Add-In vs Add-On: What the Two Words Mean and Which One You Need

The difference between an Add-In and an Add-On: an Add-In is software that runs inside MyGeotab (the High Point GPS platform) or the Geotab Drive app, and an Add-On is hardware that plugs into the GPS tracking device's IOX port. Add-Ins are built on the platform's SDK, appear as a new page, panel or driver-app screen, and read and write your fleet's data through the same API everything else uses. Bus Route Progress, Timeline Map, GeoDocs, ELD Info and Ruleset Switcher are Add-Ins. Geotab and Geotab Marketplace partners publish them, and a Geotab partner with developers, such as High Point GPS, can write one for a single fleet's workflow. You install one in your platform database, and nothing goes in the vehicle.

An Add-On is a physical device that connects to the GPS tracking device through its IOX expansion port and sends data over its connection. IOX-BT for Bluetooth tags, IOX-NFCREADERA for driver ID, the Bluetooth sensor gateway and temperature sensors, the PTO reader, cameras that connect through IOX, and the Keyless module are Add-Ons. An installer fits them in the vehicle, and their data appears in the High Point GPS platform as new streams your rules and reports can use. Many come with a companion Add-In that displays it.

If your fleet already has the data and needs to see or use it differently (a better view, a report, a workflow, a document, a driver screen), you need an Add-In. If you need data the GPS tracking device lacks, such as a temperature, a door, a driver's identity, a PTO state or video, you need an Add-On. On a school bus, the parent app is an Add-In; the card reader that records a child boarding is an Add-On.

The Geotab Marketplace, the add-on library High Point GPS works from, lists both, and the listing type shows which is which. Some Add-Ins are free and others are paid, with terms set by each developer; Add-Ons are hardware you buy, sometimes with a plan. A custom Add-In is a development project against the SDK. Custom Add-Ons are rare, since the IOX ecosystem covers most sensors. High Point GPS supplies and installs Add-Ons and builds and deploys Add-Ins for fleets across Canada and the United States.

The names are close enough that fleets mix them up on purchase orders. These examples show which is which.