Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs Magicplan
Magicplan is a field capture tool for producing a floor plan of a space, while DownsizeRoute is a decision tool for choosing which of a client's furniture that space can hold.
Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs SmartMoving: which one fits a downsizing practice
SmartMoving is aimed at moving companies running trucks and crews, while DownsizeRoute is aimed at the manager who has to decide what fits the new unit before any truck is booked.
The short answer
SmartMoving is built for moving companies and the shape of work a carrier runs, from the sales call through crews and trucks on a schedule. DownsizeRoute is built for the weeks before a truck is booked, when a fifty year household still has to be cut down to what a two bedroom plan will hold. If you own trucks and bill carrier jobs, a moving platform is the right operating spine and this sits beside it for sorting and placement. If you subcontract the haul and sell judgment, start here.
DownsizeRoute and SmartMoving side by side
| What you are deciding | DownsizeRoute | SmartMoving |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of work | One household mapped onto one measured receiving floor plan | One booked move moving through a carrier schedule |
| What is assumed decided | Nothing yet; keep and release calls happen inside the plan | Shaped for work where the load is broadly known up front |
| Floor plan of the new unit | Wall runs, door widths, and turns drive which pieces survive | Oriented to load size and transport rather than the receiving room |
| Released belongings | Every released piece gets a channel: family, consignment, donation, haul | Focused on what ships, so disposition sits outside the core flow |
| Family involvement | A room by room plan adult children can read from another state | Organized around a shipper contact and a crew, which suits carrier work |
| Business shape it expects | Solo managers and small crews billing judgment hours by the room | Companies operating trucks, drivers, and a moving sales pipeline |
| Paperwork it leans toward | Client consent and disposition records for sell and donate work | Oriented to the obligations of a licensed carrier |
| First useful output | A fit plan built from the numbers you took on the walkthrough | Configured around your crews, rates, and calendar, as a carrier needs |
What follows on the right is the shape of SmartMoving as a category: the workflow it assumes and the buyer it is written for. What a product covers moves over time, so verify where it stands today. DownsizeRoute is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose DownsizeRoute when
- When the client has not decided what stays and the truck cannot be booked until she has.
- When you subcontract the haul and what you actually sell is the plan, not the transport.
- When adult children in three states need to see the same room by room decisions.
- When your quote turns on volume, access, and disposition load rather than mileage and weight.
Choose SmartMoving when
- If you own trucks and employ drivers, carrier software belongs at the center of your operation.
- If most of your revenue is transport rather than sorting, a moving platform matches how you bill.
- If you run a steady pipeline of household moves, that is the workflow SmartMoving is built around.
Two different jobs that both end with a truck
A carrier is measured on load, route, and damage. A senior move manager is measured on whether an eighty two year old widow can find her reading lamp on the first night in a two bedroom apartment. Those are different products, and the software follows the product. Moving platforms model the load because the load is the billable thing. DownsizeRoute models the receiving unit because the receiving unit is what decides the load in the first place.
On a downsizing job the truck is the last two days of a four week engagement. Weeks one through three are sorting sessions with the client, measured furniture decisions, family calls, donation pickups, and consignment drop offs. Nothing about that is carrier work, and asking carrier software to hold it usually means a spreadsheet appears next to it inside a month.
Where the two overlap on a downsizing job
The overlap is real but narrow: the keeper inventory. Once the plan says the china cabinet stays and the sectional goes, somebody has to tell the mover what is being loaded and where it lands in the new unit. That handoff is the seam between the two systems, and it is a list, not a workflow.
Managers who run both usually keep DownsizeRoute as the client facing plan and export the keeper list to whoever is driving. If the carrier is a subcontractor, they get the list plus the placement map so the crew is not asking the client where the dresser goes while she is standing in a hallway she has never seen before.
Running both without double entry
The rule that keeps this clean is one owner per fact. Measurements, keep and release decisions, disposition channels, and placement live in the downsizing plan. Truck, crew, mileage, and carrier paperwork live wherever you dispatch. Nothing gets typed twice because nothing is owned twice.
If you own trucks, that split still works: the moving platform is your operating spine and the downsizing plan is the pre work that fills it. If you subcontract, you may not need carrier software at all, since the licensed mover carries that burden and you carry the plan.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can I use DownsizeRoute if I already run moving company software?
Yes, and many small teams do. Keep the moving platform for trucks, crews, and carrier paperwork, and keep the downsizing plan for measurements, decisions, and disposition. The handoff between them is the keeper list with placement notes.
Does DownsizeRoute dispatch crews or track trucks?
No. It is built for the sorting and placement work that decides what goes on a truck, not for operating one. Managers who own trucks pair it with carrier software; managers who subcontract usually do not need that second system.
I am a solo manager who subcontracts every haul. Do I need both?
Usually not. Your licensed carrier carries the transport obligations and their own systems. What you need is a defensible plan, a disposition record, and a move day sequence the family signed off on.
Other comparisons on downsizeroute.com
Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs Jobber
Jobber is general purpose field service software for small home service businesses, while DownsizeRoute is narrow software for the specific work of moving an older adult into a smaller home.
See the same numbers on your own senior move management
Send us the way you run it today and we will walk through what DownsizeRoute changes, what it leaves alone and what the first month looks like.