Shipping software allows ecommerce businesses to manage shipments by organizing orders, comparing up-to-date rates from multiple carriers, automating tasks, and providing insights. Plus, you can skip the post office by purchasing and printing labels directly from your computer.
Like many ecommerce tools, shipping software is typically available as a SaaS subscription, billed on a mostly basis. The cost varies from free to multiple hundreds of dollars per month, and it usually doesn’t require a contract.
The best shipping software integrates directly with your ecommerce platform along with other necessary tools. It also has robust order management features, generates helpful reports, and provides high-quality customer support. Many shipping solutions also provide significant discounts on standard shipping rates—making in-house fulfillment much more affordable.
Based on our evaluation, the best shipping solutions are:
- ShippingEasy: Best overall shipping software for small businesses
- OrderCup: Best for small-scale sellers and those seeking a starter plan
- ShipStation: Best for companies scaling to meet shipping demands
- Ordoro: Best for high-volume sellers seeking a multipurpose tool
Best Shipping Software Compared
Free starter plan | ✕ | ✔ | ✕ | ✕ |
Paid Plan Pricing (monthly) | $5–$159 | $25–$180 | $9–$159 | $59–$999 |
Discounted shipping rates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Integration capabilities (shipping carriers, shopping carts, marketplaces, and ecommerce solutions) |
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Inventory management features | Good | Limited | Good | Excellent (only available on Pro plan) |
Dropshipping features | Limited | Limited | Good | Excellent |
Customer support | Excellent (Higher-level plans only) | Excellent | Poor | Good |
Ease of Use | Good | Excellent | Fair | Excellent |
How We Evaluated Shipping Software
We compared a lineup of the most popular ecommerce shipping solutions, looking for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Based on our criteria, ShippingEasy is the best shipping management software for small businesses, earning the highest overall score according to our grading system (4.10 out of 5). ShippingEasy’s economical plan pricing, discounted shipping rates, robust features, and excellent ease of use make it the best choice for online sellers.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
20% of Overall Score
We only featured recommendations that support your own negotiated rates with UPS, FedEx, and DHL, and offer heavily discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates. The top-ranking providers on our list give users multicarrier discounts.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at the availability of key functions that maximize efficiency and accessibility for businesses of all sizes. This includes features like batch capabilities, label printing, CSV entry, and peripheral hardware compatibility.
Providers were also evaluated on the number of pre-built integrations offered, access to an open API, sales channel allowance, and automation capabilities.
20% of Overall Score
This score considered the standard features of each shipping solution—including reporting/analytics, returns management, outbound email notifications, and user management options—and assessed how well they work. Shipping software with robust, well-developed features was awarded the most points.
The best shipping tools are multi-taskers that save you time and money by handling functions outside of shipping management, so we also evaluated each provider on their dropshipping, order management, inventory management, and marketing features.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated each company for its user interface by considering how intuitively it works, reported uptime, site speed, and the learning curve to start.
This factor also looked at the amount of learning resources available from each company—including webinars, demo videos, blogs, FAQs, case studies, libraries, guides, calculator tools, and forum activity.
Lastly, customer service accessibility was weighted heavily to provide the best recommendation. We considered hours of availability, contact methods, location of support staff, and quality of service.
20% of Overall Score
This score combined our ecommerce experts’ final evaluations of value, ease of use, and stand-out features with scores from real-world users. We combed through thousands of reviews to identify consistent pain points and high-performing features of each tool.
ShippingEasy: Best Overall Shipping Software
ShippingEasy
What We Like
- Competitive pricing
- Easy-to-use, intuitive interface
- Useful marketing tools
- Robust reporting and analytics
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Limited dropshipping functionality
- Restricted customer support on ‘Starter’ plan
ShippingEasy Pricing
- Starter: $5/month, 50 shipments, 1 user
- Basic: $29/month, 500 shipments, 2 users
- Plus: $49/month, 1,500 shipments, 3 users
- Select: $69/month, 3,000 shipments, 5 users
- Premium: $99/month, 6,000 shipments, unlimited users
- Enterprise: $159/month, 10,000 shipments, unlimited users
30-day free trial
Unlimited store/channel allowance on all plans
- Add additional users to any plan for $5/month
- Customer Marketing add-on is available starting at $14/month. Includes customer marketing tools, email marketing, campaign management, feedback requests, and interactive metrics.
ShippingEasy earned a score of 4.10 out of 5 on our assessment. It’s a cloud-based application that delivers the best combination of savings, integrations, features, and functionality—making it our top recommendation.
As a shipping management tool, ShippingEasy allows users to functionally organize orders and compare rates side-by-side in an intuitive interface, as shown below.
It also delivers an impressive set of additional features—helping you tackle your inventory management, customer relationship management, and marketing efforts as well.
ShippingEasy’s platform is designed for small businesses, but the company’s top-tier plan (called the Enterprise program) provides valuable benefits for high-volume operations as well, such as unlimited users and custom configurations from a shipping expert. For users shipping over 10,000 orders per month, custom pricing may be available.
ShippingEasy Features
- Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive deeply discounted UPS rates and USPS Commercial Plus rates. ShippingEasy also works with your own negotiated rates.
- Exclusive Priority Mail service rates: “Flat Rate Green” is ShippingEasy’s exclusive discounted dimensional pricing for USPS Priority Mail services. It provides low costs on parcels weighing 20lbs or less, with more dimensional flexibility than standard Flat Rate packaging.
- Integrations: ShippingEasy directly integrates with 65 other tools, including 60 popular ecommerce platforms and solutions such as Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Magento, WooCommerce, Etsy, BigCommerce, Walmart, PayPal, and more. Connect your USPS, FedEx, UPS and DHL account for streamlined shipping.
- Automation: Save time and labor by easily programming rules into your shipping workflow to automate shipment selections, tracking updates, confirmation emails, buy and print functions, label creation, order splitting, FBA routing, and more.
- Order management: ShippingEasy gives you split/combine/recombine functions, batch processing, CSV entry, customizable grouping, manual entry/editing, gift options, returns management, and more. Plus customizable packing slips, barcode creation, and location support for picking and packing.
- Inventory management: Manage your stock with real-time inventory tracking, product catalog support, product image support, customizable categories, and barcode compatibility.
- Marketing tools: ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing add-on gives you fully customizable plug-and-play templates and contact/data management tools to supercharge your email marketing. It also includes campaign management, feedback requests, and interactive metrics.
- Peripheral hardware: Use thermal/laser printers, scales, and barcode scanners through ConnectEasy—the company’s proprietary connectivity application.
- Customer service: Highly-rated support is available by live chat, phone, and email to Basic-level users and above. Customers on the Starter plan are limited to forum communication with support staff.
- Online resources: Reference ShippingEasy’s marketing resource hub, case study reports, shipping guides, blogs, checklists, forums, and calculator tools.
- Highly rated: ShippingEasy is rated 4.8/5 from 1,000+ user reviews on Capterra, and 4.6/5 from some three dozen reviews on G2.
What ShippingEasy Is Missing
ShippingEasy isn’t compatible with direct connections to dropshipping suppliers, making it a poor choice for sellers doing a high volume of dropshipped sales. The program does allow users to mark an order as “shipped” at any stage—which is a work-around used by occasional dropshippers—but Ordoro is a far better choice for sellers needing vendor connectivity.
If you ship both parcels and LTL truck freight, ShipStation readily integrates with a larger range of carriers than ShippingEasy.
The limitations on ShippingEasy’s lowest-level plan is another area of compromise. Starter plan users don’t have access to international shipping, FedEx integration, or customer support (except through a public forum).
Because of this, we recommend enrolling in the Basic plan for $29/month to access all of ShippingEasy’s features—which are well worth the cost. Otherwise, skip ShippingEasy’s Starter plan and check out OrderCup’s free program, which includes the same shipment allowance (50 per month) with fewer limitations.
OrderCup: Best for Small-Scale Sellers & Those Seeking a Starter Plan
OrderCup
What We Like
- Free starter plan
- Exceptional customer support seven days/week
- User favorite in reviews
- Easy to get started
What's Missing
- Limited scalability
- Rudimentary features
- Narrow reporting capabilities
OrderCup Pricing
- Free: 50 shipments, 1 user
- Short: $25/month, 500 shipments, 1 user
- Tall: $45/month, 1,500 shipments, 2 users
- Grande: $65/month, 3,000 shipments, 3 users
- Venti: $95/month, 6,000 shipments, 5 users
- Trenta: $180/month, 12,000 shipments, 12 users
30-day free trial
Unlimited store/channel allowance on all plans
- Add additional users to any plan for $5-$10/month
- Premium Support add-on is available for $50/month or $500 annually. Extends customer service availability to seven days/week; includes toll-free phone support and priority responses.
OrderCup scored 3.94 out of 5 on our assessment, largely thanks to its capable free starter plan and excellent ease of use. The software is great for accomplishing the basics—like managing shipments, comparing rates, and organizing multichannel orders.
OrderCup displays live shipment status updates in an accessible, icon-coded format. (Source: OrderCup)
While it lacks the accessories and extra features of its competitors, OrderCup is the most affordable option on our list. It’s a great choice for small-scale sellers and those wishing to test how shipping software fits into their selling strategy.
In our evaluation, OrderCup scored points for its top-notch customer support, simple dashboard, and robust international shipping functionality. It was docked for its lack of integration options and undeveloped resource library.
OrderCup Features
- Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive USPS Commercial Plus rates and discounted shipping insurance. OrderCup works with your own negotiated rates, as well.
- Shipping perks: Every account receives access to free pickups, free shipping supplies, and free global address verification.
- Integrations: OrderCup has 36 direct integrations, including 19 popular ecommerce platforms and solutions like Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Magento, WooCommerce, Etsy, BigCommerce, Walmart, PayPal, and more. Connect your USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, Amazon, Canada Post, Purolator and UK Mail accounts for streamlined shipping. No API is currently available.
- Automation: Create automated defaults, pre-defined package types, and profiles for your shipping methods. OrderCup has sophisticated filtering to categorize order and shipping rules to automate processing—plus automated insurance rules to decide which orders to insure for how much.
- Order management: All OrderCupplans come with basic order management features such as batch processing, CSV entry, manual entry/editing, returns management, and more.
- Inventory management: Manage your stock by using OrderCup’s product catalog support with warehouse assignment options and automatic syncing through multiple channels.
- Marketing: Send and automate branded outgoing emails, packing slips, and tracking notifications.
- Peripheral hardware: OrderCup supports web-based direct printing of labels, customs forms, and packing slips to most thermal and laser or inkjet printers, plus zero-configuration scale and scanner support on PCs and Macs.
- Customer service: Support is available to all plans seven days a week, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Pacific time—plus a separate Europe-based support center operating 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Greenwich mean time. Contact staff through email, phone, live chat, or live screen sharing.
- Online resources: Reference OrderCup’s video library and blog.
- Highly rated: OrderCup is rated 4.9/5 from some 300 user reviews on the Shopify App Store, and 5/5 from about 20 reviews on the BigCommerce App Store.
What OrderCup Is Missing
Many of the competing shipping solutions have functionality that could potentially replace other tools in your arsenal whereas OrderCup is much more rudimentary. Furthermore, it lacks the ability to work for dropshippers. For advanced dropshipping and inventory management features, we recommend Ordoro.
OrderCup isn’t as scalable as other options, either. The 12,000-shipment cap on its highest-level plan could mean needing to eventually migrate to another solution. Plus, its sparse integrations could pose a problem for high-volume sellers.
We found that OrderCup has the most limited reporting and analysis capabilities of the providers on our list. It does present helpful data on sales, shipments, orders, and costs, but ShippingEasy’s customizable reporting options are more advanced.
ShipStation: Best for Companies Scaling to Meet Shipping Demands
ShipStation
What We Like
- Works with 53 shipping carriers, plus 288 other integrations
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- Intuitive interface
- Powerful returns management features
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Poorly reviewed by users
- Inaccessible customer support
ShipStation Pricing
- Starter: $9/month, 50 shipments, 1 user
- Bronze: $29/month, 500 shipments, 1 user
- Silver: $49/month, 1,500 shipments, 2 users
- Gold: $69/month, 3,000 shipments, 3 users
- Platinum: $99/month, 6,000 shipments, 5 users
- Enterprise: $159/month, 10,000 shipments, 10 users
30-day free trial
Unlimited store/channel allowance on all plans
- Custom pricing available for high-volume shippers
- Add additional users to any plan for $5/month
ShipStation beats our other recommendations in the number of carriers its shipping software supports. It offers far more plug-and-play integrations with fulfillment centers, freight companies, and international carriers.
Since these types of shipping services are typically used by mid- to high-volume ecommerce sellers, this impressive feature doesn’t weigh as heavily for small business needs. However, it’s nice to know you can quickly scale to meet freight and international shipping demands as needed.
Like our other picks, ShipStation also offers wonderfully intuitive order processing and multicarrier shipping rate comparison screens. You can easily access and print order invoices, packing slips, and shipping labels—individually or in batches—and send shipment tracking data back to sale channels.
ShipStation’s advanced tagging feature makes managing orders and shipments more efficient.
(Source: ShipStation)
It stands out from the competition in its robust returns management features and mobile app offering—which earned ShipStation significant points in our evaluation. The software was docked for its steep learning curve and bleak online reviews. Ultimately, it earned a score of 3.81 out 5.
ShipStation Features
- Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive USPS Commercial Plus rates, discounted UPS rates, DHL Express Worldwide Shipping Discounts, and more.
- Integrations: ShipStation integrates with 53 shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 70 of the top sales channels and 215+ other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is also available.
- Automation: ShipStation supports setting product defaults and preset groups, service mappings, and automation rules that apply preset actions to selected orders.
- Order management: All ShipStation plans come with standard order management features—plus a robust returns management platform with a branded returns portal for your customers. Pick and pack features are also included to minimize packing errors.
- Inventory management: Basic inventory management features are accessible from ShipStation’s web or mobile app, including catalog support, stock allocation, inventory alerts, and syncing.
- Marketing tools: Create a branded experience by customizing labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
- Peripheral hardware: Use thermal/laser printers, scales, and barcode scanners through ShipStation Connect—the company’s proprietary connectivity application.
- Customer service: Support staff is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Central time. Phone support is only available to top-tier, Enterprise plan users. Chat support is available to Bronze plans and higher. Email response times may exceed one business day.
- Online resources: Reference ShipStation’s large integrations help guide, workflow guides, troubleshooting guide, mobile help guide, FAQ, forum, YouTube tutorials, and webinar library.
What ShipStation Is Missing
While its aggregate rating isn’t bad, we found that an overwhelming number of reviews left for ShipStation in the past 12 months were ardently negative. Users frequently report bugs and known issues persisting without attention from the development team, as well as extremely poor customer service.
Many small businesses may not need customer service from their shipping software—especially if you’re using only pre-built integrations and selling volumes below enterprise level. But if accessible support is important to you, ShippingEasy is a much better choice than ShipStation.
ShipStation lacks a free plan, and its pricing is a bit less economical than OrderCup.
We also found that ShipStation isn’t the most functional choice for dropshipping management. Through granular user permissions options, you can grant your suppliers a ShipStation user account that only has access to specific orders. This workaround makes dropshipping possible—but a bit tricky. If a portion of your sales come from dropship suppliers, we recommend Ordoro instead.
Ordoro: Best for High-Volume Sellers Seeking a Multi-Purpose Tool
Ordoro
What We Like
- Robust dropshipping functionality
- Best inventory and order management features
- Supplier and vendor management capabilities
- Unlimited users and warehouses on all plans
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Priciest option
- Many key features only available on Pro plan ($499/month)
Ordoro Pricing
- Express: $59/month, 1,000 orders, 2 sales channels
- Pro: $499/month, 3,000 orders, 6 sales channels
- Enterprise: $999/month, 4,000 orders, 8 sales channels
15-day free trial
Unlimited users and warehouses on all plans
- Flex Pricing accommodates seasonal fluctuations by charging for actual usage of the platform—starting at $20 for every additional 1,000 orders/month above the baseline.
- Add additional sales channels to any plan for $10-$50/month
Like our other picks, Ordoro offers great shipping functionality—but where this software really impresses is in advanced inventory management and automated purchasing features that seamlessly integrate with its shipping system.
These features earned it major points in our evaluation, but the software was docked for its unaffordable pricing and lacking range of plan options. Ultimately, Ordoro earned a score of 3.62 out of 5.
Ordoro’s rate-shopping tool isn’t as easy to use as our other picks, but will still help you find the best rate for every package. (Source: Ordoro)
Its robust integrations with the top dropshipping marketplaces makes Ordoro a must-have for dedicated dropshippers and retailers supplementing their offerings with dropshipped goods.
While its wide-spanning features are powerful, they come at a significant cost. Ordoro is the most expensive plan on our list by far, and many key features are only available on the Pro plan, which will run you $499/month.
Because of this, we recommend Ordoro for high-volume and/or high-margin sellers who are wishing to use the software for more than just shipping management.
Ordoro Features
- Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive USPS Commercial Plus rates and discounted shipping insurance.
- Integrations: Ordoro integrates with eight shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 34 other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is available on the Pro and Enterprise plans.
- Automation: Ordoro provides advanced automation features to program rules and maps into your shipping workflow. Dropshippers can set up manual, semi-automatic, or fully-automatic dropshipping.
- Supplier management: Assign suppliers to products, track specific costs, customize workflows, and allow access to a vendor portal. Enterprise plan users can access supplier and third-party warehouse direct integration.
- Order management: Manage returns, receive and restock goods, initiate RMAs (return merchandise authorizations), and view orders from all sales channels from your dashboard. Plus access built-in address validation and barcode scanning.
- Inventory management: Pro plan users have access to advanced inventory management features, including multichannel inventory sync, real-time inventory tracking, stock alerts, allocation, and one-click P.O. creation. Multichannel sellers can link product listings on various channels to a “master product” in your Ordoro inventory catalogue.
- Marketing tools: Create a branded experience by customizing labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
- Peripheral hardware: Ordoro supports USB scales, plus scanner and printer connectivity.
- Customer service: Austin, Texas-based support staff is available by phone or email Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Central time. Limited email support is offered on weekends.
- Online resources: Ordoro is in the process of building out a guide library that covers shipping, fulfillment, and inventory management topics.
What Ordoro Is Missing
Ordoro’s biggest drawback is its pricing model. Some of the most important features—such as inventory management capabilities, API access, and returns processing—are only available on the second-tier plan, which may be unaffordable for many small businesses.
All of Ordoro’s three plan options are missing a few helpful functions that the competitors offer. The software is incompatible with scan-based return labels and can’t display live shipping rates at checkout. For these features, we recommend ShippingEasy.
Unlike ShipStation, Ordoro doesn’t offer a mobile app.
Bottom Line
Comparing rates among multiple carriers is the only way to ensure you’re getting the best shipping cost on every package you send. Using shipping software is the most efficient way to accomplish that—as well as manage your shipments, organize orders, track inventory, and more.
Taking all details into account, ShippingEasy is our overall pick for the best shipping software for ecommerce sellers. It’s affordable paid plans offer impressive functionality across a host of helpful features—delivering the shipping and order management tools that multichannel sellers need to grow at the best price.
