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Bird vs ScootAPI
An independent comparison of two fleet management platforms to help you choose the right fit for your business.
Bird
Miami, FL (originally Santa Monica, CA)
ScootAPI
Minsk, Belarus (acquired by Atom Mobility, Riga, Latvia)
Bird vs ScootAPI: What You Need to Know
Bird and ScootAPI occupy very different positions in the micromobility ecosystem: Bird is an active operator and platform licensor for North American scooter markets, while ScootAPI is a white-label software platform that was founded in Minsk, Belarus in 2019 and subsequently acquired by Atom Mobility in Riga, Latvia. ScootAPI's legacy platform offered white-label iOS and Android apps starting at €490/month with a commission-based pricing option (4–10% per ride), direct payment routing to operator bank accounts via acquirer integration, a franchise module for multi-city sub-licensing, and full source code access — features that appealed to CIS, Eastern European, and emerging market operators who wanted maximum control over their platform. Post-acquisition, new ScootAPI customers are migrating to Atom Mobility's pricing and feature set.
Bottom Line
ScootAPI's primary remaining advantages are its full source code licensing option, commission-based pricing model, and franchise sub-licensing module — valuable for operators in CIS or Eastern European markets who want deep customization and maximum financial control. Bird is the right choice for North American commercial scooter operators who need city compliance infrastructure, AI safety technology, and Lyft distribution.
Key Differences
Platform ownership and future roadmap
ScootAPI has been acquired by Atom Mobility, meaning new deployments are being migrated to Atom's platform and pricing; operators evaluating ScootAPI should account for this transition when projecting long-term platform stability and feature development.
Source code licensing
ScootAPI offered full source code purchase for operators requiring self-hosted, deeply customizable deployments — a unique option among shared mobility platforms; Bird offers no source code access at any tier.
Pricing model flexibility
ScootAPI offered both fixed monthly subscription and commission-based pricing (4–10% per ride) with direct payment routing to operator bank accounts via acquirer integration; Bird's model is fixed at ~20% revenue share with no source code access.
Franchise sub-licensing module
ScootAPI's franchise module allowed operators to sub-license their sharing platform to city-level franchisees with separated financials — a capability suited to regional operators building franchise networks; Bird has no equivalent multi-tier licensing structure.
Geographic and market focus
ScootAPI was built for CIS, Eastern European, and emerging markets with local timezone support and CIS payment infrastructure; Bird is exclusively optimized for North American urban markets with US city regulatory compliance tools.
Platform Overview
About Bird
Bird was founded in 2017 by Travis VanderZanden and became, at the time, the fastest company ever to reach a $1B valuation. After going public via SPAC at roughly a $2.5B valuation, Bird filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2023 and its assets were sold to Third Lane Mobility Inc. for about $145M in April 2024. Under Third Lane (which also owns the Spin brand), Bird returned to growth, reportedly posting around $220M in gross receipts and 35M rides in 2024 and reaching its first adjusted-EBITDA profitability. Bird and Spin now operate across roughly 350 cities in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and Third Lane raised a fresh $20M in 2026 to deploy tens of thousands of new vehicles. Crucially for anyone comparing this to a fleet platform: Bird is not a SaaS company. It runs its own branded fleets, and the ways an outside operator can participate are (1) the gig-style Fleet Manager / Operations Partner program (you charge, deploy, and reposition Bird's own scooters under the Bird brand) and (2) the largely de-emphasized Bird Platform licensing model (you launch a Bird-branded fleet on Bird's app and hardware). Neither lets you build and own your own brand, rider base, or fleet the way an independent operator can with Levy.
About ScootAPI
ScootAPI was a white-label SaaS platform for micro-mobility operators based in Minsk, Belarus (later relocated to Estonia for EU legal standing), powering 50+ sharing projects and 5,000+ e-scooters across 22 cities in 7 countries (Ukraine, Czech Republic, Romania, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Bolivia) before being acquired by Atom Mobility on June 1, 2025. The platform processed 2.7M trips for 267,500 unique users in 2023. ScootAPI offered three SaaS tiers (Basic €490/mo, Standard €1,290/mo, Premium custom) plus a unique full source code license option. IoT was powered by flespi middleware supporting Omni, OKAI, Teltonika, Navtelecom, Segway, and MQTT devices. Post-acquisition, clients are being transitioned to Atom Mobility — though scootapi.com remains live with no redirect 8+ months later, suggesting migration is ongoing. Founder George Kachanouski departed to pursue AI ventures; the ~15-person team's fate is undisclosed.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Category | Bird | ScootAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ||
| Headquarters | Miami, FL (originally Santa Monica, CA) | Minsk, Belarus (acquired by Atom Mobility, Riga, Latvia) |
| Founded | 2017 | 2019 |
| Website | https://www.bird.co | https://scootapi.com |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing Model | Gig-style Fleet Manager revenue share (keep up to 2/3 of ride revenue after hardware-usage deductions, $0 upfront) or the de-emphasized Bird Platform licensing model (buy Bird hardware at cost, per-market revenue share) | Monthly subscription by fleet size (now Atom Mobility pricing) |
| Starting Price | $0 upfront (Fleet Manager); Bird hardware at cost (Platform) | €490/month (pre-acquisition) |
| Scale & Hardware | ||
| Fleet Size Range | Platform reportedly 50+ vehicles; total Bird/Spin network spans roughly 350 cities | 10-500+ vehicles |
| Hardware Provided | Yes — bundled | No — software only |
| IoT Approach | Bird sources its vehicles primarily from Segway-Ninebot (with some Okai units) and runs proprietary onboard systems: dual-band GPS, camera-based Visual Positioning System, u-blox centimeter-grade positioning, swappable batteries, and Segway Pilot Lite AI. Bird is not hardware-agnostic. Fleet Managers service Bird's own vehicles, and Platform operators must purchase Bird-supplied hardware at cost, so you cannot bring your own scooters, e-bikes, or IoT stack. Levy, by contrast, integrates across OKAI, Segway, and multiple IoT vendors so you own the hardware choice. | Software platform that integrated with third-party IoT hardware providers. Supported multiple scooter brands on Standard and Premium tiers; Basic tier limited to a single IoT type. Now transitioning to Atom Mobility IoT integrations. |
How Does Levy Fleets Compare to Both?
Before deciding between Bird and ScootAPI, consider Levy Fleets — a turnkey platform that delivers enterprise-grade features at a fraction of the cost, with no tiered feature gates on any plan.
| Category | Levy Fleets | Bird | ScootAPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $250/mo | $0 upfront (Fleet Manager); Bird hardware at cost (Platform) | €490/month (pre-acquisition) |
| Pricing Model | Revenue share, per-vehicle, or self-managed — your choice | Gig-style Fleet Manager revenue share (keep up to 2/3 of ride revenue after hardware-usage deductions, $0 upfront) or the de-emphasized Bird Platform licensing model (buy Bird hardware at cost, per-market revenue share) | Monthly subscription by fleet size (now Atom Mobility pricing) |
| Feature Gating | None — full features on every plan | Varies by tier | Varies by tier |
| Minimum Fleet Size | No minimum | Platform reportedly 50+ vehicles; total Bird/Spin network spans roughly 350 cities | 10 |
| Setup Fees | $0 (white-label optional at $2,750) | Varies | Varies |
| Support | 24/7 US-based, included on all plans | Varies by plan | Varies by plan |
| Hardware Included | Yes — IoT pre-installed on all vehicles | Yes | No |
Levy Fleets includes payment processing, chargebacks, rider support, ID verification, push notifications, and marketing analytics on every plan — features that Bird and ScootAPI either gate behind premium tiers or charge extra for.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Bird | ScootAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Bird Features | ||
| Real-time fleet management dashboard with analytics | ||
| Geofencing: no-ride, no-park, slow-speed, and service-area zones | ||
| Visual Positioning System (VPS) powered by Google ARCore Geospatial API | ||
| Camera-based positioning with near centimeter-level accuracy for parking checks | ||
| End-ride parking photo review | ||
| Rider Score AI-powered behavior rating | ||
| Sidewalk detection with automatic speed reduction | ||
| Community Safety Zones with in-app rider notifications | ||
| Bird rider app (iOS/Android) with QR scan and Quick Start Bluetooth unlock | ||
| Fleet Manager app for operations partners | ||
| Lyft in-app integration in 25+ US cities | ||
| GBFS and MDS compliance feeds for city regulators | ||
| Swappable batteries across the latest Segway-built vehicle models | ||
| Segway Pilot Lite AI on newest vehicles | ||
| ScootAPI Unique Features | ||
| White-label iOS & Android apps (published from operator's own App Store/Play Store accounts) | ||
| Fleet management admin panel with revenue reports, team management, and promo codes | ||
| Group rides — rent up to 5 scooters from one device (Standard+) | ||
| Apple Pay and Google Pay integration (Standard+) | ||
| Multi-language support (additional languages charged separately) | ||
| Revenue reports, analytics, heatmaps, and audience segmentation (Premium) | ||
| Geofencing and zone management with custom geofences (Premium) | ||
| Daily, weekly, and monthly ride passes and subscriptions (Standard+) | ||
| B2B corporate accounts with employee billing and deductions (Premium) | ||
| GBFS integration for MaaS/city data feeds (Premium) | ||
| Franchise module — multi-city/multi-client with separated reports and financials (Premium) | ||
| Full source code license available as one-time purchase for self-hosted deployments | ||
| Direct payments to operator bank account via acquirer integration (Premium) | ||
| Dynamic pricing with time-based rate adjustments | ||
| Push messaging for promotions and ride status (Standard+) | ||
| flespi IoT middleware supporting Omni, OKAI, Teltonika, Navtelecom, Segway, MQTT | ||
| Internal rider wallet with top-up and promotional balances | ||
Pricing Breakdown
Bird Pricing
Bird offers two participation models, and neither is a true operator-owned software license. (1) Fleet Manager / Operations Partner program: $0 upfront and no vehicle purchase. Local partners charge, deploy, sanitize, and reposition Bird's own scooters and keep up to two-thirds of the ride revenue after hardware-usage deductions (a figure Bird publishes). Recent 2026 postings cite roughly $590 to $1,000 per week on a fleet of about 125 vehicles. Managers do not own the brand, the rider base, the vehicles, or the pricing. (2) Bird Platform (the legacy independent-operator licensing model, heavily de-emphasized since the 2023-2024 restructuring): operators launch a Bird-branded fleet on Bird's app and purchase Bird-supplied (Segway-built) vehicles at cost. The per-ride revenue share and capital requirements are negotiated per market and are not officially published; third-party reports have cited a share around 20 percent and startup capital in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Bird does not confirm these numbers. Consumer ride pricing (a per-unlock fee plus a per-minute rate with dynamic surge) is set by Bird, not by the operator. Note: Bird's Fleet Manager program has drawn documented scrutiny (Smart Cities Dive and Streetsblog) over contractor debt, shifting revenue splits, and market oversaturation, and Bird carries a 1.3/5 "Bad" rating on Trustpilot.
ScootAPI Pricing
Pre-acquisition three-tier SaaS pricing: BASIC €490/month — core app (ride start/stop, booking, payments), admin panel with revenue reports and promo codes, ONE IoT device type only (pick Omni, OKAI, or Teltonika), 1-year data storage, business-hours support for critical issues only, 30-day launch. STANDARD €1,290/month — adds group rides (up to 5 scooters per device), Apple/Google Pay, push messaging, analytics with feedback categories, daily/weekly/monthly passes, multiple vehicle types (scooters + bikes + mopeds), 3-year data storage. PREMIUM custom pricing — adds direct payments to operator bank (bypasses ScootAPI), B2B corporate accounts with employee billing, franchise module (multi-city with separated reports/financials), GBFS integration for city data feeds, audience segmentation, custom geofences, 5-year data, discounted custom development. Also offered full SOURCE CODE LICENSE (one-time fee, originally ~$4,990 in 2019) for self-hosted deployments. Early-stage commission model: 10% per ride at 100 scooters, decreasing 1% per additional 100 units to a 4% minimum at 700+ vehicles. Post-acquisition, clients migrated to Atom Mobility starting at €390/month.
When to Choose Each Platform
Choose Bird if you...
- You are a North American urban scooter operator needing GBFS and MDS compliance feeds for city permits
- You need AI-powered rider scoring, sidewalk detection, and Visual Parking System for city regulatory requirements
- You want access to Lyft integration in 25+ US cities for consumer rider acquisition
- You need the most advanced parking enforcement technology (ARCore VPS, Camera Positioning) available for US city operations
- Your market is a high-density North American city where Bird's brand and network provide a competitive advantage
- You want swappable battery logistics and hardware bundled with the software platform
Choose ScootAPI if you...
- You operate in CIS, Eastern Europe, or an emerging market and prefer a platform with local timezone support and regional payment infrastructure
- You need full source code access for self-hosted, deeply customized deployments that you control independently
- You want a commission-based pricing model (4–10% per ride) with direct payment routing to your bank account
- You plan to build a franchise network and need a module that sub-licenses your platform to city operators with separated financials
- You are already an Atom Mobility customer migrating from ScootAPI and satisfied with the combined platform
- You need a dedicated franchise module with multi-city financial separation to operate as a regional platform licensor
Looking for an Alternative to Both Bird and ScootAPI?
Levy Fleets offers a turnkey fleet management solution with flexible pricing — revenue share (20% of GMV (15% at 100-249 vehicles, annual terms)), per-vehicle ($14 per vehicle/mo), or self-managed — and the same full feature set on every plan. No tiered feature gates, no minimum fleet sizes, and US-based 24/7 support included.