Shipping Easy Shipping Rates Compared to Shopify
Choosing the right shipping software for your business is essential for making sure you have access to the best discounts, the best carrier options, and can print your labels and ship your packages quickly and easily.
Choosing the right shipping software for your business is essential for making sure you have access to the best discounts, the best carrier options, and can print your labels and ship your packages quickly and easily. In this post, we'll look at five of the best shipping software on the market and which is best for your needs.
Skip to the end: click here to jump to the good part and see what we recommend.
What's covered in this review
We will cover the services offered by each of these services, their pricing, their carrier selection, and any additional features and unique qualities they bring to the table. At the end of each section, I'll summarize a set of pros and cons. At the end of the review, I'll make a couple of picks based on everything we've discussed. Let's take a look at some of the best e-commerce shipping companies.
Related: Once you have an account somewhere, here's how to get a FREE Zebra thermal printer and labels. 🤑
The Best Shipping Services
1. Easyship
Easyship is another powerhouse shipping platform that'll tie well into just about anything you have. WooCommerce, Amazon, Shopify, you name it; it'll probably hook up.
Here's a neat trick that considers Easyship at the top of the stack: the fulfillment network. Easyship offers fulfillment services and warehouse locations worldwide, and all the relevant taxes and duties are factored in automatically. No surprises.
I'm always a fan of super slick and clean UIs. Creating a shipment is similar to the other platforms in that it's a multi-step process. Like the other platforms, I imagine most shipments will be generated through the originating e-commerce platform rather than by hand, so this may not matter.
Easyship comes with all the shipping carriers you could ever imagine. All the rates are pre-negotiated, and the pricing is friendly, too. If there's a particular carrier you're interested in, Easyship has a handy search tool here.
EasyShip is free to start and comes with 100 shipments per month out of the box (no pun intended). Move up to the paid plan starting at $29/month and get your hands on 500 shipments a month and a branded tracking page for your customers, along with additional users and courier account integrations. The free plan also lets you tie in one carrier account of your choosing.
💰
Seller Journal readers can get a 30-day free trial and an exclusive $10 credit towards shipping costs. Click this link and use the code JLS637
when signing up.
Pros ✅ | Cons ⛔️ |
---|---|
Covers all the major carriers | Cost estimator doesn't cover all options |
Pricing is competitive with the other paid multi-carrier options | Limited support for BYO accounts on paid plans |
2. ShippingEasy
I personally know a few business owners that use ShippingEasy for shipping their online orders, and they have nothing but good things to say. ShippingEasy provides the deepest discounts you can get from all the major carriers and integrates with just about every platform.
I like to think of ShippingEasy as the entry-level version of ShipStation (they're made by the same company, Auctane), though that doesn't mean they're skimping on features. ShippingEasy integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, WooCommerce, Walmart, Squarespace, PayPal, OpenCart, Quickbooks, and a couple dozen more platforms.
Plans start at FREE for 25 labels per month. Paid plans offer branded tracking pages and SMS messages, custom logos on shipping labels, incredibly detailed reporting, and more.
💰
ShippingEasy is offering Seller Journal readers an extended 60-day free trial, doubling the free trial offered to the general public. Use this link when signing up.
Pros ✅ | Cons ⛔️ |
---|---|
Easy to understand interface | Cost estimator doesn't cover all options |
Pricing is competitive with the other paid multi-carrier options | |
Integrates with just about every other selling and inventory platform you can think of | |
The lowest possible shipping rates regardless of how much you spend | |
Branded tracking pages | |
Free Plan | |
Extended 60-day free trial for Seller Journal Readers |
3. ShipStation
When we start talking about big players, ShipStation is the first to come to mind. It's as powerful as powerful can get, and the automatic UPS carrier discount is nice, too! (More on that in a bit) If you're an e-commerce operator that has real volume, this is where I'd put my money and effort.
ShipStation integrates with all the carriers and makes getting quotes incredibly easy. This is probably my favorite interface out of all the quoting tools each of these providers offers.
ShipStation starts at $9.99 a month, which is a great deal if you're looking for this level of integration.
💰
ShipStation is offering Seller Journal readers an extended 60-day free trial, doubling the free trial offered to the general public. Use this link and code SELLER60
when signing up.
Pros ✅ | Cons ⛔️ |
---|---|
Compelling interface | No free plan |
Creating a shipment and getting a quote is fast and efficient | |
Integrates with just about every other selling and inventory platform you can think of | |
The lowest possible shipping rates regardless of how much you spend | |
Branded tracking pages | |
Extended 60-day trial for Seller Journal readers |
4. Pirate Ship
Let's get this out of the way: Pirate Ship was my first. When I needed to ship packages, this was the first service I used, and to this day, I still pull them up when the time is right.
Pirate Ship is good at being an interface for USPS commercial rate pricing and always giving you the cheapest possible options.
The interface doesn't have a lot to it, but it ties in well with eBay and Shopify, which is a massive plus for sellers. Bulk-create labels or do them one at a time by typing or pasting in an address. Pirate Ship will do its best to parse it out.
Enter what kind of packaging you're using and its size, and presto-chango: pricing. Click another button, and boom, your label is ready to go.
Pirate Ship only provides two shipping carriers: The United States Postal Service (USPS) and UPS. Unlike some of the other shippers on this list, they do not charge any extra fees, so all you pay is the price for the shipping itself. This is the epitome of a "free shipping service." It's as simple as that.
Pirate Ship vs. Stamps.com is also a no-brainer. I'm not sure I've ever thought Stamps.com to be a viable option as long as Pirate Ship is readily accessible.
Updated for 2022: Pirate Ship supports UPS now, making them a lucrative option for those who want to send UPS packages without paying extra. Having a UPS account is not required.
Pros ✅ | Cons ⛔️ |
---|---|
No surcharges for shipping, ever | Address pasting can be a little wonky if it's capitalized strangely |
The best USPS and UPS rates, all the time, with no caveats | No FedEx or DHL support |
Integrations with Shopify and eBay | Bulk printing is limited in customizability |
Supports international mailing | Built for small shippers |
5. Shippo
If you've been in the e-commerce game for any length of time, Shippo will immediately come to mind, and for a good reason. They're the ones you think of when looking to use a specific carrier and want to get the best rate for it.
Shippo hooks up to all the big platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, eBay, Amazon, Squarespace, Etsy, and Square.
The user interface is clean and easy to navigate. Getting a quote for a shipment is a bit more complex than I would expect. I found it easier to use their calculator on their home page versus going through all the motions of creating a manual order.
Shippo also comes with neat additional functionality like custom-branded packing slips and tracking pages.
For those starting, you'll be pleased to find a pay-as-you-go plan at a mere $0.05/label. Depending on the shipment cost, this could very well be but a fraction of a percent per month.
If you find yourself shipping more significant quantities of packages or need those extra features I mentioned, the professional plan starts at $10/month for 60 labels ($0.16/each)
How about the carrier selection? If you haven't noticed yet, I slung the carrier list down along the side of this post. Needless to say, Shippo's carrier support is extensive.
Pros ✅ | Cons ⛔️ |
---|---|
A massive selection of carriers | Carrier choice can be overwhelming |
Good discounts for UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL | Sometimes suggests carrier options with incredibly long delivery times |
Free Plan | Getting a simple price quote takes too many steps |
Branded tracking pages on Professional plan |
Our Recommendations
I thought about this for a while and realized that I don't think it's possible to pick a single shipping service. What we have here are a few different categories and offering levels that cater to different crowds and business sizes, so I'll break down my picks.
For Fewer than 25 Packages per Month
If you're only shipping a few packages per month, you have a couple of options. Individuals who are sending packages to friends and family might find Pirate Ship to be enough for them, though businesses will likely find ShippingEasy to better suit their needs.
ShippingEasy
A versatile and easy-to-use shipping platform that integrates with many services and streamlines the shipping process for businesses selling products online. Get an extended 60-day free trial, a special for Seller Journal readers.
Sign up for ShippingEasy ($0+)
For Online Businesses with Basic Shipping Needs
Businesses that are looking to ship more than 25 packages per month will find respite in the paid plans of both ShippingEasy and EasyShip.
ShippingEasy
A versatile and easy-to-use shipping platform that integrates with many services and streamlines the shipping process for businesses selling products online. Get an extended 60-day free trial, a special for Seller Journal readers.
Sign up for ShippingEasy ($0+)
EasyShip
With a familiar interface and versatility to ship from all the major platforms, the price point for EasyShip makes it a top contender on this list. Seller Journal readers can also get an exclusive $10 shipping credit using code JLS637 when signing up.
Sign up For EasyShip ($0+)
For Businesses with Diverse Shipping Requirements
ShipStation has the most diverse integrations and supports shipping from all major carriers. They're built for high volume, and their interface and feature set to match that requirement. While they don't have a free plan, if you're shipping more than a few packages a month, any free plan will be too restricting.
ShipStation
A powerhouse shipping service built for busy e-commerce businesses. Custom branding, a deep integration list, and powerful features make ShipStation a standout choice. Get an extended 60-day free trial when you use code SELLER60 at signup.
Sign Up for ShipStation (60 day free trial, $9+)
Conclusion
At the end of the day, any of these services could very well fit a large cross-section of businesses and users. What matters most is the features you need for your business right now and as your business grows. The last thing you'll want to do is change shipping platforms every 6 months because you've outgrown it or need different carrier support. Once you've found the platform that ticks all the boxes that matter most, settle in and grow your business. You'll start to forget that they're even there, and that's a good thing.
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Source: https://sellerjournal.com/the-5-best-shipping-software-platforms/
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