Creator and commerce decision
Hand-Off
A competent technical user can build a useful subset (storefront, payments, basic routing/tracking) using existing open-source commerce projects, but reproducing Hand-Off's full delivery stack, negotiated shipping discounts, polished driver apps, and advanced growth/analytics features would be extensive.
Visit website↗$99/mo
$1,188/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off124 h to build
$80/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Hand-Off alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Allow a merchant to create a storefront, list products, accept payments, and dispatch local deliveries with basic route optimization and customer tracking.
What it still won’t have
- Deep negotiated shipping label discounts (70–87% off) and platform-negotiated rates
- Advanced white-labeled tracking link infrastructure and predictive ETA polish
- Polished native driver mobile apps and 24/7/priority support
- Built-in advanced analytics, referral/rewards engines and expense management on par with the vendor
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted commerce+delivery app using Next.js (frontend), Node.js + Express (API), Postgres (data), Stripe (card payments) and a crypto payment gateway (adapter), OSRM or a hosted GraphHopper instance for route optimization, and SendGrid/Twilio for email/SMS. Core features in scope: store and product CRUD, inventory tracking, one-store + basic multi-language storefront, Stripe payment flow, webhook-based order events, route optimization that turns accepted orders into multi-stop routes, a simple driver web UI to view and mark stops complete, generation of tracking links, and event-driven email/SMS notifications. Out of scope: advanced rewards/referral engines, deep negotiated shipping-label purchasing, white-labeled predictive ETA analytics, and native mobile driver apps. Include logging, basic auth and permissions for staff, automated tests for API endpoints, and error handling for payment and routing failures.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 4 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score67
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 4
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productHand-Off — official site
- official docsHand-Off — Features
- open sourcebagisto/bagisto
- open sourcePrestaShop/PrestaShop
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
