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Shippo vs Shipstation (2024): Which Shipping Management Tool Is The best?

By James LePage
 on June 17, 2022

Shippo vs Shipstation (2024): Which Shipping Management Tool Is The best?

By James LePage
 on June 17, 2022

In this article, we're going to look at Shippo vs Shipstation shipping management platforms. These shipping software solutions for shipping management are popular with businesses globally. We'll be taking a look at Shippo vs Shipstation shipping software to understand the similarities and differences between them. By the end of this article, you will have a much better understanding of these two shipping management platforms.

How difficult can it be to choose shipping management software?

On the surface, shipping management solutions might not differ much.

But once you dive deep, you will find striking differences in areas such as shipping management features and more.

In this regard, most people look at Shippo and ShipStation as web-based software solutions that connect businesses with shipping carriers.

And that is why you need to read this article.

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By the end of this article, you will understand Shippo vs Shipstation shipping management platforms, and make an informed decision of choosing the right one.

In general, most people believe that Shippo is easier to use and more affordable than other solutions. Bigger businesses prefer Shipstation as it offers more integration and advanced features.

What are the biggest differences between Shippo and ShipStation?

If you do not want to be tied to a monthly subscription, you might want to try Shippo. This platform offers a pay-as-you-go plan. ShipStation, on the other hand, comes with monthly subscription plans.

Businesses in the US like Shippo’s discounted shipping rates. International businesses enjoy Shipstation’s discounted rates better.

If you are looking for advanced automation, ShipStation is a better platform.

Overview: Shippo and ShipStation 

Shippo Overview

This subscription as a service (SaaS) platform makes order fulfillment easy for you. Shippo started in 2013 and now has become a favorite among over 35k ecommerce businesses. 

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Please note I have used the word “ecommerce” here since Shippo caters to ecommerce retailers more than to any other business domain. The platform offers a flexible API that allows ecommerce businesses to embed it with their online store. This makes it easy for the ecommerce merchants to connect with global carriers such as USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL.

This seamless API integration facilitates streamlined order fulfillment while minimizing ecommerce shipping costs. It also makes it transparent to track the complete shipping process. This is great to achieve higher customer satisfaction.

After connecting Shippo with your website, you will observe your inventory being synced with the platform. Shippo’s intelligent algorithm captures all customer purchases on your store. Here onwards, you can decide upon shipping carriers and print prepaid shipping labels. Moreover, you can monitor the delivery progress of all products.

Once you are through these steps, Shippo coordinates all order fulfillment information to your ecommerce database. A lot of users believe that Shippo works only in the US. This is incorrect. The platform allows ecommerce stores to ship globally.

Shippo takes customer satisfaction to a new level. It sends updates to your customers so they can track their orders whenever they like. I’d say that Shippo is a robust shipping solution. Does it come with issues? Read on to find out.

ShipStation Overview 

ShipStation started in 2011 as a web-based software system to help businesses manage their entire shipping and order fulfillment process. In that regard, it is a bit older than Shippo.

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ShipStation offers a large number of features. It integrates with most ecommerce platforms, shipping carriers, payment gateways, and shopping carts. I also like the fact that it connects easily with most selling channels. This is incredibly useful for businesses to import data from multiple sources at the same time.

With advanced features such as multi-carrier shipping, multi-account connections, and tracking shipments, ShipStation does well as a leader in the shipping and order fulfillment process.

Given its seamless integration with most online selling platforms, geo-tracking shipping deliveries, and customer self-service, ShipStation is an all-in-one solution indeed.

Shippo and ShipStation – Ease of Use 

Shippo 

This shipping platform offers a free 30-day trial. Thereafter, you will be paying at least $10 every month.

If you do not like that option, you can go for Shippo’s Pay-As-You-Go package. With this plan, you will be paying five cents per shipment. This does not include the postage costs. Small businesses love Shippo’s pay-as-you-go plan.

Once you have signed up and connected Shippo with your ecommerce store, Shippo does the heavy lifting for you.

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Shippo Dashboard

If you own a Shopify store, you can simply type in your website’s URL (web address), and Shippo will automatically redirect you to Shopify’s interface. Once you say yes to connecting to the platform, Shippo will sync with Shopify. Following this, Shippo will be able to monitor your product inventory and orders.

I find Shippo’s interface organized and user-friendly. Its minimalistic design makes it easy for the user to find useful features easily. There is no steep learning curve with Shippo.

It is a straightforward shipping and order fulfillment platform. 

I have talked to several novices, and most of them maintain that Shippo is incredibly easy to use.

ShipStation 

Like Shippo, ShipStation also offers a 30-day free trial. 

There is no Pay-As-You-Go package with ShipStation.

Its cheapest plan starts at $9 per month.

Unlike Shippo, ShipStation is a bit more advanced.

But that comes with a small downside- complexity.

While I find ShipStation’s dashboard elegant, it is not as easy to navigate as Shippo’s.

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Shipstation Dashboard

ShipStation offers advanced features, which translates into a longer learning time.

However, it is not as difficult as you might think.

I like that ShipStation offers an automated onboarding assistant, which helps you learn the ins and outs of the system (to some extent).

Given its advanced features, it comes as no surprise that ShipStation integrates seamlessly with most online stores and selling channels. You can connect ShipStation with marketplaces and shopping carts.  

For instance, you can visit the Account Setting on your ShipStation’s platform and navigate to the Store Setup. Here, you can find Shopify (in the marketplaces) and proceed to sync Shopify with ShipStation.

This order fulfillment platform helps you track key aspects of your shipment, and gives you valuable insights into your sales, shipments, and more.

With ShipStation, you can also customize the dashboard to your taste. The platform offers a number of layouts. 

One of the coolest things about ShipStation is its automation features. ShipStation offers great automation features for order fulfillment. This comes in handy for merchants dealing with large volume of orders.

Shippo and ShipStation – Order Management

Shippo Order Management

A lot of shipping and order fulfillment platforms have a one-store-per-user limit.

Thankfully, Shippo is not one of them.

It gives you a central platform to coordinate order fulfillment across multiple stores.

And if you sell them on online marketplaces, you can integrate them with Shippo.

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A nice thing about Shippo is that it offers a large number of data points related to order details, including delivery address, carrier information, and shipping service info.

You can even get the estimated arrival times for your orders. This is useful to help you plan ahead of time. Shippo updates ETA in real-time to give you accurate delivery updates.

With Shippo, you can print package labels and shipment details. 

Batch printing is another great feature of Shippo. This is useful for handling larger volumes of orders. You can generate up to 100 prints at once using Shippo.

The caveat with batch printing is that it applies only to packages of similar weights and dimensions.

One of the biggest issues with order fulfillment today is the risk of losing packages.

Shippo offers discounted shipping insurance to prevent your business from potential losses.

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There is also a validation tool in Shippo that confirms accuracy by checking the details provided by customers.

Shippo’s tracking tool connects with shipping providers to give detailed updates including package location, time, and status.

Did you know that Shippo allows partial fulfillment?

You do not have to complete order fulfillment in one take with Shippo.

ShipStation Order Management 

ShipStation supports more than 40 selling channels. 

The automation features in ShipStation are amazing.

ShipStation offers three types of automation - Product Automation, Service Mappings, and Automation Rules.

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Product automation applies to orders based on the products in the order batch when they are synced into ShipStation. Product Defaults and Product Preset Groups are the two types of product automation.

Service Mappings are for orders related to the shipping preference chosen by your customer during checkout. Automation Rules is a bit more advanced automation in ShipStation, wherein you can set a set of criteria within the rules.

System actions in ShipStation include sending alerts, printing labels, adjusting weight, and more.

Other than that, ShipStation supports batch printing of labels, one-click return management, plus label customization. ShipStation has a pick list tool for stores with a huge volume of orders.

Shippo and ShipStation – Carrier Management

Shippo is a US-based provider.

However, this order fulfillment platform allows you to ship packages globally.

Shippo works with more than 50 global shipping carriers such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL.

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You can also integrate multiple providers with Shippo.

A cool thing about Shippo is that it lets you compare shipping rates in real-time.

Like Shippo, ShipStation works with a large number of globally renowned carriers. The platform allows you to minimize shipping costs without sacrificing logistical efficiency.

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As in the case of Shippo, ShipStation also offers you the feature to compare the shipping rates of different carriers in real-time. 

Shippo vs ShipStation – Integrations

Shippo comes with a large number of pre-built integration such as ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, and shipping carriers.  For example, you can connect Shippo with Shopify, WooCommerce, Bigcommerce, eBay, Etsy, and Amazon.

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In terms of shipping carriers, Shippo connects with leading carriers such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, Canada Post, DHL Express, etc.  

The best thing about integration with Shippo is that it supports custom integration via Orders Endpoint shipping API.  

ShipStation offers a large number of integrations as well.

However, it takes things a step ahead by providing around 270 pre-built integrations across customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, payment services, ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, shopping carts, and more.

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With ShipStation, you can easily integrate your Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy stores.

ShipStation integrates with Amazon (FBA), FedEx and FedEx Canada, UPS, USPS, Stamps.com, DHL Express, and several other shipping carriers.

There is also ShipStation’s REST API to connect to other applications that are not covered in pre-built integrations.  

ShipStation vs Shippo – Customer Support

Shippo has a support center to address technical issues. Here, you will find all the resources, such as informative articles, FAQs, and tutorials. You can also reach out to the customer support team via email, phone, live chat, and online ticketing.

The downside?

Shippo does not offer 24/7 support.

ShipStation’s customer support is quite similar to that of Shippo.

Like Shippo, ShipStation also does not offer 24/7 customer support.

However, you can connect with ShipStation’s technical experts through phone, email, live chat, and web forms during business hours. Their agents are in 3-4 different time zones, which makes it easy to get faster responses.

Shippo vs ShipStation – Pricing

Shippo offers its pay-as-you-go plan from $0.05 per shipment excluding shipping.

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With this plan, you get unlimited carrier accounts, API access, global carrier discounts, and one user per account.

Shippo’s professional plan starts at $10 per month, and it offers five user accounts. This plan also comes with live chat support, custom branding, and other features available in the previous plan.

Their Premier plan supports 15 user accounts and has dedicated customer support, and many more features. 

Shipstation offers starter, bronze, silver, gold,  platinum, and enterprise plans. Its starter plan costs $9/month and supports one user and 50 monthly shipments.

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The bronze plan costs $29/month and supports 500 monthly shipments. 

ShipStation’s Silver plan offers two user accounts and 1500 monthly shipments. It costs $49/month.

Its Gold plan ($69/month) offers three user accounts and  3,000 shipments per month.

ShipStation’s Platinum plan costs $99/month and offers 5  user accounts and 6000 monthly shipments. 

The Enterprise Plan is available for $159/month. It offers 10,000 shipments per month, and 10 users per account.

Shippo vs ShipStation – Conclusion

I find Shippo a bit easier to use than ShipStation.

While Shippo offers fewer packages (pricing), it is definitely cheaper than ShipStation.

In terms of advanced features such as automation, ShipStation is a definite winner.

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James LePage
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James LePage is the founder of Isotropic, a WordPress education company and digital agency. He is also the founder of CodeWP.ai, a venture backed startup bringing AI to WordPress creators.
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