What is the cheapest way to optimize a route with more than 10 stops?

Up to 11 stops in the free apps — 8 in the browser, 15 with a switch — MakeRoutes does it completely free with no signup. From 12 to 20 stops, RouteXL's free tier covers it. Beyond 20 stops you are into paid territory: RouteXL charges €5 for a single day or €35/month for up to 100 stops, and Spoke removes the limit entirely for $10/month.

When is MakeRoutes not the best choice?

When your routes have more than 11 stops (15 in the apps), when you need proof of delivery or driver management, or when you want turn-by-turn navigation built into the same app. For those jobs RouteXL (big one-off routes) or Spoke (professional daily delivery) are the better tools.

MakeRoutes Open the app · Español

MakeRoutes vs RouteXL vs Spoke (Circuit) vs Google Maps

Q: Is Circuit Route Planner the same as Spoke?

Yes. Circuit Route Planner was renamed Spoke Route Planner in 2026. It is the same product: free up to 10 stops per route, with paid plans (Lite at $10/month, Standard at $20/month) removing the stop limit.

Q: Does Google Maps optimize the order of stops?

No. Google Maps takes 9 stops on top of your starting point — ten points in all — and keeps them in the order you type them; reordering is manual. Route optimizers like MakeRoutes, RouteXL or Spoke work out the best order first, and MakeRoutes then opens the result in Google Maps for navigation.

Q: Which route planner is best for addresses in Spain?

MakeRoutes searches Spanish addresses against CartoCiudad, the official address dataset of Spain's Instituto Geografico Nacional, before falling back to OpenStreetMap Nominatim — that order is what resolves portal numbers and street names repeated across municipalities. In a random sample of 90 real addresses from the Spanish cadastre (18 municipalities, from big cities to small villages, across 17 provinces), CartoCiudad returned the correct door number in 88% of searches, against 23% for Nominatim. Routing itself works worldwide in MakeRoutes, RouteXL, Spoke and Google Maps.

Up to 11 stops, MakeRoutes optimizes the order completely free with no signup. Beyond that it depends on the job: for big one-off routes of up to 20 stops free — or 100–200 paid — RouteXL is the tool. For professional daily deliveries with proof of delivery, Spoke (the app formerly called Circuit) earns its subscription. And if you have 10 stops or fewer and do not mind ordering them yourself, plain Google Maps is enough.

The comparison, side by side

	MakeRoutes	RouteXL	Spoke (Circuit)	Google Maps
Price	Free, everything	Free to 20 stops; €35/mo (100) · €70/mo (200); day passes €5/€10	Free to 10 stops; $10/mo Lite · $20/mo Standard, unlimited stops	Free
Optimizes the order	Yes	Yes	Yes	No — you drag stops by hand
Stop limit	16	20 free / 200 paid	10 free / unlimited paid	10 points (start + 9)
Signup required	No	Yes	Yes	Google account on mobile
Navigation	Opens the route in Google Maps, or in Apple Maps	Exports to navigation apps	Built into the app	It is the navigation
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web	iOS, Android	Web, iOS, Android
Proof of delivery	No	No	Yes (Standard)	No
Genuinely best for	Everyday multi-stop trips; addresses in Spain	Occasional big routes	Couriers delivering daily	Simple trips you order yourself

Prices and limits verified on 26 August 2026 against RouteXL's pricing page and Spoke's pricing page. Circuit was renamed Spoke in 2026 — same product, same apps, and getcircuit.com now redirects to spoke.com.

When MakeRoutes is not the best choice

Routes with more than 11 stops. That is our ceiling, 15 with the switch in the apps. From 12 to 20 stops RouteXL does it free; beyond that, RouteXL's or Spoke's paid plans are the honest recommendation.
Professional delivery work. Proof of delivery, package photos, customer notifications, driver management — MakeRoutes has none of that, and Spoke's subscription exists precisely because couriers need it.
Navigation inside the same app. MakeRoutes hands your optimized route to Google Maps rather than navigating itself. We think that is a feature; if you want one app for everything, it is not.
Optimizing offline. Working out the best order needs a connection. Google Maps can at least navigate on downloaded offline maps.

When it wins

Price, without asterisks. Everything MakeRoutes does is free. No stop-limit upsell, no trial, no card.
Time to first route. No account, no onboarding: type your stops, tap optimize, open in Google Maps. Under a minute.
Addresses in Spain. Search runs against official national address data (CartoCiudad), which finds streets and door numbers generic geocoders miss. Routing works worldwide.
Routes that end where you choose. Finish anywhere, loop back to the start, or end at a stop you pick — your home after the errands, for example.

Try it with your own stops

Frequently asked questions

Is Circuit Route Planner the same as Spoke?

Yes. Circuit was renamed Spoke in 2026 — the same product and apps under a new name. Free up to 10 stops per route; the paid plans ($10/month Lite, $20/month Standard) remove the limit.

What is the cheapest way to optimize more than 10 stops?

Up to 11 stops, MakeRoutes — free, no signup. From 12 to 20, RouteXL's free tier. Beyond 20, you are choosing between RouteXL's €5 day pass or €35/month, and Spoke at $10/month with no stop limit.

Does Google Maps optimize the order of stops?

No. It keeps the order you type and you drag stops by hand, up to 10 destinations. We cover the manual method in how to reorder stops in Google Maps.

Which one handles Spanish addresses best?

MakeRoutes — its address search queries CartoCiudad, the official address dataset of Spain's Instituto Geográfico Nacional, before OpenStreetMap Nominatim, which is what resolves portal numbers and street names repeated across municipalities. In a random sample of 90 real addresses from the Spanish cadastre (18 municipalities, from big cities to small villages, across 17 provinces), CartoCiudad returned the correct door number in 88% of searches, against 23% for Nominatim. For routing itself, MakeRoutes, RouteXL, Spoke and Google Maps all work worldwide.

When should I pay instead of using MakeRoutes?

When your rounds exceed 11 stops regularly, or when you need delivery-business features: proof of delivery, notifications, several drivers. That is Spoke's and RouteXL's territory, and they are good at it.

How we measured the Spain claim

On 6 September 2026 we ran the same search query — street, number, municipality, exactly as a user would type it — against CartoCiudad and OpenStreetMap Nominatim for 90 real addresses from the Catastro's INSPIRE Addresses register — 18 municipalities chosen by hand to spread across the country, then 5 addresses drawn at random from each one's full address list — 30 each from big cities, mid-sized towns and small villages, across 17 provinces. The Basque Country and Navarre keep their own land registries and are absent from that national feed, so no address in the sample comes from either. In the smallest municipalities a few of those names are the cadastre's own way of cataloguing hamlets rather than what a neighbour would type; the same string still went to both engines.

CartoCiudad returned the correct door number, in the right municipality, among its top 3 results for 79 of 90 addresses (88%), against 21 of 90 (23%) for Nominatim. In this run the first result alone gave the same figures. Checking instead whether any top-3 result landed within 100 metres of the address's official coordinate — a looser test that ignores the text returned — CartoCiudad matched 83 of 90 (92%) against 51 of 90 (57%) for Nominatim. The gap is door-number coverage for Spain in OpenStreetMap's data, not a defect in Nominatim — MakeRoutes runs on OpenStreetMap everywhere else.

This is one run on one day, not a running average, and the Catastro register truncates some long street names — at least two in this sample, and the check for them is not exhaustive — which affects both geocoders equally rather than favoring either one. Address data: © Dirección General del Catastro (Ministerio de Hacienda), INSPIRE Addresses, reused under its open licence. Method and script: scripts/geocoder-benchmark.mjs in the MakeRoutes repository.