LoadSnap vs WasteBolt,
side by side for .
WasteBolt is built by an environmental consultancy that also runs its own 70,000-tonne composting site, and it shows in the weighbridge story. Both of us are live on DEFRA's production service. The split is what happens either side of the gate.
Who it's for
LoadSnap: Carriers and receivers
WasteBolt: Digital waste compliance for UK sites and carriers - WTNs, season tickets and DEFRA submission, with deep weighbridge ingestion
Pricing
LoadSnap: Free plan, then from £25/mo
WasteBolt: £17.49/mo + VAT billed annually, to £104.99; from £24.99/mo monthly
DEFRA submission
LoadSnap: DEFRA API submission included on every plan
WasteBolt: Live on DEFRA production since June 2026, on the GOV.UK provider list
Built on a composting site, and it shows
WasteBolt is the digital evolution of AR Enviro Consultancy Services, a Northern Irish environmental consultancy, and its founder is explicit that it was not dreamed up in a startup: it was built on a site handling 70,000 tonnes a year by somebody who needed it and could not find it. That origin is visible in what the product is good at, and it is worth taking seriously rather than treating as marketing.
What it produces is a compliance system for a site: waste transfer notes hazardous and non-hazardous, season tickets, HP codes and POPs, e-signatures, quarterly waste returns broken down by customer, EWC and D/R code, permit expiry tracking, and unmetered DEFRA submission on every tier including the cheapest. They are on the GOV.UK provider list and have been submitting real movements to DEFRA's production service since June 2026.
It is not trying to run your fleet, and it does not pretend to. There is no route planning, no scheduler, no container tracking and no customer invoicing anywhere on their site. If your problem is the gate and the paperwork, that focus is a feature.
The weighbridge story is better than ours
This is the honest headline of the comparison. WasteBolt ships a free Windows desktop app called Gatehouse that sits on the yard office PC and does three things: log loads manually, watch a folder for CSV exports, or sync directly against a SQL Server weighbridge database on a schedule. They name Weighsoft and ScaleIt as compatible systems. Their reasoning is good: every weighbridge system can produce a CSV, so no API integration, no costly connector and no IT project.
LoadSnap does not do this. We are weighbridge-agnostic by design, which is a polite way of saying the operative reads the bridge and keys gross and tare while photographing the ticket and the display. That works with any bridge, needs nothing installed and cannot break when the bridge software updates. It also means somebody types numbers that a computer already knows, and on a busy transfer station that is real cost.
So if you run a permitted site with an established weighbridge system and the double entry is your actual pain, WasteBolt solves a problem we have chosen not to solve. We would rather say that plainly than argue that manual entry is secretly better.
Two things WasteBolt says about itself that are worth reading
They publish both of these in their own FAQ, which is to their credit, but they are easy to miss under a homepage badge that says the opposite.
The first is offline. WasteBolt requires an internet connection to save and sync a note. You can begin filling a form and it holds locally until connectivity returns, but their own guidance is to complete notes where there is reception or to use mobile data, and enhanced offline capability is described as in development. For a gatehouse on a fixed line that is irrelevant. For a driver in a quarry it is not.
The second is the app. Their homepage carries an 'Available as iOS and Android app' badge; their FAQ says WasteBolt is not available as a native app in the Apple App Store or Google Play, and that it runs in-browser or as an installed web app. The FAQ is the accurate statement. LoadSnap installs to the home screen the same way and also ships real store builds, and captures with no signal because submissions queue on the device with an idempotency key so a retry cannot duplicate a load.
Price and accessibility
WasteBolt publishes clearly and prices low. Billed annually it is £17.49 a month plus VAT for a single admin, £41.99 for two admins and up to ten drivers, and £104.99 for five admins and up to twenty-five drivers, with additional admin seats at £24.99. Monthly billing starts at £24.99. Annual saves about thirty per cent. There is a seven-day trial with no card, and no free tier.
Their best commercial decision is that DEFRA submissions are never metered on any plan, and they say why: it is a legal obligation, so they will not meter or block it. We take the same position for the same reason, on every plan including the free one.
LoadSnap starts free for ten loads a month, then £25 for a self-carrier and £39, £65, £99, £169 and £249 as volume grows, plus VAT. We price on loads and they price on seats and site count, so the comparison depends on shape. A single-site operator with one admin will find WasteBolt cheaper than most of our paid tiers. An operator with a dozen people and moderate volume will find the reverse.
Feature comparison
How LoadSnap and WasteBolt line up on the things that matter for DEFRA compliance. Items marked [verify] are awaiting independent confirmation.
| Feature | LoadSnapFree plan, then from £25/mo | WasteBolt£17.49/mo + VAT billed annually, to £104.99; from £24.99/mo monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance and DEFRA | ||
| Built for carriers as well as receivers | Yes | Both sides |
| On the GOV.UK software-provider list | Yes | Yes |
| DEFRA API submission | All plans | All plans, unmetered |
| Digital Waste Transfer Note PDFs | Yes | Yes |
| Hazardous consignment notes | Yes | Yes |
| HP codes and POPs | Yes | Yes |
| Season tickets | Yes | Yes |
| Both halves of a movement reconciled | Yes · Connect | Yes · Linked |
| The weighbridge and the gate | ||
| Weighbridge capture by hand | Yes | Yes |
| Reads a weighbridge system's data | No | CSV watch and SQL sync |
| Named weighbridge compatibility | Any, none integrated | Weighsoft, ScaleIt |
| Desktop gatehouse app | No | Yes, free |
| Out on the road | ||
| Works with no signal | Opens and captures offline | No |
| Native iOS and Android apps | Yes | Not in the app stores |
| AI waste classification from photos | Yes | Not advertised |
| Route planning and optimisation | Yes | Not advertised |
| Drag-and-drop scheduler | Yes | Not advertised |
| Vehicle safety checks | Yes | Not advertised |
| Running the business | ||
| Jobs and recurring work | Yes | Not advertised |
| Container and skip tracking | Yes | Not advertised |
| Invoicing your customers | Yes | Not advertised |
| Permit and licence expiry tracking | Yes | Yes · My Site AI |
| Contractor compliance documents | Carrier verification | Yes |
| Pricing and access | ||
| Free plan | Yes · 10 loads | No |
| Free trial | 14-day · no card | 7-day · no card |
| Published pricing | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | £0, then from £25/mo | £17.49/mo + VAT annual |
An honest take
No tool is best for everyone. Here's where each one is the stronger choice.
Where WasteBolt may be the better fit
- Weighbridge ingestion LoadSnap does not attempt: a free desktop agent doing CSV folder-watch and direct SQL Server sync, with Weighsoft and ScaleIt named.
- A lower entry price at £17.49 a month plus VAT billed annually, against our cheapest paid tier at £25.
- Built and run by a practising environmental consultancy that operates its own 70,000-tonne site, with EA, NIEA and NRW audit experience.
- My Site AI, which reads permits and licences and warns before they lapse, and contractor compliance document tracking.
- A public REST API with OAuth 2.0 and webhooks at the top tier; LoadSnap's customer API is read-only today.
Where LoadSnap is the stronger choice
- Capture that survives no signal. WasteBolt's own FAQ says a note cannot be saved without a connection.
- Real store-listed iOS and Android apps, which their FAQ confirms they do not have.
- Route planning, a drag-and-drop scheduler, jobs and recurring work: none of which WasteBolt claims.
- AI classification from a photograph across 850+ EWC codes with hazardous and POPs flagging.
- Container and skip tracking, customer invoicing, quotes and rate cards.
- A free plan, where WasteBolt's entry point is a seven-day trial and then a subscription.
When to choose each
Find the row that sounds like your operation. Where the honest answer is “either”, it says so.
| If this is you | Take | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Your weighbridge software already holds the data and you are retyping it | WasteBolt | Gatehouse watches a CSV folder or syncs a SQL Server database directly, with Weighsoft and ScaleIt named. LoadSnap does not read weighbridge systems at all. |
| Your drivers work where there is no signal | LoadSnap | WasteBolt's own FAQ says it needs a connection to save a note. LoadSnap queues the submission on the device and sends it when signal returns. |
| You want the round planned and the day scheduled | LoadSnap | WasteBolt does not claim route planning or scheduling anywhere. It is a compliance system for a site, not an operations platform. |
| One admin, one site, and you want the cheapest compliant option | WasteBolt | £17.49 a month plus VAT billed annually, with unmetered DEFRA submission. That undercuts every paid LoadSnap tier. |
| You need to invoice customers and track skips as well | LoadSnap | Neither invoicing nor container tracking appears anywhere in WasteBolt's product. |
| You want the EWC code decided from a photograph | LoadSnap | AI classification across 850+ codes. WasteBolt has Ask Bolt AI for querying your history, which is a different thing. |
| You operate in Northern Ireland and deal with NIEA | Either | WasteBolt is NI-based with NIEA experience, which is worth something. LoadSnap files to the same DEFRA service and produces the same documents. |
Other alternatives to WasteBolt
Still weighing it up? These are the other tools people put on the same shortlist.
LoadSnap vs PaperRoute
£220/mo + VAT introductory for the first 4 users, £249 standard, +£35/user
LoadSnap vs ComplyWaste
Free for one driver, then £39, £99 and £199/mo + VAT
LoadSnap vs Waste Logics
Not published. Usage-based; quote on request
LoadSnap vs QWTN
Free tier, then £12, £29 and £69/mo. VAT treatment not stated
LoadSnap vs WasteNote
Free for one driver, then £10, £30 and £50/mo. VAT treatment not stated
LoadSnap vs WasteReady
£39/mo or £390/yr founding, £79/£790 standard. VAT treatment not stated
Questions
LoadSnap vs WasteBolt: FAQs
01Is WasteBolt live with DEFRA?
02Does WasteBolt work offline?
03Does WasteBolt have a native app?
04Which is better for a weighbridge site?
05Does WasteBolt plan routes or schedule jobs?
Comparison based on publicly available information about WasteBolt (wastebolt.app) as of 5 September 2026, believed accurate but not warranted; features and pricing may have changed since. Items marked “[verify]” could not be independently confirmed at the time of writing. LoadSnap claims reflect the live product as of 5 September 2026. WasteBolt and any related marks are the property of their respective owners; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by WasteBolt.
Sources: wastebolt.app · WasteBolt pricing (wastebolt.app/pricing) · WasteBolt integrations (wastebolt.app/integrations) · WasteBolt FAQ (wastebolt.app/faq) · GOV.UK - choose a software provider (receipt of waste)
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