mapbox.

Intermediate

Truck speed profile

Routing a rigid or an articulated truck according to its real dimensions.

Covered by: Kardinal, NextBillion AI, GraphHopper and HERE. Partial elsewhere.

Intermediate

Subcontracting on excess capacity

Activating third-party carriers in a predefined priority order.

Covered by: Kardinal and Solvice. Partial at NextBillion AI, Google, HERE, Verso and LogisticsOS.

Advanced

Time windows specific to the assigned vehicle or driver

Widening the delivery window when the assigned resource has accredited access.

Covered by: Kardinal only, out of the 11 solutions tested.

Advanced

Time-of-day-dependent hourly cost

Modelling a premium on early-morning or night slots. A niche need, rare in the sector's rate structures.

Covered by: Solvice only, ahead of Kardinal on this one.

Advanced

Service time dependent on the driver

Adapting unloading time to the driver's experience or familiarity with the store.

Covered by: Kardinal, Solvice, Google, HERE, Verso and LogisticsOS.

Advanced

Lexicographic optimization

First meeting every dock slot, then minimising kilometres, with no weights to calibrate between the two.

Covered by: Kardinal and HERE only.

The retail distribution APIs compared

Kardinal

97% coverage · 1st/11

The most complete API on retail distribution

Kardinal is the most complete solution for retail distribution. It is the only vendor that varies a time window according to the assigned vehicle or driver, a constraint that matters as soon as a store conditions out-of-slot access on an accredited resource.

Its only gap in this sector concerns a very niche need: time-of-day-dependent hourly cost, available only from Solvice.

Ideal for

Distributors of every size, from regional fleets serving a handful of stores to multi-banner networks: supermarket and hypermarket delivery, operators with a tiered subcontracting policy.

LogisticsOS

82% coverage · 2nd/11

Built around cost trade-offs

LogisticsOS comes in second, carried by its cost modelling (flat-rate thresholds, combined invoice between own fleet and subcontractors) and by route compactness.

Its limit: subcontracting in a predefined priority order is only partially covered.

Ideal for

Operators constantly arbitrating between their own fleet and third-party carriers on economic grounds, and who are not afraid of fine-tuning parameters endlessly.

Solvice

78% coverage · 3rd/11

The closest challenger on subcontracting

Solvice fully covers tiered subcontracting fallback, on a par with Kardinal. It also has one exclusive: it is the only solution in the panel, Kardinal included, to model hourly cost by time of day, useful for early-morning or night deliveries in urban areas.

Its limit: no lexicographic optimization. With a model that rich, balancing several objectives means setting a weight on each criterion, and the configuration quickly becomes a heavy machine to fine-tune.

Ideal for

Operators with a differentiated pricing policy on early-morning or night slots, and who have the resources to tune weights criterion by criterion.

HERE

72% coverage · 4th/11

Lexicographic, but no conditioned access

HERE is the only solution besides Kardinal to offer lexicographic optimization. It covers truck profiles and predictive traffic well, but handles neither time windows per assigned resource, nor differentiated hourly cost, nor workload balancing across routes.

Ideal for

Operators who want to rank their priorities strictly and already run the HERE mapping ecosystem.

NextBillion AI and Google

70% coverage · 5th/11, tied

Solid on the fundamentals

NextBillion AI and Google finish tied. Both cover predictive traffic and multiple rotations well, but neither models time windows per assigned resource nor differentiated hourly cost. Google does not balance working time across routes either.

Ideal for

Standard distribution with no conditioned-access constraint and no time-of-day pricing.

GraphHopper, Timefold, Verso, Routific and Mapbox

53% → 31%

Insufficient coverage on retail distribution

GraphHopper (53%) covers truck profiles and predictive traffic, but lacks the advanced cost and conditioned-access constraints. It remains suited to small volumes.
Timefold (46%) and Verso (46%) lag on the sector's fundamentals.
Routific (41%) and Mapbox (31%) are not designed for professional retail distribution.

Summary table

Solution	Coverage	Windows per assigned resource	Several trips / day	Predictive traffic	Lexicographic
Kardinal	97%	Full	Full	Full	Full
LogisticsOS	82%	No	Full	Partial	No
Solvice	78%	No	Full	Full	No
HERE	72%	No	Full	Full	Full
NextBillion AI	70%	No	Full	Full	No
Google	70%	No	Full	Full	No
GraphHopper	53%	No	Full	Full	No
Timefold	46%	No	No	No	No
Verso	46%	No	Full	No	No
Routific	41%	No	No	No	No
Mapbox	31%	No	Full	Full	No

Our verdict

Fleet size is not what should drive the choice. What matters is how much of your operation goes beyond the classic constraints. Start from the six solutions at 70% and above on retail, then narrow the list according to your needs.

Starting point · the leading group

Kardinal, LogisticsOS, Solvice, HERE, NextBillion AI and Google all cover the fundamentals of retail distribution well. Kardinal leads the group by 15 points.

Your routes chain heavy volumes per store

With several pallets and up to 90 minutes of unloading per stop, workload balancing becomes critical. HERE and Google, which do not cover it, drop out. Kardinal, LogisticsOS, Solvice and NextBillion AI remain.

You subcontract in a priority order

LogisticsOS and NextBillion AI, which only partially cover that hierarchy, drop out in turn. Kardinal and Solvice remain, and only Kardinal varies time windows according to the assigned resource and ranks its objectives without a stack of weights.

And on price

Among these solutions, Kardinal is also the most competitive overall, including for small and mid-size fleets. The details are in our 2026 pricing comparison.

Test it on your own routes

Test Kardinal optimization on your own data, with no commitment.

Start with the free tier → Read the documentation See the full benchmark

FAQ

Which route optimization API should you choose for retail distribution?

Kardinal is the most complete solution for retail, with 97% sector coverage, and the most competitive on price among the leading solutions. LogisticsOS (82%) and Solvice (78%) follow, ahead of HERE (72%). If your routes chain heavy volumes per store, the shortlist narrows to Kardinal, LogisticsOS, Solvice and NextBillion AI; with tiered subcontracting on top, to Kardinal and Solvice.

How do you handle delivery slots that vary with the assigned driver?

Some stores accept a delivery outside the standard slot only for a specifically accredited resource. Kardinal is the only solution in the panel that automatically widens the time window according to the vehicle or driver assigned to the stop.

Do route optimization APIs handle subcontracting when capacity is exceeded?

Yes, with varying levels of coverage. Kardinal and Solvice fully cover subcontracting fallback in a predefined priority order across several carriers. NextBillion AI, Google, HERE, Verso and LogisticsOS only cover it partially.