Icey vs Upper for Snow Removal: A Snow Tool or a Route Planner?

Should a snow company pick Icey or Upper?

Pick Upper if routing is the job. It orders long routes with traffic-aware routing and priority stops on every plan, and from Professional, at $60 a user a month billed monthly, or $48 a user a month billed annually, it adds a live map of every driver, a GPS stamp on each stop’s proof and texts to clients. You would still quote, sign contracts and invoice in another tool, since none of the pages we read shows a quote, contract or invoice made in Upper.

Pick Icey if you work only snow and ice. Free forever up to 10 sites and 5 crew. Every feature. Paid plans are priced by sites, from $119 CAD a month for 11 to 35 sites (or $85 USD a month for a company in the United States), with every driver included, monthly with no contract. Its per-event rate cards price plowing and de-icing as separate visits, with the salt included in the price or listed separately, and its storm board dispatches routes optimized for traffic with priority sites first, up to 150 stops a route.

What does Upper offer snow companies (as of November 2026)?

• A snow removal page. Its snow removal page is headed “Route Optimizer for Snow Removal Businesses” and pitches routes for every plow, live tracking, proof of service (“Capture completion data in the form of e-signature, notes, and photos to prove properties were serviced”), alerts to clients, top priority for “Hospitals, emergency routes, and VIP clients”, and vehicle capacity, to “carry the right amount of salt, de-icers, and equipment for each route”. Its older snow blog posts on plow route apps and plow route optimization now redirect to that page, and its snow removal blog category has one post, a preseason route planning guide that is a useful checklist whichever tool you use.
• Routes. Its pricing table gives every plan route optimization by shortest distance or shortest time, traffic-aware routing (“Routes are calculated using historical traffic data to provide realistic arrival times”), priority stops and stops imported from Excel or CSV files. The plans differ by size: up to 250 stops a route on Starter, 500 on Professional and 1,500 on Optimize. From Professional it splits a list of stops across drivers, recalculates the arrival times when you move a stop by hand, and pushes changes to a driver who has already left. From Optimize it adds zones drawn on the map, vehicle capacity and vehicle height and width limits. Its plan cards list recurring routes on Professional, while its comparison table ticks them from Optimize.
• Driver apps on iPhone and Android. The driver app is on every plan, with App Store and Google Play links on its pages. Drivers open directions in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze, and turn-by-turn directions inside Upper’s app are an add-on priced on request.
• Live tracking, from Professional. A live map of every driver and the path each one drove, from the GPS in the driver’s phone with no hardware to fit. Its tracking page also says Upper alerts you when a driver is running late, goes off route or skips a stop, without saying which plan has those alerts, and that you can export delivery records to a CSV file for invoicing.
• Proof at each stop. A signature, notes and photos on every plan, with 3 photos a stop on Starter, 5 on Professional and 10 on Optimize, as its table lists them. From Professional, each stop’s proof is stamped with its GPS location and time.
• Messages to clients. From Professional, texts when the driver starts the route, is nearby or finishes, and emails with delivery confirmations and arrival times. Texts are charged on top: its text message price list, in US dollars, gives $0.0195 a text to the United States and $0.0239 to Canada (price list). A live tracking link for clients is on Optimize, or sold as an add-on.
• Hours, history and other tools. From Optimize it records when drivers clock in, start routes and clock out, and it connects to Zapier. Its plan cards put an API and webhooks on Enterprise. It keeps route history for 6 months on Starter, 1 year on Professional and 2 years on Optimize, and its table gives the same periods for how long route data and reports are stored before they are archived. Its comparison table lists 10 driver profiles on Starter, 15 on Professional and 30 on Optimize, while its FAQ says there is “no fixed limit on the number of users you can add”.
• One driver. Upper Solo is its route planner for one driver, with its own login, up to 500 stops a route and a 3-day free trial with no credit card; its page prints “$19.99” “Per user per month” billed monthly, “$189.99” under Yearly (also labelled “Per user per month”) and “$9.95 Per week”.
• Who and where. Its home page calls it “the suite for multi-stop teams” and names operations in “waste, distribution, fuel, medical routes, and multi-site supply”, and its footer says “Built in Canada”, and its terms of use give a notice address in Charlottetown, PE, and are governed by the laws of Canada, with the courts at Brampton, Ontario.

What its pages don’t show matters for a snow company too. None of the pages we read shows quotes, price estimates, contracts or invoices made in Upper, per-push, per-event or seasonal billing, a de-icing visit as its own event, a salt log per site, or a weather forecast. Its snow page’s FAQ does say that snow removal software in general “centralizes tasks like client management, scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and inventory”. On salt, the same page says Upper’s routes let your team “plow, salt, and de-ice more properties in less time”, mentions salt as a load to carry and shows a Zoho Inventory tile to “track salt, deicer, and other supplies”. Ask Upper how you would price, record and bill a salting visit, and where your quotes and invoices would live.

How do Icey and Upper compare side by side (as of November 2026)?

What would each cost a snow company for one season?

Here are two companies worked through with both price lists, every input stated, in US dollars.

1. The two companies. Both are snow companies in the United States with a 5-month season from November to March, paying month to month, and both want a live map of their drivers, which Upper’s pricing table includes from its Professional plan and Icey shows on its storm board. Company A is the owner and 2 drivers, with 60 sites. Company B is the owner, 1 office manager and 7 drivers, with 30 sites. Neither fits Icey’s Free plan. Both tools are counted for those 5 months only, as if each company stops paying for the summer. On Upper, its FAQ says a cancelled account “will go dormant” and its data may be removed after a period its terms of use leave blank, so export what you want to keep before a summer off.
2. How each one counts. Upper prices per user, and its tracking page says “Pay per driver”, so this example counts the drivers: 2 users for Company A and 7 for Company B. If Upper also counts the owner’s or the office’s login, add a user for each. Its pricing page names no currency, so this example reads its prices as US dollars, the currency of its text message price list; ask Upper which currency it bills you in. Icey prices by sites, with every driver included.
3. Upper, Company A. 2 users × $60 = $120 a month on Professional, and 5 × $120 = $600 for the season. Counting the owner too, 3 users, it is 5 × $180 = $900. On Starter, without the live map, it is 5 × 2 × $50 = $500.
4. Upper, Company B. 7 users × $60 = $420 a month, within the 15 driver profiles its table lists on Professional, and 5 × $420 = $2,100 for the season. Counting the owner and the office manager, 9 users, it is 5 × $540 = $2,700.
5. Icey. Company A’s 60 sites are in the 51 to 100 sites tier, $199 USD a month for a company in the United States: 5 × $199 = $995 USD for the season. Company B’s 30 sites are in the 11 to 35 sites tier: 5 × $85 = $425 USD. Then cancel for the summer with nothing deleted. In Canada the same tiers are $279 and $119 CAD a month.
6. The result. Reading Upper’s prices as US dollars, Upper costs $395 USD less for Company A ($95 less counting the owner), and Icey costs $1,675 USD less for Company B. Both sides of this math buy the live map of the drivers.
7. What can move the numbers. Icey sends no arrival-time texts, so if Company B wants them, only Upper sends them, charged on top: its text message price list, in US dollars, gives $0.0195 a text to the United States and $0.0239 to Canada. If it texts each of its 30 sites’ clients once a storm for 20 storms, that is 600 texts, and 600 × $0.0195 = $11.70 USD. Its other add-ons cost more again. Billed annually, Professional is $48 a user a month for 12 months: 12 × $48 = $576 a user for the year, against 5 × $60 = $300 a user for a 5-month season paid month to month. And a company that routes on Upper still pays for whatever it quotes and invoices with; Icey’s price includes its quotes and invoice drafts.

Where is Upper stronger?

• Long routes and the rules around them. Upper orders up to 250 stops a route on Starter, 500 on Professional and 1,500 on Optimize, splits stops across drivers from Professional, and adds zones, vehicle capacity and height and width limits from Optimize. Icey’s optimizer orders up to 150 stops a route, with priority sites first. See how to plan snow routes.
• Texts and a live tracking link for clients. From Professional, Upper texts clients as the driver heads their way and emails them delivery confirmations, and a live tracking link is on Optimize or as an add-on. Icey sends no arrival-time texts: you email each site report with a tap, or switch on a once-a-day email.
• A signature at every stop. Every Upper plan collects a signature, notes and photos at each stop. Icey’s crew app records the time and the photos at each visit, not a signature; clients sign the quote.
• A live map with the path each driver drove. From Professional, Upper shows every driver live and the path each one took. Its tracking page also says it alerts you when a driver runs late, goes off route or skips a stop, without saying which plan has those alerts. Icey shows a live map of every crew on the storm board and keeps the GPS position at the start and finish of each visit. See how to track snow crews with GPS.
• Android apps and more connections. Upper has iPhone and Android apps and a Chrome extension, with Zapier from Optimize and an API on Enterprise. Icey’s Android app is still in testing, so Android crews use the web app.
• Driver hours. From Optimize, Upper records when drivers clock in, start routes and clock out. Icey’s job timers record visits, not a person’s hours for pay.
• Any route work, all year. If your company also delivers, hauls or runs other routes outside winter, Upper plans those days too. Icey is for snow and ice work only.
• A lower price for a small crew with many sites. Upper prices per user, not by sites, so a small crew with a long site list can pay less on Upper than on Icey, as Company A shows in the worked example above, as long as it quotes and invoices somewhere else.

Where is Icey stronger, or just different?

• It sells and bills the work, not only routes it. Icey draws each site’s service area on satellite imagery, and the client reviews and signs the quote on their phone from the email. Its per-event rate cards price plowing and de-icing as separate visits, or you sell a seasonal contract paid in monthly instalments, and invoice drafts come from the visits your crews logged. See per-push vs seasonal vs per-event contracts.
• A storm board. Start a snow removal storm or a de-icing storm and dispatch it from one board, with optimized routes and a live map of every crew. Upper plans routes and days; the pages we read don’t show a storm, or a salting run, as its own event to dispatch. See how to dispatch snow crews during a storm.
• Salt records built for de-icing. Icey logs the product and amount at every de-icing visit, per site, with the visit’s time, GPS, crew and photos, and keeps the amounts in your own records. Upper’s snow page says its routes let your team “plow, salt, and de-ice more properties in less time”, but the pages we read don’t show a de-icing visit as its own event or a salt log per site. See how to track salt use per site.
• A record of each visit, for the client and for a claim. Every completed visit makes a site report with the time and the photos, kept on the job. Upper keeps route history for 6 months on Starter, 1 year on Professional and 2 years on Optimize, and its table gives the same periods for how long route data and reports are stored before they are archived. A slip-and-fall claim can arrive long after the storm, so check how long any tool keeps your visit records, and what happens to them if you cancel. This is general information, not legal advice. See slip-and-fall documentation for snow contractors.
• The forecast in front of you. Icey’s Weather Center shows the forecast for your service area, with a “Notify me” alert you can switch on for when the forecast crosses your snowfall trigger. The Upper pages we read route around traffic and don’t show a forecast.
• A free plan, and a price that doesn’t grow with your crew. Free forever up to 10 sites and 5 crew. Every feature. Paid plans are priced by sites, from $119 CAD a month for 11 to 35 sites (or $85 USD a month for a company in the United States), with every driver included, so adding drivers costs nothing and adding sites can move you up a tier, as Company B shows in the worked example above. Upper lists no free plan and charges per user.

Both crew apps keep working with no signal, Upper’s on a route you opened while you still had signal. So the real question is whether you need a route planner, or a tool that runs the snow season from the quote to the invoice. See proof of service, salt tracking and is there free snow removal software?

We have not run a storm on Upper, so we can’t tell you how its app feels on a long night. Load a few of your own sites into Upper’s trial and into Icey’s free plan, test both apps somewhere with no signal, and decide with your own records.

Who should pick which?

• You plan long multi-stop routes, maybe all year, and already quote and invoice in another tool: Upper.
• You want clients texted when the driver is on the way, or sent a live tracking link: Upper, from Professional, with each text charged.
• You want a signature at every stop: Upper.
• A small crew with a long site list, on a budget, that only needs routes: price both; Upper’s price per user can come out lower.
• Snow and ice only, with up to 10 sites and 5 crew: Icey, free, with every feature.
• A bigger crew with fewer sites: price both; Icey’s price by sites, with every driver included, can come out lower.
• Quotes, per-event rate cards with de-icing as its own visit, salt logs per site and invoice drafts in one place: Icey.
• One driver who only needs the stops in order: Upper Solo; or Icey’s Free plan if you also want quotes, site reports and salt logs.

Sources

• Upper pricing, checked November 8, 2026: the four plans and their prices billed monthly and annually; stops a route, photos a stop, driver profiles, route history and when route data is archived, by plan; its comparison table by plan (traffic-aware routing, priority stops, splitting stops across drivers, zones, vehicle capacity, live tracking, the path each driver drove, GPS-stamped proof, texts and emails to clients, driver hours and Zapier); its add-ons; its trial, contracts, cancelling and the dormant account; and no free plan or currency named.
• Upper snow removal software, checked November 8, 2026: its heading, proof of service, alerts to clients, priority sites, vehicle capacity and salt, routes to plow, salt and de-ice, its FAQ on what snow removal software does, and its Zoho Inventory, Google and QuickBooks tiles. Also its snow removal blog category and preseason route planning guide, checked November 8, 2026.
• Upper’s offline help and how its offline mode works, checked November 8, 2026: what keeps working with no signal, what waits for a connection, and how completed stops sync.
• Upper driver tracking and Upper text messaging pricing, checked November 8, 2026: phone GPS, alerts when a driver runs late or skips a stop, pricing per driver, CSV exports, and the price of a text to the United States and to Canada in US dollars.
• Upper Solo and Upper’s free route planner, checked November 8, 2026: the route planner for one driver, its prices and trial, and the free web planner’s stop limits and daily cap.
• Upper terms of use, checked November 8, 2026: non-refundable charges, the blank data retention period after you cancel, the notice address and Canadian law.
• Also checked November 8, 2026: Upper’s home page (what it is, the name Upper Route Planner, the operations it names, its app links and “Built in Canada”) and integrations (the four it lists).
• Icey Software pricing and what Icey does.