Motive vs Samsara
Industry leaders are choosing Motive over Samsara.
When evaluating Motive alongside Samsara, organizations choose Motive for our unrivaled AI accuracy, fastest time to value, and exceptional customer service.
AI accuracy
The Motive AI Dashcam beats Samsara in third-party tests.
Most accurate AI models
A study by The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and Strategy Analytics found that the Motive AI Dashcam successfully alerts drivers to the unsafe driving behaviors tested 3-4x more than Samsara.
15+ unsafe behaviors detected
Motive detects unsafe behaviors that Samsara does not detect: lane swerving, unsafe parking, unsafe lane changes, and smoking. Our AI also recognizes safe distancing, alert driving, and other positive behaviors, which Samsara does not.
AI accuracy powered by customers
Customer feedback and data from millions of real driving events help to constantly refine our models, ensuring our AI gets smarter, safer, and more accurate every day.
Test Drive Motive
Motive encourages side-by-side testing.
Samsara prohibits competitors and researchers from publishing product comparisons without prior written permission, which obscures performance gaps and suppresses data that is vital for safety.
Motive Safety Team
Motive ensures drivers are not penalized for false positives. Samsara does not.
The Motive Safety Team reviews every safety event to remove false positives so drivers aren’t penalized for mistakes they didn’t make.
- Focus on true safety concerns that deserve your attention.
- Improve driver trust with no false positives.
- The Motive Safety Team is available to all customers at no additional cost.
Motive AI Coach
Motive AI Coach automatically delivers personalized coaching to drivers. Samsara does not.
Motive AI Coach delivers personalized feedback to drivers at scale with AI-generated coaching videos.
- Entirely AI-generated, including the video, audio, and script.
- Reduce coaching workload up to 100%.
- Personalize feedback to reflect each driver’s performance over the past week.
Motive First Responder
Motive connects you to first responders when a severe collision occurs. Samsara does not.
Motive First Responder is designed to expedite emergency assistance and save lives.
- Programmatically shares life-saving driver, vehicle, and collision data directly with first responders.
- Priority phone number bypasses long wait times and connects directly with local emergency dispatchers.
- Live updates in the Motive Dashboard and Fleet App give safety managers real-time visibility that first responders are notified.
Integrated Motive Card
Motive offers a natively integrated fleet card. Samsara does not.
Maximize savings
Motive Card users earn up to 2.5% cashback* on all fleet spend, fuel and non-fuel. Maximize savings with rebates at 35,000 fuel and maintenance discount partner locations.
Native integration
Motive Card is the only fleet card that combines Fleet Management and Spend Management, eliminating data silos and automating manual workflows. Samsara’s partnership approach creates data silos and adds friction for finance and operations.
Precise spend controls
Motive equips finance teams with customizable spend controls to prevent unauthorized charges. Set rules by individual, groups, time, transaction, and category.
Proactively reduce fraud
Motive combines vehicle telematics data with Motive Card payments data to detect and prevent fraud in real-time. AI-powered fraud alerts automatically identify and auto-decline suspicious transactions. Motive’s fraud controls are backed by a $250,000 Fraud Protection Guarantee*.
FASTEST TIME TO VALUE
Motive has a proven track record of helping customers get results immediately.
Return on investment
Motive customers report a positive return on investment within just 5 months of initial deployment — 5 months ahead of Samsara.
Implementation time
Motive is faster to implement, at 2.7 months, compared to Samsara, at 3.4 months. For example, the Dana Companies cut install time by over 50%, self-installed 850+ units, and onboarded nearly their entire fleet in under 7 months.
Exceptional customer experience
Motive has a proven track record of customer satisfaction.
#1 G2 Leader position
Motive is consistently rated the highest customer satisfaction score in the industry across Enterprise, Mid-Market, and Small Business.
Award-winning, 24/7/365 support
Motive prioritizes our customer partnerships, with a global support team available 24/7 by phone, email, and chat. All clients get a dedicated Customer Success Manager, ensuring that their primary point of contact is up to speed on their program.
Reliability and support
Motive resolves 90% of support cases within two hours, backs up hardware for the life of the service with lifetime warranty, and provides transparent pricing without unexpected costs.
Motive vs. Samsara: The real difference.
See a side-by-side comparison of how Motive’s Integrated Operations Platform outperforms Samsara.
Platform
Motive lets you manage your organization at scale with interoperability, security, resilience, and scalability you can trust.
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Motive encourages third-party testing. |
Samsara does not allow benchmarking without written permission. |
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Motive provides transparent total cost of ownership information. |
Samsara customers report complex pricing, large, unexpected price increases. |
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Motive is the only platform that unifies safety, operations, and finance. |
Samsara relies on third-parties to provide key functionality. |
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Designed for large fleets and complex operations |
Motive serves Enterprise and Mid-Market organizations with complex operations and large fleets. |
Samsara serves Enterprise and Mid-Market customers. |
Driver Safety
Motive uses the industry’s most accurate AI to protect drivers and improve fleet safety.
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Motive achieves highest alert rates for six unsafe behaviors. |
Samsara achieves limited accuracy in third-party tests and head-to-head trials. |
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Motive’s AI Coach is the first and only AI avatar that delivers personalized driver coaching at scale. |
Samsara does not offer automated AI-powered coaching. |
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Motive provides the first AI-enabled side/rear vehicle camera with built-in cellular connectivity. |
Samsara relies on third party, added costs, and complexity. |
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Motive First Responder works quickly to save lives. |
Samsara does not have a direct priority line to first responders. |
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Human review that removes all false positives at no additional cost |
The Motive Safety Team eliminates false positives. |
Samsara’s offering is limited and costs extra to access. |
Fleet Management
Motive provides unparalleled visibility into vehicle location, utilization, and health.
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Motive shows which are out of service and for how long, and prevents vehicle assignment and connection. |
Samsara allows vehicles to be marked OOS. |
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Motive automatically pairs nearby assets with the vehicle. |
Samsara’s asset pairing lacks automation, requires manual intervention. |
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Motive provides completely customizable inspections. |
Samsara provides limited options for customization. |
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Motive GPS is accurate and reliable. |
Samsara provides standard capabilities. |
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Motive provides a comprehensive approach to fleet compliance. |
Samsara provides standard capabilities. |
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Reduce emissions and fuel costs with vehicle efficiency insights |
Motive provides insights into vehicle efficiency and utilization. |
Samsara provides standard capabilities. |
Equipment Monitoring
Motive provides high-accuracy equipment tracking and utilization insights.
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Motive provides high-frequency and reliable location data. |
Samsara provides frequent location data. |
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Motive provides real-time control and monitoring of temperature sensitive cargo. |
Samsara provides standard capabilities. |
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Motive provides 5 years of location visibility with battery power. |
Samsara provides 4 years of battery life. |
Spend Management
Maximize savings and eliminate fraud with the Motive Card.
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Natively integrated fleet card that can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted, for any type of purchase you approve. |
Motive is the only platform that combines Fleet Management and Spend Management. |
Samsara does not provide natively integrated spend management. Third-party integrations are required. |
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Motive prevents unauthorized spend with fully customizable controls. |
Samsara’s spend controls are limited and basic, third-party integrations are required. |
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Motive automatically identifies and auto-declines suspicious transactions |
Samsara provides basic fraud alerts and requires third-party integrations. |
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Motive provides the most accurate way to stop fleet-related fraud. |
Samsara does not provide a Fraud Protection Guarantee. |
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Motive gives you 2.5% cashback on every dollar you spend. |
Samsara does not offer a cashback program. |
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Automatic surfacing of missed savings |
Motive provides automated insights into missed saving opportunities. |
Samsara does not provide missed saving insights. |
Workforce Management
Manage people, documents, and timecards in one place — at scale.
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Motive provides a central hub for worker insights and actions. |
Samsara does not have a centralized Workforce Hub. |
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Motive allows you to manage all worker documents in one platform. |
Samsara provides qualifications management. |
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Motive simplifies payroll with Integrated Timecards. |
Samsara offers timecard management. |
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Motive provides customizable Driver Walkthroughs to meet the needs of your drivers and vehicles. |
Samsara provides customizable Driver Workflows but does not currently support enforcement locks. |
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Motive provides multimedia training content and automated AI Coach. |
Samsara does not offer AI-powered coaching. |
Last updated November 2025
CUSTOMER PROOF POINTS
Partnering with Motive pays off in time to value and ROI.
Davey Tree
Since the start of deployment for their ~8,000 vehicles across the US and Canada, Davey Tree gained increased fleet visibility, improved driver safety monitoring, and expanded equipment monitoring capabilities.
Bennett
Motive was deployed across 4,500 vehicles, which resulted in a 30% year-over-year reduction in accident/damage event frequency, and a 35% reduction in accident and vehicle damage spend.
RoadSafe Traffic Systems
RoadSafe selected Motive for its 2,000+ vehicles, achieving a 25% decrease in accident-related maintenance and repair costs, and 20% reduction in OSHA-recordable events in year 1 of deployment.
“We trialed Samsara and Motive side by side. Motive had a notably better AI detection rate. That and their road map was in line with what we are looking for. We want a long term partner who is moving in the same direction as us.”
“We left Samsara to use Motive for better support and hardware. Both have been accomplished.”
Frequently asked questions
Why do customers choose Motive over Samsara?
Motive is the only Integrated Operations Platform that combines Driver Safety, Fleet Management, Spend Management, Equipment Monitoring and Workforce Management, all in one place.
Which companies chose Motive over Samsara?
Motive serves nearly 100,000 businesses ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to mid- and large-sized companies across a wide range of industries, including trucking and logistics, construction, field services, oil and gas, delivery, food and beverage, passenger transit, and agriculture. Motive’s broad adoption is reflected in its tracking of over 1 million vehicles and assets, supporting 1.4 million drivers, and enabling 2.2 billion miles driven every month.
Why is Motive’s AI Dashcam considered more accurate than Samsara’s?
The Motive AI Dashcam has been proven in third-party tests to be more accurate, alerting drivers to unsafe behaviors 2-3x more often than Samsara. Our AI models detect over 15 safety events with up to 99% precision, proactively identifying subtle risks like unsafe lane changes and swerving.
How secure is the Motive platform?
Motive infrastructure is designed to provide security across the suite, from the physical security of hosting environments to the security protections of our IoT hardware and software applications, to the processes we use to support operational security. Enterprise security features on the platform include authentication (SSO, MFA), user authorization, and data encryption. To learn more about the security across Motive’s entire suite, download our Security Overview Guide.
How does Motive help customers scale?
No matter the size of your business, the Motive Integrated Operations Platform delivers the value of fleet management with data intelligence, extensibility, security, and scale. You can rely on Motive’s enterprise-grade technology, open APIs, and no-code customizations that make our platform extensible.
How reliable is Motive’s customer support?
Great tech is only as good as the support and expertise behind it. At Motive, our partnered approach guides customers through deployment, user onboarding, product training, and ongoing support. Dedicated teams include professional services, easily accessible customer success managers, and a 24/7/365 in-house global support team. Select sales or support from our contact page to start a conversation.
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With Motive you can:
- Comply with industry rules and regulations.
- Identify risks and automate driver coaching.
- Improve visibility and automate operations.
Voted best in class across the board
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