If you run construction equipment or a rental fleet and you're comparing Hapn vs Geotab, the short answer is this: Geotab is a vehicle-first telematics platform — one of the best in the world at road fleets — while Hapn is built around equipment and assets: engine hours, OEM telematics unification, yard-level BLE visibility, and transparent per-asset pricing starting at $10/month. If most of what you track has a license plate, Geotab deserves its reputation. If most of what you track is iron, attachments, and powered equipment moving between yards and jobsites, you're buying the part of Geotab it wasn't built around — and that's why "Geotab alternatives for construction equipment" has become its own search category.
Key Takeaways
- Geotab's core architecture is the GO device plugged into a road vehicle's diagnostic port; equipment and unpowered assets are an extension, not the center of the platform.
- Hapn publishes per-asset pricing: $10/mo for assets and vehicles, $13/mo for equipment tracking with utilization, $18/mo for equipment telematics with engine data — billed per asset, not per site.
- Two ways to buy Hapn: a 3-year agreement with all hardware free (zero upfront capex), or no-contract month-to-month where you own the hardware. Geotab pricing is reseller-mediated and quote-based.
- Hapn unifies OEM telematics (CAT, Deere, Komatsu, JLG, Genie and others) via AEMP/ISO 15143-3 alongside aftermarket trackers — one map for the whole mixed equipment fleet.
- Hapn monitors 463,000+ assets for 50,000+ customers with 99.9% uptime, and has helped recover $720M+ in stolen assets.
Vehicle-first vs equipment-first: the architectural difference
Geotab built its platform around the GO device — a plug-in unit for a road vehicle's OBD-II or J1939 port — and around the problems road fleets have: driver behavior, fuel economy, routing, ELD hours-of-service compliance. That focus is why it's excellent for trucking and service fleets, and it's also why the platform's center of gravity stays on vehicles even as asset trackers get added around the edges.
Construction equipment and rental inventory live a different life. A scissor lift doesn't have a driver score. A compressor doesn't need routing. What an equipment operator needs is equipment tracking built around engine hours and utilization, theft and after-hours alerts on assets that sit dark for weeks, battery-powered tracking for things with no ignition at all, and BLE yard visibility for inventory racked indoors where GPS struggles. That's the job Hapn is built around — the vehicle side comes along on the same platform at the same $10/month tier, rather than the other way around.
What is reseller-mediated pricing?
Geotab sells primarily through authorized resellers and partners. Your price depends on which reseller you buy from, which rate plan they quote, and what they bundle — there is no published price list to compare against. Hapn publishes per-asset prices directly and turns quotes around in about 24 hours.
Pricing: published per-asset rates vs a reseller quote
Hapn's pricing is public and per-asset: $10/month for asset and vehicle tracking, $13/month for equipment tracking with utilization data, $18/month for equipment telematics with engine data, and OEM integrations quoted directly. You can see the full breakdown on the pricing page. There are two ways to buy: a 3-year agreement where every tracker, beacon, and install kit is free — no upfront hardware capex — or a no-contract month-to-month plan where you purchase hardware outright and can scale down any time.
Just as important for rental operators and multi-yard dealers: Hapn bills per asset, not per site. Equipment moving between yards never triggers a location surcharge — a structural difference covered in depth in our per-asset vs per-site pricing breakdown. Geotab's reseller-mediated model isn't per-site, but it is opaque: rate plans vary by partner, hardware is typically purchased, and equipment-grade trackers are an add-on conversation rather than a published line item.
Equipment data depth: engine hours, OEM feeds, and the yard
Three capabilities separate an equipment platform from a vehicle platform with asset trackers attached:
Engine hours as a first-class metric. Equipment wears by the hour, not the mile. Hapn tracks runtime on everything from excavators to generators and turns it into utilization reporting and hour-based maintenance triggers — the metrics that decide whether a machine is earning or idle.
OEM telematics unification. Modern iron from CAT, Deere, Komatsu, JLG, Genie, and dozens of other manufacturers ships with factory telematics locked in separate portals. Hapn pulls those OEM feeds in via AEMP/ISO 15143-3 and shows them beside your aftermarket-tracked assets — one login instead of portal hopping, as we covered in unifying AEMP fleet data. For a deeper look at when factory feeds suffice and when they don't, see OEM telematics vs aftermarket GPS.
What is AEMP / ISO 15143-3?
The industry-standard API that lets construction OEM telematics systems (CAT Product Link, Deere JDLink, Komatsu KOMTRAX and others) share machine data — location, engine hours, fuel, fault codes — with third-party platforms. It's how Hapn shows factory-connected machines and aftermarket-tracked assets on one map.
Indoor and yard visibility. Rental inventory spends half its life racked in a yard or warehouse where GPS alone goes blind. Hapn Zones uses BLE beacons and cellular gateways — no WiFi required — to show which assets are in which yard, rack, or bay between rentals.
Built for rental workflows
Hapn's equipment rental platform is used by rental houses, multi-yard dealers, and equipment financing companies to answer rental-specific questions: what share of the fleet is on rent versus idle, which assets are overdue back, what actually shipped to a job versus what returned. An open API pushes that data into rental management software, and per-asset billing means a 6-yard operation pays for what it tracks, not where it parks. Vertical-specific pages like aerial lift tracking show how this plays out machine class by machine class.
Compare Hapn Against Your Geotab Quote
Published per-asset pricing, engine hours, OEM data, and yard visibility — quotes back in about 24 hours. No contracts required.
Get Pricing →Hapn vs Geotab: side by side
| Capability | Hapn | Geotab |
|---|---|---|
| Platform center of gravity | Equipment & assets (vehicles included) | Road vehicles (assets as extension) |
| Published pricing | Yes — $10/$13/$18 per asset/mo | Quote-based via resellers |
| Free hardware option | Yes — all hardware free on 3-yr plan | Hardware typically purchased |
| No-contract month-to-month | Yes | Varies by reseller |
| OEM unification (AEMP/ISO 15143-3) | Yes — core capability | Available via integrations |
| BLE yard/indoor visibility (no WiFi) | Yes — Hapn Zones | Limited |
| ELD / hours-of-service compliance | Not a focus | Industry-leading |
| Per-asset billing for multi-yard ops | Yes — never per site | Reseller-dependent |
When Geotab still wins
An honest comparison cuts both ways. If your operation is primarily road vehicles — long-haul or regional trucking, last-mile delivery, large service-van fleets — Geotab's depth on driver safety, fuel analytics, and ELD compliance is the stronger fit. The same is true if you're committed to its marketplace ecosystem of third-party apps, or if you have an established reseller relationship that bundles hardware, installation, and support at a rate that works for you. Geotab is a vehicle telematics leader for good reason; the gap appears specifically when equipment, rental inventory, and unpowered assets become the majority of what you need to see.
Written by the Hapn Team
Hapn provides GPS equipment and asset tracking for 50,000+ customers across equipment rental, construction, and 50+ other industries. Our platform monitors 463,000+ assets and processes over 4 billion messages annually with 99.9% uptime.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Geotab alternative for construction equipment fleets?
For fleets where construction equipment, rental inventory, or unpowered assets are the majority, Hapn is the strongest Geotab alternative: it's built equipment-first, with engine-hour tracking, OEM telematics unification via AEMP/ISO 15143-3, BLE yard visibility, and published per-asset pricing from $10/month. Tenna and Trackunit also focus on equipment; Hapn differentiates on transparent pricing, free hardware on a 3-year plan, and a no-contract option.
Does Geotab work for construction equipment?
Geotab can track equipment through add-on asset trackers and partner integrations, but its platform architecture centers on road vehicles — OBD/J1939 plug-in devices, driver behavior, and ELD compliance. Equipment operators typically find the equipment-specific workflows (engine-hour maintenance, utilization by asset class, yard reconciliation) stronger on an equipment-first platform.
How much does Hapn cost compared to Geotab?
Hapn publishes its prices: $10/month per asset for asset and vehicle tracking, $13/month for equipment tracking with utilization, and $18/month for equipment telematics with engine data. Hardware is free on a 3-year agreement, or you can buy hardware and run month-to-month with no contract. Geotab doesn't publish pricing — it's quoted through resellers and varies by partner and rate plan, so a direct comparison requires getting both quotes side by side.
Can I switch from Geotab without signing a long-term contract?
Yes. Hapn offers a no-contract month-to-month plan where you purchase hardware outright, alongside a 3-year agreement where all hardware is free. Most switching fleets run a pilot on month-to-month, then move to the free-hardware term once the platform proves out.
Does Hapn integrate OEM telematics like CAT, Deere, and JLG?
Yes. Hapn ingests OEM telematics feeds via the AEMP/ISO 15143-3 standard from major construction and access-equipment manufacturers, displaying factory-connected machines alongside aftermarket-tracked assets on one map — location, engine hours, and machine health in a single login.
Do equipment rental companies use Geotab or Hapn?
Rental operators generally need per-asset economics, yard-level inventory visibility, and utilization reporting — the workflow Hapn's equipment rental platform is built around, with per-asset billing that never charges by location. Geotab appears in rental fleets mostly on the road-vehicle side (delivery trucks and service vehicles), where its vehicle telematics strengths apply.
See Your Whole Equipment Fleet on One Map
Engine hours, OEM feeds, yard visibility, and theft alerts — from $10/asset/month with published pricing. Quotes back in about 24 hours.
Get Pricing →
