Samsara vs Lytx: What Fleets Actually Pay (2026 Comparison)

The Core Problem: Neither Publishes Its Price

Samsara and Lytx both sell fleet dash cams and telematics through sales quotes, and the quote is where the real cost hides. Samsara's marketing-friendly number is $27 to $33 per vehicle per month, but its own public Sourcewell price list shows a dual-facing AI dash cam license at $55/month list plus a $39/month vehicle gateway license: $94 per vehicle per month before hardware. Lytx publishes no number at all; independent guides estimate $40 to $55 per vehicle per month plus roughly $500 per vehicle for installation. Both lock you into multi-year terms, and the exit fees are where complaints pile up.

This page covers the verified numbers, the contract terms, the dash cam differences, and the cases where each vendor actually wins.

Samsara Actual Pricing: What Customers Pay

Samsara's list prices are public because government cooperative contracts require disclosure. From the Sourcewell cooperative price sheet (2021 list prices; quotes today vary by negotiation):

A truck with telematics plus a dual-facing camera costs $94/month at list. Resellers confirm the same ballpark: a CM32 camera bundled with a one-year license sells for $825/year ($942.86 list). The $27 to $33 figure quoted in comparison guides buys base telematics, not the camera stack most safety programs are actually shopping for.

Lytx Actual Pricing: What Customers Pay

Lytx works only off custom quotes. The verifiable numbers:

The GSA schedule figures are from an older DriveCam-era contract, but they are the only per-unit Lytx prices in the public record, and they show the pattern: hardware, installation, provisioning, and event-review volume are all separate line items in a Lytx quote.

Contract Terms: Where Both Vendors Bite

Samsara requires a 3-year minimum term and written cancellation notice at least 30 days before the renewal date. Miss the window and the contract renews. BBB complaints document a $10,000 auto-renewal charge from a three-year-old contract with no prior notification, and one customer billed for two years after a documented, acknowledged cancellation. Early termination means owing the full remaining contract balance.

Lytx customers report that contracts auto-renew a year at a time after the initial term, with early termination fees of $3,600 to over $4,000 cited in BBB complaints. One reviewer reported being quoted a 3-year plan and discovering the signed contract ran 5 years. Multiple complaints describe sales calls answered immediately while cancellation requests waited 3 to 5 business days for a callback.

If contract flexibility is the deciding factor, neither vendor offers it.

Dash Cam Head-to-Head: Human Review vs Raw AI

This is the real product difference between the two.

Lytx runs machine vision plus AI on the DriveCam, then routes flagged events through human analysts who review footage before it reaches your dashboard. That layer significantly cuts false-positive coaching events, which matters because false write-ups poison driver relations. Drivers still report false alerts for seatbelts, lane departures, and handheld phone use, but fewer reach managers as actionable events.

Samsara uses AI-only detection with real-time in-cab audio alerts. Coaching feedback hits the driver in seconds instead of after analyst review, but every false positive lands unfiltered on the safety manager's desk. Fleets without a dedicated person to dismiss bad detections end up with misleading safety scores.

One legal footnote on the camera tech: Lytx paid $4.25 million in 2025 to settle a Biometric Information Privacy Act class action covering roughly 85,000 truck drivers whose facial geometry the DriveCam scanned between October 2016 and January 2025 without the written consent Illinois law requires. Lytx denied wrongdoing. If you run drivers in Illinois, Texas, or Washington, ask any video vendor about biometric consent workflows before signing.

Platform and Integrations

Samsara is a full operations platform: ELD compliance, GPS telematics, fuel reporting, maintenance, and an open API that integrates with TMS, dispatch, and payroll systems. Lytx is a video safety specialist. It has no native ELD, and fleets typically pair it with a separate telematics provider; the Lytx+ bundle with Geotab formalizes that two-vendor setup.

Company Stability

• Samsara (NYSE: IOT) reported $478.8M revenue in the quarter ended May 2, 2026, up 31% year over year, with $1.99B ARR and a third consecutive GAAP-profitable quarter. It also won a $30.3M arbitration award against competitor Motive in February 2026 in a fraud and false advertising dispute.
• Lytx is private, majority-owned by Permira since a 2020 deal valuing it at $2.5B. Leadership turned over in 2025: CEO Brandon Nixon retired after 17 years, an interim CEO bridged five months, and Chris Cabrera took over in July 2025.

Neither company is going anywhere, but Samsara's public financials make multi-year roadmap bets easier to underwrite.

Feature Comparison

What Reviewers Say

• G2's comparison favors Samsara on overall satisfaction; Samsara has ranked No. 1 on G2's Fleet Management grid for six consecutive quarters through spring 2026.
• On Capterra, Lytx DriveCam holds 4.7/5 across a small base of 21 reviews, while Samsara holds 4.4/5 across 806 reviews.
• On Trustpilot, both score poorly: complaints about Lytx cluster on cancellation and auto-renewal; Samsara sits at 3.3/5 with similar billing themes.

The pattern: managers rate the software well, and both companies' contract operations generate the one-star reviews.

Where Lytx Genuinely Wins

• Outsourced event review. If no one on staff can review camera events daily, Lytx's human analyst layer is the product. Samsara has a comparable review service only as a $5/month add-on for fleets over 500 vehicles.
• Risk data depth. Lytx has been scoring driving behavior since the DriveCam era and benchmarks events against one of the largest commercial driving datasets in the industry.
• Enterprise safety programs. Fleets of 200+ vehicles running formal coaching programs are the customer Lytx is built around.

Where Samsara Genuinely Wins

• One platform. ELD, telematics, cameras, and maintenance in one system with an open API. Lytx needs a telematics partner for the same footprint.
• Deployment speed. Magnetic-mount cameras self-install in 15 to 20 minutes per truck versus scheduled professional installs.
• Financial transparency. Public company, published financials, and list prices discoverable through government contracts.

Where Both Lose: Everything Without an Engine

Both vendors price per powered vehicle. The trailer sitting in a yard, the $4,000 generator, the tool cribs, and the jobsite equipment get no coverage unless you buy extra cellular hardware per asset (Samsara's unpowered tracker is $99 plus $10/month each, on the same 3-year contract).

AirTags with Airpinpoint cover that layer for $29 per tag ($24.75 in 4-packs) and $11.99/device/month with no contract, riding Apple's Find My network of 2.5B+ devices. You get a web dashboard, location history, polygon geofence alerts, webhooks, REST API access, and team access. Tags attach in seconds and run about a year on a $2 battery.

Our Recommendation

• Large fleet, formal safety program, no internal review staff: Lytx. Budget $40 to $55 per vehicle per month plus installation, negotiate the term length in writing, and calendar the renewal notice date the day you sign.
• Fleet that wants telematics, ELD, and cameras in one system: Samsara. Get the full config quoted (gateway + camera licenses), not the advertised base rate, and expect roughly $94/month at list per camera-equipped vehicle before discounts.
• Trailers, tools, equipment, and other unpowered assets: AirTags + Airpinpoint, whichever telematics vendor you pick. Most fleets we see run a hybrid: telematics on powered vehicles, AirTags on everything else.
• Small fleet allergic to 3-year contracts: Neither Samsara nor Lytx fits. Start with AirTags + Airpinpoint for asset visibility and add telematics only where compliance requires it.